Hi all, I apologize that there might be a better place to ask this, but this is the best I can think of. I got a friend to migrate to Linux in the last couple of days, based largely on the inability of Quest to get their DSL connection running under Windows ME without crashing the system every few minutes. Well, now she has a shiny new install of SuSE 10, and it runs just fine on my connection (Comcast cable hosted). It picks up its DHCP info perfectly and promptly and just runs, just the way it should. This morning I took it to my girlfriend's house to put the finishing touches on the toolbar so she'd find it as easy to use as posible, and it works just fine on her connection too (also Comcast). However, later today the owner took it home and plugged it into the ethernet port of her new Actiontec DSL modem, connected to Quest DSL. All the right lights are on on the DSL modem, and if I point her browser at 192.168.0.1, I get a faultless connection to the Actiontec's config pages. Further, if I point the browser at some external sites, it often works. However, it seems that the connection is intermittent, perhaps a few minutes working, then many minutes not working (utterly unusable, not just a bit flakey). Curiously, though, some websites (notably java.sun.com, for no obvious reason) seem to work pretty consistently, and will continue to work even while the other sites are unreachable. I got a couple of short ethereal files capturing the behavior, but managed--due to three hours tearing my hair out I suppose--to leave them behind :( I plugged my laptop into her system, and it exhibits the exact same behavior (and it's entirely reliable at home). Frankly, I had Quest DSL about 18 months ago, and I found it utterly unreliable, but I rather assumed they'd fixed it all up by now. I never worked out what the problem was, I just went to digital cable and was happy from then on. Is this something anyone else has experienced? Any light to shed? It occurs to me that there's a coffee shop in town that I can't use from my laptop. The effect is similar. I get a dhcp response that configures my IP, default route, and DNS believably, but I don't actually get any responses to any requests. Is it conceivable that Quest is running a protocol stack that is in some way not entirely compatible with Linux? I guess that would mean that the vast majority of their customers run other OSes (well, sad but true so far, though probably changing). I'm boggled by the whole thing. Any thoughts (or any other diagnostics) would be gratefully listened too. Quest says they can run some live tests but I can't visit this friend again till next week, so I'd like to have all the ideas in my mind when the time comes. Many thanks all in advance, Cheers, Simon "You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions." Naguib Mahfouz __________________________________________ Yahoo! DSL Something to write home about. Just $16.99/mo. or less. dsl.yahoo.com