SCOUG-HELP Mailing List Archives

>> Next Message >>

Date:	Tue, 8 Jan 2002 02:20:53 PST7
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Cable connect analyze

Content Type: text/plain

=====================================================
If you are responding to someone asking for help who
may not be a member of this list, be sure to use the
REPLY TO ALL feature of your email program.
=====================================================

> > >> Try pinging your ISP, that will get you more traffic, if nothing else.
> >
> > >How?
> >
> > Did you try it?
> >
> Ping is not a subject I am conversant with.

Hi Ray,

Don't tell Steven I'm telling you this because he wants you to figure it
out so you'll remember it next time, but try this from a command line:

ping charter.net

although I think Steven wanted you to add a "size" parameter so you
would get a *lot* of traffic. The default packet size is pretty small
(56 bytes plus an 8-byte header).

Below is a "ping procedure" that might isolate your problem.

First, here's what ping does: it talks to the TCP/IP stack on another
computer. If the other computer's TCP/IP stack is working, it sends a
reply back to you, even if there aren't any servers or client programs
running on that other machine. It's a way of finding out if a machine
is powered up; sometimes a server will crash and this is one way to find
out if the server machine is totally dead or if the problem is just the
server program.

*Therefore*, by using ping you'll find out if you can talk to another
machine, even if the server(s) on that machine don't like you and refuse
to talk to you.

First try pinging your own machine:

ping 127.0.0.1

Next try pinging your SMC firewall. I've never tried that but I'd guess
that it will work. Use the SMC's IP address (192.168.123.254 I think)
like this:

ping 192.168.123.254

You should next try pinging your DNS server(s) at your ISP. If you
can't remember the IP address(es) for your DNS server(s) then look in
TCP/IP Configuration under Hostname or look in DHCPMON's "Current
Configuration". If for example your DNS server was 256.256.256.1 then
you would use:

ping 256.256.256.1

If you can ping your DNS server then you may want to have it send you
some "answers". Try these commands:

nslookup charter.net
nslookup mail.charter.net
nslookup news.charter.net (they're using SuperNews!)
nslookup www.charter.net (resolves to www.charter.com)
nslookup ftp.charter.net (not in the DNS database)

Then try pinging the servers at your ISP (charter.net). ping will first
use the DNS server (that you just tested) to get the IP address for the
url, and will then ping that IP address:

ping charter.net
ping mail.charter.net
ping news.charter.net
ping www.charter.net (this didn't respond here)
ping ftp.charter.net (this failed here on the DNS lookup)

See what we're doing? We're slowly walking along the wire to see if you
can talk to all the other computers that you're *supposed* to be talking
to.

Whatever you do, do *not* ping the Department Of Defense. I'm not
kidding. There are claims that they report any pings they receive back
to the relevant ISP with a request that the ISP terminate service to the
person who did the pinging.
_____

If DHCPMON reports an IP address and you're connected to the Internet
(some firewalls are DHCP servers and can supply your machine with an IP
address, otherwise your machine will get one from your ISP's DHCP
server) then *other* people can ping *you*. Since your DHCPMON is
reporting a "lease" of 41 days, you probably got the IP address from
your SMC firewall (I've never heard of an ISP giving that big a "lease"
on an IP address). Having someone ping *you* is another way to see if
you're "on the 'net". Call up somebody on the phone and ask them to
ping you, to see if they're successful.

Hope something here helps,

- Peter

=====================================================

To unsubscribe from this list, send an email message
to "steward@scoug.com". In the body of the message,
put the command "unsubscribe scoug-help".

For problems, contact the list owner at
"rollin@scoug.com".

=====================================================

Return to [ 08 | January | 2002 ]

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.