[dba-Tech] Modems

Erwin,

I appreciate your response.

>> Did you checked that the pc has no firewall activated. Sometimes people
forget to disable the firewall on a pc when that pc was first connected
directly to the internet and connecting it afterwards to a local area
network that has it's on router/firewall. <<

Well, our Novell network is about as simple as can be: file server, 2
Windows 2000 Pro workstations, a Windows XP Home workstation (my sons'), and
once in a while there's a Windows 98 workstation logged in...and very
occasionally a Windows 95 laptop. There is no router nor hardware firewall
on the LAN.

There are a number of things confusing me about this problem. I had
installed the Sygate personal firewall on the XP Home w/s a couple of weeks
ago, before the problems began with not getting an Internet connection. I
had also installed the 15 day eval edition of Norton AntiVirus in case
Blaster wanted to get on board. Then my oldest son restored the XP w/s to a
point a few weeks ago to see if maybe a game installation had munged things
up. That restore got rid of Sygate...but left the Norton AV eval intact!?!?

Also, that Windows 98 workstation has had problems logging onto the
Internet, too. I don't mind that so much since it's not a w/s that we use a
lot. But yesterday it started to connect just fine to the Internet! Right
now it's connected to the Microsoft web site and is checking for Windows 98
updates!

>> I also would advice you to use the proxy server from your server.
I cant recall the name of it (its included in Netware). However, this
will make your environment more complex, but more secure and somewhat
faster (due to active and intelligent proxy). <<

Is that really necessary? And when you say "faster", I'm already connected
by a cable modem that consistently gives me 1200 kbps download speed. I
don't want to sound like I'm whining. I have a good horseback knowledge
of Novell, but I've never dinked with anything relating to proxies. I
haven't read about them, I don't know what to do to configure it on my
server. This doesn't seem to me to be a reasonable option...especially
considering that everything was working fine 3-4 weeks ago and had been
working fine for over a year. Why should I now consider setting up a proxy
server?

>> Please also note that your cable modem/router (built in DHCP server) can
be limited to a certain number of clients. You can avoid this by using
the proxy in your server. <<

That seems like a positive thing, but I talked to my cable modem supplier
sometime back and the tech support guy indicated that there wasn't any limit
on the number of workstations I could hook up on our home office network.

It looks to me like I'll have to devote some hard study to these issues.
Nothing I've read here or found in my searches has given me any hints about
what is happening. I know that there are several things happening here but
my usual laying-on-of-hands hasn't worked. Time for more skull sweat, I
guess.

Thanks again for your reply.

Steve Erbach
Scientific Marketing
Neenah, WI

"Eventually, socialists run out of other people's money."
-- Lady Margaret Thatcher