I use Great Basin Internet Services. They're Linux friendly. I've never
connected the DSL modem to anything other than my Linux box. They haven't
had a problem with it. They also gave me a couple static IP's for $10 a
month. Their service has been excellent lately. I did have a lot of
reliability problems late last year, but it hasn't gone down at all in the
last few months. When I've had questions or problems with their service, I
never seem to have trouble getting in touch with someone knowledgeable.
Sometimes I have work past the 1st level support, but they generally don't
have a problem escalating your call if they can't address your issue right
away.
I've had problems similar to what you mentioned in the past with other
providers that only provide support for Windows. They can get away with it
because they don't lose that much business by refusing to support other
OS's. Hopefully that will change.
- Craig
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rachel Hudson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Reno Linux Users Group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: [RLUG] SBC: "DSL is not compatible with any form of Unix"
Hi Ed,
I guess I could have saved you from this -- the same thing happened to me,
sort of. See my condensed version of upgrading from DHCP addressing to
permanent addressing below.
Rachel
First, I had SBC DSL w/PPoE, I used a wireless DSL hub (DLINK). For the
original install, I had to use a PC with the DSL modem but later I
installed the DLink with no problems and I went along my merry way with my
DLink wireless network.
Second, I decided to install a firewall, DMZ with Linux Web/DNS server and
an 'inside' network. I upgraded my DSL service to permanent IP
addressing. This became the nightmare of all time. Before installing all
my new fun gear, I decided to make sure I could get the permanent
addressing to work first with the Dlink that had been working fine for a
year. At the approved time all I did was change the addressing from DHCP
(and PPOE) to the permanent addresses they gave me -- after I called as
asked for a WAN address (/30) to go with the subnet they gave me (/27). It
did not work. I could see requests going out on the DSL modem but no
response.
SBC: we don't support DLink
Me: I've been using this for a year, its worked fine. All I did
was change to the address you gave me.
SBC: we can't work with you
Me: can you ping me?
SBC: no
Me: can you do a traceroute to me?
SBC: yea, it doesn't get to you, you have something wrong on your
side
Me: (oh no shit) I am a Sr. Networking Engineer by profession, I
can assure you it's not on my side, you have a problem with your
routing. I don't see your ping get to my modem (which is before my
equipment)
SBC: I have to get a different engineer who knows DLink
Me: No you don't -- it's not the DLink
SBC: But I don't know anything about DLinks
Me: I do! It has worked just fine until we change to this new
addressing -- it has to be something with the addressing/routing. Your
ping doesn't even get to my DSL modem which is before the DLink!
SBC: All I can you is that we don't support DLink
Me: OK, fine, I'll put a PC directly on the modem. Did that --
same results didn't work.
SBC: can you ping
Me: yes it goes out, no response back. Can you ping me?
SBC: I get no response
Me: I still didn't see it on my modem lights, it's not even
getting to my modem
SBC: can you reboot your PC
Me: (yikes) yes, same result
SBC: (starts asking me about my Windows setup)
Me: My setup is fine -- I do this for a living, it's on your side,
you probably have a duplicate IP address, misconfigured switch or your
routing table is not right
SBC: reboot your PC again
Me: NO!
SBC: it's on your side, it can't be on our side
....... this goes on for 2 more hours. I can't prove to this guy
that it's not on my side. Finally, he says he has to send out a tech to
look at my side. I say -- "oh because you don't believe me", he didn't
have a very good answer to that. I explained to him --again-- basic
network troubleshooting and why it was on his side. I asked to escalate
and he wouldn't let me (my boss is just going to tell you the same
thing). I was about to go postal with him but decided to calmly let him
send his tech out, just to make him feel better (plus I was exhausted after
3 hours). I asked him to put the configuration back to DHCP/PPoE so I
could have internet connectivity until the tech came. He put me on mute
and was gone for a while, came back and said "uh, we found something
interesting... I'll call you back".
......Later that day....
SBC: try this new WAN address and new LAN addressing
Me: OK, (and on the DLink little did he know) -- Oh look, it works
now.
SBC: we found something weird with the old address....
Moral of the story: SBC techs can only think in the box so you must do it
their way if you want to prove anything to them. DSL will work with
anything -- just don't mention that to them. If you have to work with
them, you have to be prepared to set up a PC (with windows) to the DSL
modem or you'll never get anything accomplished.
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