[Cialug] What's your modem?

[Kevin C. Smith]

> On 8/2/2005 3:06 PM, Kevin C. Smith wrote:
>>>Rocket Robin Hood wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Tuesday 02 August 2005 10:51, Claus wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>No offense, but I'd say the problem lies between the chair and the
>>>>>keyboard.  You have to realize that Qwest doesn't support Linux since
>>>>>they don't have the time and knowledge to do so.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>That is FINE but what perplexed me and still does is
>>>>a) Upon hearing none of my browsers work, I was encouraged to try
>>>>Netscape.
>>>>When this worked, one might be tempted to think "oh, there's some
>>>>browser
>>>>configuration trick, they've probably encountered people using
>>>> alternate
>>>>browsers (non IE er Netscape) before and have a general idea what's
>>>>wrong.
>>>>Perhaps they could tell me!"
>>>>DUH!
>>>>
>>>>I am assuming the problem lies 'between the chair and the computer'. I
>>>>seek
>>>>enlightenment. Let's assume I took my computer to someone's home
>>>> network
>>>>with
>>>>a working modem, plugged it in, and it did the same thing. What would
>>>>YOU do?
>>>>
>>>>See, if someone posted to the list something like "Uh, my burner's not
>>>>working" I would at least start out with "What happens when you type
>>>>cdrecord
>>>>-scanbus" or "type less /etc/fstab and copy and paste that to me"
>>>>or ....something. I wouldn't write an essay calling them a retard.
>>>
>>>I have had problems with my Actiontec DSL modem and linux clients -
>>>where DNS doesn't seem to work, but works fine from a Windows PC.
>>>
>>>My kludge to fix this is to change the Actiontec's DHCP config to assign
>>>a different DNS (like your ISP's) to the DHCP clients.
>>>
>>>-dc
>>
>>
>> Yes. This is the issue. I solved it for me by coping a working
>> /etc/resolv.conf over the bad one on ifup. I had forgotten this was an
>> issue
>> with the Actiontecs until Dave's comment. Easy fix though.
>
> Before Rocket Robin Hood assumes that's his problem I'd recommend that
> he verifies it.  In that case connections by using IP should work while
> connections via names won't. (ie ping 209.234.64.204 vs.
> storm.weather.net)
>

Correct. But only for Linux boxes behind the Actiontec trying to connect
to others on the "local" network. Well, almost true some outside IPs fail
to resolve also, such as one of the debian ftp servers.

Anyway, a moot point since he canceled the DSL service. For those
running linux behind an Actiontec this fix will improve DNS resolution
even if you do not have local resources you need to connect to.

1. Log into the Actiontec and get the two DNS server IPs.
2. Edit /etc/resolv.conf to look something like this:

nameserver 216.51.246.11
nameserver 216.51.246.12

Remove everything else.

Note: The config will get wiped out on reboot, so you will need to
address that. In Debian/Ubuntu I added this:

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
  address 192.168.0.109
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  network 192.168.0.0
  broadcast 192.168.0.255
  gateway 192.168.0.1
  # This copies my "good resolv.conf over the "bad" one.
  up cp /etc/resolv.fix /etc/resolv.conf

On a laptop you will need to install some sort of network detection
software and adjust the scripts as needed. I forgot which one I use,
but there are more then a few out there.

I may add some of this to the wiki and flesh it out more when I have time.

-- 
Kevin C. Smith