Problem booting after Yum update of FC4

[Mike McCarty]

James Wilkinson wrote:
> I suggested:
> 
>>Try "ping google.com" for several hours, and see how many packets you
>>drop.

[snip]

> OK. Two people have told me "it's abuse". So I should at least take the
> objection seriously. You're telling me it's not a denial of service
> attack (which is reasonable), or an attempt to harm Google. You're
> telling me I'm suggesting using a service Google provides in a way that
> is not reasonable.

Umm, ping response is not a service, in the sense you are using it.
They may have it there only to check their equipment, not yours. In 
order to find out why Google has ping response running, you'd have
to ask them.

> I maintain that
>  * it's necessary in the particular case to which I was responding (at
>    least to do this to somewhere in the Internet)

Possibly. Tell you what, how about *you* "provide a ping service" to
this fellow, and let him ping you for a few hours? That way, everyone
(especially the folks at Google) will be happy.

[snip]

> Unfortunately, in order to diagnose certain sorts of network problems,
> this sort of activity is necessary. Especially when you have
> intermittent problems when only a few packets get dropped. Sometimes you
> will get about 20% packet drops over a few minutes in a period of a
> couple of hours.

Yep. So how about you offer to let this guy ping you for a few hours
straight?

[snip]

>>This guy sounds like "it doesn't matter that I broke into the
>>car repair shop and used the tools there, because I put them
>>all back when I was through with them."
> 
> 
> I'm sorry, I don't think this analogy works. It implies I "broke
> through" some sort of technical or signposted barrier.

Ok, that's reasonable. I withdraw the analogy.

> A better one might be that someone provided a water fountain, and I
> suggested one might fill a few water bottles from it, in the absence of
> any signs to the contrary, and in such a way as not to deny the use of
> the fountain to anyone else.
> 
> In this case, the question really becomes "how many is too much"?

Yes. As I pointed out 30 or so pings would probably be ok, and
perhaps not even noticed. Hours on end is a very different thing.

There's a difference between filling a few water bottles, and
watering your lawn using your next door neighbor's faucet.

So I agree, it's a matter of degree.

[snip]

Mike
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