Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet and access

Need. Internet. Back.

Beardman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:57:33 -0800

Why can't I connect to the internet anymore? Is customer service giving me a plausible explanation? Our home internet connection has been down all weekend. We use a new and speedy 24" iMac. When we try to connect to PPPoE, it just says "Connecting...Connecting...Connecting" and finally says that it can't connect to the server. No amount of power cycles and restarts make a difference. This has happened once before, a few months ago, and changing the access password with the ISP solved the problem (until Friday).

Our apartment sucks and there is only one working phone jack, which is in an inconvenient location. Thus, we run a 15 foot phone cord from it to a normal telephone cord splitter, from which a 10 foot (filtered) telephone cord goes to the modem, and a second cord goes to our telephone.

Yesterday, my ISP's customer service guy said that the phone cord from the wall to the modem has to be 6 feet or less, or else it'll be unreliable. He correctly surmised that we often have connection issues (i.e. sometimes it says "Authenticating..." for a long time), although never before recently has it totally failed to connect, and for a couple of years we never even had the long authentication issue either.

When I told him that this issue has previously been solved by a password change, he tried that again and it didn't solve the problem. I asked him why, if the cord length is the issue, we were able to have the same setup for years without a problem. He replied that the cord can deteriorate over time.

Various forums online debate whether the length of the phone cord has anything to do with internet speed or connection reliability. Does it? Could the problem be that I'm using that splitter? Does it matter where the splitter is--i.e. should the splitter only be at the wall jack, or can I have it where it is, after the first 15 foot cord? Should I do as my ISP suggests, and either (1) replace the telephone cords that go to the modem with new ones (to solve the supposed "deterioration" problem), or (2) try to rig it up with a 6 foot cord and then a really long ethernet cable (to solve the supposed "long phone cord" problem)?

Thanks for any advice you can give me. FYI, this is in Toronto, and the ISP is Primus. (I would rather switch to Teksavvy, but when I put my number into their website it says they can't provide service to me, even though I live right downtown...?)

How can I get to about.com on my computer?

rtha — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:41:50 -0800

I can't get to about.com or ehow.com on my macbook pro. Please help me figure out why. They're not sites that I go to often, but over the last few weeks I've noticed that neither site will load for me.

I have a 13" MBP running 10.5.8. When trying to load either site, I get "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at [about.com] [ehow.com]"

This happens in Firefox, even with Adblock Plus disabled. It also happens in Safari. It happens on my wireless network at home as well as my wireless network at work (different providers).

I can get to both sites in both places on my ipod touch. I can get to both sites on the macbook if I access IE by connecting via RDC to my (Windows) work computer.

Pinging both shows "no route to host"; running traceroot shows the same.

So what's going on? I'm not desperate to get to either site - I have askme, after all! - but I'm wondering if it's symptomatic of something else, and it's weirding me out.

WiFi Filter

bad grammar — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:33:40 -0800

Is there a scammy catch or otherwise bad deal to Starbucks' free WiFi through the Starbucks card and AT&T? Don't whale away at Starbucks and their corporate fascism and terrible coffee, please; I am taking an online class at my regular university and have to get online through the day. I registered by Starbucks card for 2 hours of free WiFi access at Washington, D.C. area Starbucks locations. As for why not the public library, the National Mall, etc. it is 90+ hot and I am carrying a laptop, which I used to access (not a smartphone) and books.

I realize that I've let myself in for a deluge of promotional e-mail from both companies, but have I let myself in for anything worse? Will AT&T send me bills?

I logged on at the Starbucks at 1502 Dupont Circle and then the AT&T link dropped out and I was unable to log out. I logged back on but the AT&T sign-in screen did not come back up. Will I be penalized for not logging out? I was able to log on and log out properly at another location. There were very many competing wireless links at the Dupont Circle location.

I can't get online

ihavepromisestokeep — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:22:11 -0800

Norton detected a virus (?), Downloader.MisleadApp, on my laptop. According to Norton, the problem has been "fixed." But ever since then, I cannot access the Internet. How do I get back online? So, here is the story:

Some fishy computer activity made me think my laptop was infected. I ran Norton, which detected the Downloader.MisleadApp (which I think is some kind of generic term?). Norton says the security threat is "high" but doesn't seem to be able to resolve the issue. I download updates to Norton and run the scan again. I click "fix" on Norton and it seems to successfully take care of it. Ever since then I have not been able to access the Internet.

I have wireless internet, and according to my computer, the connection is excellent. I called my Internet Service Provider and they suggested that Norton caused the problem in resolving the virus issue by making my security settings extra high. They said I should "turn off" Norton and then turn it back on. I happily said "OK," thinking my Internet troubles were behind me and that birds would sing again. But after I hung up, I realized I didn't know what they meant by "turn off." Uninstall? I didn't do that, but I did turn off certain things for a few minutes. For instance, there is the option of turning spyware protection off. I tried that but still couldn't get online.

