November 2002 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Routing problem -can I believe the ISP tech? #2

by Richard Goodman

My apologies for the HTML, it was not intentional. I was trying to make part of the email more (not less) readable. I've changed options so hopefully it will never happen again. ======== I just brought up my fourth RH7.3 server Friday afternoon (one of two RH7.0 servers that had been hacked-new hard drive and software). I then went home and spent a couple of hours connected to it with ssh on a workstation connected to my home RH7.3 server. When I went to rerun a slightly modified (open ports for ftp and internal dhcp twiddling) ipchains firewall I lost the connection, and, more than 16 hours later, don't have it back. Other relevant details. (let's call the servers Home and EFO) Home was the other hacked server, and was formatted and rebuilt last weekend. Home and EFO are on the same ISP and each has a block of 4 static IPs. The blocks share the first 18 bits of their IP#s. Home could connect to EFO last night Home now cannot connect to EFO via ssh, or access its web site. Pings are disabled on all my servers - so I can't do that test. EFO network workstations can browse the web; I can ping out from the EFO linux box or workstations, and can ping EFO's Cisco 678 router from its Linux box EFO workstations cannot access Home websites (but I had not tried this before since rebuilding EFO Linux box Home Cisco 678 cannot be pinged from Home Linux box (!) or EFO (Linux or workstation), but can be pinged from my office (Linux box on other ISP). >From my office workstation I can also ssh to EFO and access EFO website (which in fact I uploaded to the new server from my office today). Does this discount the possibility of a firewall issue? I spent countless hours talking to the ISP (Qwest) tech support, and over an hour with a senior tech who had some Linux knowledge, and he claims that it must be a configuration issue on one or both of my Home and EFO Linux boxes, since: He can login to both my Cisco routers and ping the other router - he claims this proves its not a Qwest routing problem. If he's right I'm still puzzled by two things: a) Why could I connect from Home to EFO for two hours last night, no problems? b) Why can't the Home Linux box ping the Cisco 678 directly connected to it? I knew nothing about routing before today - here's the Home routing table: route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface xxx.yyy.28.48 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.248 U 0 0 0 eth0 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1 127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo 0.0.0.0 xxx.yyy.28.54 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 I tried the following but still could not access EFO (added just the EFO IP#, not the network block: #route add -host xxx.yyy.26.57 dev eth0 # route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface xxx.yyy.26.57 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 eth0 xxx.yyy.28.48 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.248 U 0 0 0 eth0 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1 127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo 0.0.0.0 xxx.yyy.28.54 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 Is this enough if to decide if the tech is right or crazy? Any suggestions - I still can't access Home from/to EFO. Dick

Nov. 3, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Looking for networking information

by Brett Russ

> Hi, I recently acquired another pc and I want to incorporate it into my > home network. Does anyone know of a website that has information on how to > install and operate a windows based pc on a network? And I am looking for > more information on networking in general. See the linux doc. project website, particularly the guides section here: http://www.tldp.org/guides.html where you will find the Network Administrators Guide which is pretty informative. -Brett

