# Weird Internet Connection

## bintut

Hello all,

I need help.  I just successfully installed Gentoo-2004.2 on my home PC with GDM and Gnome-2.6.  I'm having a weird problem accessing the different services in the Internet.  I'm connected thru a dialup 56k serial modem connection using wvdial or the PPP Gentoo script at /etc/conf.d/net.ppp0 with a full NAT from our RAS.  So basically, I don't need to use our HTTP proxy server when connecting to the different services in the Internet.

I can connect to Yahoo! Messenger using Gaim and irc.freenode.net IRC server #gentoo channel using X-Chat directly without any problem.  Well with IRC to the irc.freenode.net server, I have to reconnect several times in my X-Chat before I can be connected.  But with Mozilla Firefox connecting to any public HTTP and FTP servers (except for www.google.com because it works and I don't know why), Ximian Evolution to our POP3 server and wget'ing to the public HTTP and FTP servers (especially the Gentoo mirrors), I can't directly connect to them.

I'm not a total newbie with Linux in general.  It's just that I really can't figure out what causing the weird behaviour with my Internet connection.  I already read different Gentoo specific docs/manuals, asked Google and searched from this forum but I wasn't able to find a similar problem with what I'm experiencing right now.

Below are some info of what's going on with my desktop PC.

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# emerge netcat

Calculating dependencies ...done!

>>> emerge (1 of 1) net-analyzer/netcat-110-r5 to /

>>> Downloading http://gentoo.netnitco.net/distfiles/netcat-110-deb-patches.tbz2

--21:29:23--  http://gentoo.netnitco.net/distfiles/netcat-110-deb-patches.tbz2

           => `/usr/portage/distfiles/netcat-110-deb-patches.tbz2'

Resolving gentoo.netnitco.net... 216.176.132.235

Connecting to gentoo.netnitco.net[216.176.132.235]:80... connected.

HTTP request sent, awaiting response...

                             IPTables - State Top

Version: 1.3          Sort: SrcIP           s to change sorting

Source                 Destination            Proto   State        TTL

192.168.1.16,32796     216.155.193.176,5050   tcp     ESTABLISHED  119:59:17

192.168.1.16,32797     213.28.116.214,6667    tcp     ESTABLISHED  119:59:56

192.168.1.16,32847     192.168.1.69,110       tcp     ESTABLISHED  119:51:42

192.168.1.16,32855     192.168.1.44,8888      tcp     ESTABLISHED  119:59:27

192.168.1.16,32852     216.176.132.235,80     tcp     ESTABLISHED  119:59:03

# ifconfig ppp0

ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol

          inet addr:192.168.1.16  P-t-P:192.168.1.44  Mask:255.255.255.255

          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:3884 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:4009 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:3

          RX bytes:2397087 (2.2 Mb)  TX bytes:371004 (362.3 Kb)

# route -n

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

192.168.1.44    0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 ppp0

192.168.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0

127.0.0.0       127.0.0.1       255.0.0.0       UG    0      0        0 lo

0.0.0.0         192.168.1.44    0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 ppp0

Yahoo! Messenger server: 216.155.193.176

irc.freenode.net server: 213.28.116.214

Our mail server: 192.168.1.69

Our RAS and proxy server: 192.168.1.44

Gentoo mirror server: 216.176.132.235

Thanks in advance for any help.

--> bintut <bintut AT gmail DOT com>

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## mallchin

Do you have a proxy available and do other websites work via it instead of connecting directly? Most ISP's have some sort of proxy available.

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## bintut

Yes, and tested setting up the proxy to my Mozilla Firefox and it can connect.  But that's not what I want.  Since I do have a full NAT connection without restriction from the RAS, I don't want to use the proxy server.  I want that all my outside connection will go directly without passing by to our RAS, especially when downloading files from the Internet using wget.

--> bintut <bintut AT gmail DOT com>

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## bintut

By the way, Knoppix-3.4 and MandrakeMove works pretty well in connecting to the Internet using KPPP, and Mandrake Linux 10.0 Official works pretty well too with the same /etc/wvdial.conf configuration file with this Gentoo-2004.2.  I'm using the same PC with all the same hardware, serial modem and telephone line.

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## mallchin

Then I'm at a loss, can you post some traceroute outputs?

It must be a configuration issue. Is /etc/resolv.conf configured?