Argh. So, I'm frustrated and obviously naive about all this stuff and not sure what to do next. If it is relevant, I have a sony vaio and use Windows XP. What do I do now??

Network access control on a timer?

doomtop — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:35:41 -0800

Network access control on a timer? I'm looking for the most effective/efficient way to control access to the network at certain times of the day/week. What I want to do is essentially people logging onto the network at most times just simply get Internet access, but at certain time periods of each day the users would become restricted and not be able to access the Internet any longer. Instead, I'd like to have them redirected to a page telling them why they can't reach the Internet and when they will be able to again. The time frames change on different days of the week as well, so it isn't the same times every day.

I was thinking a linux machine with a proxy server that gets turned on/off by cron or something along those lines. I am looking for suggestion on if that is the best way to do it, or if maybe there are some more simple or elegant solutions to this problem out there.

If it helps, the application is a school environment where certain times of the day Internet access needs to be restricted, i.e. study hall time, late at night, etc.

Where in Los Angeles can pay by the hour to use a really fast (T1) internet access so I can upload 5GB of files to a coworker?

ronenosity — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:51:13 -0800

Are there any Kinkos, business centers, copy centers, cybercafes etc. in Los Angeles (downtown, silverlake, west side, ANYWHERE!) where I can pay by the hour to use a really fast (T1) internet access so I can upload 5GB of files to a coworker? I need to get 5GB of video footage to my out-of-country editor tomorrow morning..my DSL upload speed is so freakin slow.. it'll takes 20 hrs... I can fedex a DVD overnight but that would also take 12+ hours..

I need to get the files to him ASAP!

Whitelisting sites for an Ipod Touch

mecran01 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:45:38 -0800

My son (12) has saved his lawn mowing money and is buying a refurb Ipod touch. I want to mediate his internet access, if possible, at the router level. Please believe me when I say that I know that social control is the best method for helping my son make choices about his internet usage.

But due to reasons I don't need to go into regarding the micropolitics of our home, I need to know if there is a way to use my linksys router or some other tool to create a whitelist of sites that he can visit, preferably without restricting the other computers in the home.

If you want to tell me I'm an idiot for trying to restrict my son's access, that's fine but please do it in a private message. I just am looking for an ipod touch/router/whitelist solution, if one exists, that has a nice degree of granularity. It's not just about protecting him from EEEEEEvil, but also to keep him from surfing the web until 2 a.m.

There is a limited discussion of Ipod parental controls here, but it's not quite what I'm looking for. And here is information on changing the /etc/hosts file, but that doesn't let me turn off the internet at 11pm (for him) while keeping it on for the rest of the house.

Thanks!

DIY Secure VPN/SSH connection?

BoldStepDesign — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:29:28 -0800

I've been unsuccessful in getting an old pc up and running with Ubuntu or some other *nix OS. I am wondering. Is it possible to use VPN or ssh from my computer to my Dreamhost account to create a secure tunnel to their servers into to the internet? I'm using 0.00 gb on my account for bandwidth. Sound doable? Basically:

Me @ coffeeshop -- secure tunnel -- > Dreamhost -- > Out to the net.

-=--
If not can I do this running a VPS? (Virtual Private server), if so suggest some cheap hosts please.
-+--

Help fix a cafe's wireless setup!

geos — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:21:12 -0800

Any advice on setting up a wireless access point for a cafe for a budget of under $200? I am trying to set up a wireless access point for a cafe. There is likely to be a maximum of 30 users. Here are four options for a set-up given a budget of under $200:

a) consumer wireless router, say the Linksys WRT600N running dd-wrt,

b) 'pro-sumer'/office wireless router like say DLINK 724GU

c) 'pro-sumer' wap like say NETGEAR WAG102 paired with a consumer router to do NAT and minimal firewall

d) 'pro-sumer' wired router ala CISCO SMB RVS4000 paired with a cheap consumer wireless router used as an access point.

The WAN would be a DSL line. This is a free service so nothing is going to be 100%. Right now the cafe is using a consumer dsl-modem/wireless router and it is, not surprisingly, not dealing very well with the load. In particularly it seems like it doesn't like routing that many users, but signal strength is basically fine.

I guess the basic question is whether managing the wireless connections or the routing is the weak point for a cheap setup.

At least they can shower and use AC

pomegranate — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:38:55 -0800

Anyone know where I can find a restoration status map for Comcast after Ike? I'm looking for any info from Comcast and/or AT&T about when they expect internet access to be restored, and in what order, in the Houston area. I have a bunch of employees with laptops and power but no access to their work, which is stored on a server in Dallas. I'm wondering whether to just bring them up here to our Austin offices.

I've looked but apparently I'm not parsing the search well, can someone help?

