I'm having annoying problems with my cable internet. At least once a day, sometimes several times, I'll try to do something, and whatever I'm doing either times out or goes like molasses. When things get boggy, my standard diagnostic is to ping google.
Here is an example of such a ping: ->ping www.google.com PING www.google.akadns.net (64.233.161.99) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from 64.233.161.99: icmp_seq=3 ttl=242 time=22.2 ms 64 bytes from 64.233.161.99: icmp_seq=5 ttl=242 time=19.3 ms 64 bytes from 64.233.161.99: icmp_seq=6 ttl=242 time=21.8 ms --- www.google.akadns.net ping statistics --- 6 packets transmitted, 3 received, 50% packet loss, time 14092ms Packet losses from 25 to 75% are not at all uncommon. In this state, if I take eth0 down and then attempt to take it back up, I seldom manage to do so. Results like this are typical. (I ^Ced out of this particular example before it could abort.) ->ifup eth0 Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client 2.0pl5 Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium. All rights reserved. Please contribute if you find this software useful. For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html Listening on LPF/eth0/00:03:5c:44:72:db Sending on LPF/eth0/00:03:5c:44:72:db Sending on Socket/fallback/fallback-net DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5 DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14 From here, with the interface down, my only recourse is to yank the power cord on the cable modem. If I leave eth0 up, I can surf into the status page and reboot it more gently. Either way, it blinks for an interminably long time negotiating the upstream DHCP bit and then finally locks on steady, at which point I'm good to go. For awhile. (This isn't a signal problem. I have a brand new drop, and the signal is very good.) It's really getting annoying. As far as the cable company is concerned, if I have four green lights, then what I have is a software problem. They don't support Linux in any way, shape or form, of course, so it's impossible for me to prove to them that I *don't* have a software problem. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I'm beginning to suspect they might be right. A neighbor has the same provider, and has none of the same problems I do. His connection only screws up once in a blue moon, while mine screws up randomly, and usually several times a day. So bad that I'm almost ready just to say the hell with it and go back to dialup, which is slow, but always works when I want it to. He's running with a Linksys router, Windows ME on one box, and Debian Sarge on the other. Neither one of them suffers any special problems, and the Sarge box is the one running most often. I'm scratching my head on this one. I don't have a clue why it would work so much better next door. Same distro, same config (I set it up for him), so the only real difference is the router. The only thing I can think of is that the router is doing something the upstream provider likes, and I need to make my Debian box look more like the router, or else buy a router myself. So what could it possibly be that I need to tweak? Any ideas? (I tried turning off the firewall already, incidentally. It makes no difference.) -- Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621 http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
