Internet Connection Stops

spaaarky21 · 01-30-2005, 02:12 AM

I recently installed Ubuntu (based on Debian so maybe someone here can help) and have a problem where the internet connection (cable modem through integrated ethernet port in laptop) seems to die after a little bit of use. When installing packages, I get a message about the connection being stalled, before I get an error about how there is no path to the IP address I am connected to. And when trying to use Firefox, it tries to resolve the address for a while before timing out. The time it takes for this to happen seems to vary a bit. It happened a couple times when trying to install the system. - I had to try a few times before the connection actually lasted long enough to complete the installation. Now that the system is installed, the connection works for a while but never lasts long enough to simply install a few packages using Synaptic. Does anyone know what might be causing this and how to fix it?

-Brandon

bruno buys · 01-30-2005, 09:50 AM

Really strange problem. As root, do a
ifconfig
to see if you have a valid and IPed connection. If you don't, try to up the eth card by doing
ifup eth0 (most likely ubuntu is calling your card as 0 if you have only one card).
If your isp is doing dhcp, this is supposed to work. If not, try
ifdown eth0
and then
ifup eth0

You can also try to run some live cd and check whether its a ubuntu problem, or a hw problem.

spaaarky21 · 01-30-2005, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bruno buys
Really strange problem. As root, do a
ifconfig
to see if you have a valid and IPed connection. If you don't, try to up the eth card by doing
ifup eth0 (most likely ubuntu is calling your card as 0 if you have only one card).
If your isp is doing dhcp, this is supposed to work. If not, try
ifdown eth0
and then
ifup eth0

You can also try to run some live cd and check whether its a ubuntu problem, or a hw problem.

The system is a dual boot system (Linux/WinXP) and the connection works great under XP so I know it's not a hardware problem. Using ifconfig and ifup would be an idea but it seems like somewhat of a bad temporary solution. Taking package installation for example, suppose I was relying on just using ifconfig whenever the connection died. If apt-get timed out while I was trying to use ifconfig and skipped the package it was trying to download, that could cause trouble - especially if the package was a dependancy for another package. I also like to keep an FTP server running at my apartment so I can transfer files back and forth when I need to rather than carry a flash drive around.

spaaarky21 · 01-30-2005, 08:41 PM

Well, I have absolutely no clue what is going wrong. Even when I use ifdown followed by ifup, I can't get a connection. Here is what "ifup eth0" gives me

Code:

Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device eth0 ; Invalid argument.
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.1rc14
Copyright 2004 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
Linstening on LPF/eth0/<my laptop's MAC address>
Sending on LPF/eth0/<my laptop's MAC address>
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 16
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

I thought for a minute that maybe ifdown and ifup were confusing the hardware so I booted into Windows to make sure that the MAC address I was getting was in fact the NIC's MAC address and it was. I am curious what the "Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A)" comment means though.

bruno buys · 01-30-2005, 09:29 PM

You didn't mention the card was wireless in the first post. I bet its a driver issue. Well, unfortunately, these wireless cards have proven to be complicated under linux. Google for
"Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A)" and you'll see other peoples and threads about it.
Sorry I can't help you any further.
Good luck!

spaaarky21 · 01-31-2005, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bruno buys
You didn't mention the card was wireless in the first post. I bet its a driver issue. Well, unfortunately, these wireless cards have proven to be complicated under linux. Google for
"Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A)" and you'll see other peoples and threads about it.
Sorry I can't help you any further.
Good luck!

The card is not wireless. The laptop does have integrated wireless (which I don't even bother with in Linux) but the connection that keeps stopping is the plain old 10/100 ethernet. The output from "ifup eth0" gives the MAC address of the 10/100 NIC but has that "error for wireless request" which is what is making me wonder.