Hello There,

In recent days I have had a situation that I am not sure YET just what the cause was. Some days ago I noticed that BBBS stopped calling out via BinkD for mail. All outbound connection attempts were "No Carrier" with the log showing:

181014 01:04 Calling Prizm, filegate.net:24555
181014 01:04 NO CARRIER
181014 01:05 Calling Prizm, filegate.net:24555
181014 01:05 NO CARRIER
181014 01:07 Calling Prizm, filegate.net:24555
181014 01:07 NO CARRIER

Upon further inspection I noticed that NO outbound connections were possible. meaning that I couldn't surf the web, check email, Etc. on the BBBS PC.

BUT, I could connect to BBBS via an inbound connection from other PC's as well as my cell phone. The PC in question currently runs Ubuntu 16.10. In testing I did change network cables, changed the NIC being used the problem PC as well changing the IP that the PC used. None of the things I tried allowed an outbound connection.

Finally, I decided to move BBBS completely over to a different PC the alternate
PC currently runs Linux Mint 19.0. Once BBBS was moved and loaded to the new PC I was able to connect to Janis and Nick just fine.

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas. I am the type that doesn't like unanswered questions and am planning to continue to find out the actual cause of the problem.


Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.ne\ (1:282/1031)

Upon further inspection I noticed that NO outbound connections were possible. meaning that I couldn't surf the web, check email, Etc. on the BBBS PC.

BUT, I could connect to BBBS via an inbound connection from other PC's as well >as my cell phone.

Thankfully I have not experienced this. :)

Sounds like networking (on the lan) is fine but the internet is not?

What kind of connection does your cell phone use to connect to BBBS, is it using the lan or the internet?

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox ][ - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.1)

Hello Alan,

Upon further inspection I noticed that NO outbound connections were possible. >> meaning that I couldn't surf the web, check email, Etc. on the BBBS PC. >>BUT, I could connect to BBBS via an inbound connection from other PC's as wel >> as my cell phone.

Thankfully I have not experienced this. :)

Sounds like networking (on the lan) is fine but the internet is not?
What kind of connection does your cell phone use to connect to BBBS, is it using the lan or the internet?

The cell phone uses it own internet data connection and connects to BBBS using BBBS's domain name bbs.ouijabrd.net. The PC's (Both my local networked PC's as as well remote PC's) can connect to BBBS using both IP and domain name address for BBBS.

I checked all the usual things that might have caused the problem such as router, cabling, NIC's, Firewall, network settings and all look ok. The inability to make an outbound connection just suddenly happened. The log at that moment shows:

181012 20:31 Calling Prizm, filegate.net:24555
181012 20:31 CONNECT 57600/RAW
181012 20:31 BinkP mail session
181012 20:31 Prism bbs, 1:261/38.0
181012 20:31 AKA: 1:261/100.0
181012 20:31 AKA: 115:1000/0.0
181012 20:31 AKA: 115:1502/0.0
181012 20:31 AKA: 115:1502/1.0
181012 20:31 AKA: 115:1502/101.0
181012 20:31 AKA: 111:111/1000.0
181012 20:31 SysOp: Janis Kracht
181012 20:31 From: Slaterville Springs, NY
181012 20:31 Using: BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3 binkp/1.0
181012 20:31 Flags: XX
181012 20:31 Mail session completed
181012 20:31 --------------------------
181012 21:31 Calling Prizm, filegate.net:24555
181012 21:31 NO CARRIER
181012 22:01 Calling Prizm, filegate.net:24555
181012 22:01 NO CARRIER
181012 22:03 Calling Prizm, filegate.net:24555
181012 22:03 NO CARRIER

At that point (21:31 on 10/12/2018) I could not make any outbound network connection. The problem did not look to be limited to BBBS as other outbound connections such as web browsing were also not possible. But... Inbound connections WERE still possible.


Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.ne\ (1:282/1031)

Hello Alan,

At that point (21:31 on 10/12/2018) I could not make any outbound network connection. The problem did not look to be limited to BBBS as other outbound connections such as web browsing were also not possible. But... Inbound connections WERE still possible.

That is odd. Does that still happen if you plug a different machine into that cable?

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox ][ - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.1)

Hello Alan,

At that point (21:31 on 10/12/2018) I could not make any outbound network
connection. The problem did not look to be limited to BBBS as other outbound >> connections such as web browsing were also not possible. But... Inbound
connections WERE still possible.

That is odd. Does that still happen if you plug a different machine into that cable?

Different cable, different NIC, same PC same problem. Moved BBBS over to another Linux PC, no problem. Can connect in and out just fine. When time permit and health permits I will continue to investigate the actual cause of the connection problem on that Linux PC. Right now i am trying to get over a bad case of pneumonia.

Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.ne\ (1:282/1031)

Hello There,

At that point (21:31 on 10/12/2018) I could not make any outbound network >>>connection. The problem did not look to be limited to BBBS as other outbound >>> connections such as web browsing were also not possible. But... Inbound
connections WERE still possible.

That is odd. Does that still happen if you plug a different machine into that >> cable?

Different cable, different NIC, same PC same problem. Moved BBBS over to another Linux PC, no problem. Can connect in and out just fine. When time permit and health permits I will continue to investigate the actual cause of the connection problem on that Linux PC. Right now i am trying to get over a bad case of pneumonia.

