ASUS RT-AC88U + RCN Internet Disconnecting...

[krosenberg]

I have RCN 1Gig internet and an ASUS AC88U router. I am using an Arris Surfboard SB8200 as my modem. I also have an RT-AC68U acting as a node using AiMesh. I do not think this matters, but I will mention it. I have a separate MOCA network using my antenna. This wires back into the 88U router but is not using the RCN cables. Attached is a Visio of what my setup looks like.

Everything has been working great up until about a week ago where I will lose internet but the router and modem both are showing that I have internet. The only thing that fixes this is a reset of both router and modem.

Any ideas?

 

[ApexRon]

I have RCN 1Gig internet and an ASUS AC88U router. I am using an Arris Surfboard SB8200 as my modem. I also have an RT-AC68U acting as a node using AiMesh. I do not think this matters, but I will mention it. I have a separate MOCA network using my antenna. This wires back into the 88U router but is not using the RCN cables. Attached is a Visio of what my setup looks like.

Everything has been working great up until about a week ago where I will lose internet but the router and modem both are showing that I have internet. The only thing that fixes this is a reset of both router and modem.

Any ideas?

Let me recap:

1. Your devices downstream from the AC88U can’t access the internet
2. Resetting the router and modem separately, waiting 5 minutes, doesn’t resolve
3. With no physical or configuration changes to your network, issue began about a week ago
4. Issue occurs randomly irrespective of time of day or day of week

At the time of the issue are you able to ping devices in your home network? Can you ping first hop?

Change the DNS setting in the router to point to Google or Open DNS.

 

[krosenberg]

Let me recap:

1. Your devices downstream from the AC88U can’t access the internet Correct
2. Resetting the router and modem separately, waiting 5 minutes, doesn’t resolve Resetting modem and router does solve the problem. I tried resetting just one and this causes issues, either the router does not see the modem or I cannot login to the modem. For example, I disconnected the WAN cable and connected it to a different port on the modem. This brought back the internet, but I could no longer login to the modem until I reset the modem.
3. With no physical or configuration changes to your network, issue began about a week ago Correct
4. Issue occurs randomly irrespective of time of day or day of week Correct

At the time of the issue are you able to ping devices in your home network? Can you ping first hop? The next time this happens, I will try this. I tried pinging the modem, and that does not work.

Change the DNS setting in the router to point to Google or Open DNS. Will do.

 

[ApexRon]

Let me recap:

1. Your devices downstream from the AC88U can’t access the internet Correct
2. Resetting the router and modem separately, waiting 5 minutes, doesn’t resolve Resetting modem and router does solve the problem. I tried resetting just one and this causes issues, either the router does not see the modem or I cannot login to the modem. For example, I disconnected the WAN cable and connected it to a different port on the modem. This brought back the internet, but I could no longer login to the modem until I reset the modem.
3. With no physical or configuration changes to your network, issue began about a week ago Correct
4. Issue occurs randomly irrespective of time of day or day of week Correct

At the time of the issue are you able to ping devices in your home network? Can you ping first hop? The next time this happens, I will try this. I tried pinging the modem, and that does not work.

Change the DNS setting in the router to point to Google or Open DNS. Will do.

If you haven't already, replace the ethernet cable between the modem and the router. Auto-Negotiation between the modem and the router occurs to determine speed and duplex. A cable issue can cause the Auto-Negotiation to almost occur continuously, the impact to modem or router could cause an issue like your experiencing, especially since you state that you cannot login to modem after removing WAN cable. While a CAT-6 cable is preferred, a later version of CAT-5 should be okay.

When this issue occurs again, plug a PC, using a different ethernet cable into the second port of the modem. See if you can login and if you can, view at the status screens and most importantly the event log for clues. If you can't login, remove the WAN connection to the router and try again. You could monitor the modem event log often to see if intermittent issues are occurring. I personally look at my cable modem periodically just to see if there is any degradation in signal or errors.

 

[krosenberg]

I already changed the cable when this first started happening, the original and the new one is Cat6. Same issue still persists. When this happens again, I will try to troubleshoot by connecting directly to the modem with my laptop.

If you haven't already, replace the ethernet cable between the modem and the router. Auto-Negotiation between the modem and the router occurs to determine speed and duplex. A cable issue can cause the Auto-Negotiation to almost occur continuously, the impact to modem or router could cause an issue like your experiencing, especially since you state that you cannot login to modem after removing WAN cable. While a CAT-6 cable is preferred, a later version of CAT-5 should be okay.

When this issue occurs again, plug a PC, using a different ethernet cable into the second port of the modem. See if you can login and if you can, view at the status screens and most importantly the event log for clues. If you can't login, remove the WAN connection to the router and try again. You could monitor the modem event log often to see if intermittent issues are occurring. I personally look at my cable modem periodically just to see if there is any degradation in signal or errors.

 

[krosenberg]

An update since I got this resolved. I had an RCN tech come out the week I posted this and apparently all my connections were very loose plus the connection into the house was not up to par. The tech tightened everything and re-ran some cable. I have not had any issues since then.