Hyperoptic with Linux server instead of provided router?

Associate
Joined
20 Jan 2018
Posts
15
I have need for my own services and firewall instead of that crud they've included.

But I can't seem to get it working properly. Does anyone know how to setup the interface on Linux?

I'm running Debian GNU/Linux Wheezy and my interface setup is like this:

iface eth1 inet dhcp
pre-up /sbin/ethtool -K $IFACE gso off gro off tso off
pre-up /sbin/ethtool -s $IFACE speed 100 duplex full autoneg off port mii
pre-up /sbin/ethtool -A $IFACE autoneg off
up /sbin/ifconfig $IFACE txqueuelen 50000

However, after a short time (a few minutes) the interface just stops responding and I have to rerun
the middle ethtool command to get it running again.

If I enable auto negotiation (essentially running it in 1Gbps, which was my original hope/ide), the
interface keep flapping up and down.

My current working idea is that it's something wrong with the port in the other end, and I've mailed
Hyperoptic about this. But in the meantime, does anyone have any idea?
 
Maybe if I had to start from scratch, but this is something I developed ten, fifteen years ago and have fine-tuned over the years to be very slick and smooth. So to speak.

But that didn't answer my question, only an answer to something I didn't ask..
 
The "ethtool -s <iface> speed <speed> autoneg off" is supposed to do exactly that - turn off autonegotiation and set the speed. The fact that it starts flapping when I turn on autonegotiation is worrying, but I'll have to deal with one thing at a time. Getting it to work longer than five minutes is number one :).

I'm going to try another cable, just to make absolutely sure. But this cable have been working fine for four or five providers over the course of several years, so it's unlikely. I'm going to triple check none the less just to be able to rule out even the most obvious things.

But I've had the opinion almost from the very beginning that it's not in my end the problem is, it's in theirs.. I just can't prove it and I of course can't check. And they're not extremely helpful :(. But there's still things I could do in my end, I hope, to make sure I've tried everything..

I moved the uplink to the builtin/on-moderboard ethernet interface which is a completely different chip and driver, and I STILL get the same problems - just stops working after a few minutes. Not a peep in the logs or anything. The two LEDs on the card blinks like it's transmitting small amounts of data, so I honestly don't know WHAT could be wrong...

I've even disabled all my iptables, just to make sure they didn't do anything ... "stupid" (but they've worked for years with several other providers, so...).
 
I tried a few combination like that, but always got "can't advertise speed". But after seeing your comment, I did some more tests and eventually got a command line that seemed to work:

ethtool -s eth2 autoneg on speed 100 duplex full

Using speed 1Gbps doesn't work. Still see flapping. With speed 100 it works, but I'll have to run it for a while to know for sure. But 15 minutes so far, and still going strong! Best I've ever managed is five minutes or so..

But I'm having a Hyperoptic technician over on Friday to check the quality of the cabling. With a bit of luck (!! :), it's something wrong with it. Not sure how likely that is though, the provided router don't seem to have any problem maintaining a stable link.
 
The wall socket was quite professionally done actually. The cable is still under investigation, we'll know on Friday if it's bad or not.
IMG_20180123_222058.jpg
 
I thought it wasn't too bad. Yes, it could have been done better, but not to bad. I've seen so much worse :D. But when the tech comes in on Friday, I'll have him/her do it properly. Thanx for the pointers on that...

I finally managed to get autoneg on, but only at 100Mbps. The reason why I can't get it to autoneg at 1Gbps might be because of the cabling. Either in the wall socket or beyond that. We'll know on Friday. Thanx for all the help everyone, much appreciated and helpful!
 
Well, the tech just left. He fixed the wall socket and have tested the line. He can't find anything wrong with it, all pairs are working fine he said..

Still can't get my machine to auto sync at 1Gbps. I asked him what kind of equipment they have downstairs and it was an "awari" (or it sounded something like that at least). I know some network cards have problems with certain switches and routers under Linux, but never heard of that "awari". Nor can I find anything on Google (which leads me to believe I've spelled it wrong).
 
I've tried that, they all experience the same problem. I have one NIC on the motherboard (RTL8211CL chip which uses the r8169 driver) and an Intel Dual-Port card (with a 82576 chip which uses the "igb" driver).

I've had the uplink in all three NICs, same thing... All ports work in 1Gbps mode when connected to my internal network without problem, but only at 100Mbps when on the uplink..

Even though the tech said "all is well" with the cabling, I'm still not convinced. If it was, I should not have this problem with ALL my NICs! At least I don't think so..

It might still be a interoperability issue with my NICs/OS/Drivers and the hardware they have on their end, but at the moment it's "impossible" to prove either way, Hyperoptic isn't very helpful - "it works with our router, so you're on your own" :( :(
 
Last edited:
Just bought myself a Fortinet FortiGate-50E. Wasn't as horrible as I thought. I've had problems getting speeds out of my own build (CPU to slow/old and not enough memory). It would cost me more to build my own again. Besides, the FortiGate come highly recommended by a friend that builds and maintains Cisco networks. The features and GUI is something I could never replicate..

Building my own made sense five, ten years ago when I built my current one, but not any more..
 
Yeah, yeah :). I'm just stubborn, that's it :D. The 50E can do 2.5Gbps throughput. With a lot better VPN and SSH/SSL inspection etc.

And the GUI seems to be really, really nice of the Fortinet OS! With a shell very similar to Cisco, which is a bonus.
 
Back
Top Bottom