[SOLVED] Why the Heck Can't I ping Anything?

tronayne · 07-23-2015, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kfritz

Try nping. It uses TCP to port 80 by default, and Hughes won't block that.

Now that works!

Amazes me pretty much every day the stuff I don't know about (and it's not in the See Also section of the ping manual page).

Thanks.

tronayne · 07-23-2015, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gezley

@tronayne: when I had satellite and ping times were poor I set up an OpenBSD pf firewall with packet prioritization/bandwidth-shaping. It helped immensely, by prioritizing ack packets. Think of it like a supermarket where everyone with small baskets is put in a designated queue to get them off the floor quickly and keep things moving.

I found the Linux tc equivalent too complex to set up, although it seems a lot more powerful.

If you can get your hands on an old Pentium III why not give it a go? Just stick OpenBSD on it, configure the pf firewall with bandwidth-shaping and stick it between your home network and your satellite modem.

Thanks for the input; @kfritz offered a workable solution, (nping, that works just fine and meets my occasional needs.

I've long been aware that the ping times are slow with a satellite interface. That's because the satellite is something like 22,500 miles up and there is light velocity involved: 22.5K miles up, 22.5K down to the ground server, fiddle around at the ground server, 22.5K miles back up and another 22.5K down to me. The satellites do have horsepower on board that can shorten the trip, but not when you're pinging by much. I do get about 2.4KB speeds (down) and, yeah, that ain't fiber optic out front of the house but it ain't dog food either. I'm happy, it doesn't cost an arm and leg and, most of the time, it works just fine.

OpenBSD sounds like fun but I haven't got an old box sitting around gathering dust (I'm running three servers and a laptop plus occasional wife's Kindle). Enough is enough, methinks.

Thanks.

enorbet · 07-24-2015, 12:16 AM

You just need to pull on both cans really hard to get the string as taut as possible. :P

(sry...couldn't resist having been in the exact predicament for 4 years and jut so happy to have a modern connection again (although straining to get every last drop of speed did teach me a lot) figured I'd offer an "all things must pass" bit of hope for near future progress.

tronayne · 07-24-2015, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet

You just need to pull on both cans really hard to get the string as taut as possible.

Thanks for not resisting -- made my morning start with a grin.

tronayne · 07-24-2015, 02:38 PM

Well, I wrote HugheNet:

Quote:

please be informed that we are not blocking the ping command; however, please note that for satellite service, the normal ping rate is between 600-800ms.

(well, yeah, I know how long the rate is).

OK, check the router (Linksys BERFSR41), nothing changed in the setup.

nping works, ping does not; it transmits but does not receive any packets. I do know that ping and nping are different.

Tried the unpatched laptop, nope, no ping. Patched the laptop, no ping. Switched out the router, nope.

The only thing left is the satellite modem; gonna unplug it and see what, if anything, happens.

<a few minutes later>

OK, unplugged the modem, let it sit for a couple of minutes, plugged it back in, wait for it to come up, reboot the router:

Code:

ping -c 2 news.google.com
PING news.l.google.com (74.125.224.37) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from lax17s01-in-f5.1e100.net (74.125.224.37): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=587 ms
64 bytes from lax17s01-in-f5.1e100.net (74.125.224.37): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=964 ms

--- news.l.google.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0 packet loss, time 1658ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 587.458/776.037/964.616/188.579 ms

Who'd 'a' thunk it.

Yet another lesson learned during a wasted old age -- reboot the dang modem first then fiddle with everything else in the chain. Even if the modem appears to be working properly, kick start it anyway.

Thanks to all for the advice an counsel.

I still kind of like nping too.