Hi all,
I am here like 100% Newbie to Linux but also a 100% fan working for a chinese company now. I am running Ubuntu 5.10 on my laptop still parallely with windows OS (in case of emergency). I would like to use Linux at work as well, but the problems are following:

1. I can visit almost all websites without any problem(except these which are blocked by chinese goverment)- i set up the connection in firefox - proxy: isaserver.feihua.hangzhou:8080[/url]

2. I can not download any email using either Kmail, Evolution or Thuderbird evanthough i set up the same proxy in KControl as i used in firefox (email POP3 settings are correct). But when i switch to windows, i can download all the mail using thunderbird without any problem...

3. I can use Skype in Linux, but Gaim never get connected (but msn in windows works...).


Could u please someone give me some suggestion? The thing is, that i am not a computer master, i don't really know how to find out what the proxy is ( please note that administrators guys here in china doesn't like when you use different software, asking these non-friendly guys for help is too dificult), but i used this isaserver.feihua.hangzhou:8080 and the browser worked, but when i enter this in either gnome or kde settings, i still cannot download email and use gaim. I understand you're definetely more busy with hard technical problems, but i trully searched many thread here, but didn't find the right answer. I would be raelly thankful to anyone of you, i need to get email as writing emails is part of my job as well i need to use gaim to communicate with those customers who are still blind by msn. Plese help to desperado.Tks

Are you using a firewall in your laptop? If you do you may be blocking gaim.
Try issuing the command "netstat -tp" to see what is connected to the "outside" world.
I would also try to ping the mail server to determine if you can "get to it" from your Linux system. Just issue the command "ping pop3_server_name" or "ping pop3_server_address"

Hope this helps.

Rick

Hi ralvez, in windows OS they installed some firewall but in linux it probably doesn't work, right? I have Firestarter, but no changes if I disable it. Is there some internal firewall in linux i would not know about it? after issued "netstat -tp" command i got following result:

Active Internet connections (w/o servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55886 isaserver.feih:webcache ESTABLISHED7716/skype
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55852 isaserver.feih:webcache FIN_WAIT2 -
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55854 isaserver.feih:webcache FIN_WAIT2 -
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55849 isaserver.feih:webcache FIN_WAIT2 -
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55858 isaserver.feih:webcache FIN_WAIT2 -
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55870 isaserver.feih:webcache ESTABLISHED7716/skype
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55865 isaserver.feih:webcache FIN_WAIT2 -
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55834 isaserver.feih:webcache FIN_WAIT2 -
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55428 isaserver.feih:webcache ESTABLISHED7451/firefox-bin
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:55806 isaserver.feih:webcache TIME_WAIT -
tcp 0 1 10.0.1.71:36995 70.173.171.23:1088 SYN_SENT 7716/skype
tcp 0 1 10.0.1.71:52106 e178052050.adsl.a:19825 SYN_SENT 7716/skype
tcp 0 1 10.0.1.71:58290 222.225.149.245:21585 SYN_SENT 7716/skype
tcp 0 0 localhost.localdo:32770 localhost.localdo:59468 ESTABLISHED6686/hpiod
tcp 0 1 10.0.1.71:48443 219.110.12.52:14688 SYN_SENT 7716/skype
tcp 0 1 10.0.1.71:48427 se-217-129-88-181:52452 SYN_SENT -

I had pinged 3 of my POP3 email providers, results:

tomash@baobei:~$ ping mail.color-vision.com.tw
PING mail.color-vision.com.tw (211.72.110.144) 56(84) bytes of data.

tomash@baobei:~$ ping pop3.gmail.com
ping: unknown host pop3.gmail.com

tomash@baobei:~$ ping mail.klubko.net
PING bria.forpsi.com (81.2.194.131) 56(84) bytes of data.

What do you think about it? Thanks for your help!

