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This is totally unrelated to linux, so if that bothers you hit delete.
I have a friend who has a win95 box, and a win98 box, and @home cablemodem
service. As directed by the docs, both are set to use DHCP. At all
times, they are both able to ping each other.
Well, it's, I guess, a couple hours after I wrote that last sentance, and
the problem appears resolved. So I'll tell you all what happened.
Oh, each machine is plugged into a hub, and the hub's uplink port is
plugged into the cablemodem.
Okay, so both machines are up. One can access the internet, the other
can't -- it can't even ping the default gateway, or the DNS server IPs.
When I tell winipcfg to refresh the DHCP info, it says it can't contact
the DHCP server.
Then I physically unplug the computer that is able to connect to the
internet. 2 seconds later, refreshing the DHCP info on the previously
non-working computer, works, and it can start using the internet.
The entire time, both computers were able to ping each other.
And no, they weren't switching off on 1 functional IP address -- they were
both getting different IPs -- the upstairs machine got its address every
time, and the downstairs machine got its own (different) address every
time.
During this time I've read all the docs they have online.
I finally break down and call ISP tech support for the 1st time in my
life. Blow right through 1st level (it was pretty exhilerating). While
I'm on hold, Christina says that the last 2 times she tried calling tech
support, they said they were going to "re push" her IPs, and that should
fix it. And it didn't.
So I get to 2nd level. They tell me it looks like it should be working,
and that they're not supposed to provide support for networks -- if you
can disconnect the hub & stuff, and plug each computer seperately directly
into the cablemodem & get both of your assigned IPs to work, it's not
their problem.
Bullshit. I know how to do a 2 node IP network w/ a default gateway.
At some point the guy (? - not sure of gender) tells me that he thinks
repushing the IPs will help. I tell him they've tried that twice before,
and that hasn't helped. About then I also told him that I'm a computer
profesional and do this stuff for a living.
I managed to keep him on the phone, sweating, for.. must have been at
least 45 minutes (I figure I spent at least an hour total on the phone w/
tech support).
He mentioned that the modem was flagged to be allowed to have multiple
IPs. I asked if there was any possibility that that might be
misconfigured on their end. He seemed pretty confident that it wasn't,
but seemed to be looking into it.
He also noticed that the cablemodem had acknowledged connections from 3
IPs. They have 2 that should be assigned.
Eventually he did something to get rid of the 3rd IP. Then everything
started working.
So Christina's family loves me.
It's really a shame. Christina had it all set up right, based on my
instructions. And she's been all frustrated, and blown off by tech
support twice. And they didn't do anything about it because they
immediately assumed the problem was on our end, which they don't support.
Until I made this poor guy sweat till he found the problem on *their* end.
So who do I complain to for my waisted time and their irresponsive tech
support ?
__________________________________________________________________
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darxus@op.net / http://www.op.net/~darxus
There is no fine line between genious and insanity.
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