So yesterday, for the second day in a row, our Cox internet connection goes away. Poof… the network is still there, but there’s no DHCP server responding, so the router is off line, for all practical purposes. Connected the incoming cable to the Linux box and I can see traffic with tcpdump; mostly ARP requests from other systems. I reset the interface for DHCP and could see my own DHCP requests going out, but nothing coming back from Cox.
So, time to call and let them know they’ve screwed the pooch again. Tech support droid wants me to reboot my Linux machine to pick up a new IP address… this despite the fact that he knows absolutely nothing about Linux, specifically that the networking actually works, and can be restarted without rebooting the box. Sigh. Why do they hire these morons, and then KEEP them stupid and completely in the dark? God only knows.
Apparently they lost their DHCP server, or it had some severe screwup, since we now have a new IP address for the first time since we connected here in 2001.