Brute Force White List Determination

Infernarl — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:23:14 -0800

I am at a new job with restricted internet access. They have a list of white listed sites, but no one seems to know what sites are on the list, and I can't ask anyone because the company uses a third party solution and their website doesn't have a list of the sites.. Is there a program that will determine what sites are on the white list by brute force?

My own hotspot...

wongcorgi — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:01:55 -0800

What is the legality of providing free/cheap wifi to neighbors? I live in a townhouse complex, what is the legality of broadcasting an access point that gives free or possibly cheap internet? Barring your own internet providers' stance on sharing internet, are there any permit requirements, legal issues that may come up?

I'm thinking a redirected portal page that comes up, so no advertising other than the AP name. Possibly free low speed and nominal charges for full speed.

Would this be something that would warrant something more than a slap on the wrist or a letter from the homeowners board saying "don't do that?"

Give me my websites, dammit!

calistasm — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:01:02 -0800

My computer won't let me access certain websites. What gives? The sites I cannot get to are, among others, Get Rich Slowly, Barebones Software, and Ebates. I don't think they all use the same hosting provider. I'm running Leopard on a Macbook Pro with Speakeasy as my home ISP. I also have access to the University of Washington wireless network and this problem persists on that connection too, so it's probably something on my computer. I'm not running a firewall of any kind. I'm using BonEcho (for some reason Firefox is really slow) with Adblock Plus and Filterset G extensions as my main browser, although it persists on Safari and Opera too. Using a proxy allows me access to the sites. I tried disabling the adblocking extensions to see if it was that, and no dice. I don't have any weird stuff in my hosts file (AFAIK), so what's going on? I know this is a pretty weird and obscure question, but if you guys don't know, nobody will.

Is satellite internet the only option?

gazole — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:22:35 -0800

I'm looking for broadband internet connectivity options for my (quite non-tech-savvy) in-laws. They live in a somewhat rural area in Wisconsin where no cable or DSL service exists. Their kids & grandkids are scattered about the U.S. and we rely on the internet to keep in touch, send photos & movies, etc. The problem is, they only have dialup internet, and the quality of their rural phone line is such that their 56k modem usually connects at 14.4k or worse, with frequent dropped connections and so much latency that one can't tell a call was dropped for several minutes.

The most obvious solution is satellite internet. I've looked into WildBlue and HughesNet, but I have some major reservations about satellite:

- High cost of entry ($300 or more up front for hardware + install)
- High monthly costs, especially considering how much bandwidth you get (best I've seen is $50/mo for 512k down/128k up - ugh!)
- Seems like satellite users get a lot of downtime (from sampling the broadbandreports.com forums) and/or need a lot of tech ability to keep the connection up.

We have to find something faster and more reliable than their awful dialup. Given that cable and DSL are completely unavailable out there, are there any alternatives to shelling out and bolting the dish on their house?

Turn off the internet!

barnone — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:24:58 -0800

We need to turn off the internet! What is the best program for temporarily disabling our access? We need one solution for a Mac and one for Windows. Ideally we'd like something with a timer (where the internet is turned off for x number of hours) or something that requires a difficult process to unlock it. We can't simply remove all internet functionality from our computers, but we would like to make it more difficult to "check this one thing" while writing or check our inboxes to "send this one quick email." Just turning off the WiFi detectors helps for a while, but we need something more drastic.

Sure, the best thing would be to reform practices. But right now we need a bit more of a taskmaster. Extra bonus for free programs, but I'd consider paying for extra functionality. This is mostly about WiFi because we're often out in public or at school, so hiding the plug isn't the way to go here.

Any ideas?

New computer, no internet

unccivil — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:49:03 -0800

New computer won't connect to internet... I just bought a new computer (Compaq bottom line) for my mother-in-law who only uses it for internet / email. Everything seems to be working fine, however it does not recognize the internet connection...a cable modem. The modem is working fine and works if hooked back up to the old computer. The message displayed on the system tray icon is "Network Access: Local Only" I've tried the wizards to diagnose and repair the connection to no avail. The green data light at the ethernet connection is blinking as if it is transmitting data...but no connection. It came pre-installed with Norton Internet Security :(
Any ideas?

How can i block the kids internet access in the evenings?

mrbenn — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:15:27 -0800

Is there a free solution to block internet access at specific times of the day? I want to be able to block access to the internet (i am using a usb adsl modem) at certain times of the day from the kids. They have been sitting up to all hours on MSN messenger and Bebo on school nights and sneaking out of bed to use the connection etc. What i need, ideally, is a freeware program (or configuration option) that will allow me to access (via a password?) the net connection but block it from them at these times

Why can't I view this website?

mule — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 16:16:21 -0800

Why can't I view/load this website? For some reason which totally confuses me, I am unable to access this url from my home network.

