 | | | | |
 |  |
| [home] [news] [pics] [movies] [links] [friends] [ideas] [support] [logs] |
| | | | |
| |
I should have known it wasn't over yet. The SMC Barricade that I traded the Linksys in for is now acting up. Basically it looses it's mind every couple of days. We're talking no routing, no web interface, no nothing. Power it off and back on and it seems to pick up where it left off, but it's a pain! I've finally gotten pissed off enough to obtain a replacement. It's a shame because this one has wireless (not that I've used it, and it might still work enough to be useful on the internal network if I ever do). Also, I can no longer keep returning the darn things since I don't have a 1 year protection plan like CompUSA gave me for the first ones. Yes, I could have purchased one, but at the time I figured if it works from the start it'll work forever - odd thing to think with the previous occurrances).
The replacement is a Belkin 4 port broadband router that I got for $9.99 (with free shipping). You heard me, $9.99. I got it off a great site (gotapex) which also has gotten me other great deals like a 200 GB harddrive for $22.96 (also free shipping) (More about that on the front page once the rebates actually come back and I can actually confirm I get it that cheap). I haven't switched over yet, but next time the SMC fails I think it's history
Another interesting piece of trivia on the Linksys saga... One of the guys at work had a 4 port that worked great. He finally ironed out things with his ISP so that he had a static IP address (which he was supposed to for like a year but they couldn't work out). Astonishingly enough, he could not get his Linksys to work with a static IP. He presumed it was the ISP's fault, but eventually bypassed the Linksys and found it to be at fault. He replaced it with a D-link wireless 802.11g broadband router and that seems to work fine. Then, coincidentally enough, another person at work was having an issue where it froze like 10 seconds after coming up and routing a couple packets. I happened to mention that static IP issue and he did some tests and, sure enough, the Linksys worked fine with a dynamic address, but not at all with the static one. I only mentioned it as a lark but it turned out to be the same problem!
Well, the Linksys saga is now at and end. Last week Zoe called me at work to troubleshoot network problems (i.e. not being able to get anywhere). After the usual steps (ping an IP to see if DNS is broken, ping the server in the house to see if it responds, etc.) she went into the basement where the Linksys had but a single light on - the bright, red "Diag" light. Hmm, normally that goes on when you power it on and then off when things are well. If you recall from the last installment, it was already toast as a router, and we were just using it as an 8 port switch. Well, now it's just a paperweight...
So... CompUSA to the rescue again. In case you've forgotten, I didn't actually buy it at CompUSA, but they have given me a replacement router 4 times in the past 20 months! The latest (#5) was now dead. Luckily, with the first replacement, they threw in a 1 year replacement warranty (which is why I was able to keep returning it). With every return, it got reset to 1 year - of which I had 3 months to go. The record holder was #4 at almost 10 months before return. This one went 9 months. The others were all broken in various ways on arrival. Anyway, today I trekked up to CompUSA once more. It took about 40 minutes with all the customers in the store, but they essentially refunded me my money. You heard me right, they gave me back cash. Actually, I exchanged it for 2 new products (more about them later), but first they gave me the $20.00 difference and purchased the replacement stuff with the rest.
The new gear I picked out was an 8-port 10/100 switch made by SMC and a 4-port cable router with wireless support. Somewhat of an upgrade, eh? They gave me less than I "paid" for the original (since the warranty was part of it), but I wasn't going to quibble. I'm actually thinking of returning the router as Linux has served me so well so far and I'm thinking of moving to smoothwall. Since I now have a receipt showing I paid cash, I can return it in the next 14 days and get another $100.00 back. If I recall, I think I paid $189.00 for it online 20 months ago. I already got $20.00 back. If I return the router and get another $100.00 back, that leaves my out-of-pocket at $69.00. Since the switch was $60.00, I will essentially have leased the Linksys (well, 5 of them) for 20 months for a grand total of $10.00. If I had complained about not being refunded the 1 year warranty, I could have gotten $19.95 more back and have made $10.00 out of all this. Nah. I can't complain over the way things have worked out - at least not CompUSA-wise and final outcome. I can still bitch about Linksys and my string of bad hardware. Most everyone else I know who has the same product in the 4-port model have had very little trouble. I guess just steer clear of the 8-port model!
