From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 25 03:27:18 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C6D4A16A4CE for ; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 03:27:18 +0000 (GMT) Received: from wproxy.gmail.com (wproxy.gmail.com [64.233.184.195]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D40C43D1F for ; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 03:27:18 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from gary.smithe@gmail.com) Received: by wproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id 69so674895wra for ; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:27:17 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:references; b=kfOUfheC28UTAqw85toitDiyWaTZEHoHRAheji7V1y9sQiwP+8TnL59MQT7zDR8H+IsvIiujik5bqDaDr+9atfKojXb+fGD7IPlbUyE+A1fJa673I89opebHcmuCZ6tSXYJR6Z1rhD3SQcBBSTacDN3nOAN0mwBCwFqBKMpW3JM= Received: by 10.54.30.77 with SMTP id d77mr203713wrd; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:27:17 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.54.41.29 with HTTP; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:27:16 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 21:27:16 -0600 From: Gary Smithe To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <200503241912.32120.ned.woody@cox.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <200503241912.32120.ned.woody@cox.net> Subject: Re: Re: Frequent loss of contact with ISP X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Gary Smithe List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 03:27:18 -0000 On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:12:31 +0000, Ned Harrison wrote: > > > ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- > > Subject: Re: Frequent loss of contact with ISP > Date: Tuesday 22 March 2005 01:15 pm > From: Bill Moran > To: Ned Harrison > Cc: > > [My apologies to the moderator for the traffic, but I just unsubscribed, and > I didn't want to leave this person hanging.] > > Ned Harrison wrote: > > On Sunday 20 March 2005 09:55 pm, you wrote: > > > Ned Harrison wrote: > > > > I reciently upgraded my home computer to FreeBSD 5.3 p5. Sense then > > > > I've had minor problems connecting to my ISP. During boot up it will > > > > sometimes freeze at the line, "Configuring syscons: keymap blanktime." > > > > or I'll lose contact with my ISP while sending an email or surfing the > > > > web. From an earlier posting to this forum I found that "Ctrl+C" will > > > > let the system finishing the boot up. Then I can easily connect to my > > > > ISP by running "/etc/netstart" as root. > > > > > > > > Everything works fine at least for a while. However, sooner or later > > > > I'll lose the conection again. I have not been able to discern a > > > > pattern to the disconnects either. Yet as soon as I run netstart again > > > > everything works again. It can be hours before I the lose the > > > > connection or sometimes I'll lose the connection again within twenty > > > > minutes. I've searched for a permanent fix by looking throught this > > > > forum. But I havn't found anything yet. Though that might be because > > > > I don't quite know how to search! :-) > > > > > > > > I am a newbie using FreeBSD so any suggestions would be appreciated. > > > > > > Spend a little time in the /var/log directory and see if anything is > > > being logged around the time you lose connection. > > > > > > Also, more clearly defining "lose connection" would help. What does > > > ifconfig say when the connection is up and when it's down? The > > > difference between those two outputs may lead you toward a solution. > > > > Thank you for the suggestions. I've scanned the log files and didn't see > > any unusual error messages. But that could be because I don't know what to > > look for. I've run FreeBSD for just about one year and had no Unix > > experience prior to that at all. I jumped from Windows, where somebody did > > everything for me to, FreeBSD where I have to figure things out on my own > > with only hints and suggestions. (Honestly, I find it funner this way!) > > I'll check to logs next time it goes down. > > > > I copied the results from ifconfig when everything is working to a file. > > As soon as I "lose the connection" I'll run ifconfig again. > > > > To get more defined regarding the loss of connection, it's almost as if I > > typed "ipfw flush" as root and cut myself down to the default "deny > > everything" rule. Sent emails will set unprocessed in the queue, when > > attempting to download e-mail, K-mail will return an unknown host error > > message, web browsers will either open to a blank white page or give me an > > invalid ULR error message. It even went down while viewing a video on > > Xine. The video just stopped, then I got an "invalid host" error message. > > As soon as I type /etc/netstart. Boom! everythings up an running as if > > nothing was ever wrong. > > I saw your other email as well, which shows that ifconfig during up/down is > the same. That means that you're not losing your IP address, and the fact > that /etc/netstart fixes the problem probably means it's not hardware > related. > > So the next steps are to tear apart the networking system and figure out > exactly which part of it is shutting off. First, do these: > > 1) Copy /etc/resolv.conf to your home dir: this contains your DNS > server information. > 2) Save the output of `netstat -rn` (use something like > `netstat -rn > /home//netstat.txt` This is your routing > table. > > Now ... the next time it goes down, check: > 1) Did /etc/resolv.conf change? > 2) Did the output of `netstat -rn` change? > 3) In the netstat output will be a line that starts with "default", see > if you can ping that IP address - if not, then the problem is probably > with your switch/hub or other local network. > 4) Try pinging 206.190.36.122 (that's the ip for story.news.yahoo.com), > if it works, then the problem is likely with DNS. > 5) if #4 works, try pinging story.news.yahoo.com ... if that fails, then > DNS is almost certainly the problem, if that works, then the problem > is somewhere in the network config, or application config. > > -- > Bill Moran > Potential Technologies > http://www.potentialtech.com > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > Thanks for the help. I believe you are correct in that it's probably not a > hardware issue. I dual boot with Linux and I am having no problems > connecting to the internet on that side. > > System didn't go down Wednesday, but it went down today. The output of > netstat -rn didn't change. I tried to ping the IP address after the word > default in line 3. Here is the output: > > nedsbsd# ping -a -c 3 -o 68.13.118.1 > PING 68.13.118.1 (68.13.118.1): 56 data bytes > ping: sendto: Permission denied > ping: sendto: Permission denied > ping: sendto: Permission denied > That looks like a misconfigured firewall. Do you have it completely locked down? ping is telling you "I can't do that" > --- 68.13.118.1 ping statistics --- > 3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss > > However, when I ran /etc/netstart and tried it again I got the same result. > GS