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November 22, 2007
More Tech Support
The other afternoon I spent some time working on a friend's home network. Without getting into too many details I'll just say I reached a point where I needed to assign an IP address to one of the computers rather than permit it to have an IP address given to it via DHCP.
In Windows XP when you tick the Use the Following IP Address (to assign an IP address) box you also have to enter DNS server info. I needed to call the ISP's Tech Support to get those addresses.
So I did. And I had a conversation similar to this.
Me: I'm calling to get the IP addresses for your DNS servers.
TS: You only have one IP address. The one that comes from the modem.
Me: I know. That's not the one I'm talking about. I'm after the IP address for the domain name servers.
TS: What will you do when they change?
Well, I've been using your service at work for 8 years and the numbers have changed but once. It isn't something that happens often.
Me: I'll change them on this end when that happens.
TS: I can tell you what your modem's IP address is.
Me: I can get that myself. I have three computers and I need the DNS servers as I'm assigning an IP address to one of them.
TS: But you only have one IP address for that modem. You can't use three computers...
I was starting to catch on.
Me: I have everything behind a router and I use network address translation to provide IP addresses that start 192 and are not in the public range. I need the DNS server info so that when I type in a web address my computer will know where to go in order to get the information it needs to resolve the address to a location on the Internet. I've got the information from you before and have it written down at work.
I stopped short of saying "I think the first two octets are 65.24"
TS: Let me ask someone else.
The briefest of moments pass.
TS: I was told to tell you to type "ipconfig /renew" and then "ipconfig /all" all in a DOS box to get the info you need.
Which will show the DNS server as being the router, or 192.168.1.1
Me: That's not going to give me what I want. I'll call work and ask someone there.
If I'd only bought my PDA with me. I've got the DNS server info in it. Wait. I did. It's in my bike bag.
The first two octets were... drum roll, please ... 65.24.
(In all fairness, this was residential-service tech support. At work I always call Business-Class support and they are more used to the request I made.)
Posted by delmer at November 22, 2007 12:02 AM
Comments
hu?
Posted by: Nancy at November 22, 2007 12:28 AM
12:28 a.m.? Shouldn't you be in bed so that you're rested for Thanksgiving? And the Lions game (is that a Thanksgiving-day game I'm supposed to think good thoughts about?)
Posted by: delmer at November 22, 2007 12:46 AM
Oh Delmerrrrrrrrr...I love it when you talk techy!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
xxx
Posted by: Pen at November 22, 2007 3:06 AM
OK but....
But if the proxy is an anonymous proxy, then even this won't work. So the only way to get the Client Address correctly is using an Applet to capture the IP address of the client. For this, the client should be trusted and signed. Another option that I came across in a forum is to create a Socket connection back to the web server from which you came and asking the Socket for the local address.
I have no idea what this says, I just posted it for Nancy's benefit.
Posted by: mikeo at November 22, 2007 8:53 AM
This is all foreign to me. Sigh. I wish I spoke your language...
Posted by: Sue at November 22, 2007 2:00 PM
I'm sure this isn't true of you Delmer, but is it true they have classes for tech support people in how to be difficult?
Posted by: Michael at November 23, 2007 4:50 AM
Lady P: I knew the geek talk would get you going. Consider it a Thanksgiving give from your friends in America.
MikeO: We'd also employed MAC filtering at the router ... so the proxy info wasn't pertinent. (And for the super-nerds out there ... Mike and I are just goofing off -- nothing either of us has said is valid.)
Sue: It's nothing to feel bad about. It's foreign to too many tech support people as well.
Michel: I don't know where a person goes to get formal training in how to be difficult, but I've talked with too many of the folks that have been to those classes.
Posted by: delmer at November 23, 2007 7:55 PM