[svlug] using Comcast modem and a Linksys router?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at gmail.com):

> Many thanks to all who replied to this thread.  I will give these things a
> try, and get back to you either way to let you know what happened.

I hope things work out for you.  Just in case it doesn't, and for help
with future problems:


1.  You might want to _start_ any help request with a one-sentence
statement of the basic, fundamental problem you're trying to solve.
This helps readers know what to focus on, in the technical explanation
of yours that follows.

2.  You might want to not assume everyone's familiar with what you're
talking about.  E.g., in the _middle_ of your help request, you drop
into the middle of a paragraph that you're talking about a "Comcast DSL
modem" -- no model specified -- that "issues IP addresses" in some
unspecified fashion.[1]  It would be useful for you to, at minimum, cite
an explicit make and model of any key piece of network gear, and
describe what ports it has.

3.  You might want to be a little more descriptive when you talk about
networks.  For example, you mention "the router" in passing.  What
router?[2]  You tell us nothing at all about the network configuration
in question, except that there's a "modem" that has some unspecified
ports, a "router" that is comletely unspecified, and at least two
computers (Ubuntu 7.10 and MS-Windows 2000 Professional).

4.  You might want to specify the raw symptoms, as opposed to your
interpretations.  E.g., at one point you say "The Gutsy box can't see
the Internet', but you say nothing whatsoever about by what method you
determined this.  It can make a huge difference what you tried and what
you did not, especially in networking.  The phrase "can't see the
Internet" is interpretation.  By contrast, for example, "running
'17.112.152.32' returns 'no route to host'" is raw diagnostic data, and
a great deal more useful.  ("17.112.152.32" is the IP address currently
associated with host www.apple.com, which makes a good diagnostic
ping/traceroute testing target for Internet-connectivity problems.)


I mean no personal criticism in posting the above suggestions, and hope
they might assist you and others in getting more useful and rapid
answers to technical questions.


[1] It seems fair to _guess_ that you mean something like "is a DHCP
server on its inside LAN ethernet interface, serving up 192.169.0.x 
addresses".  Ideally, readers should not have to guess what you mean.
Towards that end, better attention to point #3, above, letting us know 
what sort of LAN configuration you're talking about, would help.  

[2] Please don't tell us _now_ what "the router" referred to.  That
would be not particularly useful, and would also miss the point.  The
point is that, if you figure that "the router" was relevant to your
problem, you should have explained the reference in the original help
request.