ntpq no longer working -

[Tim]

On Thu, 2006-05-25 at 11:57 -0400, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> I can see the Netgear router set up screen from here and if I understand
> what it shows the router is addressing 70.41.189.188 at wildblue,

I see the same IP address in your mail headers, so I'd guess that *is*
your public IP address.

> while this computer addresses the router at 192.168.1.1 [not 192.168.1.255 as 
> displayed on etherape].

The former sounds quite usual (I don't know about *that* router, but
it's a common enough address to use as a gateway).  The latter might be
down to *what* your reading from etherape (i.e. you're getting some
response from that address, but the address doesn't apply to what we're
talking about).

NB:  Where I've used the term "gateway", throughout this email, I'm
referring to any device that is the gateway point between two networks,
not your Gateway *brand* PC on your network diagram.

>  Router Status
>   
>  Account Name	WGR614v6
>  Firmware Version	V1.0.11_1.0.7NA
>   
>  Internet Port 
>  MAC Address	00:14:6C:7D:F7:1D
>  IP Address	70.41.189.188

Your *public* IP address.

>  DHCP	DHCPClient

You would appear to be getting your IP address from your ISP using DHCP
(you're running a client for it).

>  IP Subnet Mask	255.255.252.0

The subnet mask is used against the IP address to determine what else is
on the same subnet.

>  Domain Name Server	12.189.32.61

The address for your ISPs domain name server.  Most likely your router
will do one of two things with it:

1. It'll act as a proxy between your local computers and their DNS
server, with your local PCs being set to use the router for their DNS
queries.

2. It'll pass that address to your local computers, and they'll query it
directly.

>  LAN Port
>  MAC Address	00:14:6C:7D:F7:1C
>  IP Address	192.168.1.1

The LAN side of your router has that IP address.

>  DHCP	ON

This probably means that your router also acts as a DHCP server for your
LAN (depends on what *yours* means by "on"), and will dole out IPs to
your LAN PCs.

>  IP Subnet Mask	255.255.255.0

In conjunction with the IP address, marks the boundary of what's on the
same subnet.  In this case, because the first three quads are 255 (all
binary 1s), this means anything starting with the same three numbers
(192.168.1) is on the same subnet.  i.e. Those can talk to each other
directly.  Anything beginning with other numbers is external, in this
case that's the internet, but for complex LANs that could just mean
another segment, and connections must go through the gateway.

Think about a subnet mask like a large company with internal mail.
You'd address all mail with a full delivery address, but the sorting
office will look at anything for the same building, and just route in
internally.

>>> The web interface even had trouble "getting along" with WinXP,
   
> The problem there was not being able to access the Linksys Wireless
> Ethernet Bridge set-up display [at 192.168.1.226] from the browser. 
> It has worked at times but I suspect it may not allow me to access it
> while it is "connected" to the router?

I can't see why not, you should be able to access it at all times.  I'd
hazard a guess that it's more likely to be due to your networking
problems.  You have more than one subnet on your system, you might not
have that set up right.

Looking at your network diagram, any PC with a direct wireless interface
on the same 192.168.1.x subnet ought to be able to access it directly.
Ones going through your other 10.0.0.y subnet would only manage it if
the subnetting is set up correctly, *and* if the device isn't configured
to only allow configuration from within the same subnet (i.e. it might
have to be done from a computer with a 192.168.1.x address).

Though, I don't know if that brand allows you to access it via wireless,
perhaps configuration has to be done through the cabled-up side of it.
Considering the poor security model of wireless, that might be sensible.


>> By the way, does your satellite internet work in the rain?  A few years
>> ago a friend of mine had one form of satellite internet, and he'd go off
>> the air within seconds of rain starting, and stay off until it passed.
   
> I believe this system runs in Ku band, about 13 Kmc  [gHz] which suffers 
> noticeably from atmospheric attenuation in heavy rain showers.

It's been a *LONG* time since I studied RF, so I don't recall off-hand
which bands are really susceptible.  Though it was rather amusing to see
the same problem happen to one of our TV stations.  If rain started
their transmissions would rapidly deteriorate (they were an interstate
organisation, with a satellite link to the local UHF transmitter).  If
it rained heavily, it became completely unwatchable.


> I suspect the uplink is the weak link in the system, it probably runs
> less than four watts of RF, and the internet seems to drop out before
> the television signal, also in the same band.

Though that could be due to the internet having less tolerant
requirements for it to continue working, especially if the TV is
analogue, though even digital TV might be more tolerant of some errors
than computer data.


> There is also the twice a year problem with solar noise when the sun
> is directly behind the satellite for twenty minutes or so.

I used to be on an ISP which used a satellite link between themselves
and the rest of the world, it used to suffer badly from sun activity.
As well as really bad lag most of the time.  I eventually ditched them
for extreme crappiness.

> We are in a rural area, our neighbor grows wheat, cotton, and soy
> beans, and the cable company wanted $6000 to provide service, the
> Telco simply says not available!

We have large sections of Australia in the same boat:  Miles from
anywhere, putting in a landline would cost a mammoth fortune, and
mightn't even be good enough for voice, never mind data (a few hours to
load one simple webpage, and it might fail in the middle, is a common
complaint).  Alternative communications are incredibly expensive, too.

-- 
(Currently running FC4, in case that's important to the thread)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.