A Dragon's Tale

UO Staff Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 524 Location: Atlanta

Oh, Comcast, dear, sweet, wretched Comcast...
Last night at about 1am, my internet shut off. Now, if I was a major pirate or something, then I could understand my modem blinking at me. But I'm not. I was looking at the new Postal 2 stuff (more on that later) and downloading some trailers for some movies, namely Dodgeball and Alien Versus Predator. So, needless to say, I was upset. I decided to do what I usually do - recycle the modem, do a release/renew of IPs through the command prompt, and then try to get on the net. This almost always works the first time, and if not the first time, the second time gets it goin'. Not this time, though.

After doing this process three times, I turned off both my computer and modem, turned 'em both back on, and then waited. 45 seconds later when Windows greeted me, I tried to get on the net again. No avail. It seemed that Comcast was either down, or the feds were closing in on my location for reading too much really profane and very funny stuff. So, I played a bit of FarCry, a few practice matches in UT04, and tried again. By now it's about 2:30, and the net is still down. I'm a bit worried now, and I just decided to go to bed. I got up this morning, checked, it was still down. I went to work around the neighborhood to earn some money towards a new PC (also more on that later), and after I came back, I checked again. Still down? This is a travesty! Who will do the news, I asked... and lo, an hour later, the net was up. The lesson? I'm going to like being at UGA with the dedicated T1, rather than relying on the not-always-up Comcast.
Jerks.

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2004 3:23 pm

that was a sad story, i hate it to when my internet fails on me, but i dont know realy what to do, and wait and it works after a hour till a day or so. if no i call Planet Intenet.
release/renew of IPs through the command prompt
whats that?

UO Staff Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 524 Location: Atlanta

Basically, removes all the IPs assigned to your PC and then either assigns new ones, or re-loads them from your DHCP.

Start > Run > cmd > ipconfig /release > ipconfig /renew

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 11:10 am

does/can this do any harm? to my PC or internet?
basicly what your saying is you get a new IP adres?

UO Staff Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 524 Location: Atlanta

If you have a dynamic IP, this will give you a new one, but when you do a release, I think you're temporarily kicked off your network. A renew should give you a new IP from your provider if you're on broadband... but if that's the case, you probably will end up with the same one anyway.

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 1:42 pm

ah ok, thanks for the info.
sorry to got this thread of topic.. Confused

UO Noob Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 2

You are an addict; it's as simple as that. The good news is that you're not alone. We've become to depend on it much more than we do on other means of communication. Ever since I got broadband I stopped watching TV all together. While it might not be an apropriate substitute for books or even TV itself, it's good enough for most. It's strange but I feel as if my PC is underused if I'm not using the 'net at all. I guess that the 'net is a nice, personal gateway to a world of information.

Anyway, about the ipconfig related stuff, I was under the impression that with a cable connection you cannot release/renew your IP address unless your turn off your modem for some hours since it's binded to your MAC address. Maybe it's BS, but all in all, I'm glad that I have aDSL since all I have to do is reconnect to receive a new IP address.

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:16 pm

actually i dont know the correct answer to this but i can clear up one misunderstanding you seem to have (no offence Smile

)

MAC addresses cannot be released/renewed. it is literally quite impossible unless you hack into the card and change it that way (which i highly doubt is possible) All Net card MFG's are given a specific range of Mac Addys that they can use. and they must be PERMINANT! thats how most online crimelabs track perps, by their unique mac address and IP addy. (IP addy narrows it down, and Mac points you out)

UO Noob Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 2

No offence taken. What I meant is that you can specify an IP address to a specific MAC address; at least you can do that with a DHCP server.

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:24 pm

yah spoofing is possible Smile

but your real MAC addy cant be changed Wink

UO Staff Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 524 Location: Atlanta

I never said you could change MAC Wink

I'm well aware of tracking... and yes, an IP can be changed in a variety of ways. You can do release renew with Cable... but you typically end up with the same IP as before.

Ultimate Fanboy Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 508

MAC addresses can be changed... I can change mine matter of fact.

UO Staff Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 524 Location: Atlanta

If you program it... but a lot of people don't know how to do that - the common user doesn't, at least. I also never said you COULDN'T change the MAC. I just stayed mum on the whole topic.

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 10:02 pm

hmmm i thought you couldent change the Mac addy... hmmm... shows how much i know Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 6:21 am

do i need to say more? Razz

wel, you always know more then me, i know i got DHCP, but dont know what it is.. Confused

also all that shit about mac adreses, and IPs.. all bla bla bla.. most of it..
isnt MAC short for MACINTOSH? and that is a typ of PC right? Rolling Eyes

o and zukeft:
as long as we got www.bash.org who needs TV and a social life?