Verizon DSL

SuperMike ulist at gs1.ubuntuforums.org
Sat Aug 13 14:45:56 UTC 2005


Rajiv Vyas Wrote: 
> On 8/13/05, Sean Sieger <sean.sieger at gmail.com> wrote:[color=blue]

> I have a Linksys router RT 31P2 -- came with my Vonage

> account.  This is what I did: Connected my dsl cable to modem.

> Connected modem to the router (plugged it in the Internet socket). And

> then router to the desktop. Didn't work. Also, rebooted my PC.

> 



1. Eliminate the router for now. Prove your connection to DSL works
with a PC under Windows or Mac OS X. (That's my advice for noobs. For
experienced Linux people, I'm sure they'll slam me as being
sacreligious here, of course.) Note also that on my DSL modem, when
it's working properly, it starts blinking slow, then rapidly, then more
rapidly, and then a solid light, letting me know the phone company
activated my DSL. When it's down, my DSL modem light blinks steady
(rythmically).



2. Once that is proven, then write down your settings -- mail server
settings, DSL username/password, etc.



3. As quickly as you can, remove your Windows system out of the picture
because according to studies, on average, an unprotected Windows
workstation, on the Internet, can get hacked in 12 minutes. That was in
AP News about 3 weeks ago.



4. If you don't have the above proven, then don't proceed further.
Until I tell you otherwise, don't introduce Ubuntu into the picture in
the steps below. Look specifically for where I say, yes, use Ubuntu
now.



5. Now connect your router into the picture. It goes like this. Cable
from wall to DSL modem. Ethernet from that to router. Ethernet from
that to hub (if you have one). Otherwise, consider your router your hub
(if it has extra ports). Ethernet from your PC to hub or from PC to
router (depending on whether or not you have a separate hub). Remember
to only hang DSL line protector dongles according to instructions. For
instance, at my house, I only have one line. I put a splitter on it.
Off one side of the spliter, I put one DSL line protector dongle on the
lines going to my phone. On the other, I did *NOT* put the DSL line
protector dongle because that goes straight into my DSL modem. At my
neighbor's house, which is a mobile home, she has her phones
daisychained on one long wire and one line. For this, she needs the
dongle only on the first port on the wall where her phone is. For all
other phones in the daisychain, evidently the manual says the DSL
dongle thing is not required. Last, for her configuration, she just
plugs her DSL modem directly in the wall.



6. Now your Windows test PC needs DHCP. You get that from your router.
Turn that feature on with your router. Set your PC to use DHCP
settings. Note also that Verizon might stick extra stuff in your
network control panel (on Windows) -- please remove that. You really
only need one LAN connection in Windows, set on auto DHCP client,
auto-DNS from DHCP server, and only have TCP/IP, not stuff like AEGIS,
Network Enhancer, QoS, etc.



7. Reboot everything and test to see if your Windows PC gets an IP
address from the router by doing Start, Run, cmd, ipconfig /all and see
if you see an address in there.



8. Connect to your router's web interface with your web browser and
configure it for PPP over Ethernet, then put in your DSL provider's
settings for username and password.



9. Prove from Windows that you can get on the Internet now. If you can,
then proceed further.



10. Get a tech buddy in the neighborhood to come over and confirm your
router's firewall settings. He might be able to tweak it so that you
can run the programs you need to run, but anything else will not be
permitted through the router. Also, if your tech buddy is stuck, you
can also try tech support at your DSL provider, your router provider,
post something in this forum, or try something like groups.google.com
and find the proper newsgroup on Usenet that is appropriate for this
sort of thing.



11. Now that you have everything working from a Windows standpoint,
yes, move on to Ubuntu. Introduce a separate Ubuntu PC or upgrade your
Windows system into a dual boot (or reformat hard drive instead) in
order to load Ubuntu.



12. Set your Ubuntu for automatic network connection. This sets it for
auto-DHCP and auto-DNS. Prove that this works. Get your tech buddy to
come over and help if you want.



13. Test your Internet connection from Ubuntu with your browser and
programs. Put in your DSL provider's mail server settings into your
mail client.



14. Now that this works, an optional step would be to switch from DHCP
to a static IP address with your firewall. Sometimes your
router/firewall permits this. This is a separate discussion. Anyway, by
doing this, you are a little more secure because now you can filter
traffic at your router/firewall if it's not from static addresses. It's
a little hard on the Internet for a hacker to spoof your MAC address
from the other side of the router/firewall, so this is one layer of
protection. BTW, once you have all PCs on static IP, you can turn off
DHCP because it's a potential security risk.



15. Another option would be to add an additional firewall setting on
your Windows (or Mac OSX) workstation as well as in Ubuntu. For Ubuntu,
download lokkit (it's command-line) from Synaptic and then at command
prompt, type "lokkit". This will show you a text set of screens to
configure your local firewall. It's not the best firewall in the world,
but with static IP filtering on your router, plus filters on the router
as well as on your workstation, it's a fairly secure system.



16. As another security precaution, consider turning off Ubuntu updates
that are not the system default from Ubuntu. For instance, some people
may recommend adding universe, security universe, multiverse, or
backports. These are a little risky and I only turn on those things in
/etc/apt/sources.list when I've got no choice. Then, when done
downloading that feature that I could only get that way, I comment
those lines out back to factory default from Ubuntu, and then do
apt-get update.



17. Add a virus checker -- ClamAV, and learn how to configure it in
Ubuntu so that it runs automatically from a task scheduler called cron.
Let it move suspect things into a certain folder as well as dump a log
file somewhere that you can check routinely.



18. Turn on Junkmail filter in Evolution or Thunderbird. (I prefer
Thunderbird because it's thinner than Evolution.)


-- 
SuperMike




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