Explain this one [Archive] - SpeedGuide.net Broadband Community

Jeff Liebermann

12-29-07, 11:31 PM

Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:

> I am at a rental unit using their system. I have a MacBook Pro, the
>wireless router is a Belkin g, Motorola cable modem and vonage is
>involved. I have full access to my e-mail. AIM through iChat, UseNet
>obviously and https:// websites, but NOT just regular http://websites.
>Any suggestions?

The Belking g router has URL redirection setup for Port 80, but no
other ports. All the other ports work, but port 80 is being
redirected to who knows where. Did you perhaps try to bypass the
splash screen, where you have to click "OK" to browse? What you
describe is what happens when you do that.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Kurt Ullman

12-29-07, 11:45 PM

In article <7m7en39oha80h8679gkvkj0uolg6mdsbud@4ax.com>,
Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:

> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:
>
> > I am at a rental unit using their system. I have a MacBook Pro, the
> >wireless router is a Belkin g, Motorola cable modem and vonage is
> >involved. I have full access to my e-mail. AIM through iChat, UseNet
> >obviously and https:// websites, but NOT just regular http://websites.
> >Any suggestions?
>
> The Belking g router has URL redirection setup for Port 80, but no
> other ports. All the other ports work, but port 80 is being
> redirected to who knows where. Did you perhaps try to bypass the
> splash screen, where you have to click "OK" to browse? What you
> describe is what happens when you do that.

this was an already up and functioning network that I just signed on
to. I did not see a splash screen asking me to do anything when I
connected though airport the first time. So, how do I get around it? I
have already tried to power down the computer and try signing on again.
Anything else?

Jeff Liebermann

12-30-07, 01:46 AM

Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:

>In article <7m7en39oha80h8679gkvkj0uolg6mdsbud@4ax.com>,
> Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:
>>
>> > I am at a rental unit using their system. I have a MacBook Pro, the
>> >wireless router is a Belkin g, Motorola cable modem and vonage is
>> >involved. I have full access to my e-mail. AIM through iChat, UseNet
>> >obviously and https:// websites, but NOT just regular http://websites.
>> >Any suggestions?
>>
>> The Belking g router has URL redirection setup for Port 80, but no
>> other ports. All the other ports work, but port 80 is being
>> redirected to who knows where. Did you perhaps try to bypass the
>> splash screen, where you have to click "OK" to browse? What you
>> describe is what happens when you do that.

> this was an already up and functioning network that I just signed on
>to. I did not see a splash screen asking me to do anything when I
>connected though airport the first time. So, how do I get around it? I
>have already tried to power down the computer and try signing on again.
>Anything else?

Spoof your MAC address and pretend you're a "new" user.
<http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2006-04/mac_address_spoofing>

I'm failure sure that port 80 redirection screwup is what's happening.
However, without access to the config or the hardware, I'm not sure
what to do about it. What's also odd is that Belkin routers are not
commonly used by hotspot operators. It may not have a splash screen.
Any clue as to the exact Belkin model number?

It might help if you ask the hotspot operator to power cycle the
Belkin g whatever router. My guess(tm) is that some table is
overflowing or corrupted in the router.

Also, double check your MacBook Pro Safari setup. If you've got a web
proxy setup for port 80 access, it will do the same thing, especially
if the proxy doesn't exist or is inaccessible. That's especially true
for Anonymizer, web content filtering services, and corporate proxy
servers.

To specify a proxy server in Safari:
1. Click to open Safari.
2. Click on Safari -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Change Settings
3. Notice that the System Preferences -> Network pane opens,
displaying the proxy settings for the type of connection you
are using.
4. Under Select a proxy server to configure, click to select
the type of proxy server.
5. Under Secure Web Proxy Server, enter the IP address or DNS
name in the text box. In the text box after the colon (:)
symbol, enter the port number.
6. Click on Apply Now.

Basically, check the settings and make sure that a proxy server is
*NOT* specified.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Kurt Ullman

12-30-07, 07:05 AM

In article <d2fen3hbjun90fh7lajeg4hap8tdcgbkko@4ax.com>,
Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:

\
> Spoof your MAC address and pretend you're a "new" user.
> <http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2006-04/mac_address_spoofing>
>
> I'm failure sure that port 80 redirection screwup is what's happening.
Whatever it was it seems temporary because everything is working
perfectly this morning. I played with it for about 4 hours last night
before I posted to the Usenet (honest-grin), and it wouldn't work. With
either Safari or Sea Monkey. Now it does. I wonder if I just happened on
to an ISP-induced outage of the web.....
Anyway, as always thanks muchly for the assist. I appreciate the
time and efforts.

