Re: Network config
On Fri, 4 Aug 2017 10:59:13 +1000
Zenaan Harkness <zenaan@freedbms.net> wrote:
>
> Given the uniqueness of how you seem to want to do your networking,
> perhaps that's the best option to make it less abnormal - looks like
> it to me.
>
I don't think it's really all that unique, or unreasonable, for a
computer user to want to specify a particular DNS server. If an
operating system file needs to be made immutable in order to achieve
this, some programmer somewhere has... made a mistake, to put it kindly.
I wasted twenty minutes the other day, because a functional network
switch connected to a couple of PCs had lost its wired connection to
the rest of the network, which had been OK half an hour earlier. This
simple fault was concealed by the way my Windows laptop was behaving in
the absence of a DHCP server. Despite my efforts, it was ignoring its
previous DHCP address, and my manually entered address, and was
acquiring an APIPA address, thus guaranteeing no possible network
connection ever.
Eventually I worked out that there was a bug causing even worse
misbehaviour than usual, and forced a suitable IP address onto the
machine, when I quickly discovered a lack of connectivity... but if the
damn thing hadn't been so *helpful*, I'd have fixed it much quicker.
There appears to be no way to tell a Windows computer that you never,
ever, *ever* want to see an APIPA address anywhere.
Yes, there's the perpetual argument about how much hand-holding a
non-IT person needs, and it's a lot, and how much should be left to the
user, but whatever the decision, it should always be possible for a
user to insist 'I want it done *this* way'. If that lands him in
trouble, tough, but foot-shooting must *always* be allowed, without an
enormous struggle.
--
Joe
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