Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 13:50:48 -0400 From: Andrew J Caines <A.J.Caines@altavista.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is it assumed that I know this? Message-ID: <20010613135048.K581@hal9000.servehttp.com> In-Reply-To: <86iti8er2c.fsf@emerson.gelemna.org>; from croyle@gelemna.org on Thu, Jun 07, 2001 at 01:34:35AM -0500 References: <200106070548.AA5505182@charlie.callgtn.com> <gelemna.list.freebsd.doc/NFBBLOIIKLBAOFANLLEOGEDICAAA.quinton@apex.net> <86iti8er2c.fsf@emerson.gelemna.org>
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"Charley" <quinton@apex.net> writes: > > I ask my Internet Service Provider for these names and numbers but > > he just said "You don't need those for anything, what's FreeBSD > > anyway?" This will become a familiar experience. With almost every kind of tech support you use, the people who are providing it are not usually experienced, rather they are "trained". Due to the attitude of the providers and the unfortunate reality of their markets, they are trained to solve well-known problems which their Windows using customers have. They do not know (or in some cases wilfully ignore) that many of their users don't mindlessly use MS for everything (or anything in some cases :) and they fear that which they don't know. Add to this the fact that they aren't payed anywhere near enough to care. As you get more practice, you'll learn that your best bet is to avoid anything to do with platforms and stick to service measureables, eg. "Your DHCP server, 24.12.34.56, is not responding to DHCP requests" "Your name servers, ..., are down again" "The `CABLE' and 'PC' lights on the modem are out, even after a two minute reset" You will get used to repeating everything several times to several people and only sometimes getting a useful response. Don Croyle responds: > Find a new ISP. Seriously. That is an option, however the days when your ISP actually just Ped you with S and access to the I and knew how the service works are fading. These days you pay to have a small web site, POP mailbox, SMTP relaying, a branded old web browser and other junk which you're supposed to do on your single W95 PC. Don's advice that you arm yourself with knowledge first is good advice. Learning about networking in general and specifically on FreeBSD will prepare you better when you have to deal with problems. There is a lot of good documentation and people like us will try to help. Erik Rothwell added: > This is a crummy solution, but, you can always setup Win95 with DHCP Of course, if you use Windows. In this rare case, I think there is a missing tool in either the FreeBSD toolbox or in my search (of native ISC tools and ports); that is a DHCP query tool like "dhcpinfo" in Solaris. I have found dhcpinfo very useful. For example, to find the IPs of your nameserver(s), simply ask: # dhcpinfo DNSserv ..and similarly for many other parameters like Hostname, SMTPserv and Router. > Rogers@Home, my enemy and ISP, the bastards they are, wouldn't let my > roommate sign up for service unless he lied and said he ran Windows and > had at least 2GB of disk space free. (He ran Solaris, in actuality, and > what the hell does having 2GB of disk space have to do with making a > network connection?! The mind reels.) My enemy and ISP, RoadRunner (Cox), will let you sign up even if you've not payed your Redmond tax, but you're on your own setting it up and tech support calls are very rarely productive. One can only hope that as more people discover that the world does not use MS for everything that the solution to "I cannot ping the router" does not start with a reboot. -Andrew- -- _______________________________________________________________________ | -Andrew J. Caines- Unix Systems Engineer A.J.Caines@altavista.net | To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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