How do I diagnose this?

[Ben Scott]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 1:22 PM,  <bruce.labitt at autoliv.com> wrote:
> Recently I changed employment.  (Our group was bought.)

  "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."  :-)

> Right now I am trying to figure out why yum and wget (http and ftp) fail.

  Can you describe the failure mode?  In other words, what happens?
Do they fail immediately with an error message?  Sit there forever
like they're trying, but never make progress?  Sit for a while and
then give a message?  Note any messages you do get.

> When I first used my browser in linux, it challenged me.  I provided the
> correct credentials and was able to access the net.

  That sounds like either (A1) an HTTP proxy server or (A2) a firewall
doing HTTP interception.

  A1 means that all requests to "outside" resources have to be sent to
a specific server (the proxy server), which then handles them on your
behalf.  There are a reasonably well-defined set of standards,
including a way for browsers to automatically discover the local
network's proxy server.  wget and yum, however, would need to be
manually told.

  An easy way to find out if proxy auto-discovery happened is to open
up a command prompt window and issue the command:

	ping wpad

If ping is able to resolve "wpad" ("web proxy auto detect") to an IP
address, then an HTTP proxy server is almost certainly in use.

  A2 is trickier.  The general idea is that a firewall intercepts
*all* web pages requests, and gives you a login screen instead.  (In
other words, you request "http://www.yahoo.com/", but get the firewall
login instead.)  Once you authenticate yourself to the firewall, your
IP address is allowed on to the 'net.  The specifics, however, tend to
depend on the brand/model of firewall.  Some are platform agnostic;
some require Windows-specific software to run on your computer.

> My local IT person linux experience is not recent, however, he seems to be
> quite willing to learn.  I would like to know what to ask for, or at the
> very least how to write up a help ticket.

  I would just say you've got a Linux computer which needs Internet
access, and ask what kind of network connection and security
mechanisms you need to be aware of.  They should be able to provide
you with info on what they are doing, even if they "don't do Linux"
themselves.

-- Ben