att-uverse new, can't access internet

[Tim]

jackson byers:
> I think there is a router, inside the uverse-modem.

If you said exactly what model it is, someone may be able to tell you,
or we could look for manuals and find out.  Generally speaking, if the
modem has two or more outputs to the computer (ethernet and/or USB),
it's a combination modem/router unit.

>>> --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"

> NO, it is just a set of numbers w some spaces, no ":"
> I don't think this early thing re wless att had me do on the imac
> is playing any role any more.
> As I said later the imac is now running w wired internet access,
>  "Airport" wless no longer being used,
> seems to have no DNS problems.

It'd be easier to follow this if you didn't abbreviate words so much
that I have to guess at what you're referring to.

My next guess is that the 10 digit key is a pass key for authenticating
over an encrypted network, as many wireless links are, and should be.
Unencrypted wireless, or inadequately encrypted, is a major security
problem.

Perhaps that device comes with a preconfigured access key, rather than
requiring you to enter your own personal keys into both sides of the
connection (router, and client computers).


> What I had  just before the attuverse:
> an old pacbell adsl modem
> a linksys router, plugged into that adslmodem.
> my f16box i think connected into that router.
> from another room,
> the imac ethernet connected i think into that router.
> 
> 2 more things connected but not used for several yrs:
> a laptop,  also i think plugged into that router.
> some type of wless access point plugged into that router.
> 
> What we have now since the att uverse install
> --above adslmodem, router,laptop, access point disconnected.
> --new uverse modem, tech said it had a router in it,
>   with its own fwall.
>   I can't see any off/on switch on that uverse modem.
>  Would it be worth trying to unplug, and plug back in the black power cable?

You may as well try.  Unplug and give it a good 15 seconds to completely
power down.  Equipment does occasionally glitch, and then behave oddly,
that requires a hard reset, to recover.

>   There is also a uverse WAP, used only to get the uverse tv signals
>   to our two tvs.  As far as I know this has nothing to do with our computers.

Wireless access points may act as a router, they could act as just a
simple network switch.  A switch just lets everything communicate
together, a router imposes rules about what can and cannot connect, and
can change the way traffic flows through it (redirection).

Connecting any sort of router (wireless or wired) to another device
requires it to be done properly.  Particularly if it has a DHCP server,
you can end up having two or more competing DHCP servers on a network.
Also, routers need to be connected the right way around (i.e. all your
client devices on the output side).

>   f16box, imac both ethernet connected to that uverse modem.
> 
>   3 new pieces of some type of electronic gear now under my desk
>   also connected to the uverse modem.
>   The uverse install tech did not explain their use to me,
>   or even point them out to me.
>  Evidently necessary electronics parts needed for the uverse setup.
>   I only noticed them after the tech left.

Hmm, well, if you can't tell us what they are, we can't offer any advice
about them.  Whether they have anything to do with the issues, or not.

Are they power supplies for the rest of the devices, DSL/phone line
separation filters, soemthing else?

> The imac has been working  with the new uverse, with
> working internet wired connection, no DNS problems.
> imac no longer using the Airport wless
> which we used only for 1-2 days.
> 
> --------------
> DNS
> bash-3.2$ dig pacbell.net @64.94.156.1
> 
> ; <<>> DiG 9.6-ESV-R4-P3 <<>> pacbell.net @64.94.156.1
> ;; global options: +cmd
> ;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
> bash-3.2$

Which could mean that, *that* 64.94.156.1 address is wrong, or access to
it is being denied to your IP.  It doesn't work for me, either.  Yet,
both the DNS addresses worked for me in your prior message.  So, I'd
remove that address from your resolv.conf file.  Your prior message
listed 68.94.156.1, and that worked.

If the first DNS server in your resolv.conf file doesn't work, it's
going to mess up networking, because your system will always try to use
the first listed DNS server, first, and only move onto using the second
server after waiting for the first one to respond for quite some time.