I'll follow up if anything of note occurs with the SMC stuff. Of course, I'll have to change the title then... If this stuff breaks, maybe it is some sort of curse upon networking products in our home...
Ok, this is getting ridiculous. I thought I had somehow come up with the strangest ever Windows bug. After some investigation and thought, however, it turned out to be a Linksys problem (again). Basically, Zoe's computer worked 100% correctly. My computer, on the other hand, was having difficulties. I could not connect to any websites. I could ping them and traceroute to them, but not connect with a web browser. Ok, I tried different browsers. Disabled Zone Alarm. Tried to telnet to port 80 directly. Port 25. Nothing worked. I deinstalled and reinstalled the VPN client I use for work (as it had been running and Windows had locked up when I could last surf the web). No luck.
It was when I turned to our server to make sure it worked fine that I discovered the very odd culprit. Connectivity worked fine for the server. While I was there I took a look at the access logs for the Linksys and it seemed, well, odd. It appeared that my Windows PC had successfully sent packets out, and that responses had come back. However, the responses did not return to my Windows PC, but to the server! Definitely odd. For some reason the Linksys was correctly masquerading my PC out to the internet, but not back in. Since I forward port 80 and 25 to the server (as we run web and mail), it forwarded the responses to the server. Which then had no idea where they came from and sent back resets to the servers on the internet. Basically, everyone was confused.
So what's up with that sort of behavior anyway? I was still trying to work it out when Zoe's machine stopped getting forwarded as well. Seeing as this is the 5th Linksys I've owned (in a year and a half), I guess I should not be too surprised that it has a problem. Luckily it still works as an 8 port switch. I can still return it and get it replaced (they gave me another 1 year replacement guarantee last time), but I'm tired of it screwing up. Maybe I'll return it and sell it on Ebay...
Although almost a year has passed, I spoke too soon. For the past several months we have been plagued with service outages and not been sure what was the cause. They had a definite pattern of working for a while and then all access stopped for 10 to 15 minutes, and then sometimes began working. I began to suspect the Linksys when I could not contact it during these times, and when I unplugged it and plugged it back in sometimes service started up again. Anyway, we just kind of put up with it because we weren't 100% sure what was the cause.
I was lamenting to Rob about our network troubles and he mentioned he had a spare 4-port Linksys (like one does). So, I figured I could see if our Linksys was the cause by swapping it out. I supposed I should not have been surprised that it was the problem after all. After all, this was only the fourth one we've had and it lasted almost a year (well, maybe 9 - 10 months).
Thank goodness for CompUSA! When I returned the first router (you might recall I didn't actually buy it there, just returned it), they threw in a free 1 year replacement warranty. When I returned the second one, they again gave me a warranty. However, when I returned the third one, whomever I dealt with screwed up the receipt and did not give me a warranty. But since the first 3 returns all took place within a month, they honored the replacement guarantee from the previous returns - and threw in another one! So this latest one is warrantied for another year - and actually seemed to work right out of the box - imagine that!!!
We are now sucessfully using the router for our gateway at home. I was saddened to swap out the trusty old P133, but I've already lightened it's load and have stopped running dhcpd, named, and firewalling. Maybe it will be a bit speedier now (not that I'm complaining too much, but it can never be fast enough). All that hassle for such little benefit...
Looking back, if I hadn't tried to be smart and returned the first lemon to CompUsa and instead returned it via the people I bought it from, I would have given up and just gotten a refund several months ago. It wasn't worth the hassle for that one feature I wanted. I'm absolutely sure I could have put less effort into rebuilding the kernel to support IPSec passthrough. But, once I got to the point where I could not get my money back, I was damn sure I was going to get none that worked and use it. Maybe I just had a streak of bad luck, but it's sad to have to return something 3 times.
Tried one more time (mostly because it was either that or exchange it on the spot for something of the same value and I wasn't sure what I would swap it for). So far, it seems to work correctly, except for port forwarding. However, that might be my fault as I had our server still thinking it was connected to AT&T, rather than using the router as a gateway. So, when I next get the chance to give it a try, maybe I'll get it 100% working.