Nov. 3, 2002

Re: [Wlug] ticked at netgear

by Wes Allen

Good advice, never tell them you're using linux. Actually, it is not a hardware problem (though it sure looked like one). Mandrake issued a new version of initscripts that "fixed" wireless network link problems. And I installed it, however, I never rebooted my machine and the interface was already up, so I didn't notice the problem until this afternoon when I turned on my laptop. I read the comments for the updates and found the issue. Updates that break things, I'm having windows flash-backs. Wes On Saturday 02 November 2002 5:42 pm, Wes Allen wrote: > Hi gang, > I've got a ma401 card from netgear. It worked beautifully under linux > (better than in windows even). Today I switch on my laptop, and I no > longer get a link to my network with the card. I figure I must've had a > power glitch and my firewall isn't giving out dhcp address, so I restart > it. Still no link. I check the settings of my wireless router, all good. > I boot my desktop to see if my usb wireless card works, it does. None of > my settings on my laptop have changed, I checked. I tweak with iwconfig > until my hands are sore, no luck. So I finally call netgear because I > figure that it is a hardware issue and I need to send in the card to have > at least the antenna replaced. Tech support says, "I'm sorry but we can > only trouble-shoot on windows so we can't help you." I tell them, "It's > not a software issue, nothing has changed with my software from last night, > everything is the same, the card is not picking up the link from the > router, it's not functioning, it's a hardware issue..." They say, "But we > need to troubleshoot in windows." I say, "Look, I've turned encryption on > and off, I've tried different modes, I've tried different channels, I've > turned rts and frag on and off [note: now it's not accepting values, > another clue that this is a hardware problem]. Nothing works, your card is > broken and I want to send it in." I'm told to hold. "I'm sorry, we cannot > help you. We need to troubleshoot in windows." I slam the phone on the > reciever so hard I think I nearly break it. Now I am pissed, and I still > have a broken card. > > Does anyone else have any history with wireless antennas not working all > of the sudden? This card hasn't even been out of the house, I leave it > here when I go out for crying out loud! > > My next attempt will to disable encryption and go back to wvlan_cs to see > if that jogs this thing. But I truly think it's hardware; nothing, > NOTHING, on my laptop changed, I didn't even turn it on this morning! > > Wes -- ------ This message may be signed using GPG, for my public key please send me a message with "Key Request" in the subject line.

Nov. 3, 2002

Re: [Wlug] non-windows trouble shooting

by Charles R. Anderson

On Sat, Nov 02, 2002 at 05:47:48PM -0500, Karl Hiramoto wrote: karl> They only want to talk to you if you run that windows crap. I just karl> tell myself that the tech-support guys are too dumb to be able to karl> figure out how to do anything with Linux. If you are lucky enough to have experience on the Windows side to know how things work, you can just "pretend" to do what they ask and feed them "fake" information. Worked for me in the past... -- Charles R. Anderson <cra(a)wpi.edu> / http://angus.ind.wpi.edu/~cra/ PGP Key ID: 49BB5886 Fingerprint: EBA3 A106 7C93 FA07 8E15 3AC2 C367 A0F9 49BB 5886

Nov. 2, 2002

Re: [Wlug] non-windows trouble shooting

by Brian J.Conway

> I've had the problem with everything from DSL connections, cable > modems, printers, hard drives, modems etc. I find that it's works out well that if I'm paying for a product or service, anything that I might come in contact with tech support for is platform independent. For instance, I have systems on both AT&T Broadband and Speakeasy DSL, the troubleshooting for which takes place with the computer unplugged and is in no way dependant on the computer/router connected. Obviously there's not much you can do with a device that's plugged into your computer other than keep a Windows partition around or go without support if that's a company's policy, I suppose. > They only want to talk to you if you run that windows crap. I just > tell myself that the tech-support guys are too dumb to be able to > figure out how to do anything with Linux. I just tell myself that as much as I might like Linux, it doesn't make sense to spend the huge amount of resources it would take to be able to officially support an operating system (in all its incarnations) that a minimal percentage of their users use. Speakeasy won't officially support Linux, but their techs are pretty smart and can troubleshoot most issues from their own knowledge. Brian J. Conway bconway(a)alum.wpi.edu "LINUX is obsolete" - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix - Jan 29, 1992

