Fedora and Qwest

[Kam Leo]

On 5/16/07, Frank Cox <theatre at sasktel.net> wrote:
> I am setting up a customized application server for a business in the USA and
> am at my wits end with Qwest Communications.
>
> My client called them to obtain a static IP address and they gave him the IP
> address, subnet and primary and secondary DNS server.  And that's it.  No
> gateway address.  (They told him that the gateway is 192.168.0.1, believe it
> or not.)  He told me that they refuse to give him the gateway address unless he
> wants a block of IP addresses.  They won't give it out if he just wants one
> address.
>
> I said that's ridiculous; a static IP address can't work without specifying a
> gateway address.  He gave me his "case number" and all of that rigamarole and I
> phoned Quest tech support myself.
>
> Sure enough.  I told the guy who answered the phone what I want and he said
> that they won't give out the gateway address unless he gets a block of IP
> addresses.  I said that as far am I am aware it is impossible for the customer
> to actually use his static IP address without a gateway, but that made no
> difference.  No gateway.
>
> Qwest gave him some kind of a magical installation CD that set up his Windows
> XP computer to go online.  And it is online, he can plug his Windows computer
> into that modem and browse the web and so on with no problem.
>
> Dandy.  We can get the magic numbers off of this Windows machine.
>
> So I told him to run "ipconfig" and tell me what it says.
>
> IP Address is what he was assigned by Qwest, good.
> Subnet 255.255.255.0, good.
> Gateway 192.168.0.1 ---- ?!?!?!
>
> Honest to ghawd, that's what it says!  Remember that in my original question I
> said that the Qwest tech support guy told me that the gateway address was
> 192.168.0.1.  He wasn't lying, apparently.
>
> Well, you can't fight city hall so I said fine, let's put those numbers into
> the router and see what happens.  But of course the router rejects that gateway
> as not on the same network.  No surprise.
>
> I told him to run a "tracert www.sasktel.net" to see what happens there.  He
> doesn't get any IP address reported that's on his network either.
>
> I tried a traceroute to his IP address.  I have double-spaced this because my
> mail client wants to mess up the lines otherwise:
>
>  1  ws001.ltsp (192.168.0.1)  0.608 ms  0.716 ms  0.847 ms
>
>  2  142-165-95-254.msjw.static.sasknet.sk.ca (142.165.95.254)  9.756 ms  11.684
> ms  13.663 ms
>
> 3  142.165.70.2 (142.165.70.2)  16.003 ms  18.292 ms  20.229 ms
>
>  4  142.165.60.182 (142.165.60.182)  23.621 ms  25.065 ms  26.798 ms
>
>  5  142.165.2.94 (142.165.2.94)  28.310 ms  29.954 ms  32.393 ms
>
>  6  67.69.244.254 (67.69.244.254)  34.396 ms  34.844 ms  37.138 ms
>
>  7  core1-regina-pos9-1.in.bellnexxia.net (206.108.101.57)  39.049 ms  9.933
> ms  10.948 ms
>
> 8  core2-toronto12_POS9-3.net.bell.ca (64.230.144.25)  44.678 ms
> 47.065 ms  48.980 ms
> 9  core3-toronto12_POS6-0.net.bell.ca (64.230.242.201)
> 132.060 ms  132.313 ms  132.519 ms
>
> 10  core1-chicago23_pos13-0-0.net.bell.ca
> (64.230.147.18)  67.141 ms  69.134 ms  71.748 ms
>
> 11 bx1-chicagodt_POS6-0.net.bell.ca (64.230.223.42)  76.089 ms  77.465 ms
> 79.184 ms
>
> 12  Qwest_bx1-chicagodt_POS7_0.net.bell.ca (64.230.186.146)  81.117 ms
> 82.842 ms  85.031 ms
>
> 13  cer-core-02.inet.qwest.net (205.171.139.149)  76.695 ms  54.154 ms  56.055
> ms
>
> 14  * * *
>
> and so on.
>
> Whether he is online or offliine with that Windows machine, the traceroute
> stops at 205.171.139.149 as shown.  And his network is not 205.171.139.x!
>
> I have absolutely no idea what's going on here.
>
> Can any of you offer any insight?  The whole thing is an Alice in Wonderland
> thing as far as I can see, and the further I go down this rabbit hole the less
> sense it seems to make.  I don't see how those settings on his Windows computer
> can work, and I don't see how the tracert results that he got can be possible
> either.  But it does, and it did.
>
> And, as I said, nobody that we can actually talk to at Qwest can provide any
> information at all, other than run the CD and it will all be set up by magic.
>
>
> --
> MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com

The information is contained in your client's cable/dsl modem. He
should be able to access it at http://192.168.0.1. If he will need the
administrator's password which should be included with the modem
documentation (may be on CDROM).