bigjohn Posted December 6, 2002 Report Share Posted December 6, 2002 The next in my list of stupid questions is..... I have my dsl connection (speedtouch adsl using pppoa) set up to start at boot. Excellent, it's great, but being a paranoid former window$ drone, I don't like to leave it "always on", so I kill the connection when I am finished (or I boot back into window$ and leave it up to norton AV and zone alarm). If I kill the connection and leave the pc booted into mandrake, I can't get the connection re-established, and have to reboot to start it again. Could anyone please advise me how to get round this, as I am sure that I should be able to go into mandrake control > network > connect and get it back up. many thanks regards John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MottS Posted December 6, 2002 Report Share Posted December 6, 2002 The wizard in the MCC to set pppoe.conf has some difficulties to write everything correctly (from my experience). So I suggest you go check in /etc/ppp/pppoe.conf and check if ETH=eth0 and USER=someuser .. you see. Sometimes it leaves ETH="" .. I mean it leaves some variables empty. Once you checked that then you can start your connection with adsl-start and stop with adsl-stop If you use shorewall you can leave your computer alone.. it's secure enough. Don,t worry. MOttS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigjohn Posted December 6, 2002 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2002 OK MottS, I'll give that a try, though I don't quite understand why the pppoe file should cause a prob, as the mandrake is one of the few distro's that support alcatel speedtouch adsl usb modem's out of the box (well, nearly as I have to make sure that I provide the microcode myself and my provider uses BT lines and pppoa as a protocol) but I shall have a play with the adsl start/stop bit. As for shorewall, I had that running before, and I could never get in after disconnecting. I could see the connection running with ifconfig but all I got was unable to connect to remote server. I always had to reboot to get back in. Hence, I would rather fire it up when I want to surf and drop it when I have finished. Anyhow, thankyou for your idea and I will post back when I have tried it. regards John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted December 6, 2002 Report Share Posted December 6, 2002 This might not be an option - but why not jack up your linux security so that you do not need to disconnect? Let's face it, these days we are all paranoid - but to me the biggest threat as a Linux user is trojans and almost all of them are used to attack windoze machines. If you have a good firewall running and get your guards up properly you shouldn't have any problems. I'm sure people will disagree with me, but I think we are TOO paranoid at times. All the hackers I know are after servers and not very concerned with everyday work stations (unless they want to use your machine as a launch pad, in which case they do not have time to bust up your firewall). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigjohn Posted December 6, 2002 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2002 So what is the suggestion then ?? Is shorewall the best option or is there another that is available - I only ask this because as I said in a previous post, I had some snags with shorewall before and it wouldn't let me access anything, and I had to keep doing an interactive startup and tell it not to start shorewall. I am presuming that I didn't have something configured correctly, but as I suffer from zero linux knowledge (being a former window$ drone), if something goes "pear shaped" i'm usually screwed and have to keep booting back into XP to be able to get any advise as to how I proceed. As usual, any advise or comment is greatly appreciated regards John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted December 6, 2002 Report Share Posted December 6, 2002 Use Firestarter. It is the favourite firewall with just about everyone I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GorGor Posted December 24, 2002 Report Share Posted December 24, 2002 bigjohn We all like our own firewalls but previous posts suggest you can test them at www.auditmypc.com and www.pcflank.com I tried firestarter but did not like it so if you want to try another try guarddog. http://www.simonzone.com/software/guarddog/ (2) After configure and testing you don't need to have it live as it configures your iptables (if not broken heh) and there is an option to have it start when your net starts, I don't have adsl so you may prefer to have it on always, even if people think you are paranoid. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigjohn Posted January 15, 2003 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2003 What with the hassle that I have had trying to set up the firewall (Shorewall) and my lack of knowledge in doing anything else i.e. trying firestarter or guarddog or whatever, I have had a brainwave, and am going to spend some of my hard earned cash on a "dsl router", one that has USB ports so I can use my existing modem. I have decided that the "draytek vigor 2200usb" is the one to go for as it has the relevant support for my modem, and also seems "user friendly" when it comes to setting up the firewall etc. It gets good reports/write up's. And it should allow me to be able to try other distro's without having to worry/stress over whether the modem has the relevant support or whether configuring the modem is going to give me sleepless nights! A good idea????? What do you think? regards John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BoyEnjinir Posted January 15, 2003 Report Share Posted January 15, 2003 Good idea, but still make sure your computer security is sufficient. I use a router with a firewall in it as well (not a USB, though) for my DSL. I still make sure I keep my computer security up to date and well configured. It's always nice to have extra walls of security... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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