configure nic card

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

Eric Greene wrote:

>Hello, I am a long-time Windows user, who is now getting 
>started with learning FreeBSD.  I am using the KDE desktop to 
>start with.  I would like to know how to configure my nic card so I 
>can get connected to the internet (Cable access - the
>system is on a LAN).
>
>Where do I get started configuring this card?
>  
>
You've got a fairly good answer already,
so I hope I'm not flooding your inbox ...

In addition to what's been recommended,
I'd suggest grabbing the handbook ---

 ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/handbook
 (english version, multiple formats available)

And placing it somewhere on the LAN where
you can read it often.

Also, in the previous response, the  configuration
line shown was for the RealTek driver (8139 chip)
only.  If you've got that NIC (lots of cards have the
8139 chip) then you should be good to go.

You'll want to examine your "dmesg" if you have some
other NIC; likely the system has ID'd it.  Combine it with
grep(1) and you should see the driver name/device number
you need.  This one's a 3com:

<kadmin at localhost> [/home/kadmin] [11:59]
#dmesg | grep Ethernet
xl0: Ethernet address: 00:10:5a:e4:b1:04

So in this case it'd be

ifconfig_xl0="inet 192.168.0.10  netmask 255.255.255.0"

that you'd want in /etc/rc.conf.