I can go to the site succesfully at work and from a relatives PC, but whenever I try to connect at home I get a timeout error. I've tried connecting on both PC and Mac using Safari, Firefox and IE.

There is nothing in any firewalls/browser preferences that should be preventing acces to this site, both on the computers and on the ADSL router.

I'm at a total loss. Can anyone offer any helpful hints?

Help me get my bandwidth!

robbie01 — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 14:14:26 -0800

I just had (non-DSL, non-cable) internet access installed in my apartment through a local provider that has a T3 installed in my building. After install, I was getting 6MB/sec downloads, but the installer claimed I should be getting up to 35MB/sec, but my consumer-grade Linksys DSL router was unable to process that amount of throughput. 1. True? 2. Recommend a better router? I'm using a 2-3 year old Linksys BEFSR41 EtherFast Cable/DSL Router, and I have 3 computers (and several other components like game consoles, etc.) hooked up to a Linksys 16 port Switch (also have a Linksys Wireless Access Point in the mix.)

The installer said that most consumer-grade routers simply aren't designed to process that much bandwidth, and that if I want to have maximum speed available to all systems, I would maybe need to consider an enterprise-class router.

If this is true, can someone recommend a model I should consider? I assume I won't be able to walk into Best Buy and lay down less than $100 like I did for my current router.

In addition to a more robust router, would I also need to upgrade my switch?

running firefox with outlook web access

yonation — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 12:51:53 -0800

is there a way to make firefox work with outlook web access, in "premium" mode? my company just switched to the incomparable outlook web access, which looks quite nice in internet explorer but gives you a shitty, feature-poor version in anything else. i want to use firefox, as IE obviously sucks (i had no idea you couldn't even right-click and save the page, for example), and it doesn't seem like there's anything inherently special about IE that would make it run better with outlook premium; just regular M$ stuff. anyone have any suggestions? familiarities with the program?

Limited internet access solution for teenagers?

genefinder — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 07:24:43 -0800

My 15 year old son is getting a computer for Christmas. Any way to reliably and safely limit his internet access without restricting it so much it makes it useless? My wife and I are buying our son a Dell desktop with Windows XP for Christmas. I have wireless set up in the house, and would like to allow him some limited internet access for schoolwork. The computer will be in his room, where he does all of his homework now, with the exception of work requiring internet access (which grows larger every year). His only free access is on our family computer where he is in full view while using it.

He is a good kid, honors student, and gives us no trouble. I'd like to keep it that way by limiting the temptation to get sucked into the world of porn or chat rooms or anything else that might become a distraction. The more I think about it, the less I want him to have any internet access in his room.

In the interest of being somewhat open minded about it, are there any slick solutions to limiting his access but allowing him to get his work done? Software that requires I input a list of allowed URLs would be too prohibitive as I could never list all websites he might need for homework.

Temporary fast cheap internet access?

jellicle — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:48:17 -0800

Internet access for a short-term rented house? I'll be travelling and staying in a rented house for about ten days. Can't really get DSL or a cable modem for that time period, nor would the owners want me to. I'd like to provide internet access to the several other people staying in the house, without it being agonisingly slow. The only cost-effective method I can think of is dialup + wireless router (one with a serial port) + external modem + dialup account with local ISP for one month. This is cruddy, slow, and kind of expensive since I don't own the necessary hardware. I guess there are dialup routers available. Is there anything better? Wireless internet providers would be great, if they didn't require a dish to be installed (can't) or cost an arm and a leg. Remember: I'm not going to sign a yearly contract for this 10-day rental... Are there any options I've overlooked or don't know about?

Hotmail times out

keep it tight — Sun, 12 Dec 2004 19:52:16 -0800

Since I put in a Linksys Firewall/Router on my Cable connection, I cannot access Hotmail...it just times out [more inside] I have checked the settings and updated the firmware...to no avail...HELP!!

Ethics and dangers of tapping into your neighbor's wireless net access.

CunningLinguist — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 10:08:34 -0800

Ethics and dangers of tapping into your neighbor's wireless net access. So I just got a wireless laptop and I know zilch about how all this works. When I turn it on in my apartment, it tells me there are nearly a dozen available networks I can access. Some seem to require some kind of password, several don't. I'm assuming these are networks my neighbors in nearby apartments are paying for. My questions are: is it ethical to leech off someone else's account? Will it affect their own surfing? (The second question has implications for the first, in my view.) Will they notice? Should I try to find the person whose access I'm using and offer to pay half their bill?
What security dangers am I opening myself up to? If I keep doing this, can I get away with just not using this computer to send banking passwords and the like, seeing as I don't really care if anyone reads my email. Can someone now access my computer, not just the stuff I send? Are there any programs I should be using to protect myself? (Oh, and if you could use teeny tiny words, that would be great - I'm clueless technologically. Part of the problem here is I don't even know how to go about getting my own wireless access.)