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## bintut

# mtr --curses gentoo.netnitco.net

                           Matt's traceroute  [v0.54]

mpascual                                               Sat Sep 11 01:23:53 2004

Keys:  D - Display mode    R - Restart statistics    Q - Quit

                                           Packets               Pings

Hostname                                %Loss  Rcv  Snt  Last Best  Avg  Worst

 1. ip-44.corp.qsr.com.ph                  0%   36   36   162  156  184    247

 2. 202.8.244.53                          12%   31   36   317  174  236    355

 3. EdgeRouter-pos.d-one.net               6%   33   36   240  160  252    568

 4. anhmca1wcx1-pos11-0.wcg.net            6%   33   35   331  325  423    667

 5. anhmca1wcx3-oc48.wcg.net               6%   33   35   439  323  412    591

 6. dnvrco1wcx2-pos10-0-oc192.wcg.net      9%   32   35   392  349  462    656

 7. dnvrco1wcx3-pos9-0.wcg.net             6%   33   35   449  349  444    787

 8. dnvrco1wcx3-pos13-0-oc192.wcg.net      6%   33   35   408  372  449    781

 9. chcgil1wcx1-pos6-0.wcg.net            12%   31   35   398  368  460    702

10. chcgil1wcx1-netnitco-ser.wcg.net       9%   31   35   485  381  470    633

11. 216.176.130.6                          3%   34   35   382  382  460    583

12. squid.nitco.com                        9%   31   35   439  415  500    610

################################################

# cat /etc/resolv.conf

domain qsr.com.ph

nameserver 192.168.1.44

################################################

# cat /etc/ppp/resolv.conf

nameserver 192.168.1.44

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## mallchin

Is 192.168.1.44 your router? Try adding your ISP's nameserver's into /etc/resolv.conf & /etc/ppp/resolv.conf, that usually helps.

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## bintut

Yes.  192.168.1.44 is my default route as it is our RAS and nameserver.  Actually, I already posted it in my previous message the contents of my /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/ppp/resolv.conf.

Any other idea?

By the way, changing the MTU of my serial modem doesn't help as what I read in one of the discussions in Gentoo forums.

Thanks in advance.

--> bintut <bintut AT gmail DOT com>

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## mallchin

Did you try adding both your ISP's nameserver's to resolv.conf as I suggested above?

Any luck?

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## bintut

Yes, I did but still with no luck.    :Sad: 

What's really with Gentoo-2004.2 setup on an x86 box that makes PPP connection unstable?

This is my first time to experience this kind of a weird problem and only with Gentoo.

Any other idea?

Thanks in advance.

---> bintut <bintut AT gmail DOT com>

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## mallchin

Gentoo is more difficult because that's Gentoo, but it has it's upsides too  :Smile: 

The networking should all be fairly stable, and although it's a pain setting up PPP, it is possible, and there are some good guides on the subject.

I used wvdial for PPPoE over my DSL modem; It worked quite well and I didn't have too much trouble...

...but it sounds like you have PPP working as you can connect to some sites, but not all -- likely a routing issue.

Any else have any other ideas? It's been a while since I last used PPP.

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## drigz

I have the same problem as you I think. I have the same failure to emerge, and can access Google in lynx, but any other sites I get HTTP request sent; waiting for response, and no progress.  I however don't have any of the helpful diagnostic tools, just a base system.

I am using a broadband connection through a router, and there are several other computers (all fine) on this network. Windows works fine from my computer. Slackware did before I accidentally wiped the drive  :Embarassed: . Hopefully that can eliminate some of the causes...

My resolv.conf:

nameserver 192.168.123.254 

(That is my switch and wireless access point, that sits between all my computers and my broadband modem.

This is the same as the LiveCD, which works perfectly, so I figure it must be something else.

UPDATE: While net still works on the LiveCD, if I use the LiveCD kernel to boot my Gentoo partition (by appending root=/dev/hda5), I can't get any network at all ie nothing in ifconfig apart from lo.

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## bintut

Hello drigz,

What do you mean by your reply?  Do you mean that my base system setup is the main problem?

Please tell me what you think.   :Smile: 

Thanks in advance.

--> bintut <bintut AT gmail DOT com>

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## drigz

I hoped that my description could help you eliminate some of the causes of your problem. I think it might be a problem with the 2.6.8 kernel so the next step is to get a 2.6.6 kernel (later than this wont boot without acpi=off on my computer) compile it with genkernel and see if that works.

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## bintut

I will try to download and install the lower kernel version if it will work.  But if it's the kernel problem, why not there is no complaint from other Linux users how are currently using 2.6.8 and experienced the same problem that I have right now?

Thanks anyway.

--> bintut <bintut AT gmail DOT com>

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## drigz

It seems to be quite a common problem, in that someone has posted on my thread saying they have it too. Odd that I can't find a solution...

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## drigz

fixed! got the 2.6.5 kernel instead of the 2.6.8 kernel:

from livecd:

emerge =gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.5

compile as normal (although i followed https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=49036 for coolness) and install!

and it worked!

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## bintut

Hello drigz,

Sorry for the late reply.  I was out of town and I wasn't able to use my home PC for almost 2 weeks already. 

Anyway, I just installed Gentoo-2004.2 again on a separate box and this time it's an Athlon XP home PC.  With this new setup, I still got the same problem.  I'm using here gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.8-r3 kernel and still Mozilla can't resolve names but ping and mtr can.  I think you're right.  It must be a bug on the gentoo-dev-sources kernel-2.6.8.

I'll try to emerge another kernel and this time, it might be higher or lower.  I'll keep you updated.

Thanks.

--> bintut <bintut AT gmail DOT com>

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