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Date:      Thu, 25 Feb 1999 01:48:26 -0500
From:      Bob Johnson <bobj@atlantic.net>
To:        Mike Heffner <aheffner@lakefield.net>
Cc:        stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: "Unknown type" messages in ppp
Message-ID:  <3.0.2.32.19990225014826.030da87c@mail.atlantic.net>
In-Reply-To: <XFMail.990223161506.aheffner@lakefield.net>
References:  <3.0.2.32.19990223022429.031ad1f4@mail.atlantic.net>

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Regarding:
>Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 18:08:44 -0600 (CST)
>From: Mike Heffner <aheffner@lakefield.net>
>Subject: "Unknown type" messages in ppp
>
>My recent upgrade from 2.2-stable to 3.1-stable went pretty well. Though
>when
>running ppp, i get weird messages:
>
>Unknown Type on Question 1
>Unknown Type on Question 1
>Unknown Type of Resource 100
>
>and they repeat on and on, about 10 lines of 3 like that, they seem to
>occur
>at various network traffic times, ie. checking mail, browsing web, but
>not 
>all the time.
>
>Anyone know what could be causing these messages? Are they safe to
>disregard?
>


OK.  I think I found the source code that generates these error messages in
/usr/src/lib/libalias/alias_nbt.c

In general, libalias appears to be a collection of routines to handle
aliasing of TCP/IP packets (i.e. translating between your local IP numbers
and the public number that your gateway uses to send them out on the
Internet -- if I understand it correctly).  I predict that if you disable
aliasing on tun0 (the ppp connection) you will stop seeing those error
messages.  Of course, that's not real helpful as a long term solution, but
it would tend to confirm that this is the source of the messages.

The particular routine in question handles netbios packets.  If you aren't
doing anything that requires netbios (Windows networking through your
gateway), you might be able to safely ignore the messages, but when I saw
them in my system things were definitely unstable.  The code is rather
inscrutable to someone who doesn't know the netbios protocol, so the best
guess I have is that it means just what it says: for some reason, a Windows
system on your network is sending a netbios query that the aliasing code
doesn't recognize, and doesn't know how to handle.  Of course, if you don't
have a Windows system on your network, it gets even more mysterious.

And I thought it was simply a matter of copying packets from one interface
to another.  Silly me.

I hope that's helpful.  Does this sound accurate to anyone?

-- Bob


+--------------------------------------------------------
| Bob Johnson
| bobj@cisi.com
+--------------------------------------------------------


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