Hey,
I tried changing the mode to half-duplex 10MBps ... still didn't work :

can you see anything weird in teh ethtool statistics of the interface?

Just a few thoughts ... I'm not an expert on this by any stretch.

1) You said that removing the SEARCH line from your nameservers list (resolv.conf) stopped you accessing the intranet sites. Does it also enable your access to the web (ie internet)?

2) have you tried putting some lines in your /etc/hosts file; eg remove the "search" line from resolv.conf and instead put: as a line in your /etc/hosts file. I think hosts is the first place checked for domain resolution.

3) do the nameservers work? Can you do eg except for your ns.example.com.

As far as determining your MTU check out http://help.expedient.net/broadband/mtu_ping_test.shtml which shows how to use ping to send larger packets until you find one that fragments.

I don't have direct access to internet ... I connect through an HTTP-Proxy .. squid ... so removing that line won't matter much afaik ..

anyways .. it is not a dns issue as I can get the ip of sites, as I have stressed before. see the wget logs earlier .. it is connected to the server but no response comes for a long time.


I will check up on the mtu thing.

Also, although I am nearly certain that I don't have any iptables set up.. is there any way I could make myself 100% sure?

/etc/rc.d/rc.firewall isn't executable.

What about other ports than port 80. Can you access email, ftp servers?

I think you'd be better re-asking in a networking group or just ask your Uni IT department. They're there to serve you!

Yeah I can access the other services. Infact, if I access the sites with https (port 443) then service is much better.

The IT Dept. has held up their hands saying that as it works in Windows, it is not their fault.

All I know is that it's very common on Slack to have the 2nd or very bottom output from: iptables -L

when there is no firewall.

But, (and in contrast) first, next, the firewall is on, alive, active in real time:


root@AB60R:~# iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy DROP)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere
bad_packets all -- anywhere anywhere
DROP all -- anywhere ALL-SYSTEMS.MCAST.NET
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
tcp_inbound tcp -- anywhere anywhere
udp_inbound udp -- anywhere anywhere
icmp_packets icmp -- anywhere anywhere
DROP all -- anywhere anywhere PKTTYPE = broadcast
LOG all -- anywhere anywhere limit: avg 3/min burst 3 LOG level warning prefix `INPUT packet died: '
#<snipped many more lines of -L (list) of (I guess they are) firewall rules>


root@AB60R:~# cd /usr/local/bin
root@AB60R:/usr/local/bin# pwd
/usr/local/bin

root@AB60R:/usr/local/bin# lsag fire
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2007-09-15 23:13 firehol -> /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall*

root@AB60R:/usr/local/bin# firehol stop
Loading kernel modules ...
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.secure_redirects = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1
Flushing Tables ...
Firewall completely flushed! Now running with no firewall.

root@AB60R:/usr/local/bin# iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
root@AB60R:/usr/local/bin#

This here latter, the above, iptables -L output is what that command's output looks like on my Slack 12 when there is no firewall.

--
Alan.

oh .. I just realised ... I don't have iptables /netfilter in my kernel config .. so iptables is certainly not the problem