On Tue, 25 Nov 97 19:18:44 -0400,
wb2oyc <WB2OYC@BELLATLANTIC.NET> wrote:
> >> Here it is: I often use a Linux box as my router when connecting to work.
> >
> >So you have a LAN at home and the Linux box is the router.  Ok, so
> >far.  Is the problematic Mac hooked up on the LAN?
> >
> Certainly, how else would it get to the router ?  It wouldn't do much 
> good to try to connect from a machine that wasn't on the network!

I couldn't figure whether your Mac was at work or at home until I read
through your post.  All information you've given us in three or four
paragraphs could have been written in three or four lines, a couple of
sentences.  All I'm asking you is try to view things from others'
point of view, who are not gonna know anything about your
configuration, and whom you are asking for help, afterall.  What's so
hard to understand about that?
 
> >> Under certain circumstances, attempting to telnet from this Mac running
> >> NetBSD to a system at work, crashes the link (PPP) between that Linux box
> >> and work.
> >
> >When you say "it crashes", exactly what happens?  pppd gets killed?
> 
> The modem hangs up the line, and the pppd is no longer running.

So, who hangs up the modem?  Your modem should not drop carrier for no
reason, should it?

> >Or carrier gets dropped?  If it's the carrier, do you have any idea
> >which end (your Linux box or the modem at work) drops it?
> >
> >Also, does only telnet do it?  Or any other app?
> >
> >> THE ONLY SYSTEM THAT CRASHES THE LINK IS NETBSD!  Does anyone know
> >> why this happens, or can take a stab at it?
> >
> >I'm sorry to say this, but there are too many variables involved here
> >even to speculate what's going wrong.
> 
> Nonsense!  The link works for hours on end UNTIL I try to telnet from

What's so nonsense about it?  You don't tell us what kind of machine
your work machine is, what kind of modem your work has, how it is
connected to LAN at work, or not even what version of kernel you are
running, until Colin asked.  I can list, what, four variables on top
of my head.  There sure are more others. 

What do you expect from us?  We don't have any obligation to help you,
moral or otherwise, not certainly financial.

> ONLY NETBSD KILLS the link!  You're making it more complicated than
> it is.  It really is as simple as that.

If you really think this is all you have to tell us to help you,
you're not gonna get any.  This is NOT enough.

Just FYI, a while ago, some people were having trouble downloading
things from, I think, ftp.netbsd.org, and it turned out that certain
bit pattern in the data stream triggered a bug in a router on the
path.  How do you know if it's not the case with this problem of
yours?  I don't because I don't know anything about how the dial-up
modem at your work is connected to the network.  Is it connected
directly to the work machine, or to a term server?

Do you still think you've provided everything we need to know in order
to help?

BTW, it's probably not the path MTU discovery bug Colin mentioned,
since it was only a couple of months (weeks?) ago, whereas your 1.2.1
was out much more earlier.

Ken