Internet is dying - diagnostics

[Doug]

On 10/29/2017 07:47 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> 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.
The Broadcom hardware is resistant to many of the Linux distros.
I speak from the experience of PCLinuxOS, which is my primary
operating system. (I avoid Windows about 99% of the time.)
While it has been possible to install Broadcom software and get it
working, it has not be easy at all.
However: I installed Mint 17-3 LTS on a Dell laptop, and I found that
the wifi worked out of the box with that distro!  So it IS possible!
I can't tell you why other distros don't follow Mint's lead. I wish that
PCLOS would. I like Mint, but I like PCLOS better.  And you don't need
Windows, 99% of the time!

--Doug
>>
>> 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