How to get internet working on installed freebsd 5.1

[Joe Dunsmore]

On Wednesday, January 05, 2005 04:57 am, Hexren wrote:
> JD> I installed freebsd 5.1 on my computer when it was not connected to any
> JD> network (but my ethernet card was attached).  Now that my computer has
> a JD> network connection, I can't access any internet sites, it says it
> can't find JD> the host.  I've installed freebsd 5.1 on this same computer
> when it was JD> connected to a network and the internet worked right away. 
> I also have linux JD> on this computer and it can connect to the internet
> fine.
>
> JD> So my question is how do I get the internet working on freebsd?  Is
> there a JD> simple command I can run or do I edit some text file?  Thanks.
> JD> _______________________________________________
>
> ---------------------------------------------
>
> How exactly is the Computer connected ? (dsl, cable, isdn)

Cable, with a router and modem in between.

> Have you tested simple IP conectivity ? (ping 216.136.204.21 (that is
> freebsd.org))

It said there was no route to host.

> If you can ping a host using IP number but not using DNS name how does
> your /etc/resolv.conf look under FBSD and how does it look under Linux
> ?

Under debian, resolv.conf says:
search
nameserver 192.168.1.1

this file does not exist under freebsd.  I created one with the same info as 
the linux one and even after reboot, it did not help.