Can't connect to my ISP

[Drawbridge]

I've installed F14 on a new Acer Aspire 5742G Notebook with a Thompson Speedtouch 536 DSL modem connected via USB and found I could not connect to my ISP.
Using the 'Edit Connections' option by a right click on the network icon, I deleted all connections.
With 'Enable Networking' and 'Enable Notifications' options checked, I have gone back to 'Edit Connections' and added a DSL connection which includes a user name and password for the ISP. The result was no connection to the ISP and no connection indicated by the network icon. I deleted the DSL connection and added a 'Wired Connection'. This resulted in an indication by the networking icon that a connection was established. Still no connection to the ISP. I subsequently tried all combinations and permutations of connections and presented options without the ability to connect to my ISP.
I have only one internet connection available (via the DSL modem) which I have been using for months with a desktop running F12. In order to read web based help info and guides etc. I have simply plugged the USB cable into the desk top as needed and that has worked fine. The notebook was shutdown and rebooted after a hot unplug event. The desktop was not.
I've run nmcli, ifconfig and a couple of other tools but that has not helped me.

Anyone got any suggestions?

[glennzo]

One of the stranger things I've seen on several F14 boxes of late is lack of DNS information in the file etc/resolv.conf. If yours is empty you've found your problem.

[marko]

Also remember that manual edits to /etc/resolv.conf when you're using NetworkManager are worthless for the long term. They will be overwritten the next time NM connects again. The file will actually remind you of this, there's a warning at the top as a comment.

You have put the DNS values you want into the files NetworkManager uses as templates to setup the /etc/resolv.conf. I usually just fire up system-config-network and go in the DNS tab to do that , unfortunately there's a confusing extra set of DNS values shown if you hit the Edit button while the Devices tab is selected. I set them both to the same DNS servers but I don't know why they have the redundant settings.

[sidebrnz]

Check with your ISP's tech support by phone. Be sure to tell the "tech" that you're using Linux and that you don't need their help configuring it, you just need to know what the right settings are. If you don't, they'll probably just tell you that they don't know how to configure Linux (true) and that they can't help you.

I once had a problem getting my DSL modem to connect because it had gotten set to use a username and password to log on and my ISP doesn't require that. I had to reconfigure it, save the settings and have it restart to get back on-line. In this case, I was able to get help because I could reach the modem via a web browser and nothing was OS specific; in your case, you need to know what your connection requires.

[RHamel]

Why don't you try using a cat 5 patch cable to the RJ-45 port.