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Date:      Sat, 16 Jun 2018 01:23:31 +0200
From:      Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To:        B J <va6bmj@gmail.com>
Cc:        reebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Problems Connecting Laptop To Modem
Message-ID:  <20180616012331.ebb8e70d.freebsd@edvax.de>
In-Reply-To: <CAP7QzkMwLex37Ayv2e-P59jrmeLJA2i1y8nuTCw%2Bcjxmmp9nnw@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CAP7QzkM7QnymxoOz_ZEUebaOMcE%2BwWmpv7sz6-SzjC0BHG6LCA@mail.gmail.com> <20180613162137.5cc6794a.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com> <CAP7QzkOzK=7u5Vf0FLdiz6f1%2BSbhme3RpF9MpYUoAJLqTH15qw@mail.gmail.com> <3E3890A6-72F9-4D80-A021-837FFDB35A39@theory14.net> <CAP7QzkNK2qfAL=2-og5oyAY9KLuYVXCfbZ_akbWoEP-xwCP%2BJw@mail.gmail.com> <20180614093928.6f39434e.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com> <CAP7QzkN6jtukm-ieWEaPsuo6bCTJh0xLdJYOdALVUs6fgSJtwg@mail.gmail.com> <20180614161923.5246ae81.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com> <CAP7QzkPL5732dh3%2BVmbT6mXxkiYGjUOgiHvUwWBJRk2VJK-y2w@mail.gmail.com> <20180615102548.1c686d1b.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com> <CAP7QzkODpMCy1TNRpC_-oVmatXE7V1h%2BZEds1R%2B2UCFCu76C%2BA@mail.gmail.com> <ef7f1a05-68c7-c787-5d73-c9848e30acf3@dreamchaser.org> <CAP7QzkPg%2BmQCEePf_DVZCuwybL3MLcNXAgfp1yRETk0qR50BhA@mail.gmail.com> <20180615233707.8645c246.freebsd@edvax.de> <CAP7QzkMwLex37Ayv2e-P59jrmeLJA2i1y8nuTCw%2Bcjxmmp9nnw@mail.gmail.com>

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On Fri, 15 Jun 2018 22:08:19 +0000, B J wrote:
> <snip>
> 
> > From your netstat output (later on), it seems that you
> > connect to 192.168.0.1, so if this really is the IP of
> > one of your machines, there's a big problem with your
> > current configuration.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > At the moment, it doesn't look like a hardware issue.
> 
> The laptop is second-hand.  It was in rough shape when I got it from
> the previous owners so I'm thinking that there might be an on-board
> hardware malfunction.  It might be the hard drive as it didn't want to
> boot at first because of, if I remember correctly, some corrupted
> sectors.

Hard drive errors are possible, but you usually don't see
them as networking issues. The easiest way to rule out
this problem is to boot from a live CD / DVD / USB, either
using FreeBSD or Linux.



> I have some extra HDs on hand.  I might try swapping one of those with
> the one that's in the machine, installing FreeBSD, and then seeing if
> I get the same problem.

You could even keep one of those HDDs as a "test system"
for further use.



> Since the laptop's not essential to what I do at home, I may as well
> have a bit of fun with it, right?

Definitely. ;-)



> > PS.
> > "Trial & error" is not a programming concept. ;-)
> 
> I've been writing code off and on for more than 40 years, going back
> to the days of WATFOR and WATFIV.  Trial-and-error programming helped
> me finish my B. Sc.

I just wanted to mention it as one of the wisdoms I learned
at university. Another gem from the same professor was this:
"Programming is not fixing your code until the compiler stops
throwing error messages." But if it helps you achieving a
goal, why not? ;-)

In no way this quote was intended to belittle you. It just
perfectly fit the "I randomly changed a few numbers in the
IP address and it still didn't work" comment. When I did
graphics programming many years ago, you sometimes really
had to minimally adjust numbers in parameters to see if the
result matched your expectations, simply because you could
not accurately predict how certain values would affect the
result of the rendering process. :-)



> Two things have come from this.  One is that I finally set up my tower
> machines so that the systems on them are now nearly identical to what
> I have on my laptop.  I've been meaning to do this for years but I had
> little incentive to do so.

So you always have a good reference system



> The second one is that I'm learning something about networking, which
> should help me with what I have at home.

Yes - knowing networking basics and tools is very important
and usually helpful when running into issues. My suggestion
always is to start at the lowest possible level and diagnose
as much as possible, so you know _for sure_ with what you
are dealing at a given moment. Nothing is worse than guesswork
and assumptions.



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...



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