[NMLUG] QWest DSL with Cisco 670 vs. Actiontec GT701 modem

[usenet1 at myrealbox.com (Valentin Guillen)]

Mike,

I had some severe DNS issues using SuSE 9.0 and 9.1 as they installed, when running through the Actiontek 701 unit.  Most of the time, my websurfing would time out on virtually every request, unless I re-requested pages several times.  I experienced this problem with Konqueror, Moz, Firefox, etc, but not with Opera.  

It seems that most modern browsers as installed by SuSE or myself, were set to use IPv6 for DNS lookups.  I discovered the issue when I got the DSL service, and then noticed that if I went to a console, and performed either a dig or an nslookup command on a URL first, and THEN sent my browser to the site, that I could access the web just fine, in addition to having no problems with accessing email servers, usenet servers, xmms music sites, etc.  It was ONLY the browsers which were having the issue.  

I set my config files so that the browsers default to IPv4 use, and the problem has vanished.  My guess is that the Actiontek 701 doesn't handle IPv6 properly.  

That led to other struggles using WiFi.  I initially used some Broadcom-based WiFi cards using first the Linuxant-based Driverloader option, but that requires a permanent license, which I found distasteful.  I then used the Open Sourced driverloader.  That does work with some WiFi cards, but doesn't enable all functions of most WiFi cards.  I then gave up on those, and then tried Linux-supported WiFi based upon the Prism based chipsets, and these work like MAGIC, with all functions automatically enabled by merely plugging the card in, and booting up.  SWEET.  

http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz
Here is a link  (extremely dated) which outlines linux support for WiFi chipsets.  

My suggestion in this regard:  Don't even THINK of using WiFi which doesn't have native Linux support.  It simply isn't worth the grief involved in making it work, unless it is done as a learning exercise or for honing one's skills. 

Good Luck!

vg 
 --
Valent?n Guill?n
mailto:usenet1@myrealbox.com