K

Kurt Ullman

12-30-07, 11:11 AM

In article
<kurtullman-635E9C.07052930122007@70-3-168-216.area5.spcsdns.net>,
Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> wrote:

> In article <d2fen3hbjun90fh7lajeg4hap8tdcgbkko@4ax.com>,
> Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
> \
> > Spoof your MAC address and pretend you're a "new" user.
> > <http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2006-04/mac_address_spoofing>
> >
> > I'm failure sure that port 80 redirection screwup is what's happening.
> Whatever it was it seems temporary because everything is working
> perfectly this morning. I played with it for about 4 hours last night
> before I posted to the Usenet (honest-grin), and it wouldn't work. With
> either Safari or Sea Monkey. Now it does. I wonder if I just happened on
> to an ISP-induced outage of the web.....
> Anyway, as always thanks muchly for the assist. I appreciate the
> time and efforts.
>
> K

Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
K

John Mason Jr

12-30-07, 01:41 PM

Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article
> <kurtullman-635E9C.07052930122007@70-3-168-216.area5.spcsdns.net>,
> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> In article <d2fen3hbjun90fh7lajeg4hap8tdcgbkko@4ax.com>,
>> Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
>>
>> \
>>> Spoof your MAC address and pretend you're a "new" user.
>>> <http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2006-04/mac_address_spoofing>
>>>
>>> I'm failure sure that port 80 redirection screwup is what's happening.
>> Whatever it was it seems temporary because everything is working
>> perfectly this morning. I played with it for about 4 hours last night
>> before I posted to the Usenet (honest-grin), and it wouldn't work. With
>> either Safari or Sea Monkey. Now it does. I wonder if I just happened on
>> to an ISP-induced outage of the web.....
>> Anyway, as always thanks muchly for the assist. I appreciate the
>> time and efforts.
>>
>> K
>
> Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
> K

I have seen hotel hotspots splash pages that only worked consistently
with Internet Explorer.

I don't have a Mac so take the following with a grain of salt

If you have or can install wireshark, <http://www.wireshark.org> you can
see the traffic.

Also given the Mac BSD heritage maybe the following from traceroute man
page will help

traceroute -T -p 80 www.google.com

will help

John

Kurt Ullman

12-30-07, 02:27 PM

In article <13nfpinl9sijb22@news.supernews.com>,
John Mason Jr <notvalid@cox.net.invalid> wrote:

> Kurt Ullman wrote:
> > In article
> > <kurtullman-635E9C.07052930122007@70-3-168-216.area5.spcsdns.net>,
> > Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >> In article <d2fen3hbjun90fh7lajeg4hap8tdcgbkko@4ax.com>,
> >> Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> \
> >>> Spoof your MAC address and pretend you're a "new" user.
> >>> <http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2006-04/mac_address_spoofing>
> >>>
> >>> I'm failure sure that port 80 redirection screwup is what's happening.
> >> Whatever it was it seems temporary because everything is working
> >> perfectly this morning. I played with it for about 4 hours last night
> >> before I posted to the Usenet (honest-grin), and it wouldn't work. With
> >> either Safari or Sea Monkey. Now it does. I wonder if I just happened on
> >> to an ISP-induced outage of the web.....
> >> Anyway, as always thanks muchly for the assist. I appreciate the
> >> time and efforts.
> >>
> >> K
> >
> > Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
> > K
>
>
> I have seen hotel hotspots splash pages that only worked consistently
> with Internet Explorer.
>
>
> I don't have a Mac so take the following with a grain of salt
>
> If you have or can install wireshark, <http://www.wireshark.org> you can
> see the traffic.
>
>
> Also given the Mac BSD heritage maybe the following from traceroute man
> page will help
>
> traceroute -T -p 80 www.google.com
>
>
> will help
>
>
> John

The problem is gone again. Also this isn't a hot spot, but a person's
network at a private home I renting for awhile. I talked with my
Landlord and he says Comcast has been known to go walkabout every once
in awhile. And it has always come back again. Now that I have web acess
back, I'll look around for it.