Tomash

OK, the easy one first. Your e-mail servers are not responding or your system is blocking icmp packets. You should get (as a response to ping) something like this:
ping mail.color-vision.com.tw
64 bytes from 211.72.110.144: icmp_seq=1 ttl=39 time=271 ms
64 bytes from 211.72.110.144: icmp_seq=2 ttl=39 time=283 ms
64 bytes from 211.72.110.144: icmp_seq=3 ttl=39 time=271 ms
64 bytes from 211.72.110.144: icmp_seq=4 ttl=39 time=272 ms
and you are not.
Also, gmail server address is incorrect because you get: unknown host pop3.gmail.com

Now the hard one. Skype and Firefox connect just fine but you either do not have Gaim running or is not allowed to go out. I suspect it is not running.

Who set up the linux box, you or someone else? Is it running on DHCP or static address ?
If you have done a manual set up make sure you have added your DNS servers properly.

Gmail server address is: pop.gmail.com

You should take a look here: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1555

Thank you for helping me. You were right, the gmail server address is pop.gmail.com however if i ping pop.gmail.com the result is actually the same:

tomash@baobei:~$ ping pop.gmail.com
ping: unknown host pop.gmail.com
tomash@baobei:~$

as for gaim, last time i really forget to start gaim, with starting gaim the result is following:

tomash@baobei:~$ sudo netstat -tp
Active Internet connections (w/o servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 1 10.0.1.71:51211 62.4.17.14:ftp SYN_SENT 7616/ftp
tcp 0 1 10.0.1.71:35533 65.54.239.80:1863 SYN_SENT 7572/gaim
tcp 0 1 10.0.1.71:56345 212.72.49.131:www SYN_SENT 7532/skype
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:35426 carolyn.feihua.ha:34269 ESTABLISHED7532/skype
tcp 0 0 localhost.localdo:38063 localhost.localdo:32770 ESTABLISHED6735/python
tcp 0 0 10.0.1.71:50041 isaserver.feih:webcache ESTABLISHED7532/skype
tcp 0 0 localhost.localdo:32770 localhost.localdo:38063 ESTABLISHED6693/hpiod
tomash@baobei:~$

I tried ether DHCP or Static Address, but it doesn't change, look at my preferences

IP: 10.0.1.71
Subnet Mask: 255.255.248.0
Gataway: 10.0.1.1

as i was browsing threads , there was another diagnostic way to use telnet command, but also withou succes:

tomash@baobei:~$ telnet mail.color-vision.com.tw 110
Trying 211.72.110.144...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection timed out
tomash@baobei:~$

As a beginner i am really hopeless, is it because they block some ports? But why thuderbird works in windows OS without any network settings, but in linus the connection to server is always timed out (including the other email clients). Thank you all for any ideas. Your faithful Newbie.

can you do this?

ping 66.249.83.109

i did ping 66.249.83.109, but results are only following

tomash@baobei:~$ ping 66.249.83.109
PING 66.249.83.109 (66.249.83.109) 56(84) bytes of data.

hmm, guess this is not a positive result, right? Thanks for helping!

No, does the chinese government blocks gmail?

1) Can you post the result of ifconfig?

2) Can you try this?
ping 200.138.31.116

I have a feeling that the server administrators block some port 5190 (gaim) and perhaps some other "outside" places that are not "in harmony" with the policies of the network.

Rick

Are you absolutely sure you can access these from within Windows *on the same network*? If you are at a location where The Internet is restricted by the Chinese government then I would suspect you won't connect to a lot of things. Having never been on a network on that side of it I have no idea what they block but I would suspect email and chat are as restricted as http traffic. I would take the same client software (Thunderbird, Gaim, etc) and make sure it is installed in both OSs, verify that it works in Windows and then make sure you copy all the settings over to the Linux counterparts.

Before taking any tests you try as failures, I would make sure they work in Windows first. Can you ping pop.gmail.com, telnet mail.color-vision.com.tw 110, ping 66.249.83.109 or any of the other stuff you tried while booted up into Windows?