How to connect to Internet using an ethernet PPPoE modem.

ADSL PPPoE Connection

Introduction

Although it may be very common to use a router to connect to the Internet, often it is needed to directly connect to an ADSL (frequently refered to as 'DSL') modem using PPPoE.

Prerequisites

In order to do this you need:

• A DSL account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Username and password for that account
• A DSL modem to which you connect using an Ethernet network card
• Your Ubuntu box with its Ethernet card enabled for DHCP.
• Possible knowledge of installing packages with synaptic

attachment:IconsPage/IconNote.png Make sure that your ADSL connection has been activated by your ISP before starting this procedure. Generally there is a "dsl" light on your modem that is lit showing your connection should be activated.

Configuring PPPoE on the command line

Check for PPPoE package

Ubuntu by default installs the "pppoeconf" package. If you are not sure if you have it you can check by typing this in a terminal window :

dpkg -s pppoeconf

If it is installed you should see output on the package where two lines show this:

Package: pppoeconf
Status: install ok installed

If it is not installed, you need to. If you need more information on installing software then look here: [http://help.ubuntu.com/starterguide/C/ch02.html Installing Applications]

If you don't have an internet connection you can use another connection to download the pppoe package (and any required dependencies) via http://packages.ubuntu.com/ for local transfer to your ubuntu PC.

Set up

Once you are sure that you have the package installed its time to configure your connection. Type in a terminal:

sudo pppoeconf

A nice text-based menu program will guide you to the next steps. The steps it will go through are:

1. confirm the Ethernet card you want to use
2. asks you your username and password
3. Some other general questions, some that may seem difficult. If you're unsure of the answer, choose the default option.
4. There is also a question of wether you want to connect at start up, which is very likely the best option so that you never again need to run the configuration utility.

Problems

If you have some problem, you can manually turn your previously configured adsl connection by typing in terminal:

pon dsl-provider

Boot issues

If you find that you have to run pppoeconf each time you boot, you can try two things:

1. Edit /etc/network/interfaces as described [http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=97135&page=2 here], so that that 'pppoe maintained' lines are before 'auto dsl-provider'

# added by pppoeconf
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
pre-up /sbin/ifconfig eth0 up # line maintained by pppoeconf

auto dsl-provider
iface dsl-provider inet ppp
provider dsl-provider

1. Failing that, edit /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh, and before the terminal : exit 0, add

ifconfig eth0 up
pon dsl-provider

CategoryDocumentation CategoryNetworking