Connecting to the Internet

If you start your GNU/Linux computer and perhaps you have opened a browser  and you can't get online then you might have a problem. The easiest way to resolve this is to ask the nearest GNU/Linux guru you know to help you out because there are many things that could be causing the problem. However, before asking the GNU/Linux guru you might want to try this command:

dhcpcd eth0

or alternatively try this:

dhclient eth0

These commands try to make a connection with the internet using your ethernet card. Your ethernet card is usually referenced with an alias, in this case the alias (and this is quite often the alias used) is eth0. If you have more than one device for connecting to the internet then these will be numbered sequentially. For example my wireless connector is identified as eth1. The command requests an IP address (a number unique to your computer that helps you access the internet) for your computer. Using either of the above commands have one of three possible outcomes:

• it hangs the terminal for a long time without giving a response

For some reason you are not going to be given an IP address, so you should contact your system administrator and ask for help. The most common reason for this error is that you need a dedicated IP address.

• it returns an error saying the command isn't known

You don't have the command dhcpcd or dhclient installed or you don't have privileges to use that command. In this case you should talk to the GNU/Linux guru or your system administrator.

• you are successfully given an IP address (unfortunately you won't be given any feedback to say this so you just have to try your browser again to check).

If you get really ambitious, try learning about the command ifconfig. This is also important to GNU/Linux networking but you may wish until you learn a little more about GNU/Linux before reading about this. There is a handy help file on this command, which you can access by typing:

man ifconfig

in the terminal. You may also just try typing

ifconfig

or

ifconfig -a

to get some information on how your machine is presently configured. Be aware that getting online can be complicated, so you may need to ask someone for help, or alternatively try getting online from another machine and using search engines to find a little bit more out about getting GNU/Linux online.