All Wired (ethernet) clients lose internet, but wireless clients stay connected...

[developerwarren]

Hi,

I have a persistent problem where every 20-50 minutes all "wired" computers in my house lose internet connectivity, but all wireless computers stay connected with no issues.

When my wired computers lose connectivity, it takes some 8-12 minutes for them to regain it, even if I release/renew on the individual machines.

Here is my setup and what I have tried.

CenturyLink DSL into Actiontec C1000A modem/router.
- This router is new...I called Centurylink when the problem first started (not realizing wireless clients were never losing internet) and they shipped a new modem (same problem with new modem as with old).

Port 1: DirecTV adapter's connected by cat5 cable directly.
Port 2: Switch-A connected by cat5 directly.
Port 3: Lenovo Laptop (Win7) connected by cat5 (from across the house, through walls).
Port 4: Switch-B connected by cat5 (from across the house, through walls).

Switch-A and Switch-B are both DES-1005E models form D-LINK.

Switch-A has connections to:

• Win7 Desktop by way of cat5 through walls to another part of house.
• Macbook pro laptop by way of cat5 through walls to another part of house.

Switch-B has connections to:

• DirecTV "Genie" DVR
• Bluray Player
• Sometimes Macbook Pro if we are streaming onto TV
• 60" LED TV

Wirelessly we have various iOS devices and sometimes the Macbook Pro, none of which ever lose internet connectivity.

When we lose "Wired" internet access, wired devices can still see one another (I am generally remote desktopped from my win7 desktop to the T400, and never lose this when internet goes down), but none can reach the internet.

Further, none of the wired devices can access the Actiontec router admin (192.168.0.1) when an outage occurs, but all wireless devices can do so without issues.

Switch-A used to be an older switch of mine, and I thought maybe it had gone bad, but having replaced it with a new one the problems persist...plus even the devices that are not switched lose access.

Thank you so much for any help as I try to isolate the problem and troubleshoot.

 

[jdabbs]

Judging by the troubleshooting log, you are asking the right questions.

Few more to answer:
When you lose internet access the router admin page is unreachable, and you perform an ipconfig /release renew. Does the router actually respond to that DHCP request? (I'm assuming it's the DHCP server for your network)

Can you successfully ping 192.168.0.1, both when an outage occurs and during normal operation?

8-12 minutes is a long time. If you reboot the router, does this time change any? Any chance you have a VPN client or secondary network configured on affected devices?

I've found the easiest way of dealing with problems is to be able to identify the root cause. That's difficult if you don't have a clear picture of what's going on in the background. Barring that, another approach is to start isolating components--stripping away devices until you hone in on the issue. The method of doing this accurately will depend on your answer to the previous questions.

 

[developerwarren]

Answers and a Question

Thanks for the quick reply, jdabbs.

I was writing up a partial reply, as watching the Internet Connectivity Monitor on one of my desktops had resulted in a toaster-effect, so far...no outages while you look, but I'm mid-outage this moment, so here are your answers.

Is the network DHCP? Yes.

When router admin page is unreachable, does it respond to ipconfig release/renew? It appears to. "ipconfig /release" results in no IP address assigned, and "ipconfig /renew "Local Area Connection"" results in the same IP address and gateway values showing up again in my ipconfig results...though for all I know it resumes the old values by default if the router is unresponsive?

Can you ping 192.168.0.1?
- When I am mid-outage? No - times out.
- Normally? Yes - response in < 1 ms.

If you reboot the router, does everything reconnect and gain internet faster? No - rebooting during the problem doesn't seem to bring things up more quickly.
​

I'm wondering if at some level, given the wired client outage happens across multiple computers, hooked up in multiple rooms, comprising multiple platforms (Win7 and Mac OS X), I shouldn't be looking squarely at the Actiontec C1000A modem/router right now.

I happen to have, as yet unboxed, an Asus RT-N66U Dual-band Wireless-N900 router that I was planning on returning to Newegg (since I ended up leasing from CenturyLink a combination modem/router).

I wonder if its possible to "turn off" the firewall/router capabilities of the Actiontec so that it solely fulfills its ADSL capabilities and to use my RT-N66U for routing.

I work from home, for a software company, and so I'm really looking for the no-stress, everything just works 99% of the time solution here, even if it costs more.

 

[developerwarren]

More Investigation

Last night I disconnected both switches and essentially had only the following wired to the router:
1 - Lenovo T400 Laptop running Win7
2 - Desktop running Win7
3 - Directv DECA II ethernet to coax adapter

No outages in over 14 hours of monitoring. I'll do some work this morning for another couple of hours or so and see how it holds up.

At that point I either need to take a hard look at what was attached to the switch I disconnected or try inserting my Asus RT-AC66U router into the mix perhaps. Hmm.

Here is what was on that switch:
1 - Samsung Bluray player
2 - LG LED TV
3 - Directv Genie DVR
4 - Denon receiver

 

[developerwarren]

Progress!

I decided to start plugging other items into the network one by one to see what information it would yield before deciding not to return the rather expensive Asus router.

I first plugged in my LG LED TV and ran without issues for about 3 hours.

I then plugged in my Directv HR34 Genie receiver...BAM - instant outage. I unplugged the HR34, waited until the network recovered from the outage (the usual 8 minutes), then plugged in the HR34 again. After about 20 minutes...another outage.

That helped me focus my research, and I found a thread (http://forums.directv.com/pe/elementDisplayRedirect.jsp?elementID=10953699) indicating that if you have a DECA Adapter plugged directly into your router you should not also have a receiver plugged into the network. Something about feedback...

Regardless, my operating theory (so far born out through further testing) is that having both a DECA adapter plugged into my network and a receiver plugged in is the source of my problems.

Now to figure out whether there is some advantage to having the HR34 receiver plugged in instead of the DECA Adapter...or vice versa (or if it is a wash either way).