John Mason Jr

12-30-07, 05:45 PM

Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article <13nfpinl9sijb22@news.supernews.com>,
> John Mason Jr <notvalid@cox.net.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Kurt Ullman wrote:
>>> In article
>>> <kurtullman-635E9C.07052930122007@70-3-168-216.area5.spcsdns.net>,
>>> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In article <d2fen3hbjun90fh7lajeg4hap8tdcgbkko@4ax.com>,
>>>> Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> \
>>>>> Spoof your MAC address and pretend you're a "new" user.
>>>>> <http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2006-04/mac_address_spoofing>
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm failure sure that port 80 redirection screwup is what's happening.
>>>> Whatever it was it seems temporary because everything is working
>>>> perfectly this morning. I played with it for about 4 hours last night
>>>> before I posted to the Usenet (honest-grin), and it wouldn't work. With
>>>> either Safari or Sea Monkey. Now it does. I wonder if I just happened on
>>>> to an ISP-induced outage of the web.....
>>>> Anyway, as always thanks muchly for the assist. I appreciate the
>>>> time and efforts.
>>>>
>>>> K
>>> Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
>>> K
>>
>> I have seen hotel hotspots splash pages that only worked consistently
>> with Internet Explorer.
>>
>>
>> I don't have a Mac so take the following with a grain of salt
>>
>> If you have or can install wireshark, <http://www.wireshark.org> you can
>> see the traffic.
>>
>>
>> Also given the Mac BSD heritage maybe the following from traceroute man
>> page will help
>>
>> traceroute -T -p 80 www.google.com
>>
>>
>> will help
>>
>>
>> John
>
> The problem is gone again. Also this isn't a hot spot, but a person's
> network at a private home I renting for awhile. I talked with my
> Landlord and he says Comcast has been known to go walkabout every once
> in awhile. And it has always come back again. Now that I have web acess
> back, I'll look around for it.

Sounds like a proxy problem somewhere in the path, the traceroute
command might be able to identify the culprit.

Good Luck

John

Peter Pan

12-30-07, 08:43 PM

Kurt Ullman wrote:

>
> The problem is gone again. Also this isn't a hot spot, but a
> person's network at a private home I renting for awhile. I talked
> with my Landlord and he says Comcast has been known to go walkabout
> every once in awhile. And it has always come back again. Now that I
> have web acess back, I'll look around for it.

Not sure where you are, but I am in the baltimore area, have comcast, and
whenever it rains, the internet slows way down and then stops, after a day
or so of dry, it's fine again... Odd thing is, cable, voice, mail, news all
keep working, just the browser freaks when it rains..... Just for fun have
you tried any speed tests? On a good day I get around 2500, but when
precipitatings, goes down probably to lower than 250 (that's when I can't
use the browser to connect anymore) can't say how good or accurate it is,
but I use the cnet one to at least give me an idea
(http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html )

Have an alternate (cell phone connect via cable) to see that it works (much
slower), just not via cable or dialup via voip (that gets very slow).....

Jeff Liebermann

12-31-07, 02:41 AM

Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:

> Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
>K

Dunno. Your magical recovery could have been produced by rebooting
your Mac, rebooting the router, or some other oddity. However, the
theory that Comcast was causing the problem is probably a good bet. It
was certainly a proxy or web redirection problem, but there's no clear
indication of whether it was on your Mac, in the Belkin something
router, or in the Comcast router.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Kurt Ullman

12-31-07, 08:08 AM

In article <1u6hn3dlpunnpiskuaijgali8msdel19rn@4ax.com>,
Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:

> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:
>
> > Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
> >K
>
> Dunno. Your magical recovery could have been produced by rebooting
> your Mac, rebooting the router, or some other oddity. However, the
> theory that Comcast was causing the problem is probably a good bet. It
> was certainly a proxy or web redirection problem, but there's no clear
> indication of whether it was on your Mac, in the Belkin something
> router, or in the Comcast router.

The Mac was in sleep but not rebooted, did nothing to the
router, either. However, given that I am Believer in not looking gift
horses in the mouth, I am just going to ignore it and hope it stays
working again. (g).
Low profile so as to not annoy the Gods of Computerdom...
Again thanks for all of your help.

