[conspire] the ongoing saga of problems getting dsl working

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:58:00 -0700, freepalestin wrote:

> On Monday morning I successfully got an IP so I kept everything connected
> including my browser when I left my house in the early morning. When I
> returned home late Monday night, I no longer had an IP. I called DSL
> Extreme tech support. They temporarily tried giving me a static IP to see
> if that would work. I could not get an IP even though I had a static IP
> assigned to my PC. I also could not get an IP on my iMac.

When you have a true static IP, you're not supposed to be able to "get" an
address, period. DHCP is not used, so it's supposed to fail. With a static
IP, you have to manually assign an address, netmask, default route, and
DNS server. If manually assigning those from the command line failed, what
was the error?

> Tonight I tried to get an IP on both my PC and my iMac. I got an IP on my
> iMac, on which I have Ubuntu installed. On my PC I have Fedora Core 3.
> 
> It has been suggested that I try a different modem. Someone from DSL
> Extreme on a previous call had suggested my NIC might be bad.

It is very possible that the modem is bad, but unfortunately you don't
have immediate access to a spare. Since you're having the problem with
both computers, it's unlikely to be a bad NIC in one of them.

> DSL Extreme wants me to try hooking another computer with Windows installed.

Maybe you can ask Bruce to borrow one of the machines that he has Windows
on.

> Is there something I can run on my PC to check the NIC and whether it is
> working correctly?

If you really want to run diagnostic software for the NIC (which does
exist), you will need to do it while a special loopback plug is plugged
into it instead of a cable. I think Rick has one of those.

It might also be worth trying to force the half-duplex/full-duplex setting
from the command line to see whether disabling auto-negotiation helps, but
I don't remember the needed line offhand.

> Is there another list I should post this to?

There are many lists to which you could post, but without having seen
everything that has already been suggested here (and on the phone), people
would likely start off with some of the same suggestions you got before.

> Does anyone have any other suggestions?

One suggestion at a time. Start off with trying a switch instead of either
using the hub or directly connecting. That possibility should be ruled out
before trying to speculate on what else could be done. See whether you can
borrow an ADSL model from someone near you to try instead of yours IN THE
EVENT THAT USING THE SWITCH DOES NOT HELP.

> Thank you,
> 
> Darlene Wallach