[wellylug] Configuring a Telstraclear cable modem with Suse9.2

[pmilne at paradise.net.nz]

Quoting "smahoney at tpg.com.au" <smahoney at tpg.com.au>:

> Hi
> Fairly new to linux and therefore have a low knowledge base.
> I am trying to set up a telstraclear cable modem to work with my Suse
> 9.2. I have entered the 
> DNS info and set up a static Ip address as given by the cable guy but am
> unable to fire up a 
> browser. I am sure that this question has been asked before- but could
> someone either point me 
> to the "help" section for this or provide the various entries that I
> need to get up and away on.
> Gratefull for any help
> 
> SteveM

There is a trap I fell into some years ago.  It seems under Linux, the netmask
is not necessarily 255.255.255.0 .  If the allocated IP address is (say) w.x.y.z
, and they explicitly say that the gateway is w.x.y.1 the usual mask is ok.  If
however the 'gateway' has a slightly lower value for y, then the netmask may be
255.255.255.252 or suchlike (the mask needs zero bits back to the point where
the ip address and gateway bits become the same).  It seems that Windows
'adjusts' the netmask accordingly, but not Linux. 

When TelstraClear recently re-allocated IP ddresses to existing users (why they
had to I do not know), they said that gateway was w.x.y.1 in their standard
letter so this may not now be a problem.