Internet is dying - diagnostics

Mon Oct 30 00:47:48 UTC 2017

On Sunday 29 October 2017 18:39:30 Eddie G. wrote:

> Off Topic:
>
> Ok so I apologize for this, but it seems my repeated cries out to the
> developer communities are just falling on deaf ears. I figured since
> this one has some form of issue with Internet / connectivity that it
> would fit:
>
> I have been using Linux for quite a while now, and I love promoting it
> in all its variations, from Ubuntu and it's "offspring"
> (Lubuntu...Xubuntu....Kubuntu..etc) to the flavors of CEntOS and Red
> Hat.....(Fedora...OpenSuSE etc) I just have this to say. I have a
> friend that lives too far away for me to assist physically and
> in-person, and he's recently decided to try Linux,....where he lives
> there's only a wireless connection and not a wired one. I spent the
> better part of an afternoon and early evening trying to help him get
> his wireless working. He tried everything, from installing the
> b43-fwcutter installer to the Broadcom 4311 wireless drivers, and
> everything in between. Nothing worked. Was he installing on some
> esoteric or exotic piece of machinery? No. It was a somewhat older
> Dell Inspiron 15 inch laptop. In the end he had no choice but to go
> install Windows 10. I feel for him, since he's not in a place where
> there's a lot of help. And I won't get into any more particulars about
> that.
>
> What I want to say/ask is this: How is it....in an era where we have
> cars that have AI......we have virtual machines of virtual machines
> that can host yet more virtual machines....we have "smart"
> homes...containers....cloud technology......servers nested within
> servers,.....big data that can be crunched onto a SQL database and
> then compressed even further.....we have medical procedures that
> actually require logins and are computer/robot based....in short we
> have made technological advances in the world of computing and
> science. YET.....THERES NO WAY TO BUILD A LINUX OS THAT COMES WITH THE
> NECESSARY DRIVERS SO THAT WIRELESS CAN WORK OUT-OF-THE-BOX? Like how
> is that even possible from a "Spock-Vulcan-Logic" perspective. Doesn't
> the demand FOR it "demand" that SOMETHING  be done? Is no one on fire
> enough to see that it gets done? Or has the entire Linux community
> gone
> dormant.....complacent to just sit back and coast on whatever
> technology is current and that will please the masses? I consider us a
> "family" of sorts, and we "lost" a family member to Windows.....WE
> LOST HIM TO WINDOWS!....the same OS we tell others to avoid because of
> security issues, because of its great big "bullseye" on its
> back.....seems no one cares anymore...or else someone would have done
> something by now about this. And yes, I also understand that it would
> take a lot of
> "programming power" to get something to work that might not include
> proprietary software, and yes, I know that its a thankless job and you
> might even be crucified if something else "breaks" when you install it
> or create it...or modify it....but I thought that's what the Open
> Source community WAS!...a group of brave souls....the modern day
> pirates who forged their own paths and didn't let the conforms of
> society dictate their destinies. I cannot fathom how someone can
> install
> Xubuntu....Kubuntu...Ubuntu....Linux Mint....and a slew of other OS'es
> and NONE of them have the necessary drivers to connect to the
> internet....unless you're willing to go through all these needless
> excess steps. Its sad, because I have admired the Open Source
> Community all my life, but to see this guy go the route of Windows 10
> all because he couldn't connect to the internet easily.....well it
> just seems like no one cares enough......if I had the time to sit and
> learn programming at my age?.(almost 48!)...I would do it....but I
> don't so I can't And I understand that it might be some kind of
> gargantuan undertaking, but if no one "dared" back then.....where
> would we all be today?.....if no one "tried" where would our files and
> folders be right now?....on a Windows 10 machine?....or maybe a
> MacBook? Well I hope someone finds this and reads it....and gets
> inspired to do SOMETHING......ANYTHING about it. Because it doesn't
> make our cause of trying to help others make the switch any easier if
> they're not able to do the "basics"! Just thought I'd put that out
> there....oh and?
>
>
> Thanks For Listening!
>
> L "Cubed" (L-ong L-ive L-inux!)
>
I and the rest of the list can commiserate with you, even to the point of 
some name calling, but let me point out, and its a huge problem, every 
countries equ to our FCC has issued a mandate that in the world of radio 
communications, the user cannot be allowed to have any access to the 
programming of a software radio, which is what all these wifi chips are 
and have been for at least a decade.  So the chip maker does not publish 
any data other than the high level api's to control the channels it can 
use, with each country having its own legal to used channel #'s vs 
frequencies that translates to, and varying max power levels from one 
jurisdiction to the next.

So you are yelling at the wrong people.  Yell at your regulatory agencies 
for a better solution, they are the cause of all the secrecy wrapped 
around the wifi stuffs. They know what the hackers are capable of, not 
the least of which is turning up one of these chips to quite illegal 
power levels, or making them work on an illegal channel that unknown to 
the perp until the federal marshals come calling, is blanketing the 
local fire/rescue channel.  The only universal solution was to put it 
all under an NDA such that only the device maker$ can afford a 5 to 7 
digit $eat at that table.

So be nice Eddie, its not our fault. FWIW, winderz folks also suffer.  
Lots of lappies were sold a decade back, with pcmcia wifi cards with 
broadcom bcm-4318 radio chips on them. But even windows never had a 
WORKING driver for that radio. I know, I have one. So I use an 
aftermarket usb dongle. And I am also a licensed broadcast engineer, 
with what used to be a 1st phone card in my billfold, but they knocked 
us out and threw us under the bus 30 years ago.  So now its a general 
license you could probably test for and get, without cracking a book.

> Eddie G.
>
> On 10/22/2017 04:44 AM, Volker Wysk wrote:
> > Hello
> >
> > It may be the router. I've reset it (power off and on), and the
> > connection came back. It's not clear, though. I'll try again.
> >
> > Volker

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>