> bash-3.2$ dig pacbell.net @206.13.31.12
>
> ;; ANSWER SECTION:
> pacbell.net.            7200    IN      A       151.164.129.3
> 
> ;; Query time: 31 msec

Reducing that down to the crucial parts of that test, shows that you got
an answer (the IP for pacbell.net is 151.164.129.3) and that it was very
quick (a small fraction of a second).

Just for further information, if you ever need to, you can do lookups in
the other direction, to find out the domain name associated with an IP
by using the -x option.  e.g. dig -x 192.0.43.10


> bash-3.2$ dig pacbell.net @8.8.8.8
>
> ;; ANSWER SECTION:
> pacbell.net.            5561    IN      A       151.164.129.3
> 
> ;; Query time: 47 msec

That one took a bit longer, because it had to connect to a DNS server
further away from you, though not a significantly longer time for most
things.  Slightly longer response times only become a problem when you
have to keep on looking up lots of addresses, and each lookup makes you
wait.


> what does this tell me?
> that 64.94.156.1 is no good, or stale, or???

Is probably wrong.

"Stale" DNS is a term that generally means some DNS server is giving you
old data.  i.e. If you asked it what was the IP for Google, and it
returned you the IP address that Google used last week, instead of what
it currently uses.

Some people use the term in another way.  Such as your ISP telling your
computer to use some particular IP as a DNS server, when *that* address
is old, and they should be telling a different address, since the DNS
server has changed location.

For what it's worth, sometimes you can find out the name servers for
your ISP, by yourself.  It's common for name servers to have a "ns"
hostname in front of their domain name.  So, if I wanted to find out the
nameservers for a ficticious example.com ISP, I could try doing a query
like:  dig ns.example.com  Likewise, I could try ns1.example.com or
ns2.example.com, to see if they have other name servers, too.

> that 206.13.31.12  is good? valid nameserver?

Yes, that it responded quickly to you querying it.

> that 151.164.129.3 is good? valid nameserver?

That wasn't a name server, that was the answer to a query you made of a
DNS server.  You asked 206.13.31.12 to tell you the IP for pacbell.net,
and it told you that pacbell.net is it 151.164.129.3.

> if 206.13.31.12 is a good namesever, since it is already in my f16
> /etc/resolv.conf
> shouldn't I have internet access?

Well, yes, in that you can query it for domain names.  But, like I said
earlier on, if you have a wrong name server address in your resolv.conf
file listed before it, you will have problems.

> do I have to do something like restart NetworkManager?

If you have wrong data in resolv.conf file, restarting NetworkManager
may cause your system to set up the network connection again, and find
out which DNS servers to use.  It'll probably rewrite the resolv.conf
file, and you can look for any changes to it.

If you're having to manually correct faults in it, then you may want to
look at ways to override NetworkManager.  That, or bring the faults to
the attention of your ISP, so they can stop giving out the wrong
information.

Considering what you've told me about your network, I'd suggest that
your modem/router is being told to use those IPs for DNS servers as it
connected.  Then, when your computer connects to your modem/router, it's
passing along the same addresses for your computer to use.

On that note, to eliminate one source of a non-working network, turn on
your modem/router before your computers, and let it completely finish
connecting (watch the blinking lights), before booting up your
computers.

If you can get the modem/router working fine, by itself, and working
well with at least one computer connected, but not with all devices on
your LAN working at the same time, that might point to there being an
artificial restriction on the number of devices that can be connected,
or a fault with one of them.  Unplug things one-by-one, and try to
narrow it down.

Here, I find that network switches tend to die off every couple of
years, between two buildings.  I suspect there's a potential difference
between the buildings, and the switches aren't galvanically isolated.
Or that EMI from thunderstorms overloads their input circuitry.  In this
case, they didn't just die, but flapped about, serious disrupting the
rest of the network.  Looking at their blinking lights, you'd think that
they were working normally, but they were faulty.

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

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