K

Peter Pan

12-31-07, 09:10 AM

Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article <1u6hn3dlpunnpiskuaijgali8msdel19rn@4ax.com>,
> Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:
>>
>>> Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
>>> K
>>
>> Dunno. Your magical recovery could have been produced by rebooting
>> your Mac, rebooting the router, or some other oddity. However, the
>> theory that Comcast was causing the problem is probably a good bet.
>> It was certainly a proxy or web redirection problem, but there's no
>> clear indication of whether it was on your Mac, in the Belkin
>> something router, or in the Comcast router.
>
> The Mac was in sleep but not rebooted, did nothing to the
> router, either. However, given that I am Believer in not looking gift
> horses in the mouth, I am just going to ignore it and hope it stays
> working again. (g).
> Low profile so as to not annoy the Gods of Computerdom...
> Again thanks for all of your help.
>
> K

Are you in an area where it rains now and then? My Comcast cable (internet)
get extremely slow and dies whenever it rains (not snow, I'm guessing
something gets wet in the new cable they ran, when the squirrels chewed thu
the old one), and goes back to normal when it dries out. Using a speed test
(when it works) it goes from a normal of 2500 Kb down to 24Kb (and then dies
totally)....

Kurt Ullman

12-31-07, 10:30 AM

In article <5tsbivF1etd0gU1@mid.individual.net>,
"Peter Pan" <PeterPanNOSPAM@AkamailNOSPAM.com> wrote:

> Are you in an area where it rains now and then? My Comcast cable (internet)
> get extremely slow and dies whenever it rains (not snow, I'm guessing
> something gets wet in the new cable they ran, when the squirrels chewed thu
> the old one), and goes back to normal when it dries out. Using a speed test
> (when it works) it goes from a normal of 2500 Kb down to 24Kb (and then dies
> totally)....

I am currently in Key Largo. Hasn't rained recently. I used a speed
test and the results (when it works) are near ethernet speeds.

Peter Pan

12-31-07, 12:03 PM

Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article <5tsbivF1etd0gU1@mid.individual.net>,
> "Peter Pan" <PeterPanNOSPAM@AkamailNOSPAM.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Are you in an area where it rains now and then? My Comcast cable
>> (internet) get extremely slow and dies whenever it rains (not snow,
>> I'm guessing something gets wet in the new cable they ran, when the
>> squirrels chewed thu the old one), and goes back to normal when it
>> dries out. Using a speed test (when it works) it goes from a normal
>> of 2500 Kb down to 24Kb (and then dies totally)....
>
> I am currently in Key Largo. Hasn't rained recently. I used a speed
> test and the results (when it works) are near ethernet speeds.

Oh well,worth a shot... mine died yesterday when it rained and is back to
normal today... Guy came out and did a signal level test, it was fine at the
house (when it was dry and sunny), but trying to get him back again exactly
when it rains sucks... so I started tracking it myself......
Point was that it sounds very similar to what you were experiencing, but
there's not a darn thing wrong here in the house when it's tested (Murphys
law, stuff always works perfectly when the repairman checks it :), and may
be due to something totally out of your control (like for me the cable on
the poles/underground down the street)....

As I recall from some other areas, the cables (TV, phone, and electric) were
underground instead of on poles (so it was out of major storms/weather), and
the water seeping in from the ground, even when it was clear, caused the
same sort of problems... Luckily I have a cell and cable that can do data,
so I can test and have an option when the cable internet goes out.

Just an aside, I have a speedtest program on my computer that runs
automatically every 6 hours or so and saves/logs the output, when the line
repair guy thinks you are nuts, it's handy to have 25-100 pages showing the
results over a long time period, that you can show him and say no I'm
not!...... :)

12-31-07, 12:29 PM

Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article <1u6hn3dlpunnpiskuaijgali8msdel19rn@4ax.com>,
> Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:
>>
>>> Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
>>> K
>> Dunno. Your magical recovery could have been produced by rebooting
>> your Mac, rebooting the router, or some other oddity. However, the
>> theory that Comcast was causing the problem is probably a good bet. It
>> was certainly a proxy or web redirection problem, but there's no clear
>> indication of whether it was on your Mac, in the Belkin something
>> router, or in the Comcast router.
>
> The Mac was in sleep but not rebooted, did nothing to the
> router, either. However, given that I am Believer in not looking gift
> horses in the mouth, I am just going to ignore it and hope it stays
> working again. (g).
> Low profile so as to not annoy the Gods of Computerdom...
> Again thanks for all of your help.
>
> K
You have never said whether it was at a specific time of the day or
night that this occurs.
I know several people who block the HTTP service on their routers for a
specific range of Lan IP's so that their children are denied access at
certain hours.

Kurt Ullman

12-31-07, 01:38 PM

In article <MsGdnapUo_qIuuTanZ2dnUVZ8uydnZ2d@bt.com>,
LR <lrme@privacy.net> wrote:

> You have never said whether it was at a specific time of the day or
> night that this occurs.

