modem problem or not

ssenuta · 06-29-2006, 01:33 AM

After connecting to my dialup isp & starting up my browser(mozilla), I cannot surf the internet. I am stuck at my isp server with a blank page & no other internet sites will respond. This happens randomly but I would like to solve the problem.

Can this problem be caused by an external modem starting to fail? I think I can rule out my Shorewall-2.4.1 firewall because it happens even when I stop that service in the Mandriva control center. The only other thing I can think of that could cause this is a bad isp. Maybe the dynamic DNS addresses they are supplying are no good or too bussy to respond?

Is there a way to test my modem & rule it out as the cause? I don't want to switch to a new isp & discover the proplem exists.

Thank you for reading this. I hope someone can help.

aroche · 06-29-2006, 11:49 AM

try maybe using a ping to determine the line is up,

ping www.google.com

should have an output something like

PING www.l.google.com (64.233.183.147) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 64.233.183.147: icmp_seq=1 ttl=247 time=81.8 ms
64 bytes from 64.233.183.147: icmp_seq=2 ttl=247 time=84.5 ms

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 81.863/83.205/84.547/1.342 ms

if you get request timed try this

ping 159.134.237.6 (DNS server where i live)

see if that replies , on mandrake some times it takes time to resolve the name to an IP address so statically assigning the DNS servers on my computer works , or if your like me use your internal DNS server with Forwarders

does this happen all the time ? or just sometimes ?

x86processor · 06-30-2006, 02:53 AM

Open a terminal and post output of:

Code:

/sbin/ifconfig -a
/sbin/route -n
cat /etc/resolv.conf

Note, you can save output to a file:

Code:

/sbin/ifconfig -a > ifconfig.txt

ssenuta · 06-30-2006, 11:28 AM

As you suggested I did try the command "ping www.google.com" The results were mixed as follows:

[root@localhost stan]# ping -c 4 www.google.com
ping: unknown host www.google.com

[root@localhost stan]# ping -c 4 google.com
PING google.com (64.233.187.99) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 64.233.187.99: icmp_seq=1 ttl=247 time=186 ms
64 bytes from 64.233.187.99: icmp_seq=2 ttl=247 time=190 ms
64 bytes from 64.233.187.99: icmp_seq=3 ttl=247 time=187 ms
64 bytes from 64.233.187.99: icmp_seq=4 ttl=247 time=185 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 10311ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 185.966/187.895/190.883/1.915 ms

[root@localhost stan]# ping -c 4 www.google.com
PING www.l.google.com (64.233.161.104) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 64.233.161.104: icmp_seq=1 ttl=245 time=175 ms
64 bytes from 64.233.161.104: icmp_seq=2 ttl=245 time=182 ms
64 bytes from 64.233.161.104: icmp_seq=3 ttl=245 time=219 ms
64 bytes from 64.233.161.104: icmp_seq=4 ttl=245 time=221 ms

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 175.778/200.171/221.963/20.968 ms

Note that in instance #1 above "www.google.com" wasn't recognized by the DNS but when I tried it a again as shown in instance #2 & #3 the DNS did recognize it.

I have used the ping command on previous connections & it seems that the DNS address my isp supplies has trouble (at times) with website names. There are times I just can't ping any site by name. Yesterday afternoon I connected to my isp but couldn't get to my home page or any other site & I couldn't ping anybody by name. However, later that nite everything worked fine & I could ping by name again.

Based on the above, can I now assume my isp is at fault? Are they supplying me with a DNS server that is unable to handle the traffic? Is it possible to ask an isp to supply a different DNS address? .... I want to work with them if at all possible because I believe they are a small organization just getting started.

Thank you for your response & I look forward to hearing your advice ---stan