lan problems - new fc12 x86_64 install - updater works but browser-mail do not

IrishBouzouki · #1 30th November 2009, 05:19 PM

recent (Saturday Nov-28th) install of fc12.x86_64 on two different machines (laptop and desktop) fresh from the DVD version, downloaded that same day and checksummed and media-tested during install, using the fc12 and fc12-update repos (via hardwire LAN connection) as well as the local install DVD media.

PROBLEMS: can not load a webpage on either machine (via firefox), can not connect to email server (via thunderbird)

on the laptop the bc43 wireless does appear to be able to connect as the signal bars show up but it has the same problem otherwise as the hardwire connection. on the desktop both hardwire connections (there are 2 lan ports) have the same issue and I'd like to fix all these before I start on my ralink 2870 wireless driver update.

the graphical software updater DOES connect and even loaded an update this morning (Monday Nov-30th). so the actual physical LAN connection obviously works it just does not hook to the browser and mail (and I checked the browser and mail network settings and do not see any obvious issues, but "not an expert").

I tried disabling the firewall temporarily (on one machine) and this did not change anything.

any help/ideas to try? any info I can provide? appreciate it.

(this message sent from another machine)

CSchwangler · #2 30th November 2009, 05:25 PM

Sounds like a DNS problem. To verify this you can try the following:

ping www.google.com

This should not work, while

ping 74.125.39.147

should work. Besides, the IP address is that from www.google.com.

CSchwangler · #3 30th November 2009, 05:53 PM

Where do you get your DNS and name servers from? I get mine from my ISP and since I use DHCP my router distributes them to my boxes (OK, to be precise, my name server is my router, which forwards the requests). Since one of your machines seems to work, what are the DNS servers/name servers in that machines /etc/resolv.conf?

IrishBouzouki · #4 30th November 2009, 06:24 PM

same essential setup as you describe, WiFi router acting as a DNS 'server' forwarding DNS to the three attached boxes (my wife's working vista pc on ra2870 wifi, my bad dns fc12 laptop on bc43 wifi, my bad dns fc12 desktop on hardwire lan connect for now)

that (working) box is a vista box, and I have not used vista in sooooo long I forget where to find it, let's see... well it looks like it is all automatically-configuring DHCP with no 'hard' DNS server addresses (that I see on a properties page)

on the fedora boxes they both have the DNS server address spec'd and these more or less match (or I know why they do not ie not assigned the exact same IP addr) the settings on my wifi printer so I am thinking those are the numbers that match the router...

as said tho, the updater is functioning (guessing it bypasses the dns), but the browser-mail do not

David Batson · #5 30th November 2009, 06:37 PM

It could be an IPV6 issue, so you might try disabling IPV6. It could also be a firewall issue. Check that your firewall is properly enabled.

You also can try cat /etc/resolv.conf in terminal to check your dns nameservers.

IrishBouzouki · #6 1st December 2009, 04:02 AM

cat /etc/resolv.conf produces...
# Generated by NetworkManager
[edited out]

I verified this is the correct DNS server address on my router, which forwards from the ISP.
I also verified the machine's ipv4 is using Automatic DHCP addresses only with that dns address set but no other settings (dhcp client id, search domains, routes) filled in, with ipv6 is set to 'ignore'.

---------- Post added at 04:02 PM CST ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 PM CST ----------

update - re-installed with only the local media and no repos (much faster but not nearly the package options)

only selected the basic setup no office/productivity stuff or development stuff, did select the network time updates - also just left the host and domain names at the defaults

as last time, the system came up the first time with sound muted and no active network connections

first thing I did was edit the network connections (eth0, eth1) to always connect and to be available to all users

end result same as the longer more involved install above - can not find any webpages

and that is essentially just a straight out-of-box almost no-change fc12.x86_64 install with the default packages...

---------- Post added at 11:02 PM CST ---------- Previous post was at 04:02 PM CST ----------

need help, dead in water can't use my pc for 3 days...

is there a log file somewhere that would tell me why the dns is failing to resolve a url into a correct ip address?

as stated earlier disabling the firewall did not change the behavior, and there are no entries in the firewall (that I see anyhow) that indicate access was denied to a service.

could it somehow be the two different eth0/1 connections (only one is cabled up but if the other one fails to connect...?) - will try to disable one of them and see

this seems pretty basic, hard to believe it doesn't "just work"

IrishBouzouki · #7 2nd December 2009, 03:04 PM

long fc12 re-install overnight...

okay now I am wondering if the problem is not actually the DNS (the setup seems so basic, and other machines work fine with the same DNS server - ISP via my router - as did my Fedora 10 machines (2) before I perhaps foolishly decided to upgrade both at the same time).

could there be an issue with firefox 3.3.5 64-bit and thunderbird themselves? for one thing - when you set up a thunderbird account it immediately attempt to access live.mozilla which may be why it fails the acct setup since I am not able to get to any web pages.

but I have no trouble setting up network printers or samba connections on my local LAN. and the printer was found automatically without specifying an IP address. it came back "dnssd://" etcetera which might mean it found this using _some_ DNS server?

also grabbed the old iso's for fc10 and fc11 and am considering dropping back to fc10 if I can not get fc12 to where it can access the internet via a browser.

please help me - pc not a ton of good without a web browser... is there either (a) a logfile I can look at to figure out why something as seemingly simple as a DNS/DHCP connection is failing, and/or (b) is there a way to access a different web browser (the install might have put another one on my machine but if not the add/remove/update via yum from the gui all seems to work just fine) to see if firefox itself is the problem?

thanks, sorry to bug folks about such a mundane un-exciting subject but hey it is a major roadblock right now

---------- Post added at 10:04 AM CST ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 AM CST ----------

should add that I can enter an IP address (ie the one for my router, it may be that others work too) in forefox in lieu of a URL and this does work - which is how I verified my TCP/IP settings

CSchwangler · #8 2nd December 2009, 03:08 PM

Maybe that has been answered before, but I am unable to find it. Did you disable IPv6 in Firefox?
Type about:config in address bar, then search for dns
This should bring up

network.dns.disableIPv6

which you then set to true.

IrishBouzouki · #9 2nd December 2009, 03:15 PM

@CSchwangler
... can I make a donation!
BINGO!

(why ff does not accept the network setting to disable ipv6 is... odd... but that did the trick)

now I can go back to finishing all my other needed tweaks but hopefully since those are familiar to me from fc10 it should go smoothly from here.

THANKS AGAIN!

CSchwangler · #10 2nd December 2009, 03:21 PM

Donations are always welcome .. Oh, wait, this is a user help forum and I'm a volunteer, so you can save your money. Anyways, nice that this solves your problem.

IrishBouzouki · #11 2nd December 2009, 07:15 PM

i'll just add this (because i ran across another related problem)...

to disable ipv6 for thunderbird email client...

(menu) edit>preferences... advanced toolbar icon, general tab
the button "config editor"

this is how you access the "about"config" for thunderbird

now I have 66 emails from the past 4 days to read...

stoat · #12 3rd December 2009, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IrishBouzouki

to disable ipv6 for thunderbird email client...

(menu) edit>preferences... advanced toolbar icon, general tab
the button "config editor"

this is how you access the "about"config" for thunderbird

now I have 66 emails from the past 4 days to read...

Hello IrishBouzouki,

That could be an important thing to have reported. I've had that issue with Firefox but not with Thunderbird. But you apparently did. Anyway, I didn't remember that network.dns.disableIPv6 thing being mentioned for Thunderbird before. I used the forum search and Google restricted to here, and it doesn't appear to have been mentioned before.