Ok, I definitely have had about the worst luck with this damn thing. I swapped my last faulty one for a new one at CompUsa, and this one doesn't work at all! I can't connect to it to try and set and configuration. Not so swift. In fact, each one I have had has been progressively worse. Normally I'd say strike 3 is out, but since I can't return it to where I got it now (it's been too long) and I don't have an original receipt for CompUsa (and don't have much that I'd want to buy with credit), I'll give it one more try. I need to head to Nashua for an oil change next week anyway, so I'll try one more swap. This is just ridiculous!
Hmm, seems I spoke too soon about this little box working out wonderfully. The one I ordered online arrived and was acting really flaky. Every time I changed the configuration at all, it would lose it's IP/subnet/DNS information it received from ATT Broadband via DHCP. And, it would not do port forwarding. Seemed a bit odd. Rather than bother with the whole RMA/return thing (since I bought it online), I scoped out CompUsa's website and noted that they had at least one of this model in stock in Nashua. So, I tooled up there yesterday morning and exchanged my defective one for a new one. Not only did they exchange it, but they threw in a one year replacement guarantee! Not bad for something I didn't even buy there...
So, with that exchanged, I should be all set, right? Well, this one (which has slightly older firmware - the other had the most up-to-date), does not seem to allow me to change any configuration settings at all. I need to change the MAC address for ATT (ok, technically I could get around that by calling ATT and adding this MAC address), enable port forwarding and tweak some things. I make a change, hit Apply and it claims changes were made successfully. But, if I reload that page (or re-browse to it, or unplug and re-plug-in the box), no changes were made. Have not yet updated to the latest firmware, but one would have hoped that version 2.34 (versus latest 2.36) would at least have allowed configuration changes. What would be the point if you could not change anything? So, maybe today I'll fiddle with it, but if this is strike two, then I'm losing faith. Andy got a bad one first time around. If I received two, then I think they need to have a talk with Quality Control!!!
Well, a number of minor nitpicks and annoyances got me to finally splurge on something for the home network. Until now I have been using our old trusty P133MMX as our router/gateway/firewall/DHCP/web/samba/mail server. It actually works really well in all those roles. The one problem with it is that IPsec does not work from behind it. OK, technically I could make it work by patching the kernel and some configuring, but I wanted to keep the server as a stock Red Hat install with just some configuration changes. Compiling a new kernel is not a huge deal, but I'd rather just leave it as-is. That way, I can swap out the server with our even older P100 for maintenance. It just makes things a little bit easier...
It all started trying to make it so that Zoe could work from home. I use ssh to connect to work and things work great, but she has a selection of applications where people just didn't think of these things ahead of time. For instance, Meeting Maker uses TCP for everything EXCEPT a first packet sent out to determine what port to use - that is sent via one-and-only-one UDP packet. Which shoots to hell the whole idea of using ssh. There was another application which did the same. Anyway, she has a VPN client that can be used instead, but it uses IPsec and I would have to muck with my kernel (as mentioned before). Since my primary trait is stubborn laziness, I just sort of made it so Zoe could get mail from home. Talking to Andy, he mentioned he had a cable router which had an IPsec pass-through, and I finally gave in.
I bought a Linksys Broadband Router. OK, so I haven't actually hooked it up yet (I'm still at work and it's sitting right here), but it should take care of everything I need. And then I can take the router/gateway/firewall/DHCP role off our server's shoulders. I can reboot the server without fear of cutting off Internet access to others. Worst case, I can relocate Web services to other machines in the event of a rebuild or hardware failure. I'm not abandoning Linux (which worked just great and was easy as pie to setup aside from the IPsec pass-through thing). It's still my OS of choice and runs everything else. It's a good general purpose tool for just about anything. But in this case I decided to go with the specific purpose tool since it actually satisfied many needs in one and well. It's like getting a corkscrew to complement your Swiss army knife. The knife can do it all, but the corkscrew does one job very well - and frees up the knife for other things... And, as an added bonus, I can now run the home network at 100BaseT rather than poke along at 10BaseT.