Strange Networking problem

[Compton_effect]

I need some help in tracing a issue on my Home Network.
On the wired side I have a Billion ADSL modem (BiPAC 5210S RC
- Afrihost), a TP-Link Wireless router (TL-WR842ND configured to use Unotelly DNS), a WD TV Live and a home media PC (Windows 8)
Then I have a Chromecast, two laptops and three Tablets (One Galaxy Tab2 and two Nexus 7).

I had a D-link but it gave me all kinds of trouble - connectivity issues, becoming unresponsive every few days.
The connectivity turned out to be due to my line speed. I had Telkom drop that for me from 10 to 6 (Only have a 4 mb account anyway). But the router still needed to be rebooted every few days. Then it turned out to have compatibility issues with the Nexus 7, so I picked up the TP-Link hoping to sort out two issues at once.

The TP-Link also needs to be rebooted every three days. It becomes completely unresponsive - you cannot connect to it at all.
First thought was that it was faulty (Coincidences happen), and I took it back to the supplier. They ran it for 4 days without issue.

Now - my networking skills suck - I'll be the first to admit it. Where do I start debugging?

 

[shadow_man]

So same issue with 2 different routers?

When you say the router becomes unresponsive, you need to clarify.

Do you mean that you can't connect to it?:

http://routerip = loads router page or not?
start > run > cmd > ok > ping routerip - do you get a reply?

OR

Do you mean that you have no internet access but are still connected to router?

e.g. can ping routerip but can't ping google (either via DNS or 8.8.8.8)

We need to see if its an issue with the router or the line - you're not being very clear. Run the above tests and post results...

 

[InTheCube]

Yeah you need to tell us what you mean by "unresponsive"?

Can you ping and connect to other devices on your internal network? Or is it just unresponsive to destinations on the internet?

 

[Compton_effect]

Sorry. Should have clarified.
The router is on, all indicator lights are on, but its dead. But you cannot ping it, anything else on the network or anything on the internet.
You are unable to connect to it via the url. The network indicator on the PC shows limited connectivity.
The only strange thing in the eventlog is:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Client
Date: 2013-10-08 02:01:17 AM
Event ID: 1014
Task Category: (1014)
Level: Warning
Keywords: (268435456)
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Description:
Name resolution for the name safebrowsing.google.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

A few intermittent warnings like this. I don't know if its related.

 

[shadow_man]

Sorry. Should have clarified.
The router is on, all indicator lights are on, but its dead. But you cannot ping it, anything else on the network or anything on the internet.
You are unable to connect to it via the url. The network indicator on the PC shows limited connectivity.
The only strange thing in the eventlog is:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Client
Date: 2013-10-08 02:01:17 AM
Event ID: 1014
Task Category: (1014)
Level: Warning
Keywords: (268435456)
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Description:
Name resolution for the name safebrowsing.google.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

A few intermittent warnings like this. I don't know if its related.

Possible power spikes? Could you plug it in to a UPS that provides stable power and let us know if the same things persists?

 

[Compton_effect]

Possible power spikes? Could you plug it in to a UPS that provides stable power and let us know if the same things persists?

Hmm. Never thought of that one. Will do that today and let you guys know. Thanks.

 

[Compton_effect]

Just some feedback on this one gents. Hectic times.
The problem is still here.
I'd moved the router to my UPS to ensure it gets stable power.

After about 24 hours the internet goes down, the router becomes non-responsive and if you run IPconfig on my Windows 8 PC:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ********
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 78-CD-8E-AD-67-B7
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3540:4687:5250:c4e4%2(Preferred)
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.196.228(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 343461262
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-19-F2-49-90-78-CD-8E-AD-67-B7
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{89ED40D4-2EE9-4D94-9F20-3723F8B24537}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Reboot the router, wait for things to return to normal and if you run a ipconfig on the same pc you get:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : *******
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 78-CD-8E-AD-67-B7
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3540:4687:5250:c4e4%2(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.101(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 10 December 2013 05:54:14 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 10 December 2013 07:54:14 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 343461262
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-19-F2-49-90-78-CD-8E-AD-67-B7
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 196.41.139.189
149.154.157.61
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{89ED40D4-2EE9-4D94-9F20-3723F8B24537}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

One suggestion I found was that my WD TV Live was causing the issue with a network conflict. Simple way to test. I unplugged it and waited. The problem still happened after 24 hours.

 

[Compton_effect]

Another strange one I just noticed. My TP-Link shows as a Media server under Networking, even though I disabled that feature. :wtf:

(Holds hamburger buns on side of head -'Help me Obi Wan. Your my only hope.)

