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Date:      Fri, 13 Oct 2000 11:39:24 -0500
From:      "Doug Poland" <doug@polands.org>
To:        "Peter Jones" <pjones@pmade.org>, <john@drexeltech.com>, <shovey@buffnet.net>
Cc:        "FreeBSD Questions" <FreeBSD-Questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   RE: Cable modem ISP keeps timing out
Message-ID:  <NDBBKMNOJKJGAEKJNLIAKEOKELAA.doug@polands.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010130906240.99618-100000@pmade.org>

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I just got off the phone with a tech from RoadRunner.
He seemed knowledgeable (at least he wasn't afraid of
an 80486 FreeBSD gateway :)

He told me that all they need in their database is the
MAC of the cable modem, which they have.  He doesn't 
think it's a DHCP lease issue after we examined my
dhclient.leases file and looked at the renew, rebind,
and expire date/times.

From his end, he's going to ping my cable modem 
non-stop until the problem develops (which it probably
won't now that I'm trying to trace it) and take it
from there.  

I'll post the results when I get them.  Thanks for
your help so far!


Doug


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Peter Jones
> Sent: Friday, October 13, 2000 11:09
> To: FreeBSD Questions
> Subject: Re: Cable modem ISP keeps timing out
> 
> 
> I had to give my MAC address to my ADSL ISP as well to keep
> the connection alive. After some timeout the connection would
> drop, but in my case, a little outbound traffic and it came
> back up.
> 
> They put an arp entry somewhere and now the connection does
> not timeout.
> 
> On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, John Turner wrote:
> 
> > 
> > RoadRunner uses DHCP.  Their terms of service do not allow a 
> dedicated IP 
> > (unless you pay extra, I think the extra package is called "Home 
> > Networking").
> > 
> > I have RoadRunner, my firewall is FreeBSD 3.4 RELEASE.  My external 
> > interface is configured using dhcp in rc.conf, and it works 
> fine.  When I 
> > first hooked the firewall up, after I moved, I experienced the same 
> > problems you're having.  The solution for me was to call them 
> and add the 
> > MAC address for my firewall's external NIC to their database.  
> They use the 
> > MAC to determine if a certain NIC is allowed to access their 
> network.  They 
> > allow up to 3 different MAC addresses per account.  Previously, 
> the only 
> > MAC they had on file was the one for my laptop (which was all I 
> had when 
> > the guy did the install).
> > 
> > So, a default RoadRunner setup needs DHCP, and the MAC for your 
> NIC needs 
> > to be in their database (max of 3 MACs).  Make sure 
> > "ifconfig_external-NIC=DHCP" is in your rc.conf file.
> > 
> > As a temporary fix, before I discovered their rule about MAC 
> addresses, was 
> > for me to do
> > 
> > bash# ifconfig external-interface-name down
> > bash# ifconfig external-interface-name up
> > 
> > A shutdown or reboot isn't necessary.  However, this got tedious after 
> > awhile, so I researched and found the MAC restriction at 
> > http://help.rr.com.  I've seen other posts saying that the MAC 
> addresses 
> > don't matter with RoadRunner, and perhaps this is the case in some 
> > locations in the US.  For me, however, over MediaOne cable in 
> Michigan, the 
> > MAC address most definitely makes a difference, and DHCP is 
> most definitely 
> > used (as of October 9, 2000).  If you're looking for a 
> dedicated IP, you 
> > will have to pay extra (if it's even available).
> > 
> > HTH
> > 
> > - John Turner
> > 
> > At 07:58 AM 10/13/2000 -0500, Doug Poland wrote:
> > >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> > >
> > >Gurus,
> > >
> > >Two or three times a day I will lose my
> > >"connection" to the outside world with
> > >RoadRunner cable service.  I can ping
> > >my NIC and cable modem but nothing else.
> > >
> > >I can "reset" by doing a shutdown <ctrl> d
> > >Then I get the same IP address, netmask
> > >(I think), and DNS's.  Then connectivity
> > >is back.
> > >
> > >So I have two questions:
> > >
> > >1. How can I re-establish connectivity
> > >without re-booting.  I've tried
> > >
> > >         # dhclient ed0
> > >
> > >but I lose the IP address I did have and
> > >returns an error message (sorry can't recall
> > >it right now).  So I end up rebooting.
> > >
> > >2. I'd like to know what is going on so I
> > >can start complaining to my cable ISP.  It's
> > >mildly inconvenient when I'm at home and can
> > >work on the console of the gateway.  When
> > >I'm working away from home, it's a real
> > >hassle.
> > >
> > >
> > >Regards,
> > >Doug
> > >
> > >
> > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> > >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
> > 
> 
> -- 
> .......................................................................
> : Peter Jones                        :      Unix Geek - Four Wheeling :
> : pjones@pmade.org                   :     Code Writing - Jesus Freak :
> :....................................:................................:
> :echo er|perl -0160 -pe ';$;=ord$/;s;^;"\U$/".chr($\;-11).chr$\;+4;e;':
> :.....................................................................:
> 
> 
> 
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> 


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