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Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« on: May 01, 2006, 10:22:18 PM »
Hi friends. I´ve been using 5.x and 6.x with no problems for more than 3 years now. I moved to a new house and changed my ISP from ADSL to Cable modem 2.5M broadband.

When I used PPPoE I could navigate an visit sites such as www.yahoo.com, www.analog.com, and www.globalsources.com with ease.

Changing the SME´s installation settings from "PPPoE" to "DHCP ethernet address sent as login" as required, does not allow me to reach these mentioned and many other web sites. It can take as much as 10 minutes for a page to complete loading or never load at all.

My Motorola SB5101 SURFboard cable modem does not require any login from the user's side since once programmed to connect with the ISP, it automatically connects and internet service is provided. My ISP changes IP´s only from time to time every 5 to 8 days , so it behaves almost as static IP, but it´s not.

If I make a direct connection between my PC and the modem, everything works perfectly well at full speed. I am using an old and probed Soyo motherboard with a Celeron 433 MHz and 256MB RAM with a 12M HDD. just for firewall-router and small file server. Two PC´s with W2K are connected to the SME box through a small switch. I tried to switch Ethernet cards, and it´s the same. I tried SME 7, but it is worse for me considering the old CPU, so I returned to 6.x. With SME 7, the problem extends to many other sites, although I can still navigate and normally use email and other services.

I tried searching the forums for similar cases but no luck.

Could you help me find what the problem could be ?

Thanks !

RGB

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2006, 11:38:14 PM »
Hi all !
A friend from my country has seen my post and he is giving me some advice. He had the same problem and somebody else too, with exactly my same ISP. The problem is arround this DHCP versus Static IP setting. Here is one reference he passed me:

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=25617.0

I´ll be back to report on this.

Best Regards

Offline CharlieBrady

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Re: Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable mode
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2006, 07:56:59 PM »
Quote from: "microlatina"

It can take as much as 10 minutes for a page to complete loading or never load at all.


Please report all problems in detail via the Bug Tracker.

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2006, 08:08:07 PM »
Yes CharlieBrady, I´ll do that. I didn´t make it directly because I was not so sure about this problem being a bug more than some installation or configuration error on my side, or probably a modem problem.

But during the weekend, I´d made some extra research an found that it could be possibly a reportable bug about some DHCP flaw.

Thank very much for your advice.

Offline lightman

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Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2006, 04:57:15 AM »
Hi

Did you have Fibertel as a cable provider?

It seems to be some incompatibility issues with that ISP and 'something' of the SME, I have problems accessing specifically mail.yahoo.com, and www.symantec.com also sometimes all domains that ends with sourceforge.net.

I tested SME 5.5, 5.6 and 6.0 all of them with the same effect, a select number of internet places don't respond to a connect request from the web browser, same as you, if i connect the same server to any other ISP worked perfectly (didn't try Flash cable modem, but almost all of the most common ISP around).

I tried almost all I can think of, finally I give up and install a Fedora FC 4 from scratch and configure it myself and the problem gone.

however it will be interesting to find out WHY this is happening :) so if you want me to try something let me know.

(if you want to continue this in spanish let's go to the spanish forum :-D ).

c-u
Lightman

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2006, 05:36:01 AM »
Yes, I am using Fibertel as my cable provider but I suggest to be very careful with this issue, just to avoid confusion. You are probably from Buenos Aires, Argentina as me, and Fibertel is just one of the cable providers,  perhaps the most important. Behind them, there is is a large american corporation using fairly good technology.

The only problem with Fibertel is that they take too long to make a dynamic IP change over time, considering that the cable modem ( a Motorola SURFboard SB5101 in my case ) is permanently connected to the power line ( powered - on ) and hence connected to the provider's network, even if my SME box is off. I had made a complaint about this problem last week before making any bug tracking in Contribs.org just to be sure of what the problem is. This is a not very easy to track flaw. To renew your IP address you have to power off your modem for at least 4 to 8 hours so some other guy could pick you actual IP. You can also compalint to get this change made in some minutes but this is not a regular procedure, and in my opinion, it shouldn't. As this is not PPPoE, I don´t know a way to release / renew the modem's IP. It takes so much time that you could consider it a static IP for a while :-)

Now that I could obtain a new forced IP with my compalint ( they changed from a 200.xxx.xxx.xxx to a 24.xxx.xxx.xxx ) it is working fine, until it gets stuck again in probably 5 or 6 days. They don't thing that they are doing wrong because the simple test they ask me to do for a check is to make me connect my PC terminal directly to the modem bypassing the SME box, and it always works fine.

I am now waiting for the failure to return and I will do the same test, and once I get this result for the third time, I will report it as a bug, probably a modem-SME issue with the DHCP service . . . I don't really know. It would be of much help if somebody experimenting similar problems, is actually using a cable modem from any other provider.

Best regards

Offline lightman

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Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2006, 06:32:36 AM »
Hi

I don't believe that fibertel is using great tecnology, if they are, then the IT people from there are a mess.

