Campus Network Connection Dying

knowledgeispwr · 08-27-2006, 01:10 PM

I'm using Debian Etch/Testing with dualboot with WinXP on my IBM Thinkpad R51 and I am having a probems connecting to my campus (unc-chapel hill) network all of the sudden. I connect by ethernet and I had no trouble the first couple of weeks when I used Debian exclusively. I switched to Windows a few times, including a few times to use a webcam. Now, in Debian, my connection won't last more than about a minute. I can restart it, and it works...for just another minute before having to restart it again. I never had this problem before. What I don't understand is how the problem seems to have suddenly arisen.

here is some perhaps relevent output:

ifconfig

Quote:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0D:60:74:69:A2
inet addr:152.23.193.22 Bcast:152.23.199.255 Mask:255.255.248.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1238806 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1993 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:97498143 (92.9 MiB) TX bytes:100047 (97.7 KiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1160 (1.1 KiB) TX bytes:1160 (1.1 KiB)

lsmod

Quote:

Module Size Used by
nls_iso8859_1 3936 1
nls_cp437 5600 1
vfat 11296 1
fat 46588 1 vfat
i915 17536 1
drm 61972 2 i915
nvram 7112 1
uinput 7744 1
button 6320 0
ac 4612 0
battery 9252 0
dm_mod 47892 0
dmfe 17820 0
loop 14472 0
pcmcia 34844 0
firmware_class 9472 1 pcmcia
joydev 8864 0
irtty_sir 7488 0
tsdev 7200 0
intel_agp 20860 1
shpchp 39200 0
pci_hotplug 24180 1 shpchp
hw_random 5272 0
snd_intel8x0m 15372 0
snd_pcm_oss 43520 0
snd_mixer_oss 15584 1 snd_pcm_oss
sir_dev 16908 1 irtty_sir
snd_intel8x0 29436 1
snd_ac97_codec 82784 2 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0
snd_ac97_bus 2048 1 snd_ac97_codec
agpgart 29232 3 drm,intel_agp
snd_pcm 74408 4 snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 20292 1 snd_pcm
irda 160956 2 irtty_sir,sir_dev
mousedev 10368 1
snd 46080 9 snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 8672 1 snd
pcspkr 2948 0
psmouse 34248 0
serio_raw 6436 0
snd_page_alloc 9800 3 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
parport_pc 31472 0
parport 31720 1 parport_pc
crc_ccitt 1952 1 irda
rtc 11252 0
evdev 8736 3
floppy 55628 0
i2c_i801 7884 0
i2c_core 19312 1 i2c_i801
yenta_socket 23660 1
rsrc_nonstatic 11840 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 37264 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
usbhid 32128 0
reiserfs 216784 1
ide_cd 35328 0
cdrom 31888 1 ide_cd
ide_disk 14528 4
ehci_hcd 26856 0
uhci_hcd 26640 0
piix 8932 0 [permanent]
generic 4164 0 [permanent]
usbcore 110560 4 usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
ide_core 111440 4 ide_cd,ide_disk,piix,generic
e100 31044 0
mii 5056 1 e100
thermal 12968 0
processor 21696 1 thermal
fan 4452 0

lspci

Quote:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 81)

Mara · 08-27-2006, 01:41 PM

Could you please post ifconfig output at a moment the connection works and later, when it doesn't? It'd help. Also, the ifconfig output looks perfectly correct.

How do you find out that the connection doesn't work? Timeouts? Errors (if there are, post them!)? Routing entry is gone?

knowledgeispwr · 08-27-2006, 01:56 PM

I know it's no longer working because my browsers will continually say "loading" instead of immediately bringing up the page like normal, and when I try to ping a website, I get nothing.

ifconfig when it's working

Quote:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0D:60:74:69:A2
inet addr:152.23.193.22 Bcast:152.23.199.255 Mask:255.255.248.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20d:60ff:fe74:69a2/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:25123 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:413 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1987390 (1.8 MiB) TX bytes:35617 (34.7 KiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1060 (1.0 KiB) TX bytes:1060 (1.0 KiB)

ifconfig when it's not working (a minute or two later)

Quote:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0D:60:74:69:A2
inet addr:152.23.193.22 Bcast:152.23.199.255 Mask:255.255.248.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20d:60ff:fe74:69a2/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:43837 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1371 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:4238301 (4.0 MiB) TX bytes:224516 (219.2 KiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1160 (1.1 KiB) TX bytes:1160 (1.1 KiB)

knowledgeispwr · 08-29-2006, 04:33 PM

Is there any possibility that switching to Windows had something to do with it? It seems like it shouldn't, but then again, I used Debian exclusively for about a week or so when I first got to campus and had no problems.

Mara · 08-29-2006, 04:51 PM

Both ifconfig outputs look perfectly OK, there are no errors at all. It must be in a different place. I don't think it has something to do with Windows directly, but it may be connected in a much more subtle way.

Do you use DHCP? Does ping (IP addresses, not names) work when the browser stops?

knowledgeispwr · 08-29-2006, 08:03 PM

Usually, my connection would load at boot time, and I would use ifup eth0 or ifdown eth0 to bring it up or down. Pinging IP addresses after the browser stopped working would yield 100% packet loss. Now, today, I decided to go back to Debian to try it for the heck of it, and now my internet is working with no problems. It makes no sense and I don't understand how it stopped working (just in Debian Linux) and now works again. Could it have been some sort of mantanence thing my campus network did that Linux didn't like that caused my connection problems?