Sounds a lot like dhcp, try using the dhcpcd (client daemon) package. The only other thing I think you need is the DNS server's ip address to add to /etc/resolv.conf. I use it at school, never had a problem. You may want to ask about the vulnerability of their network to packet sniffing. If they use 10 base T wire (big phone line vs. the coax cable) and a switched ethernet hub, you should be good.
HTH, Brandon P.S. Never had a problem loosing the connection (even after a ping attack). I haven't the slightest idea how diald would work with dhcpcd, I just left mine connected all day. ----- Brandon Mitchell E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7877/home.html "We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds." --Linus Torvalds On Sun, 6 Jul 1997, Bob Billson wrote: > Since I'll be installing 1.3 on my brother's machine this Tuesday, I have > a question about cable modems. Though not strictly limited to Debian, I > thought some folks here might have already gone down this road. > > My brother got a net connection from our local cable company. The tech > who came to install the software (Win95) even knew about Linux and how to > pronounce it correctly (wow!) He said they did have some problems with > get Linux to work. The connections would just die random. Since he > wasn't really well versed in Linux he didn't mention the important details > like which distribution or even kernel version. > > What I need to know for Tuesday is how to get Debian to work with the > cable modem. > > The modem is connected to the cable company all the time. The IP address > is dynamically assigned. Even if the connection goes down for a short > while, the same IP address is used when the connection comes back up. The > output of the modem goes to an Ethernet card in the machine. > > I'll be using diald, unless there is a good reason not to. Beyond this > I'm not sure how to go. I saw a DHCPD (or was it DHCPCD?) client as one > of the .deb packages. My brother said this sounded like what the cable > modem uses now talking to Win95. Should we install this for Debian? If > so, how to get it going? > > Any help will be most welcome. Thanks! > > Bob > -- > Bob Billson, KC2WZ email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > (\ MS-DOS, you can't live with it. You can live without it. /) > {|||8- Linux: World domination. Fast. -8|||} > (/ \} -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .