#7785 HIGH 8.2.0 (: unreliable ethernet connection

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#7785: unreliable ethernet connection
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   Reporter:  AlbertCahalan  |       Owner:                      
       Type:  defect         |      Status:  new                 
   Priority:  high           |   Milestone:  8.2.0 (was Update.2)
  Component:  not assigned   |     Version:  not specified       
 Resolution:                 |    Keywords:                      
Next_action:  never set      |    Verified:  0                   
  Blockedby:                 |    Blocking:                      
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Comment(by AlbertCahalan):

 Replying to [comment:1 pgf]:
 > can you be more specific about "picking a bogus IP address"?  what
 address do you see chosen?

 The laptop picks a 169.254.xx.xx address. Theoretically, this could be
 useful under some extremely rare circumstances. Normally it just means
 connection trouble.

 Problem 1: this is silent; the user is not alerted to the problem and has
 no GUI method to deal with it

 Problem 2: having chosen the bogus address, the laptop is now satisfied --
 it will not continue trying to find a working address

 Put this all together, and a temporary network problem (for example, a
 slow DHCP server) means that the laptop silently loses connectivity until
 the user reboots. There is no hint as to what went wrong. All the user
 knows is that his web browser keeps failing. Experienced XO users will
 learn that the laptop is a flakey machine that just needs a reboot every
 now and then... kind of like Windows 95. This is terrible.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/7785#comment:2>
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