From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Jul 31 11:16:55 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id LAA24081 for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 11:16:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ns1.arlut.utexas.edu (dns1.arlut.utexas.edu [129.116.212.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA24076 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 11:16:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail-firewall.arlut.utexas.edu (dns1.arlut.utexas.edu [129.116.212.1]) by ns1.arlut.utexas.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA17762 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 13:16:48 -0500 (CDT) Received: from mamba.arlut.utexas.edu (mamba.arlut.utexas.edu [129.116.176.42]) by mail-firewall.arlut.utexas.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id NAA17752 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 13:16:46 -0500 (CDT) Received: from localhost by mamba.arlut.utexas.edu (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id NAA00458; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 13:16:45 -0500 Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 13:16:45 -0500 (CDT) From: "Lee Crites (AEI)" X-Sender: crites@mamba To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: strange communications problems... Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I'm sending this from a client site -- please respond to my real address, leec@adonai.net. The reason, in fact, is part of the problem I'm having. I am having difficulty communicating with the internet via my dedicated 128k isdn line. It's getting worse as time goes on. When we started this isp business, one of "us" was a network admin. When he saw haw "easy" it was to start up an isp business, he left us to start one on his own. Even though we have a lot of computer experience, network stuff is somewhat out of our league -- mine especially. So I have spent the last year reading and tinkering, with somewhat limited success. Here's what's happening: I am getting somewhat random in-bound and out-bound communications problems. I can send email to some sites and not others; I have not been made aware of any problems with people sending me mail. I can ftp to certain sites with impunity from which I cannot ftp back in -- or conversly, I can ftp in from sites I cannot ftp back to. I have not found a single problem with brousing other web pages; from many places you can't get pages from my server which are greater than around 1k. Some places get all of my web pages without a hitch. And none of the people who dial in, via my digiboard, can get access to anything outside of my physical server -- not even other things on my lan. The 1k limit seems to be across the board. If I cannot, say, send you a 'regular' email, if I send you one which is *very small* (like "hello there"), you will most likely get it. This started about three months ago with just a few sites. In fact, only one. It has now grown to nearly every site I work with. I started this message from my own server, since at the time I could *send* mail to freebsd.org, but when I sent it last night it didn't echo back to me. I tried again this morning but still haven't received a reply. So I assume freebsd.org is the latest victim of my creeping problem. One day reverse name service just ceased. My upline provider helped me get that back, so at least you know it's me... So I've spent time off and on during the last few months trying to get this fixed totally without success. I cannot find anything which seems wrong on my system. Of course, I'm scanning the books I have on hand (The Essential SA, etc) trying to figure out what might be happening, but getting nowhere. It is quite possible I have screwed up something very basic, but not having a lot of 'real' network admin experience, I can't see it. SO.... Any clues where I can start looking? Anyone in the Austin area willing to send me a bid for coming in and giving the box a once over to see what I've done wrong? I'd appreciate any help you can toss my way. If it's a RTM, please include some specific references -- I probably have the book, just didn't understand what was there. (note: can't RTFM since none of my texts are anatomically equipped) If more info is needed, please let me know and I'll try to supply it. The server in question is adam.adonai.net (205.182.92.2), which should be providing it's own primary name service. Thanks muchly... Lee