[Wylug-discuss] Virgin internet (lack of) connection

[Roger Beaumont]

Hi all,

First, thanks for the responses.

Background to the following - done after using SSH to 'come in from the 
outside' from a mate's machine...

- non-standard ports: I reconfigured Apache to accept on ports 8080 and 
8085 (dunno enough to know whether that was sensible) and used:
# lynx http://www.bradwan.co.uk:8080 (and 8085)
but no result.

- power recycling: wasn't necessary with previous IP changes (it's 
dynamic), but I half remember they were in the same range.  Tried it 
nevertheless...
but no result.

- virginmedia.support.broadband.cable: it's donkey's years since I used 
Usenet - how do I get in?

- traceroute: I did that too, with results that replicated those posted - 
it all ends at
ubr04-brad.blueyonder.co.uk (62.30.241.59)

- IP setting in the firewall:  Leaf bering uses something called pump which 
I'm guessing interrogates the modem to discover the current IP - and the 
log confirms the same IP as does dig, so I doubt if it's that. (Part log 
dump below.)

My suspicion is that Virgin have introduced some new filtering, probably, 
they'd say, "To reduce the risk of your computer being hacked."

Just like Martin Rowe, I've been doing this for years; if I remember 
rightly - for once - from soon after Bradford Cable became Yorkshire Cable, 
then Blueyonder, now Virgin (with, I think, Telewest somewhere in the 
chain).  With each take-over, the tech support has become less flexible and 
friendly (I hung up on one occasion when the guy from the last lot insisted 
I used Windows before he'd help any more - "But all my boxes run Linux!"). 
  I've kept looking at the T&C - and like Martin, never found any explicit 
prohibition, but this time (at 10p connection, plus 25p a minute) the guy 
said in so many words: "If you can browse the Web, then that's my 
responsibility finished!"

At the moment, I'm of a mind to contact ntl: Telewest Business in the 
morning.  It's only 20% more than I currently pay, and as a business 
service, I'm hoping they'll expect to be talking to the business's tech 
guy, so won't automatically expect a lay, "Doh!  I plugged it in and it 
doesn't work..." level of technical competence (I'm at least one step 
beyond that).

Unless anyone has another rabbit in their hat, I'm currently expecting just 
to pay up and try to look cheerful.

Thanks again,

Roger

-----------------------
extract from firewall log
-----------------------
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: PUMP: got an offer
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: opcode: 1
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: hw: 1
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: hwlength: 6
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: hopcount: 0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: xid: 0x505d4cb2
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: secs: 0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: flags: 0x0000
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: ciaddr: 0.0.0.0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: yiaddr: 0.0.0.0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: server_ip: 0.0.0.0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: bootp_gw_ip: 0.0.0.0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: hwaddr:
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: servername:
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: bootfile:
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 0x63 0x82 0x53 0x63
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 53 1 0x03
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 57 2 0x02 0x24
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 55 11 0x01 0x03 0x06 0x0f
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: ++++++ 0x1c 0x0c 0x07 0x09
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: ++++++ 0x2a 0x30 0x31
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 12 8 0x70 0x68 0x65 0x6f
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: ++++++ 0x6e 0x69 0x78 0x00
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 51 4 0x00 0x00 0xa8 0xc0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 54 4 0x3e 0x1e 0xf0 0xb2
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 50 4 0x4d 0x61 0xab 0x2c
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: breq: vendor: 0xff
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: opcode: 2
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: hw: 1
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: hwlength: 6
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: hopcount: 0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: xid: 0x505d4cb2
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: secs: 0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: flags: 0x0000
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: ciaddr: 0.0.0.0
Sep 24 00:42:09 pheonix pumpd[17341]: bresp: yiaddr: 77.97.171.44