Free Linux course

For anyone interested in Linux, EDX is starting a new course starting in August. It can be audited without charge, or for certification for a fee.
Here is the link:
https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-introduction-1621#.U9U4w7FQZ8s

Sounds like a good source of information for people just starting or those that want to practice up their skills and see if they still got it.

I signed up for it a couple of months ago, but a few weeks ago I got a nice upbeat letter from my wireless "broadband" provider, telling me that they were upgrading all their equipment to new technology and how much faster and more reliable it was going to be, and what a joyous experience it was going to provide, and, P.S., my monthly rate was more than doubling. So I'm back on dial-up (only took them 5 days to switch me from one account to the other), averaging about 2-3 KB/sec, yup that's *KILObytes*. EdX uses video heavily in their courses, so it looks like it's out for me. Facebook took over 10 minutes to load enough to give me something to read, no pictures or avatars, then I got tired of waiting. The *ads* hadn't even started to load! I went to download my email first thing (91 messages for the 5 days I was without Internet service) and several of those were pictures and videos of my granddaughters. The connection choked several times and I had to start over, then I cut off anything over 2 megs. Three hours later I finally had everything, except the bigger pictures and the videos. I guess I'll have to wait to get to town to see them from now on. The front page of this forum took over 3 minutes to load! I'm probably not going to be around a lot, not leaving, but not checking in quite so often.

[quote="averaging abouTt 2-3 KB/sec, yup that's *KILObytes*.

 Wow that's terrible. Are you using a 56K modem? Under ideal conditions that would give you +/-53K. To have such low throughput, you must have an incredibly noisy lime.

A high price to pay for not having Jehova's pounding on your door.

My desktop is using a Diamond Supra Express 56K v.92 external modem. I don't know what my laptop has built in (it *is* 56K), but it gets about the same results. I'm about 25 miles from town, and the infrastructure is getting kind of old. They've actually been upgrading a number of the switches and lines over the years. When I first got on line 20 or so years ago, we were lucky to be able to stay connected for more than 20 -30 minutes at a time (sometimes it took several tries to *get* connected), so there has been some improvement. Too far out for DSL, population density is too low for cable to come out this far, and I'm half way down the north side of a steep hill with some big trees on the ridge line (not on my property), so satellite is pretty much out (I don't like their pricing structures, either). And I refuse to get a cell phone. So options are pretty limited.

And the JW's still make it out a couple of times a year. I just politely ask them to leave and that they needn't leave a Watchtower, no problems. But I'm not so far out to not get the darn telemarketing robot calls. /gnashes teeth/ But I am too far out to use NomoRobo or one of those services.

bozo wrote:

My desktop is using a Diamond Supra Express 56K v.92 external modem.

The V.92 protocol should give you much better results. Have you tried to ping your provider's site to see where the losses occur?

Sadly land lines are not going to improve much. The switch manufacturers shut down years ago. Even 5 years ago my company was buying decommissioned switches for the spare parts. As for cell phones, you would find the rates for high data use pretty steep as well

Laz wrote:

Have you tried to ping your provider's site to see where the losses occur?

--- cal.net ping statistics ---
16 packets transmitted, 16 received, 0% packet loss, time 15104ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 179.719/190.282/227.774/10.309 ms

traceroute to cal.net (216.57.71.54), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1  laxapx05.o1.com (69.19.219.6)  183.615 ms   227.988 ms   227.889 ms
2  o1-69-19-219-19.static.o1.com (69.19.219.19)  255.983 ms   251.702 ms   275.981 ms
3  o1-69-19-223-17.static.o1.com (69.19.223.17)  271.984 ms   303.985 ms   303.956 ms
4  v701.core1.lax2.he.net (66.220.13.33)  323.986 ms   323.953 ms   331.981 ms
5  10ge9-5.core1.sjc2.he.net (184.105.213.6)  391.982 ms 10ge10-2.core1.lax1.he.net (72.52.92.121)  335.981 ms 10ge9-5.core1.sjc2.he.net (184.105.213.6)  351.986 ms
6  100ge15-1.core1.sjc2.he.net (184.105.223.249)  404.015 ms   403.692 ms 10ge1-1.core1.fmt1.he.net (72.52.92.109)  431.979 ms
7  cal-net-inc.gigabitethernet4-2.core1.fmt1.he.net (64.62.233.6)  287.691 ms 10ge1-1.core1.fmt1.he.net (72.52.92.109)  219.983 ms   203.892 ms
8  smtpauth.cal.net (216.57.71.54)  243.985 ms   251.956 ms *

Not sure exactly what this tells me, except it seems like a lot of hops to just get over a couple of hills...

bozo wrote:

Laz wrote:

Have you tried to ping your provider's site to see where the losses occur?

