CrunchBang Linux

Hello folks

I'm afraid I don't have the answer but I've also been getting the random 'I am alive' error on both Crunchbang, Vista, and XP machines. It seems to be mainly when opening links from Google Reader, Tweetdeck and web pages and particularly if in a new tab. Opera, Firefox and Arora all exhibit the same problem though Elinks is immune thus far.

This has been both hard wired and via wireless.

As it seems unlikely that several different machines with different operating systems and browsers would come down with the same thing at the same time I've concentrated on the router thinking it might be hacked, disconnecting it from the Windows machines and resetting it plus putting in a new password as well as trying a different DNS provider after flushing whatever caches I could find. To no avail.

Just in case I also ran a range of virus and malware checks on the Windows computers with nothing showing up.

The only clue I've gathered so far is that switching to 'Turbo' mode in Opera and reloading will bring up the intended page. In that mode it's connected through Opera's own proxy servers.

I haven't found a lot of information on the internet, just the aforementioned Ubuntu thread.

As would be expected It took half an hour to recreate the problem but it finally occurred again at a page for the pianist Nicky Hopkins, http://rocksoff.org/nicky-index.htm , though I don't think that is necessarily significant. The source in it's entirety is 'I am alive' and I tried to use Opera Developer Tools to look for anything of interest but it immediately jumped to the correct page when I opened them. I'll try to look more closely the next time the chance arises.

I have also found reference to 'I am alive' being a message used between some servers to indicate that they are connecting correctly but haven't got the link on this machine.

If I find out any more I'll post, as with this message, on the off chance it might give someone else a clue.