Nov. 2, 2002

non-windows trouble shooting

by Karl Hiramoto

I've had the problem with everything from DSL connections, cable modems, printers, hard drives, modems etc. They only want to talk to you if you run that windows crap. I just tell myself that the tech-support guys are too dumb to be able to figure out how to do anything with Linux. I can partially understand that Linux is more complex than windows, there are way more platforms, kernel versions, distributions and whatever to support. By only supporting windows i suppose they make it idiot proof by reducing the number of variables/complexities. On Sat, 2 Nov 2002, Wes Allen wrote: > Hi gang, > I've got a ma401 card from netgear. It worked beautifully under linux > (better than in windows even). Today I switch on my laptop, and I no longer > get a link to my network with the card. I figure I must've had a power > glitch and my firewall isn't giving out dhcp address, so I restart it. Still > no link. I check the settings of my wireless router, all good. I boot my > desktop to see if my usb wireless card works, it does. None of my settings > on my laptop have changed, I checked. I tweak with iwconfig until my hands > are sore, no luck. So I finally call netgear because I figure that it is a > hardware issue and I need to send in the card to have at least the antenna > replaced. Tech support says, "I'm sorry but we can only trouble-shoot on > windows so we can't help you." I tell them, "It's not a software issue, > nothing has changed with my software from last night, everything is the same, > the card is not picking up the link from the router, it's not functioning, > it's a hardware issue..." They say, "But we need to troubleshoot in > windows." I say, "Look, I've turned encryption on and off, I've tried > different modes, I've tried different channels, I've turned rts and frag on > and off [note: now it's not accepting values, another clue that this is a > hardware problem]. Nothing works, your card is broken and I want to send it > in." I'm told to hold. "I'm sorry, we cannot help you. We need to > troubleshoot in windows." I slam the phone on the reciever so hard I think I > nearly break it. Now I am pissed, and I still have a broken card. > > Does anyone else have any history with wireless antennas not working all of > the sudden? This card hasn't even been out of the house, I leave it here > when I go out for crying out loud! > > My next attempt will to disable encryption and go back to wvlan_cs to see if > that jogs this thing. But I truly think it's hardware; nothing, NOTHING, on > my laptop changed, I didn't even turn it on this morning! > > Wes > -- ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø Karl Hiramoto <karl(a)hiramoto.org> Work: 978-425-2090 ext 25 Cell: 508-517-4819 Personal web page: http://karl.hiramoto.org/ Freedom: http://www.technojihad.com/ Zoop Productions: http://www.zoop.org/ KTEQ Rapid City: http://www.kteq.org/ AOL IM ID = KarlH420 Yahoo_IM = karl_hiramoto ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø I never said all Democrats were saloonkeepers; what I said was all saloonkeepers were Democrats.

Nov. 2, 2002

ticked at netgear

by Wes Allen

Hi gang, I've got a ma401 card from netgear. It worked beautifully under linux (better than in windows even). Today I switch on my laptop, and I no longer get a link to my network with the card. I figure I must've had a power glitch and my firewall isn't giving out dhcp address, so I restart it. Still no link. I check the settings of my wireless router, all good. I boot my desktop to see if my usb wireless card works, it does. None of my settings on my laptop have changed, I checked. I tweak with iwconfig until my hands are sore, no luck. So I finally call netgear because I figure that it is a hardware issue and I need to send in the card to have at least the antenna replaced. Tech support says, "I'm sorry but we can only trouble-shoot on windows so we can't help you." I tell them, "It's not a software issue, nothing has changed with my software from last night, everything is the same, the card is not picking up the link from the router, it's not functioning, it's a hardware issue..." They say, "But we need to troubleshoot in windows." I say, "Look, I've turned encryption on and off, I've tried different modes, I've tried different channels, I've turned rts and frag on and off [note: now it's not accepting values, another clue that this is a hardware problem]. Nothing works, your card is broken and I want to send it in." I'm told to hold. "I'm sorry, we cannot help you. We need to troubleshoot in windows." I slam the phone on the reciever so hard I think I nearly break it. Now I am pissed, and I still have a broken card. Does anyone else have any history with wireless antennas not working all of the sudden? This card hasn't even been out of the house, I leave it here when I go out for crying out loud! My next attempt will to disable encryption and go back to wvlan_cs to see if that jogs this thing. But I truly think it's hardware; nothing, NOTHING, on my laptop changed, I didn't even turn it on this morning! Wes -- ------ This message may be signed using GPG, for my public key please send me a message with "Key Request" in the subject line.

