LAN Connection keeps dropping while WAN is fine

[Daniel Flynn]

A little background
So I have a very complex problem here, I'll explain my setup.
I have a Vodafone Huawei HG658c Modem/Router connected to my DSL port near the front door, it's in IP Routed mode connected to Vodafone VDSL and is also the DHCP server for the house. But since it is in a corner at the front of the house, it's not ideal to situate a Wireless Router next to it (an ASUS RT-AC68U).
The ASUS used to be here but since the WiFi was not spreading around equally downstairs, I moved the ASUS to the other corner of the same room (very central in the house) and connected the two using TP-Link Powerline adapters.

Now the WiFi coverage is perfect, but because of the powerline connection, I had to change from Wireless Router mode on the ASUS (previously using PPPoE to Vodafone with the Huawei in bridge mode), to Access Point mode. So basically now the Huawei handles everything, which I'd rather it didn't (it's not a great router), but having the ASUS as the DHCP now would create a very complicated setup over the one WAN port it connects on, since I also have an Apple Airport Extreme upstairs connected now to the Huawei via Powerline also, just because the ASUS WiFi wont reach to my room (Huawei's WiFi is disabled).

TLDR - I have a Huawei modem/router doing all the work, with two wireless routers in bridge mode, connected to it via powerline. Now this setup should work fine, but lately my connection to the Huawei on my LAN keeps dropping for some reason. My Android phone every so often says "WiFi Connected with no internet access", my laptop says the same, they can both connect to the ASUS router if it type it's local IP, but not to the Huawei's IP for a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes, then it fixes itself. Last night the whole network couldn't connect to the internet for about 10 minutes and when I finally regained access to the Huawei, I saw the WAN and DSL connections had been up the whole time (nearly 20 days until I restarted it last night).

In Conclusion
I've done a bit of troubleshooting and narrowed the problem down to probably the Hauwei's settings (and to it being a crappy router), maybe exacerbated by the powerline network. I have a hunch that there might be some mismatch/conflict with IP addresses on the Huawei. I had also factory reset the Huawei since changing it's mode to IP Routed.
I've attached the Huawei settings and status screenshots below. If anyone has an idea of why my LAN connection keeps dropping i'd be grateful for the help!

Thanks,
Dan.

 

[System Error Message]

post logs, not settings.

There are 3 possible issues. Modem/router hang, link issues, ISP gateway issues.

 

[Daniel Flynn]

post logs, not settings.

Good point, didn't think of that.
Here's my logs set to debugging: http://pastebin.com/t7CYgLQH
No idea what I'm looking for in there really!

 

[System Error Message]

From the looks of it your ISP's gateway might be overwhelmed as shown by login failure or the line could be bad that you are getting packet losses. Call your ISP up, the problem seems to be on their side.

When you have internet do a speed test. Do you get the bandwidth you paid for? Are the speeds consistent? Try downloading a large torrent (such as a linux OS) and see if your internet disconnects

 

[Daniel Flynn]

Call your ISP up, the problem seems to be on their side.

I had a completely separate problem recently where my DSL connection kept dropping because the speed the line was synced at was higher than the attainable speed because of internal wiring problems in my house. The DSL was dropping a couple times every hour. That's since been resolved as we got a senior engineer to rewire to the main phone point and the CRC errors went down from hundreds of thousands per hour to, as you can see in the screenshot, 7 in 19 days! So our WAN connection now is very stable and I get 76Mb down, 18Mb up, and I'm paying for 80/20 (Line attainable at 100Mb)

But I agree it may be likely that the Huawei is overwhelmed with everything running on only one of it's LAN ports. I might have to try get the ASUS back working as the main router, and put the Huawei back in bridge mode, but any other suggestions?

 

[yorgi]

I had a completely separate problem recently where my DSL connection kept dropping because the speed the line was synced at was higher than the attainable speed because of internal wiring problems in my house. The DSL was dropping a couple times every hour. That's since been resolved as we got a senior engineer to rewire to the main phone point and the CRC errors went down from hundreds of thousands per hour to, as you can see in the screenshot, 7 in 19 days! So our WAN connection now is very stable and I get 76Mb down, 18Mb up, and I'm paying for 80/20 (Line attainable at 100Mb)

But I agree it may be likely that the Huawei is overwhelmed with everything running on only one of it's LAN ports. I might have to try get the ASUS back working as the main router, and put the Huawei back in bridge mode, but any other suggestions?

View attachment 6647

Can it be possible that you have more then one DHCP server running on separate routers? Because only 1 router should do DHCP the others should have DHCP disabled. Also take a look at your DHCP pool and make sure that static IP addresses don't fall into DHCP addresses.
DHCP should be set to 100-254 and Static range should be 1-99

 

[Daniel Flynn]

Also take a look at your DHCP pool and make sure that static IP addresses don't fall into DHCP addresses.

There was definitely only the one DHCP server in the house but I've since reconfigured the network a bit and because I no longer need the static addresses, I removed them and actually have had no problems since. That could definitely have been the solution to the main problem. Still have issues with the two APs automatically choosing the same channel but that's another issue. Thanks for the advice!