Configuring Linux is often a complicated process. If something goes wrong in an early stage and you don't realize it, it could become even more difficult to track down the problem. Before configuring the network settings, you should make sure that you have Linux running properly and that it recognizes your ethernet card. If you are having problems with Linux, http://www.redhat.com has documentation to help you.

You should also have your IP address information. If you do not have an IP Address you can fill out an IP request or send email to ip-request@hmc.edu. Freshmen receive their IP address information when they receive their new accounts from CIS.

This document will explain how to configure networking for Redhat Linux 9 using the redhat-config-network utility. If you'd like to configure your network settings using linuxconf, the information that you enter will be the same, but you will be using a different interface.

1. You will need to be logged in as root to edit the network settings.
2. Open the network configuration utility by typing redhat-config-network in an Xterm in X, or by selecting Network from System Tools in the KDE taskbar.

3. The window should look something like this:
   
4. Double-click on the device you want to configure. You may have only one device available, or you may have a LAN card and a wireless card (In this case, the LAN card is almost always eth0).
5. The device configuration window will now appear. It should look something like the picture below.

   

6. Make sure that 'Activate device when computer starts' is selected.
7. Choose 'Statically set IP addresses'.
8. Enter the IP address (of the form 134.173.??.???) and the subnet mask (probably 255.255.252.0) given to you.
9. Enter the default gateway that was given to you.
10. Click 'Ok'. Back in the main Network Configuration window, click the 'DNS' tab.
11. In Primary DNS, add the address of the DNS server that was given to you (should be 134.173.53.8).
12. Enter a name for computer under Hostname. If you are a student, your computer's name will be hostname.st.hmc.edu. For example, if I enter kitsune as my hostname, my computer will be kitsune.st.hmc.edu. If you don't want to give your computer a name, you can just type 'localhost' here, or leave it empty.
13. Go to the File menu and choose Save. A window should appear telling you that your changes have been saved, and you may want to restart the network and network services or restart the computer.
14. If you are familiar with restarting network services under linux, you could do this; otherwise, you should just to restart the computer.

After this, your computer should be connected to the HMC network. If you have any problems, consult www.redhat.com or the documentation that came with Linux.

If you want help with Linux questions, you might want to subscribe to linux-l. To do this, send and e-mail to listkeeper@hmc.edu with the following in the body of the message :
subscribe linux-l
Afterward, you may post a message by sending it to linux-l@hmc.edu
More information about lists can be found here.