Chestnut says I'm connected but browser disagrees [solved]

[badut]

Hi all,

First time VL user and I'm very impressed  . I haven't been this happy with a distro since I tried LinuxMint.

Anyhow, I'm having trouble with a dialup internet connection.
When I dial, I hear all the usual modem sounds and the dialer tells me I'm connected (and it seems to stay connected).
But when I open up a browser, I'm not able to connect to anything on the internet - I've tried firefox and opera and both are the same.
I tried to just ping some websites and I get nothing.

Few more details might help here:
It's an old Compaq laptop. Pressario 700 1Ghz Athlon, 256 RAM.
HSF Connexant modem <-<<< I downloaded and installed the latest Linuxant driver. I know it is limited to 14.4 unless I pay, but I just wanted to get it working first. The driver seemed to install smoothly with no error messages - the modem itself seems to be working cause it makes all the "normal" modem noises and authenicates password with my ISP.

Any suggestions would be appreciated! 

[overthere]

Well, i'm not sure I can help..but
are you useing a fire wall..seems packets are not being sent..does the dialer list any sent...
I am useing dialup and did have a 14.4 external connected..I did get booted when I was not active and reading a page..not that that helps.

[bigpaws]

Your problem sounds like it is a DNS related.

First try ping www.google.com if that fails try
ping 64.233.167.99 that is the actual ip of google.

If you do get a response you have a DNS problem.

If not then post the output of ifconfig after your possible
connection.

Bigpaws

[badut]

Your problem sounds like it is a DNS related.

First try ping www.google.com if that fails try
ping 64.233.167.99 that is the actual ip of google.

If you do get a response you have a DNS problem.

If not then post the output of ifconfig after your possible
connection.

Bigpaws

Yes you hit the nail on the head.
I was able to ping  64.233.167.99 but not www.google.com

I tried to figure out what is wrong with my DNS setting.
I used VASM->SUPER->NETWORK->NAME and set a hostname and left the DNS server blank.
Then I went to Chestnut->AccountsConf and made sure the DNS tab is set to dynamic.

Still not working

One thing I saw that didn't look right is my /etc/resolv.conf file contains only the string "search net". That doesn't look right, but I have no idea what it's supposed to look like.

Any ideas? 

[nightflier]

As root, try command:
echo "nameserver 208.67.222.222" >> /etc/resolv.conf

That will add an opendns sever to your configuration. Don't know if it will survive a reboot, but that can be worked around.

[badut]

As root, try command:
echo "nameserver 208.67.222.222" >> /etc/resolv.conf

That will add an opendns sever to your configuration. Don't know if it will survive a reboot, but that can be worked around.

Thanks, I've never heard of opendns before.

Is there are a way to make it use my ISP's DNS servers though?
I've observed the resolv.conf file on another Linux machine (running LinuxMint). The file seems to get populated when I connect and blanked when I disconnect. Anyone know the mechanism at work here so I can configure it to work properly in VL?

[bigpaws]

Change the DNS ip address to your ISP DNS settings.

Bigpaws

[badut]

OK I'll just statically set my DNS servers to the appropriate IP address. 

Thanks all who helped solve this problem.

[nightflier]

Excellent. 

I'm marking this one as solved then.