 

[InTheCube]

Seems to be a problem with your ADSL router (192.168.0.1). Might be over-heating and then becoming unresponsive - check if the temperature seems OK. Your router could have been struck by lightning, and now it is not operating normally.

Alternatively, it could be a firmware issue. Try to install the latest firmware update (if it isn't already installed) and see if that makes a difference.

From your 2 IPConfig commands, the first one shows that DHCP on the router did not assign you an IP address. Instead, your PC used APIPA (Google this term) to assign you an automatic address - 169.254.196.228, because for some reason DHCP did not respond to your PC's request for an address. Hence why you only seem to have IPV6 values for most addresses, even though your network is an IPV4 network (based on the second IPConfig). You might want to configure your PC and a few other devices with static IP addresses, and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Tinuva]

I have a random question. How hot does the router get?

At my place, I have separated the router from the adsl modem, and the adsl modem rarely even has problems, my billion 7300ra ran for 93 days without a reboot, in which time it has not lost sync once. I only took it offline to test a vdsl router.

The separation happens, because I prefer to run a mikrotik rb751g as my router and wireless ap, instead of a adsl router.

Also, my ADSL router and mikrotik runs on a dedicated UPS for them, which helps with power spikes, and they both in a location where they won't run too hot, there is air ventilation to help with that.

 

[InTheCube]

OK after having a second look at your post above, and Googling your 2 routers, I suspect you could be suffering from simple network configuration issues (which may or may not be in addition to other hardware related issues).

Help me diagnose it - explain to me a bit more about your setup, and answer the following questions:

1. Is your Billion modem wired only, or does it have wireless as well, and if so, is it enabled?
2. What is the IP address of your Billion modem?
3. Is DHCP enabled on your Billion modem, and if so, what are the configured values (DHCP range, default gateway, DNS settings, etc)?
4. How is the Billion modem connected to the TP-Link wireless Router? Which port on your Billion router is connected to which port on your TP-Link router? Is it connected into the WAN (blue) port of your TP-Link?
5. What is the IP address of your TP Link wireless router? Is it configured with a static address, or is it assigned an IP address by your Billion modem?
6. How is your TP-Link wireless router setup? Does it have DHCP enabled on it, and if so, what are the configured values?

If DHCP is enabled on both devices, with overlapping ranges, you will have problems.
If DHCP is enabled on both devices, but each with different settings (default gateway, DNS, IP range, etc), you will have problems.
If your TP-Link router is both receiving a DHCP-assigned address, as well as acting as a DHCP server, you will have issues.

 

[Compton_effect]

OK after having a second look at your post above, and Googling your 2 routers, I suspect you could be suffering from simple network configuration issues (which may or may not be in addition to other hardware related issues).

Help me diagnose it - explain to me a bit more about your setup, and answer the following questions:

1. Is your Billion modem wired only, or does it have wireless as well, and if so, is it enabled?
2. What is the IP address of your Billion modem?
3. Is DHCP enabled on your Billion modem, and if so, what are the configured values (DHCP range, default gateway, DNS settings, etc)?
4. How is the Billion modem connected to the TP-Link wireless Router? Which port on your Billion router is connected to which port on your TP-Link router? Is it connected into the WAN (blue) port of your TP-Link?
5. What is the IP address of your TP Link wireless router? Is it configured with a static address, or is it assigned an IP address by your Billion modem?
6. How is your TP-Link wireless router setup? Does it have DHCP enabled on it, and if so, what are the configured values?

If DHCP is enabled on both devices, with overlapping ranges, you will have problems.
If DHCP is enabled on both devices, but each with different settings (default gateway, DNS, IP range, etc), you will have problems.
If your TP-Link router is both receiving a DHCP-assigned address, as well as acting as a DHCP server, you will have issues.

Thanks for the help. The Billion is wired only.
I'll answer all of the above when I'm home tonight.

 

[InTheCube]

Thanks for the help. The Billion is wired only.
I'll answer all of the above when I'm home tonight.

Cool stuff. A couple more questions:

Give me a list of all the devices connected via cable to the Billion router, connected via cable to the TP-link router, and connected wirelessly to the TP-Link.

Also, a list of devices that experience problems (unless it is everything experiencing problems at the same time).

 

[Compton_effect]

Cool stuff. A couple more questions:

Give me a list of all the devices connected via cable to the Billion router, connected via cable to the TP-link router, and connected wirelessly to the TP-Link.

Also, a list of devices that experience problems (unless it is everything experiencing problems at the same time).

You were right. DHCP was enabled on both the router and the modem. But only the Router was correctly configured.
Must have happened while I was setting up Unotelly's DNS addresses.

