att-uverse new, can't access internet

[Tim]

On Mon, 2012-10-01 at 16:01 -0700, jackson byers wrote:
> what do you mean by stale DNS? how to tell

e.g. Using DNS servers you were told to (or the equipment was
automatically configured to use), which are no longer valid.  For
instance, years ago, my ISP changed their DNS server addresses, and
anybody who used the old ones wouldn't have had a working network.

Sometime you have ISPs which tell you to use certain DNS server
addresses on their website help pages, but their system automatically
tells your computer to use some other addresses as it connects up.
You're left wondering which ones you should use, and sometimes it is not
the ones that they've left their system to automatically tell your
system about.

And, in some cases, perhaps many cases, some ISPs just have dreadful DNS
servers, and you're better off using something else.  Mine have been in
the past, so I run my own DNS servers.  Some people use one of Google's
DNS servers at 8.8.8.8.

NB:  Be aware that you may need to use your own ISPs DNS servers if you
have a non-public IP address, and some of their servers that you need to
use have a non-public IP address, too (such as if you had to do email
through their mail servers).

> ping 8.8.8.8 fails...
> 56(84) bytes of data
> from 192.168.2.8.....destination host unreachable

Ping only tests that something responds to pings, and it doesn't have
to.  If you want to test whether you can get DNS records from 8.8.8.8 as
a DNS server, then do a DNS request of it.  You can change your
resolv.conf, or just use a tool that lets you ask specific servers on
demand.

e.g. dig example.com @8.8.8.8

> resolv.conf looks normal to me, been using it for a long time
> 
> generated by network manager
> search pacbell.net
> nameserver 206.13.31.12
> nameserver 68.94.156.1

And you could test them in the same way.
dig example.com @206.13.31.12
dig example.com @68.94.156.1

Both of them gave prompt answers, to me, and I'm not even on their
network.

> the only new info:
> the imac now is running internet access ethernet ,  prev was on airport wless''
> so, as of now, the imac seems to have survived the switch to att-uverse
> which suggests f16 should be able to do also
> but I have no clue

If you're running different computers and/or OSs on a network that
directly connects you to them, then there may need to be a reset time
between changes.  If you have a router between you and them, then that
shouldn't be a problem.  The router would be what they see, all the
time, and what you connect behind it isn't any of their affair.

> att today gave a runaround:
> one tech said their normal support cant help at all w linux,

Sometimes it's best to lie to tech support.  Say you are using Windows
when you're not, that you just need the information to manually
configure it.  But, again, if you connect to your ISP through a
modem/router, rather than plug a computer direct into their equipment,
it should be support for configuring the router, rather than a computer.

Looking back at your original posting:
> Imac does have internet, after following
> att rep on phone,
> to somehow ( I am forgetting the steps, probably)
> --click on something like wlesspanel ?
> --click on 2wire397
>  
> --enter a 10digit key found on back of new modem

If that 10 digit key is something looking like this,
"00:1A:92:D8:F2:79" (actually more than 10 digits), that's the MAC of
the ethernet port, and they're asking you to set your current ethernet
port to have the same MAC address of another device's.  That isn't going
to work if you try to put several devices on the same network with the
same MAC.

You should probably describe your network in greater detail,
particularly what's between your ISP and your computers (modem/router,
ethernet hole in the wall...).

Some ISPs supply you with one public IP, and you'd need a router doing
NAT between you and them to share the IP between multiple devices.  Some
ISPs give you multiple public IPs, and you can simply have a switch/hub
between you and them.

The more info, the less guessing games by us, and less advice that's
going to lead you down the wrong path.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

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