[Gllug] DNS and modem woes

[Bruce Richardson]

On Tue, Feb 11, 2003 at 08:13:17PM -0000, Wayne wrote:
> 
> Having recently updated SUSE to 8.1 (from 8.0) I am having problems with
> the modem, and I think possibly the DNS. When I connect with wvdial it
> connects and displays locla/remote/primary/secodary IP's but takes
> around 2 minutes to return 
> Pppd: script /etc/ppp/ip-up run sucessful
> Default route OK
> Nameserver (DNS) OK
> Connected.....
> 
> At the same time I loose all connections into the machine from the
> internal network (SSH)....changing firewall rules????
> 
> Any ideas please?

This is a problem that SuSE users in particular seem to have been having
for years (I know I've been repeating this advice for years).  Did you
use kppp to set up your internet connection?  If so, check for an option
called something like "Auto-configure Hostname" and TURN IT OFF.

What is happening is this: each time you connect to the internet, ppp is
changing your hostname, probably to a name given by your ISP's RAS
server.  This means that your hostname doesn't match what is listed in
your hosts file against your lan ip address.

You can test this by connecting to the internet, opening a terminal and
typing

	hostname

If it doesn't give what you expect, su to root and reset the hostname
using the hostname command (man hostname).  You should then find that
your lan is working properly.

I've only ever used kppp once, so I don't know if the auto-config option
is set by default but it's such a common gotcha that they really ought
to mark the check box in red with a big "Use at your own risk" warning.

-- 
Bruce

What would Edward Woodward do?
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