Had a devil of a time fixing it - disabled DHCP on the modem and then lost it completely after reboot.
Couldn't ping it, nothing. Ended up doing a factory reset on it.
Lets see if this fixes it.

One question now - where is the best place to configure DHCP? Modem or Router?
The Modem is only connected to the Router. The router is quite busy. A Windows 8 Media Pic and WD TV Live via cable. Three Tablets, a Chromecast and two laptops via WiFi.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Just to touch on the unresponsive router issue. I had the exact same issue at my place with 3 different routers, no idea what caused it but when I installed custom firmware on my TP-Link it hasn't done it since. Note the router is only a wifi router, not a modem.

 

[hackerjargon]

I had the same issue on two 3 different LP-Link routers. Two pocket routers (MR3020 and MR3040) and a wifi desktop router (WR842N). After I loaded OpenWRT on all of them.. no more problems. I prefer OpenWRT over the factory TP-Link software any day! (plus having the USB as extra storage for packages is plus!).

 

[Compton_effect]

Well. Had a long day yesterday. So I only briefly battled with the issue, set up DHCP on my Billion and disabled it on the Router.
And this morning was dead as a doornail.
Had to factory reset the Billion to get anything done. Its currently running factory settings and DHCP is disabled.

On the TP-Link:
LAN:
IP Address: 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

WAN:
MAC Address: F8-1A-67-A8-FF-B7
IP Address: 192.168.1.100 Dynamic IP
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.254
DNS Server: 192.168.1.254 , 0.0.0.0

Ipconfig on the Windows 8:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : PG-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 78-CD-8E-AD-67-B7
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3540:4687:5250:c4e4%2(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.101(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 11 December 2013 05:59:04 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 11 December 2013 07:59:49 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 343461262
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-19-F2-49-90-78-CD-8E-AD-67-B7
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 196.41.139.189
149.154.157.61
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{89ED40D4-2EE9-4D94-9F20-3723F8B24537}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

[Compton_effect]

OK after having a second look at your post above, and Googling your 2 routers, I suspect you could be suffering from simple network configuration issues (which may or may not be in addition to other hardware related issues).

Help me diagnose it - explain to me a bit more about your setup, and answer the following questions:

1. Is your Billion modem wired only, or does it have wireless as well, and if so, is it enabled?
2. What is the IP address of your Billion modem?
3. Is DHCP enabled on your Billion modem, and if so, what are the configured values (DHCP range, default gateway, DNS settings, etc)?
4. How is the Billion modem connected to the TP-Link wireless Router? Which port on your Billion router is connected to which port on your TP-Link router? Is it connected into the WAN (blue) port of your TP-Link?
5. What is the IP address of your TP Link wireless router? Is it configured with a static address, or is it assigned an IP address by your Billion modem?
6. How is your TP-Link wireless router setup? Does it have DHCP enabled on it, and if so, what are the configured values?

If DHCP is enabled on both devices, with overlapping ranges, you will have problems.
If DHCP is enabled on both devices, but each with different settings (default gateway, DNS, IP range, etc), you will have problems.
If your TP-Link router is both receiving a DHCP-assigned address, as well as acting as a DHCP server, you will have issues.

Ok. To completely answer your questions and start from the top - just in case its something obvious.
1. Billion is Wired only
2. 192.168.1.254
3. DHCP was enabled with default values. Last night I set it up with the correct values, but my DNS was down this morning - the same as usual. I disabled it now.
4. Billion is connected to the blue port on the TP-Link
5. TP-Link has the IP Address of 192.168.0.1
6. TP-Link was set up with DHCP and configured to use Unotelly DNS:

MAC Address: F8-1A-67-A8-FF-B7
IP Address: 192.168.1.100 Dynamic IP
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.254
DNS Server: 196.41.139.189 , 149.154.157.61

I'd disabled this last night while testing the Billion, but enabled it this morning again.

Everything is connected via the router - The Billion is only connected to the TP-Link.

 

[InTheCube]

OK I kinda see what your problem is. All your devices seem to be using 192.168.0.1 (TP-Link) as their default gateway, and being assigned addresses by DHCP from this router. However, your TP-Link is itself then also assigned a dynamic address via DHCP on the Billion router. Like I said earlier, if you have a device acting as a DHCP client AND a DHCP server you are going to run into issues. If the TP-Links IP address changes (because it is assigned dynamically), then all DHCP settings it gave out previously to other devices on the network will be wrong.

Second issue is that you have connected the Billion modem to the WAN port of the TP-Link router. You only do such a setup if you are going to let your TP-Link "dial" your internet connection. You have to set your Billion modem in bridge mode, and remove your ISP login details from the Billion modem, and prevent it from trying to dial a connection on its own. You then enter your ISP login details into your TP-Link modem, and get it to dial your ADSL connection. Unless your setup matches the above, things are not going to work.