Nov. 2, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Routing problem -can I believe the ISP tech?

by Charles R. Anderson

HTML problem. Who can't read your email? On Sat, Nov 02, 2002 at 05:11:31PM -0500, Richard Goodman wrote: <html> <pre> I just brought up my fourth RH7.3 server Friday afternoon (one of two RH7.0 servers that had been hacked-new hard drive and software). I then went home and spent a couple of hours connected to it with ssh on a workstation connected to my home RH7.3 server. When I went to rerun a slightly modified (open ports for ftp and internal dhcp twiddling) ipchains firewall I lost the connection, and, more than 16 hours later, don't have it back. Other relevant details. (let's call the servers Home and EFO) Home was the other hacked server, and was formatted and rebuilt last weekend. Home and EFO are on the same ISP and each has a block of 4 static IPs. The blocks share the first 18 bits of their IP#s. Home could connect to EFO last night Home now cannot connect to EFO via ssh, or access its web site. Pings are disabled on all my servers - so I can't do that test. EFO network workstations can browse the web; I can ping out from the EFO linux box or workstations, and can ping EFO's Cisco 678 router from its Linux box EFO workstations cannot access Home websites (but I had not tried this before since rebuilding EFO Linux box Home Cisco 678 cannot be pinged from Home Linux box (!) or EFO (Linux or workstation), but can be pinged from my office (Linux box on other ISP). >From my office workstation I can also ssh to EFO and access EFO website (which in fact I uploaded to the new server from my office today). Does this discount the possibility of a firewall issue? I spent countless hours talking to the ISP (Qwest) tech support, and over an hour with a senior tech who had some Linux knowledge, and he claims that it must be a configuration issue on one or both of my Home and EFO Linux boxes, since:   He can login to both my Cisco routers and ping the other router - he claims this proves its not a Qwest routing problem. If he's right I'm still puzzled by two things: a) Why could I connect from Home to EFO for two hours last night, no problems? b) Why can't the Home Linux box ping the Cisco 678 directly connected to it? I knew nothing about routing before today - here's the Home routing table: <tt>route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface xxx.yyy.28.48   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.248 U     0      0        0 eth0 192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1 127.0.0.0       0.0.0.0         255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo 0.0.0.0         xxx.yyy.28.54   0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0 </tt>I tried the following but still could not access EFO (added just the EFO IP#, not the network  block: <tt>#route add -host xxx.yyy.26.57 dev  eth0 # route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface xxx.yyy.26.57   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 eth0 xxx.yyy.28.48   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.248 U     0      0        0 eth0 192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1 127.0.0.0       0.0.0.0         255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo 0.0.0.0         xxx.yyy.28.54   0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0 </tt>Is this enough if to decide if the tech is right or crazy? Any suggestions - I still can't access Home from/to EFO. Dick </pre> </html> _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- Charles R. Anderson <cra(a)wpi.edu> / http://angus.ind.wpi.edu/~cra/ PGP Key ID: 49BB5886 Fingerprint: EBA3 A106 7C93 FA07 8E15 3AC2 C367 A0F9 49BB 5886

Nov. 2, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Routing problem -can I believe the ISP tech?

by Frank Sweetser

On Sat, Nov 02, 2002 at 05:11:31PM -0500, Richard Goodman wrote: If you're going to send email in html, at least be kind enough to send in in plain text too. -- Frank Sweetser fs at wpi.edu, fs at suave.net | $ x 18 Full-time WPI Network Engineer, Part time Linux/Perl guy | Wow, I'm being shot at from both sides. That means I *must* be right. :-) -- Larry Wall in <199710211959.MAA18990(a)wall.org>

Nov. 2, 2002

Routing problem -can I believe the ISP tech?

by Richard Goodman

Nov. 2, 2002