-
Not sure exactly what this tells me, except it seems like a lot of hops to just get over a couple of hills...

The first hop is from your location to the server's entry point. All the rest are their internal servers. One would expect those to be a great deal faster, but appear to be heavily congested. The TTL's must be set awfully high not to time out, so you aren't loosing packets. Unfortunately this test does not tell you how many times the packets have to be re-sent to correct errors.

If you are interested in ping interpretation, here is a great link:
http://openmaniak.com/ping.php

Here is a modem site that can help diagnosing problems as well, with some free access numbers. Might be interesting to see what you get.

http://modemsite.com/56k/trouble4.asp

Thanks, laz, I'll be checking out the links. I'm trying to check out the initialization strings now. They were set up for this modem a long time ago, and things aren't working the way they used to (the obvious one is that the modem speaker isn't turning on during connection, and I know it used to), so something changed. I'm having to refresh my memory about the initialization strings; getting old is the pits. so much I used to know off the top of my head is just gone.

bozo wrote:

Thanks, laz, I'll be checking out the links. I'm trying to check out the initialization strings now. They were set up for this modem a long time ago, and things aren't working the way they used to (the obvious one is that the modem speaker isn't turning on during connection, and I know it used to), so something changed. I'm having to refresh my memory about the initialization strings; getting old is the pits. so much I used to know off the top of my head is just gone.

Well, remembering is a problem I also share with you, having the advantage as far as Linxu goes, that I don't have that much to forget! The past few years I have spent making a reference database of howto's as a defensive maneuver.

Does the init string affect the modem's command set at each boot, or just make the kernel aware of it's presence? I wonder if a factory reset would make a difference.

I tried hitting the reset button without effect. The initialization string gives instruction to the modem each time it dials, so you can change the instructions easily if you're dialing into a different location, or using a different modem for some reason. Or turn the speaker off. The problem remembering is that they're very cryptic and are different for different makes and models of modem. And they can be used to set the speed, but the destination has to match. So I'm experimenting (aka trial by error).

bozo wrote:

I tried hitting the reset button without effect.

I am lucky not to have used a modem for some years now and sure don't remember all the AT commands, but I think if you look for M0 (m+0) in your init string, that turns off the speaker. M1 (m+1) turns it on. As for loudness, it should be L# (# being any valid number 1 to ?) As far as I know the init string over rides
the internal settings, unless it includes a statement not to do so. At least that was the case with USR modems.

I know welan always liked to use the lynx browser because it was text only. Might be helpful to you.

Its nice they are upgrading equipment but not so nice they are doubling prices. Our little telco cooperative where I live is currently running fiber optics to all they houses they serve. They had been installing fiber to all the new houses in town for the last decade or so, but now they are coming through to those of us with older homes. And currently working on my street. I don't expect to see much speed difference as I will still be throttled to what I pay for, but I know they are also considering using it to run cable tv in the near future instead of copper.

Not sure if you want to do this but check your locale Library for free broad band?  Here you can sit with your laptop or use their computers,  you just have to check in with a Library card first. (we did this before we got our broad band)

The local library has free wifi, it's even left on when they're closed so you can sit outside and use it. BUT, the "local" library is 28 miles away. I can use it if I have a big download, or if I happen to be there, but it's a little far just to go surf of an evening. But thanks for the idea.

[/quote]

--- cal.net ping statistics ---
16 packets transmitted, 16 received, 0% packet loss, time 15104ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 179.719/190.282/227.774/10.309 ms

traceroute to cal.net (216.57.71.54), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1  laxapx05.o1.com (69.19.219.6)  183.615 ms   227.988 ms   227.889 ms
8  smtpauth.cal.net (216.57.71.54)  243.985 ms   251.956 ms *

Not sure exactly what this tells me, except it seems like a lot of hops to just get over a couple of hills...[/quote]

As I suspected, the first hop is the bad one. 227.9ms out of a total of 251.9
This is huge. I noticed that this was based on 16 packets, which is quite long.
You might want to try adjusting the MTU value down. Odds are the peerformance is degraded by having to re-send the packets over and over again
due to transmission errors. (The 0 lost statement only indicates that it managed to get the packets across en the end.) Here is a link regarding MTU size changes:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/centos-rhel-redhat-fedora-debian-linux-mtu-size/

As an example, when I trace cal.net, I only send out 4 packets versus your 16. Interestingly, I reach it wih 9 hops, all the way from Canada. I'd tell you the total time for a ping, but don't want to make you cry!

We are rural here too but they just opened a branch 5 miles from our house about 5 years ago.
Before that the closest one was 16 miles.

Hopefully you can get your access problem straitened out soon cuz I know what slow access is like.