Now the simplest setup IMO is as follows:

Billion router:
Configure device with static IP: 192.168.0.1
Enable DHCP server on range 192.168.0.50 - 192.168.0.200
Enter ISP login details, and allow your modem to dial the connection
Connect to any of the yellow ports on your TP-link. Do not connect to the blue LAN port.

TP-Link router
Configure device with static IP: 192.168.0.2
Disable DHCP server completely
Setup your wireless network - choose an SSID (name) and a key

You can now connect your wired devices to either the Billion modem (if it has more than 1 ethernet port) or the TP-Link router. It doesn't matter. When these devices connect, and if they are set to ask for IP addresses via DHCP, then DHCP on your Billion modem will respond to the requests, and assign in IP address in the range 192.168.0.50 to 192.168.0.200.

The same things applies to wireless devices. They will connect to the network using the SSID and wireless key. Once on the network, they will ask DHCP for an IP address, and the DHCP server on the Billion modem will assign them one in the specified range (.50 - .200).

You can now login to both your Billion router and TP-Link router, and manage both of them easily, view their status, change settings, etc. You will have only 1 network, instead of the 2 you had previously (192.168.0.x and 192.168.1.x). And assuming your Billion router has 4 ethernet ports, you've just allowed for the connection of 3 more wired devices to your network.

If you want to use UnoDNS/Unotelly to bypass the geographical restrictions placed on Netflix, Hulu, etc, you then configure 2 UnoTelly DNS servers (preferably Cape Town and Ireland) into your Billion modem. Since your Billion modem will be your default gateway, as well as DHCP server, it will deliver these UnotTelly DNS servers to the rest of your network, either directly, or transparently, depending on how the DHCP server is set up.

Hope this all makes sense.

 

[Compton_effect]

OK I kinda see what your problem is. All your devices seem to be using 192.168.0.1 (TP-Link) as their default gateway, and being assigned addresses by DHCP from this router. However, your TP-Link is itself then also assigned a dynamic address via DHCP on the Billion router. Like I said earlier, if you have a device acting as a DHCP client AND a DHCP server you are going to run into issues. If the TP-Links IP address changes (because it is assigned dynamically), then all DHCP settings it gave out previously to other devices on the network will be wrong.

Second issue is that you have connected the Billion modem to the WAN port of the TP-Link router. You only do such a setup if you are going to let your TP-Link "dial" your internet connection. You have to set your Billion modem in bridge mode, and remove your ISP login details from the Billion modem, and prevent it from trying to dial a connection on its own. You then enter your ISP login details into your TP-Link modem, and get it to dial your ADSL connection. Unless your setup matches the above, things are not going to work.

Now the simplest setup IMO is as follows:

Billion router:
Configure device with static IP: 192.168.0.1
Enable DHCP server on range 192.168.0.50 - 192.168.0.200
Enter ISP login details, and allow your modem to dial the connection
Connect to any of the yellow ports on your TP-link. Do not connect to the blue LAN port.

TP-Link router
Configure device with static IP: 192.168.0.2
Disable DHCP server completely
Setup your wireless network - choose an SSID (name) and a key

You can now connect your wired devices to either the Billion modem (if it has more than 1 ethernet port) or the TP-Link router. It doesn't matter. When these devices connect, and if they are set to ask for IP addresses via DHCP, then DHCP on your Billion modem will respond to the requests, and assign in IP address in the range 192.168.0.50 to 192.168.0.200.

The same things applies to wireless devices. They will connect to the network using the SSID and wireless key. Once on the network, they will ask DHCP for an IP address, and the DHCP server on the Billion modem will assign them one in the specified range (.50 - .200).

You can now login to both your Billion router and TP-Link router, and manage both of them easily, view their status, change settings, etc. You will have only 1 network, instead of the 2 you had previously (192.168.0.x and 192.168.1.x). And assuming your Billion router has 4 ethernet ports, you've just allowed for the connection of 3 more wired devices to your network.

If you want to use UnoDNS/Unotelly to bypass the geographical restrictions placed on Netflix, Hulu, etc, you then configure 2 UnoTelly DNS servers (preferably Cape Town and Ireland) into your Billion modem. Since your Billion modem will be your default gateway, as well as DHCP server, it will deliver these UnotTelly DNS servers to the rest of your network, either directly, or transparently, depending on how the DHCP server is set up.

Hope this all makes sense.

Dude. That makes perfect sense. I'm going to set it up like that tonight.
Thanks a lot - I owe you one.
And my wife says MyBB is a waste of time...