On 13 May 2006, at 14:45, Mark E wrote:

> I just installed netbsd, I barely know how to look at
> files and edit them, that's it.  I want to connect to
> my dsl service, I was following directions in the
> netbsd guide to configure pppoe0 but I couldn't get
> ne0 up.  How do I configure ne0 (ethernet)?

I'd try using dhclient as first shot.

In /etc/rc.conf file:
  dhclient="YES"
       dhclient_flags=""

You can see what defaults are by looking in /etc/defaults/rc.conf and 
adding those lines with any changes to /etc/rc.conf.

In /etc/ifconfig.ne0 file (or whatever your interface is in place of 
ne0):
  up
  !dhclient $int

That might work assuming you have a dhcp server on other end of your 
connection.

If that doesn't work you need to have a static ip and enter that into 
/etc/ifconfig.ne0 (or equivalent to rc.conf but not both), eg. for 
/etc/ifconfig.ne0:
  inet 10.0.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

In this case you also need to setup a gateway (eg. 
defaultroute="10.0.0.1" in rc.conf) and add nameserver(s) to 
resolv.conf.

For more options see man pages for dhclient.conf and ifconfig.if.

David