[ale] Comcast linux...

[Byron A Jeff]

On Tue, Jan 06, 2004 at 11:31:21PM -0500, Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 06, 2004 at 11:10:36AM -0500, Byron A Jeff wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 06, 2004 at 08:01:55AM -0800, Berlin Brown wrote:
> 
> > > Funny thing, I was thinking about it, just at the moment of doing it.  I
> > > was going to load up redhat, and open up mozilla and pretend that this really
> > > is Windows 2003 or something or tell him I have the latest skin, that is why
> > > the start and my computer are missing.  But then again, that would be mean.
> 
> > The problem is that they have ingrained behaviors. For example
> 
> > "Click Start->run. Type winipcfg. Press release... then renew..."
> 
> > I know what that means. But the techs only understands this in a Windows 
> > context. And funnily enough there are times that they are right. One thing I
> > like about Comcast is the near permanent IP addressing. But after a multihour
> > outage all bets are off. One time the modem was fine but the machine wouldn't
> > connect. Called Comcast and told them some type of Windows box. Got the Release
> > Renew speech, which I laughed off. But it turns out that their server was
> > rejecting my dhcpcd's request for the old IP because it had given it to
> > someone else. So I had erase the cache (Release) and restart dhcpcd (renew).
> 
> 	Then something was wrong with your configuration (maybe you were
> running "pump", an abomination and plague from RedHat that they finally
> killed off as a bad mistake made worse by efforts to fix it).  You request
> an address that is allocated somewhere else and the dhcp server will send
> you a NACK telling you NO.  You then have to request a new address.  It works
> very well and works with Comcast (though they haven't changed my IP in
> over 6 months).

It's dhcpcd (as alluded to above). And dhcpcd caches the previous address.
I'm not sure why it didn't do a broadcast after the NAK, but killing the
cache solved the problem.

> 
> 	My experience with the tech was when the guy came to the house with
> the cable modem (which I purchased rather than leased) and walked down into
> my basement and came face to face with my rack in my NOC...  I told him he was
> connecting to the mini tower on the top of the rack on the left.  He asked,
> "What does it run, Linux?"  I said "Correct."  He said "I don't think we
> support Linux."  My reply was "Good.  I support Linux.  You support giving
> me a network connection.  Just call these numbers (the MAC addresses) in."
> He did and was amaze when it all simply poped up and worked perfect, first
> shot, when I typed the ifup command.  Repeat a second time a few months
> later at my son's digs.

Many will walk out though given the scenario above. Also they have a browser
based registration now, which is better than waiting 45 minutes on the phone
for the MAC addresses to be provisioned, like one tech I had.

BTW Mike, I believe that your attitude is the right one. But I'm sure that
for every one of you, there are 10 folks who think they can support the
connection, but really can't. That's why the techs are so scripted.

BAJ