I had LOT's of problems with that provider, my main provider actually is ARNET (PPPoE) and THAT's is what I call a decent (still not good enough) provider, almost NO downtime, no problems of any kind, fast speed, the downside is that It has very high latences compared to fibertel, and a non-existent tech support :-D

that's why I use fibertel as my backup ISP.
you also could add to Fibertel, continuous brownout in their DNS services
and also lost connection 8 to 15 times a week , for at least 30 minutes period (typ: 2hs)

I'm not totally sure that the problem is related to the long DHCP lease, because I can see the resolving problem right after a full powercycle (modem included).

Also I'm using a different modem than you, I had SB5100 about 6 months ago and by my request they changed for a webstar DPC2100 (the ugly little black box), and the problem remains.

To force the ISP to change the IP (just in case that a different IP could solve the problem) I edited the MAC of the NIC card, restart the modem and the IP changed instantly.
Still the same effect. :(

I gonna have to stay with these 2 providers, they combined gives me 100% uptime and almost a decent traffic capability, at least until IPLAN fiber optic get here, and I'll be happily  eferafter :)

c-u
Lightman

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2006, 03:21:07 PM »
Thank you for your reply and feedback. Please don't take me bad, but the conversation here is not about service providers and quality of service. It is all about a malfunction that occurs whith a particular kind of internet access and a modem with the SME server.

There is no simple way to make a MAC address change from the SME to fix this problem ( please remember how my configuration is ) and if it were possible I wouldn't consider this a professional solution. The reported failure is a fact and yes there is a problem with the DHCP service. Naturally, the immediate change of the IP address by changing the MAC address is just the way these kind of modems work :-)

Thank you again for the feedback.

Offline CharlieBrady

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Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2006, 02:10:08 AM »
Quote from: "microlatina"
Yes CharlieBrady, I´ll do that.


When?

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2006, 03:29:10 AM »
. . . as soon as my professional work allows me to distract time from my hobby, probably next week.

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2006, 12:04:36 AM »
Quote
Yes CharlieBrady, I´ll do that. I didn´t make it directly because I was not so sure about this problem being a bug more than some installation or configuration error on my side, or probably a modem problem. [/i]



Quote
I am now waiting for the failure to return and I will do the same test, and once I get this result for the third time, I will report it as a bug, probably a modem-SME issue with the DHCP service . . . I don't really know


Now that I feel that this could be a bug, and with respect for other´s people working time and dedication, I have reported this issue as a bug by using the Bug Tracker, please see:

http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1441

Regards

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #11 on: May 17, 2006, 12:34:24 AM »
CharlieBrady, as a result of my bug report, I have received the following message:

De: bugzilla-daemon@contribs.org [mailto:bugzilla-daemon@contribs.org]
Enviado el: Martes, 16 de Mayo de 2006 04:43 p.m.
Para: microlatina@gmail.com
Asunto: [Bug 1441] Suddenly can´t browse web sites with cable modem
connection


http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1441


gregswallow@skynetonline.ca changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
         Resolution|                            |INVALID




------- Comment #1 from gregswallow@skynetonline.ca  2006-05-16 12:43 -------
This is not the right place to find help - please post this in the forums -
http://wiki.contribs.org/


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Configure bugmail: http://bugs.contribs.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
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Offline gregswallow

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Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #12 on: May 17, 2006, 01:07:49 AM »
Sorry, I reopened the bug - I didn't know you were directed to post a bug report.  Hopefully someone can help...

microlatina

Cannot reach some web sites with SME 6.01 and cable modem
« Reply #13 on: May 17, 2006, 06:11:36 AM »
Thank you Greg, I just thought that we have crossed messages and timing. everything OK, maybe somebody can find some fix or correct any errors, if any.

Best regards

diegojg

May be this solves the problem
« Reply #14 on: August 18, 2006, 10:27:40 AM »
I had Fibertel Cable modem installed two days ago and this forum/topic
has almost exactly the same symtoms of the problem I had.

My config is different I don't have SME server, I'm under Windows, and
this problem happens with a machine directly connected to the modem, I don't even have a Motorola, I have a WebStar one. However I think it's a related or the same problem.

Sometimes I can surf the web at full speed, and, after rebooting my machine or modem, I can surf again at full speed, or at 0.4 KB/sec!!!!, and pages takes 10 minutes or never finish loading. I noted that after many reboots, I still got the same IP address, thus having the same slow speed, if I was lucky, and the IP changed, I was able to surf again at full speed.

I bashed my head, and called and yelled at Fibertel tech support many times, nothing solved it.

I then read this page:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/latency.html

and read this:

"network configuration of the PC: poor latency can be caused by unnecessary network services or protocols being active in the PC (putting unnecessary traffic on the upstream), or by duplex mis-matches between the PC's ethernet interface and the cable modem's."

Then read this:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/ethernet.html#ethernet

and this:

"This problem can be avoided by manually configuring your ethernet card to be 10 Mbps half-duplex."

Setting it to 10 half-duplex solved the problem, I tested many times and it seems to be working fine. May be this solves yours too.

Diego