I have an admission to make. For the last couple of weeks I have been bootlegging off of whatever available wifi I could find. This has found me out on the porch of our unit, balancing my laptop on a the railing, trying to catch a couple of waves. Sick? Mrs. R. thinks so. It's not that I don't want to pay for wifi. I'd gladly pay them if I had any idea where they were and I could connect easily. I have Comcast service at home and this unit is cabled by Comcast, too, so if I could move the service temporarily I would. But I can't do that and I don't have a modem. Anyway, blogging at 28K is torture.
I'm not sure why I can no longer connect to the internet through the two nearby open wifi networks, since I am getting a decent signal from both of them. My system shows me connected to them and the ISP, but not the internet. It's as if I can't see the DNS server at the ISP. So now I am totally bereft of all service here and to post this, get email, and do sundry other things I have no business doing while I am on vacation, I have to get in my car and drive some distance to a facility that has wifi for guests here at the beach. It means I can only do it once a day or so, which puts a bit of a crimp in my OCD internet behavior.
Cell phone service here is bad and calls only last a minute or less, so a broadband card doesn't seem worthwhile, especially as I only want this for a few weeks a year. Anybody have any solutions? Mrs. R. has suggested a psychiatrist.
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You could try putting in a "universal" DNS. Start with 4.2.2.2 Better yet, an article Here at Computer World describes dumping Comcast's lousy DNS service in favor of OpenDNS. The addresses of the OpenDNS servers are 208.67.222.222 for a primary DNS server and 208.67.220.220 for a secondary server.To put them in, do Start->Settings->Control Panel->Network Connections->[Your network card]->Properties->TCP/IP->Properties and type the OpenDNS numbers into the IP address blocks at the bottom of the window.Good Luck.
Better yet, move to Australia, we have no problems.
What? move to Australia? revere likes it in Cuba, er, I mean Florida.
Revere: I traveled the USA for 5 months using T-Mobile's wifi account ($30/Mo) in most Starbux, Kinko & Borders. Just go in & sign on using your wifi.
Or is there somewhere in Florida without a nearby Starbux?
My friend Revere. very likely you were busted for trying to login thru their system and their wireless protection kicked in. Try renaming your connection with a phone number and ask for someone to help you with their connection. Most people dont mind if they know who it is. I have this KEEN wireless N now that blots out just about everything for 1/4th of a mile. I have a lot of scabs on my system as a result. Hey, if I am going to kill their wireless b/g then I guess I have to let them pony onto my system. Its faster when its loaded up anyway.
Try hitting the start, control panel, internet options and make sure you have a clear window in the Connections tab. Having done that go to control panel, network connections and make sure you have a connection first. If it says connected then disable it, give it a minute and then enable it. Its a drag I know but its the only way to do it if its going to work at all.
28K? Can you boost it to 56kps via the onboard laptop modem settings? Most of them do have that capability.
Also, you could send a DNS email and request access to their system. No guarantee you would get any better service through theirs. Its the firewalls that kill you on this. Turn yours off for starts, then make sure your virus protection is up. You might suck something in but as long as you clean it each time before you shut it down, it shouldnt be a problem.
That may indeed be the issue. If there is a firewall between your system and the DNS which is unaware of your systems' connection, it may not be passing your system DNS information along with an IP.
The usual DHCP setup, at least on wired ISP connections, is that the ISP hands your system both an IP and the location of the DNS servers. Are you using Windows? If so, you set up your Windows client in the usual way:
Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections.
Then select the right network connection, right-mouse to "Properties", select TCP/IP in the "Local Area Connection Properties" window, and click on the "Properties" button. Both your IP and your DNS should be set to be automatically obtained.
But if an intermediate access control device is not relaying DNS information along, you're still hosed.
This problem could arise in my home network because I deployed a hardware firewall between my entire home network and my cable modem. It doesn't because all my home systems are set to DHCP, and the firewall is set to pass DNS along to it's clients together with the private IP that it assigns.
But if it did not see a client system and assign it an IP itself, it would not be able to pass it DNS information either.
Is this making sense? Does it fit what you are actually seeing? Or am I off base?
If I'm on target, then the "piggybacking" may be the issue.
Try the following test -
1) Bring up a Windows Command Window.
2) Type "ping www.google.com".
If you get replies, your DNS is working. If not, it isn't.
3) Then try "ping 72.14.253.99"
That's one of Google's IPs. If that gets you replies and the first one doesn't, your DNS is broken but your IP connectivity works.
If that's happening, then you either need to change the sort of wireless connection you're using, or else try a static DNS configuration.
Thanks to all for the suggestions. I am sitting in the cafe, now, paying for my wifi with a delicious frozen white mocca, but it's my first connection in 24 hours (jeez, I sound like a goddam addict; good thing I can quit anytime I want).
Anyway, I'm on a mac, so I can't blame it on Windows, although I might try to blame it on Bush. That always works for me. I have been able to connect through these networks at times but not anymore. I don't think they have firewalls and they are open. Randy, I'd gladly ask them if I knew where they were. We are surrounded by units here and I have no idea where these networks are. I am using OpenDNS, so that doesn't seem to be the problem either.
I did get a fleeting connection this morning on one of the networks by moving to the other side of the porch but then it started to rain. In five days I'm back to civilization but in the meanwhile, I'm still here (not Florida!).
Next time you hit the dusty trail Revere let me know and I'll use one of my bellsouth mailboxes and have it set up for you on the biz line. Its yours and only you would have access to it. Its nearly instantaneous as it acts as the server and compiles it to sent it in a burst rather than continous stream. You can post or do whatever you normally do with the regular connection. Its just a lot faster. You would though have to miss the mocca and setup the scienceblogs to receive the input, whatever that is.
EF readers may enjoy this exchange (with MANY comments) from the BBC about whether using someone else's wireless access is "stealing". Opinions are divided!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6960304.stm
Randy: First, thanks. This is the generous offer I have come to expect from you (just as I have come to expect other responses . . . ). An intermittent connection seems to have reappeared (at least out here on the porch), so I hope until I reach home I'll be connected at least once a day. We push off for home base on Saturday morning, so by Monday hope to have a regular connection again. I gave subscribing to Verizon broadband some thought but as much as I hate paying $10 at an airport or a hotel, I'd have to do that five times a month to equal what broadband would cost, so I probably won't do it. But again, thanks. You are a complicated beast. As are we all.
No biggie Revere. You simply use your backup dial up to hit the bellsouth.server. It compiles your stuff outbound and in, and its pretty damned fast. Available pretty much anywhere in the world. All I would need is what you want to call your connection and I set that portion. Then you get on with the people at bellsouth and set your password.
My Bishop uses it when he is on the road like you are. And like you he says that he is completely befuzzled at times by the lack of connections and speed.
Otherwise....long extension cords.