The twice it has happened was during the evening one day, it worked
the next morning for a couple of hours and then went away again for
about 4.

> I know several people who block the HTTP service on their routers for a
> specific range of Lan IP's so that their children are denied access at
> certain hours.

This was blocking EVERYTHING. Couldn't get to Yahoo, couldn't get to
the Indianapolis Star, whole bunch of really innocuous websites.

Jeff Liebermann

12-31-07, 06:40 PM

Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:

>In article <1u6hn3dlpunnpiskuaijgali8msdel19rn@4ax.com>,
> Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@yahoo.com> hath wroth:
>>
>> > Is it now safe to assume that the problem lies with the ISP?
>> >K
>>
>> Dunno. Your magical recovery could have been produced by rebooting
>> your Mac, rebooting the router, or some other oddity. However, the
>> theory that Comcast was causing the problem is probably a good bet. It
>> was certainly a proxy or web redirection problem, but there's no clear
>> indication of whether it was on your Mac, in the Belkin something
>> router, or in the Comcast router.

> The Mac was in sleep but not rebooted,

Ummm... I'm curious. Go unto a terminal window and inscribe:
uptime
to see how long the MacBook has been up since you last rebooted.

>did nothing to the
>router, either.

Ok, assuming you didn't reboot either computer or the router, it's
probably a Comcast problem. When all the usual suspects have been
eliminated, whatever is left, however improbable, is the culprit. (My
appologies to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

>However, given that I am Believer in not looking gift
>horses in the mouth, I am just going to ignore it and hope it stays
>working again. (g).

Wrong. That which you do not understand, will turn around an bite
you.

> Low profile so as to not annoy the Gods of Computerdom...

The traditional method of appeasing the Gods is by burnt offerings.
However, that's become unfashionable as it tends to increase ones
carbon footprint, which causes global warming, which induces creative
logic, which precipitates legislation, etc.

>Again thanks for all of your help.
>
>K
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann

12-31-07, 06:56 PM

"Peter Pan" <PeterPanNOSPAM@AkamailNOSPAM.com> hath wroth:

>Point was that it sounds very similar to what you were experiencing,

I beg to differ. He was having problems only with HTTP. HTTPS, FTP,
POP3, SMTP, and other protocols all worked. Only HTTP was a problem.
If the cable signal died, it would have trashed all protocols, not
just HTTP.

Incidentally, I seen the same moisture induced problems with cable. It
seems to be the nature of the beast. You can monitor the signal
levels in your cable modem on its status page. So can Comcast, but
they're too lazy to do that. No need for the cable guy to do a truck
roll to your doorstep, except that there's a chance that they might
bill you for something if it's your problem.

>Just an aside, I have a speedtest program on my computer that runs
>automatically every 6 hours or so and saves/logs the output, when the line
>repair guy thinks you are nuts, it's handy to have 25-100 pages showing the
>results over a long time period, that you can show him and say no I'm
>not!...... :)

I do that with MRTG. I've been running it on various machines for
years. It gives a traffic history of the router in 5 minute
intervals. See:
<http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/>
I wrote some instructions for W95/98/ME a long time ago, which are
handy for running MRTG on ancient hardware:
<http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/mrtg/docs/w95mrtg.htm>
Note that the W2K, XP, and Vista instructions are different. Also, it
runs OS/X, Unix, Linux, etc.

It works with any router that supports SNMP. If the router doesn't,
then you can install SNMP on your computah, and run it locally.

You can also use SNMP to monitor your cable modem. Try this
experiment:
1. Download SNMPUTIL.EXE from:
<http://www.wtcs.org/snmp4tpc/testing.htm#SNMPUTIL>
This is the command line SNMP MIB browser that formerly came with the
W2K resource kit.
2. Run:
Start -> run -> cmd <Enter>
snmputil walk 192.168.1.1 public .1.3.6.1.2.1.3.1.1.3.1.1
where 192.168.1.1 is the IP address of your cable modem. If it
supports SNMP, you should get pages and pages of OID's and values.
Disclose the model number and I'll see if I can find the MIB database
to make the results more readable. Somewhere in there, are your
traffic levels, errors, signal levels, and all kinds of obscure junk
you didn't know you needed.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Kurt Ullman

12-31-07, 08:22 PM

In article <h2vin31n6ns6l529b52cqj31cqjm16881g@4ax.com>,
Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:

> > The Mac was in sleep but not rebooted,
>
> Ummm... I'm curious. Go unto a terminal window and inscribe:
> uptime
> to see how long the MacBook has been up since you last rebooted.