Update. I did a fresh install of Ubuntu Linux 17.04 which was an update to the previous 16.10 version on the problem PC. Which included the formatting of the HDD's. Once installed I noticed that I STILL had the same connection problem. The PC can ping the router. The router can ping the PC. The router can ping remote locations fine. The PC can ping local network PC's and the router ok but
can not reach anyplace beyond the router. All the other PC's can connect anywhere just fine. BBBS once moved to a Linux mint PC can make outbound connections just fine again.


Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.ne\ (1:282/1031)

Hello There,

At that point (21:31 on 10/12/2018) I could not make any outbound network >>>>connection. The problem did not look to be limited to BBBS as other outboun >>>> connections such as web browsing were also not possible. But... Inbound >>>> connections WERE still possible.

Wanted to make an update. It seems (Based on online research) that I am not alone in the phenomenon of not being able to connect. I have become aware that others running have had the same problem. Although it doesn't actually look to be Linux related. In the cases that I have researched when the person having the issue changed hardware the problem disappeared. With some it was as simple as changing to a USB based network interface as simply changing the PCI based NIC did not solve the problem. With me it was solved by changing the motherboard that was being used.


Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.ne\ (1:282/1031)

Wanted to make an update. It seems (Based on online research) that I am not
alone in the phenomenon of not being able to connect. I have become aware that >others running have had the same problem. Although it doesn't actually look to
be Linux related.

I was thinking it may have been a kernel or kernel module change that caused the problem but if the issue happens on other OSs that's not the case.

In the cases that I have researched when the person having
the issue changed hardware the problem disappeared. With some it was as simple
as changing to a USB based network interface as simply changing the PCI based NIC did not solve the problem. With me it was solved by changing the motherboard that was being used.

Maybe the NIC (built in?) just gave up for some reason. Glad you got it sorted.. :)

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox ][ - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.1)

Hello Alan,

I was thinking it may have been a kernel or kernel module change that caused the problem but if the issue happens on other OSs that's not the case.

At first I too thought that Linux might have been the cause. But I had changed Linux distro's but using the same hardware and had the same issue.

Maybe the NIC (built in?) just gave up for some reason. Glad you got it sorted.. :)

I tried disabling the integrated NIC and used a USB based NIC and had the same issue. Once I changed the motherboard (I actually moved the existing BBBS as a whole to another PC) the issue disappeared. The existing motherboard seems to work fine in all other aspects of operation. The PC had a 500 GB SSD boot drive
with 6 TB of SATA HD's so it made a decent PC for BBS/FTN use. At some point I will replace the motherboard in the problem PC.

I was having another issue with an intermittent failure of both inbound and outbound connectivity which included both Binkp as well as Http connectivity. I
initially thought it was also related to the NIC issue. But it turned out to be
a fault in the DSL modem/router. Once I replaced the modem/router that issue also ceased.



Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.ne\ (1:282/1031)

Hello There,

I figured another update was required as I didn't want misinformation (From Me) to cause the wrong assumptions or conclusions.

I was thinking it may have been a kernel or kernel module change that caused >> the problem but if the issue happens on other OSs that's not the case.

First of there really were two fundamental problems. One being the BBBS PC suddenly not being able to make outbound connections and only limited inbound connections.

The second problem was that parts of the internet were unreachable while other parts could be reached fine. This condition was experienced by all PC's here regardless of OS.

The first problem DID turn out to be a Linux issue. Specifically a Ubuntu issue. When I previously stated that I had tried other distros. I errored in my statement. I should have stated that I had upgraded the version of Ubuntu that I had to a newer version. Both the Ubuntu version that I been using and the version that I upgraded to both had the same problem of not being able to see beyond the router. The BBBS PC could see the router as well as all the local networked PC's but nothing beyond the router. I have finally decided to actually go ahead and change Linux versions to Linux Mint v19. Now the former BBBS PC can now see the internet just fine using the same PC based network hardware that was previously in use.

The second problem of not being able to see the whole internet as I have stated turned out to be the router. Once I was able to convince my ISP that the
router was suspect and needed to be replaced. And was able to convince them to
actually send me a replacement. The problem with the missing parts of the internet looks to have also been fixed.

I am still not really sure what the issue was with Ubuntu that caused the initial BBBS PC problem. I suspect that since I upgraded as opposed to wiping and reformatting the BBBS PC initially the problem remained.

Since the former BBBS PC isn't committed to a task. Just for S's & G's I will likely do a fresh install of the current version of Ubuntu to test my theory.



Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.ne\ (1:282/1031)

Hello There,

I have finally decided to actually go ahead and change Linux versions to Linux Mint v19. Now the former BBBS PC can now see the internet just fine using the same PC based network hardware that was previously in use.

I am still not really sure what the issue was with Ubuntu that caused the initial BBBS PC problem. I suspect that since I upgraded as opposed to wiping and reformatting the BBBS PC initially the problem remained.

Since the former BBBS PC isn't committed to a task. Just for S's & G's I will likely do a fresh install of the current version of Ubuntu to test my theory.

I wiped the newly installed Linux Mint installation on the problem PC and did a
fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS formatting all the HD's during the install process. Once installed the newly installed Ubuntu OS once again COULD NOT make
an outbound network connection. <Banging head on table top>

Reinstalled Linux Mint v19 and the network once again works fine. There has to be some negative relationship between Ubuntu and the existing network hardware that I just don't see.


Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-3
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.ne\ (1:282/1031)