Re: Total lockups - could it be my ISP?
On 03 Jan 2002, ben wrote:
> On Thursday 03 January 2002 05:16 am, Anthony Campbell wrote:
> > I've been posting complaints here for some time about total lockups
> > using the 2.4.x kernels. They occur when, and only when, I'm on line.
> > Today I tried using a different ISP and was online for an hour, doing a
> > long download, without any problems.
> >
> > I can't see any way in which my ISP could send a signal causing the
> > lockups, but is it conceivable? It's true to say that there are a lot of
> > problems at the moment with this (free) ISP.
>
> do you have the possibility to use another os to test the link to the free
> isp? based on the information you've given, deduction alone suggests that the
> fault lies with the free isp. how do you connect to it? given that it's a
> free isp, they probably have a lot of traffic and need to drop links
> occasionally to accommodate everyone.
>
I only have Linux at present, though I'm planning to play with FreeBSD.
Oddly enough, the problem has never occurred with my laptop, using the
same ISP and the same kernel.
Someone in a news group said he had had a similar experience in Windows,
and wrote that "intentional packet interception /
fragmentation could result in a stall (or crash). If not actually packet
interception / fragmentation then modem signal manipulation could achieve
this."
I still find it hard to understand how this can lock up the whole
machine as opposed to just breaking the connection, but it certainly
seems to happen. I've now done an hour-long download from a different
ISP without problems, so I'm pretty sure this is what the problem was
all along.
Anthony
--
Anthony Campbell - running Linux GNU/Debian (Windows-free zone)
For an electronic book (The Assassins of Alamut), skeptical
essays, and over 150 book reviews, go to: http://www.acampbell.org.uk/
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our
obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come
from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. [Carl Sagan]
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