Firstly, thanks to all who answered (on and off the list) with suggestions. Here's an update on my situation and a few new questions (at the end of this post). This time the questions are not really technical and I'm really asking for opinions. Please feel free to answer one or all of them.
After reducing mtu to 512, I can surf (although the speed is not great) from my computer. I no longer see the "buffering packet 354 (expecting 353, lost or reordered)" messages in syslog. Other computers on the network surf intermitently and not to all sites. There were some suggestions about things like how to limit the mtu on the rest of the network or not to use ktorrent, but at the moment I don't intend to try those for one simple reason. I lowered the MTU on my computer as a WORK_AROUND, and although it works (again - thank you, Yedidyah), I want to find a REAL solution rather than crippling the rest of my network. Oded - one comment about the number 512. You wrote that "512 is too a nice a number to be attributed to line noise" so I should explain that since the default ping is 64 bytes, I tried doubling (to 128, 256, etc) until ping stopped working. 512 worked and 1024 didn't. I didn't bother trying something in between since it was just an experiment to test Yedidyah's suggestion. Yesterday I had a Bezeq technician. He checked and claims the line is clean. I assume, although I have no way of knowing for sure, that the line test included testing the Bezeq DSLAM. I asked what else could be the problem, he suggested a problem with my ethernet card (that's not it - I already tried a different card), my hub (again no - I tried a direct cat-5 from my computer to the ADSL modem) or the ADSL modem itself (I still have the original Alcatel Home provided during the ADSL pilot 7 years ago). I asked how he could check this and he said he couldn't (although that sounds strange). He suggested replacing the modem, but there are three reasons that I refused to do that: 1 - He said Bezeq would charge for replacing it. Although this is off-topic, I can't see why I have to pay to replace the modem which is Bezeq's property anyway. Would I also have to pay to replace a component in the Bezeq junction box?? 2 - He hasn't "proved" to me that the modem is the problem, so I could end up paying and not solving anything. 3 - The new modem he offered doesn't support pptp - only ppoe. I assume that won't be a problem in Linux, but it's a matter of the chicken and the egg. He wanted to take the old modem, which would have left me no internet connection. And I need the internet to look for info on how to set up ppoe. The technician offerd another alternative. He suggested getting a Rotal ADSL router for 24 payments of 9.90 (total cost 238). He said that this would solve my setup problems because (he claims) the router is a plug-and-play always-connected solution. Just plug the cat-5 cable into the router and you're connected to the internet regardless of whether the machine runs Windows, Linux or whatever. Geoffrey wrote about Bezeq's 10 NIS (per month) option to support a router on the ADSL line. I'm not sure if this is what he meant, but as far as I could understand from the technician, I don't need any special service - just buy the router and plug it in. As an extra "bonus", the router also supports 802.11g WiFi, which I don't need and would probably dis-able. So here are my questions. I would be happy to hear any opinions before making a decision. 1 - After 2 weeks of "shit" from Bezeq (but to be fair, 7 years of nearly no-problem sevice before that), should I consider moving to HOT? I've always understood that the advantage of ADSL is that the whole 1.5 is mine, whereas the cable throughput depends on what bandwith my neighbours are using. Is this true? I'd especially like to hear opinions of people who have tried both ADSL and HOT. I don't expect Lnux support from either Bezeq or HOT, but it would be nice to know if HOT has better/worse support. 2 - If I go for the new modem, am I right in thinking that ppoe setup will not be a problem? 3 - Is the technician's description of the router's always-connected status accurate? Does that really mean that I can just plug in a cat-5 and surf from my Linux box with no script or software needed to connect? 4 - If that's true, what about the rest of the network? Today, my Linux box has an iptables firewall and via nat I allow the rest of the network to access the internet. But if just connecting a cat-5 cable connects to the internet, I assume all the other machines on the network would also connect automatically, and so not be protected. So wouldn't I have to have a firewall on each machine? 5 - Or would it be better/easier/enough to use the router's built-in firewall? 6 - Based on all of the above, (assuming I stay with ADSL), is the ppoe modem or the router the better solution? I have an opinion, but would be interested to hear from people who've used one or both solutions. Sorry for the long post and TIA. -- Shlomo Solomon http://the-solomons.net Sent by KMail (KDE 3.5.4) on LINUX Mandriva 2007 ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
