Topic: Telstra (Australia) Cable Modem HELP!

[Bob King]

I am trying to setup SME 5.1.2 to use a Motorola "SURFboard" Cable Modem (supplied by Telstra). This modem has both USB & Ethernet capability. I am using ethernet.

I installed "bpalogin" in accordance with Charlie Brady's instructions (http://www.e-smith.org/contrib/rpm-index/RPM-e-smith-bpalogin-1.3.0-02.noarch.html). I also look at the instructions found at http://www.synapticserver.com/bpalogin_2howto.html.

After completing the installation, the following appeared in the massages log file:

Feb 14 04:03:01 aqua-terra-1 e-smith[694]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/ip-change/S30bpalogin-conf-authserver
Feb 14 04:03:05 aqua-terra-1 /etc/e-smith/events/ip-change/S30bpalogin-conf-authserver[1033]: /home/e-smith/configuration: OLD bpalogin=service|status|enabled
Feb 14 04:03:05 aqua-terra-1 /etc/e-smith/events/ip-change/S30bpalogin-conf-authserver[1033]: /home/e-smith/configuration: NEW bpalogin=service|Authserver|61.9.240.13|status|enabled
Feb 14 04:03:05 aqua-terra-1 e-smith[694]: S30bpalogin-conf-authserver=action|Event|ip-change|Action|S30bpalogin-conf-authserver|Start|1045213381 621832|End|1045213385 666511|Elapsed|4.044679
Feb 14 04:03:05 aqua-terra-1 e-smith[694]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/ip-change/S40bpalogin-conf
Feb 14 04:03:08 aqua-terra-1 e-smith[694]: S40bpalogin-conf=action|Event|ip-change|Action|S40bpalogin-conf|Start|1045213385 667677|End|1045213388 871369|Elapsed|3.203692
Feb 14 04:03:15 aqua-terra-1 e-smith[694]: Running event handler: /etc/e-smith/events/ip-change/S50bpalogin-kill
Feb 14 04:03:15 aqua-terra-1 e-smith[694]: bpalogin: no process killed
Feb 14 04:03:15 aqua-terra-1 e-smith[694]: S50bpalogin-kill=action|Event|ip-change|Action|S50bpalogin-kill|Start|1045213395 24499|End|1045213395 704225|Elapsed|0.679726

It appears that SME is killing BPALOGIN.

I then started bpalogin from the comand line and this is what showed in the messages log:

Feb 14 04:05:17 aqua-terra-1 bpalogin[1741]: BPALogin v1.3 - lightweight portable BIDS2 login client
Feb 14 04:05:17 aqua-terra-1 bpalogin[1741]: Auth host = 61.9.240.13:5050
Feb 14 04:05:17 aqua-terra-1 bpalogin[1741]: Listening on port 1027
Feb 14 04:05:18 aqua-terra-1 bpalogin[1741]: Critical error: Login failure: other error

I have tripple checked the username & password in the /ect/bpalogin configuration file to make sure that the templates are working properly. Everything is correct.
Still not able to log in. Does anyone has some suggestions.

[Bob King]

Some additional information.

The modem is working properly since it picks up the dynamic IP address and authentication server assigned by Telstra.

I can ping the external IP address from a workstation on the internal network. I can not ping anything outside the internal network.

Workstations can get DNS resolution (if I manually set the Telstra DNS servers on the workstation) but nothing else gets through.

Everything works great if I connect the modem to a Windows box and use the Telstra provided login software.

Thanks in advance.

[Tony Howden]

Hi

As a test, scrap the various templated bits temporarily by moving them somewhere safe and restart the server.

From memory, when I set mine up, I followed the synaptics web site instructions, and they worked a breeze, without needing any templating stuff.

I use www.ddns.nu for the dyn dns config and have a script set for the ip change updates, although I haven't needed to have a change for 6 months or more.

The key issue with the bpa login that I do recall was the setup through the sme server config and needing to do the pppoe settings and then go back to do the dhcp settings.

cheers
Tony

[Bob King]

Tony,
Synaptics use the same files that Charlie Brady uses. When you follow the synaptics web site instructions and install the e-smith-1.3.0-02.noarch.rpm it automaticly sets up the e-smith templates located at "/etc/e-smith/templates/etc/bpalogin.conf" to build the bpalogin.conf configuration file in /etc. I checked the bpalogin.conf file and it has the correct information so that part of the templates is working properly.

I will give your idea a try to see what happens.

Thanks for the response,
Bob

[Kelvin]

Hi Bob,

> Critical error: Login failure: other error

I'm guessing that you were accessing via your Windows PC before and it works but when you disconnect and connect to the SME server you get this error, right ?

If so, you most likely need to spoof the MAC address of the original network interface. If you don't, this is the error that appears.

Kelvin

[Bob King]

Kelvin,

You are correct. Now how do I go about spoofing the MAC address of the original network interface?

Thanks,
Bob

[Kelvin]

Hi Bob,

If you are connected to the modem via a network card in your PC, find out the MAC address of your NIC by using winipcfg (Win9x) or ipconfig (NT/W2K/XP).

If you are connected via the USB interface, I'm not sure. Try winipcfg / ipconfig as well and see if it reports the MAC address. If it does, great. If not, then I'm not sure as I've never worked with the USB versions before.

Once you have the MAC address, edit the following file on your SME server :-

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1  (if eth1 is your external interface)

And add the parameter

MACADDR=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

where AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF is the MAC address of your original NIC used to connect to Bigpond.

Save and reboot the server.

Good Luck !

Kelvin

[Bob King]

Thanks Kelvin,

I'll give that a try tomorrow and let you know how goes.

[Kelvin]

Oops, sorry, I should have said to modify the corresponding template for the ifcfg-eth1 script which is in :-

/etc/e-smith/templates/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

Otherwise if you make changes that causes SME to re-expand the templates, your changes would be lost.

Kelvin

[Bob King]

Yep, I had that one figured out already but thanks for the reminder.

cheers,
Bob

[Gonzalo Carbajal]

I use the same cable modem with a SME 5.5 in a P133 with 49M RAM. And run OK.

The configuration?
I setup the IP with my provider conect with one PC, and then conect it to the server in eth1.

Just this.
Gonzalo Carbajal, Bs. As. Argentina.

BTW: sorry for my english.

[Charlie Brady]

Kelvin wrote:

> Oops, sorry, I should have said to modify the corresponding
> template for the ifcfg-eth1 script which is in :-
>
> /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
>
> Otherwise if you make changes that causes SME to re-expand
> the templates, your changes would be lost.

No. You should create a template fragment under /etc/e-smith/templates-custom. Otherwise you will lose your changes when you next upgrade e-smith-base.

Charlie

[Kelvin]

> You should create a template fragment under /etc/e-smith/templates-custom

Yep, do what he said .

Kelvin

[Bob King]

Yep, I had already done the custom template thing. Everything is now working great. In fact I am logged in from that system at the moment.

Thanks for all the help.
Cheers
Bob

[Andre]

hi!
it does work, but only:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

But indeed upon every change it has to be adapted as the file is being
rewritten.

I've tried to put it under /etc/e-smith/templates-custom
but it did not work.

So my question:
should it be in the following directory"?
/etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts

and should it be a file named ifcfg-eth1
with the only content:
MACADDR=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

I've tried many time and Googled/read here,  it but... so far no good.
Probably a small mistake I overlook...
TY