At the first time, it had only been about an hour or so, the second
time around 10. I have turned it off since then,

>
> >did nothing to the
> >router, either.
>
> Ok, assuming you didn't reboot either computer or the router, it's
> probably a Comcast problem. When all the usual suspects have been
> eliminated, whatever is left, however improbable, is the culprit. (My
> appologies to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).
>
And from what I have heard about Comcast, the improbable part doesnt
apply.

> > Low profile so as to not annoy the Gods of Computerdom...
>
> The traditional method of appeasing the Gods is by burnt offerings.
> However, that's become unfashionable as it tends to increase ones
> carbon footprint, which causes global warming, which induces creative
> logic, which precipitates legislation, etc.
So I adhere to the Warren Zevon principle..
They say Jesus will find you wherever you go

But when He'll coming looking for you, they don't know

In the meantime, keep your profile low.

Peter Pan

01-01-08, 02:23 AM

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> "Peter Pan" <PeterPanNOSPAM@AkamailNOSPAM.com> hath wroth:
>
>> Point was that it sounds very similar to what you were experiencing,
>
> I beg to differ. He was having problems only with HTTP. HTTPS, FTP,
> POP3, SMTP, and other protocols all worked. Only HTTP was a problem.
> If the cable signal died, it would have trashed all protocols, not
> just HTTP.
>
> Incidentally, I seen the same moisture induced problems with cable. It
> seems to be the nature of the beast. You can monitor the signal
> levels in your cable modem on its status page. So can Comcast, but
> they're too lazy to do that. No need for the cable guy to do a truck
> roll to your doorstep, except that there's a chance that they might
> bill you for something if it's your problem.
>

That's what was really strange, mail/news/ftp/irc servers all worked (albeit
very slowly, when the main server was very slow or didn't work), cept for a
few minutes when the cable signal itself was so bad the screen was
pixelating, was just the browser/http stuff that was wierd. Most of the time
it only slowed down from 2500 to 300, happened to get a 24 at one time
before it died altogether, and at those speeds it still sort of worked but
very slowly, was only once in a while when it got even slower/stopped/just
an error message. Makes me wonder if there is a minimum speed requirement
for different types of servers. At any rate, from the OP's post and what was
happening here, seemed sort of similar.

PS The guy was here today, and when he went up the pole and disconnected the
cable, water came out. He cut a few feet off, put new ends on, reconnected
it and now it is working (jury is still out on whether it's just working, or
gonna be working/fine, next time it rains)...

Jeff Liebermann

01-01-08, 01:37 PM

"Peter Pan" <PeterPanNOSPAM@AkamailNOSPAM.com> hath wroth:

>That's what was really strange, mail/news/ftp/irc servers all worked (albeit
>very slowly, when the main server was very slow or didn't work), cept for a
>few minutes when the cable signal itself was so bad the screen was
>pixelating, was just the browser/http stuff that was wierd.

Well, the only things I could think of that would cause protocol
specific slowdowns is if Comcast was trying to filter port 80 traffic,
or that users were somehow overusing port 80. Both are probably the
case as Comcast is tinkering with Bitorrent traffic and apps that try
to avoid filters are using port 80.
<http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r18323368-Comcast-is-using-Sandvine-to-manage-P2P-Connections>
<http://www.sandvine.com>

>Most of the time
>it only slowed down from 2500 to 300, happened to get a 24 at one time
>before it died altogether, and at those speeds it still sort of worked but
>very slowly, was only once in a while when it got even slower/stopped/just
>an error message. Makes me wonder if there is a minimum speed requirement
>for different types of servers. At any rate, from the OP's post and what was
>happening here, seemed sort of similar.

It's possible. Another guess(tm) would be that a protocol filtering
router (used to throttle Bitorrent traffic) fails at some specific
traffic threshold. Think of it as collateral damage.

>PS The guy was here today, and when he went up the pole and disconnected the
>cable, water came out. He cut a few feet off, put new ends on, reconnected
>it and now it is working (jury is still out on whether it's just working, or
>gonna be working/fine, next time it rains)...

Lovely. Hopefully that will fix it. You can watch the signal levels
on your cable modem (as I described in a previous rant). If you have
a spectrum analyzer, you can also watch it change frequency response,
ingress, reverse leakage from your junk TV's, etc.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558