Actiontec modems

Linux boxes have difficulty connecting through Actiontec modems. The problem is that the modem supplies its own IP address as one of the nameservers, and it is apparenly non-standard enough so this will not work with our boxen.

Static ip solution

Set the linux box to a static IP in 192.168.0.x range, with a gateway of 192.168.0.1 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, and give it static dns address(es). The DNS address will vary from one ISP to another, but may generally be found by searching on google for "<ISP name> DNS server".

You need to edit /etc/network/interfaces to set the static IP

Edit /etc/resolv.conf to set the nameservers on a Debian box. On Ubuntu, both IP and DNS can be set with System>Administration>Networking.

ISP setup info

bind9 solution

The following solution has been tested on several boxes now and seems to work well, without the hassle of static ip configuration. Especially good is that the box will still work if connected to a different network.

apt-get install bind9
echo 'supersede domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;' >> /etc/dhclient.conf
dhclient

You might want to add the resolvconf utility which has been seen to help on a dapper box

apt-get install resolvconf

dhclient.conf method

Open /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

sudo nano /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

Find this section

#prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;
request subnet-mask, broadcast-address, time-offset, routers,
        domain-name, domain-name-servers, host-name,
        netbios-name-servers, netbios-scope, interface-mtu;

and edit it so it looks like this (remove the '#' from 'prepend', put your dns server in place of 127.0.0.1 and remove 'domain-name-servers' from 'request'

prepend domain-name-servers yourdnsserver1, yourdnsserver2;
request subnet-mask, broadcast-address, time-offset, routers,
        domain-name, host-name,
        netbios-name-servers, netbios-scope, interface-mtu;

On an actiontec modem you should be able to look up what your dns servers should be through the web interface at 192.168.0.1