From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Fri Jun 15 23:23:40 2018 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DA8D51020535 for ; Fri, 15 Jun 2018 23:23:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mout.kundenserver.de (mout.kundenserver.de [212.227.126.187]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "mout.kundenserver.de", Issuer "TeleSec ServerPass DE-2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 549F368188 for ; Fri, 15 Jun 2018 23:23:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de ([92.195.97.38]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (mreue003 [212.227.15.167]) with ESMTPA (Nemesis) id 0Lvx61-1gHrBO0aMP-017j8d; Sat, 16 Jun 2018 01:23:31 +0200 Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2018 01:23:31 +0200 From: Polytropon To: B J Cc: reebsd-questions Subject: Re: Problems Connecting Laptop To Modem Message-Id: <20180616012331.ebb8e70d.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: <20180613162137.5cc6794a.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com> <3E3890A6-72F9-4D80-A021-837FFDB35A39@theory14.net> <20180614093928.6f39434e.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com> <20180614161923.5246ae81.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com> <20180615102548.1c686d1b.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com> <20180615233707.8645c246.freebsd@edvax.de> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Provags-ID: V03:K1:ajrVKqgFmLs8VfrNDXX7MJDIg23OytVJJrbalR3V3sG0YaqcqTS nIW0q3isxdET04grd02frMC8U4fKte4OTgn5ZURwv9xSU9S+o72Y4/q4kRumsQpNCXltLvS GXe2nay9fK5k8TFaKHzAyowZX45wlN15U5o+RgVdGcdmMUBmXi+lSI2XyymOQ99YKMSlJew GfYpriXBJql1yCeaRJUXw== X-UI-Out-Filterresults: notjunk:1;V01:K0:KrZntm+/ah8=:AzlJp38+Kqv08b93+L1/4j 6eS8MuSXocU79qfvSMLPCiacRuBcxxFa4dcmxqZ04842LcaIU+CAYv8N/PBJKTWiMEOnBkbB4 Li41XSA7amJEY5HWa56JnnfijSIQgHiBpSyh3Tqbn8XmfEL3gczpq3FhkLrRfISfiTl1HvpVK X15TPA+VuJETKeUquxYJ7LGul/yQKv5SRD2nW79Kr7Z7ZkqaJ+X3lorh0it8wdrxyo92wgnby p02aShqBuEHrZTjB1LVo0XNBsw3fqdcVGXrTlKmVo/KkCZnF3FCj8fu9v6/AT1wFAhtY+PMuC NcOuSLvDG1qOfCiYu8UDQwh2AQZZimqtW66oKRXu86rO8zijRSeAOTBHsKNFdJlRJ1tWdLSpu tfR/DhPfhAgJCdEDKdVof2T0Akun7gJsg1ZQ0KBldjPpK7wrRLzbl03JO8e8CpuQgp/YYyJKX FDhYaodyEGF71FkAt+17vygDm01vbVkdM1ZI88z6ym2dfnGyyYGQg6+t0HurkjJ7Yd2Pyd0op LPRUFQH5wNQUtfOLGdMZynXSGvfdrPmeDo5M0kNkMe/5iuIK5ud0u3XM1lNMC/vvDHX+AUurn 6bsXDZTC155IarBbja0GsxY8zxhaQg+duk5bpEoKP8Ev6U8iJHOc59Y878HiHL8czJpARx/KQ 0u3lxZHAdwJktdYIXAmMOavgObg89uDJ9qpkG/tgzLU9xpwHQmyu7wK23p3d/JhjNC7AnlTD/ H1qXTEnKcPDpVLwG X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2018 23:23:40 -0000 On Fri, 15 Jun 2018 22:08:19 +0000, B J wrote: > > > > From your netstat output (later on), it seems that you > > connect to 192.168.0.1, so if this really is the IP of > > one of your machines, there's a big problem with your > > current configuration. > > > > > At the moment, it doesn't look like a hardware issue. > > The laptop is second-hand. It was in rough shape when I got it from > the previous owners so I'm thinking that there might be an on-board > hardware malfunction. It might be the hard drive as it didn't want to > boot at first because of, if I remember correctly, some corrupted > sectors. Hard drive errors are possible, but you usually don't see them as networking issues. The easiest way to rule out this problem is to boot from a live CD / DVD / USB, either using FreeBSD or Linux. > I have some extra HDs on hand. I might try swapping one of those with > the one that's in the machine, installing FreeBSD, and then seeing if > I get the same problem. You could even keep one of those HDDs as a "test system" for further use. > Since the laptop's not essential to what I do at home, I may as well > have a bit of fun with it, right? Definitely. ;-) > > PS. > > "Trial & error" is not a programming concept. ;-) > > I've been writing code off and on for more than 40 years, going back > to the days of WATFOR and WATFIV. Trial-and-error programming helped > me finish my B. Sc. I just wanted to mention it as one of the wisdoms I learned at university. Another gem from the same professor was this: "Programming is not fixing your code until the compiler stops throwing error messages." But if it helps you achieving a goal, why not? ;-) In no way this quote was intended to belittle you. It just perfectly fit the "I randomly changed a few numbers in the IP address and it still didn't work" comment. When I did graphics programming many years ago, you sometimes really had to minimally adjust numbers in parameters to see if the result matched your expectations, simply because you could not accurately predict how certain values would affect the result of the rendering process. :-) > Two things have come from this. One is that I finally set up my tower > machines so that the systems on them are now nearly identical to what > I have on my laptop. I've been meaning to do this for years but I had > little incentive to do so. So you always have a good reference system > The second one is that I'm learning something about networking, which > should help me with what I have at home. Yes - knowing networking basics and tools is very important and usually helpful when running into issues. My suggestion always is to start at the lowest possible level and diagnose as much as possible, so you know _for sure_ with what you are dealing at a given moment. Nothing is worse than guesswork and assumptions. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...