** Sandy Hunter sandy_Hunter@lineone.net [2003-06-14 21:07]:

Many people describe themselves as 'newbies', my status goes beyond that. I have just acquired a very large book on linux, together with a rad hat distro and am currently wrestling with getting it to work !

I have successfully installed the operating system as a dual boot on my AMD 500mhz maching and am currently battling with making the machine communicate with the outside world.

This ic complicated by the fact that my internet connection is Via a cable modem connected to a USB port - Help !

** end quote [Sandy Hunter]

I've no idea about the USB support for your device under Linux (although iirc from one of the installs I did for a customer a while back it may be a bog standard Netgear, or was it Linksys, USB to ethernet adapter). However,...

Your machine is dual boot, which helps, and (from my experience with a few customers NTL setups) the set-top box and cable modem units simply communicate via an ethernet connection, so...

If you get a standard ethernet card and configure it to dhcp (in the Windows boot) and then switch the connection you should be able to get up and running and register the card (iirc you go to start.ntl through a web browser - not a standard URL, but something NTL use)...

Then boot into Linux and configure the card for DHCP and you should be up and running as it's already been registered in Windows.

Now you could go straight to Linux and register, but since you class yourself as pre-newbie it may be worth getting it going in Windows first to give yourself the confidence that the hardware setup works.

When you switch from the USB to the ethernet card you'll need to switch your cable box (set-top or modem) off for a couple of minutes.

Of course I've guessed on your setup a bit here, and not gone fully into detail, so I'm not guaranteeing it'll work. Just a suggestion. You may find that there are drivers for USB and your adapter if you hunt around - I'm guessing again, but if you look at the make and model on it and look for info under USB ethernet adapters you should stand a good chance of find out about it.

Good luck. Stick with it, and I'm sure there are plenty here who would help you out if you get stuck.