Home Network DHCP Issues

[NowhereMan]

Hello,

I've been using a TP-Link Archer C2600 for about a year now, its got the latest firmware update on it and was reset to factory settings as per their instructions. Here is my current firmware version: 1.1.7 Build 20160622 Rel. 56516

Before this I didn't have any issues, the network was solid, especially hard wired devices. Since this update I've begun to have issues where devices see the wireless network but have no internet connection and self assign themselves a 169.254.x.x address. The bulk of these items are iPads and Apple TVs, though I had an issue with my Sonos as well but reset that to factory and was able to get it back on the network.

My question is what would be some things to troubleshoot on these devices that are not getting a DHCP IP address and keep self assigning themselves one? Its very odd and random. My sons iPad Mini will be fine most of the day then all of a sudden lose its connections and I'll look his settings and the WiFi says "No Internet Connection", then eventually a few seconds later connects.

Right now I have 3 Apple TVs that are all hard wired and I can't get them to find an IP so they are all sitting there with 169.254.x.x IPs, rebooted them several times and nothing. The bulk of the items with issues are my hard wired devices.

I even reset my wireless router mentioned above to factory and started over and still having this issues. Also, this is odd, I live in Oklahoma but when I do a speed test from speedtest.net and various other speed tests, it seems to think I live in Arizona. I did just have Cox Gigablast installed, but why does it think I'm in Arizona? I've been on some other sites that do the location finding stuff and it thinks I'm in Arizona as well.

Any kind words of where to point me to troubleshoot would be great.

Thank you.

EDIT: It seems things are slowly coming back online, maybe I wasn't patient enough, but the Apple TVs are finally all online again, so not sure what the deal was, maybe just took more time than I was giving it to get an IP from DHCP?

 

[degrub]

Hello,

I've been using a TP-Link Archer C2600 for about a year now, its got the latest firmware update on it and was reset to factory settings as per their instructions. Here is my current firmware version: 1.1.7 Build 20160622 Rel. 56516

Before this I didn't have any issues, the network was solid, especially hard wired devices. Since this update I've begun to have issues where devices see the wireless network but have no internet connection and self assign themselves a 169.254.x.x address. The bulk of these items are iPads and Apple TVs, though I had an issue with my Sonos as well but reset that to factory and was able to get it back on the network.

My question is what would be some things to troubleshoot on these devices that are not getting a DHCP IP address and keep self assigning themselves one? Its very odd and random. My sons iPad Mini will be fine most of the day then all of a sudden lose its connections and I'll look his settings and the WiFi says "No Internet Connection", then eventually a few seconds later connects.

Right now I have 3 Apple TVs that are all hard wired and I can't get them to find an IP so they are all sitting there with 169.254.x.x IPs, rebooted them several times and nothing. The bulk of the items with issues are my hard wired devices.

I even reset my wireless router mentioned above to factory and started over and still having this issues. Also, this is odd, I live in Oklahoma but when I do a speed test from speedtest.net and various other speed tests, it seems to think I live in Arizona. I did just have Cox Gigablast installed, but why does it think I'm in Arizona? I've been on some other sites that do the location finding stuff and it thinks I'm in Arizona as well.

Any kind words of where to point me to troubleshoot would be great.

Thank you.

EDIT: It seems things are slowly coming back online, maybe I wasn't patient enough, but the Apple TVs are finally all online again, so not sure what the deal was, maybe just took more time than I was giving it to get an IP from DHCP?

it should only be a few seconds.
Have you logged in to the router and checked the system logs ?

After you factory reset, did you restore all of your previous settings ?
Did you change the admin user id and password ?

Do you have any ip address conflicts ? If all of you devices expect to obtain an address from DHCP server on the router, then probably not and reboot of all devices would clear the issue. Order is shut down all user devices, then shut down router, power up router and let it finish re-booting, power up each device one at a time. that should clear any DHCP address issues.

Otherwise, you can assign IP addresses by MAC number to avoid conflicts.

If the mini keeps losing connection, are the other devices losing connection on wireless and wired ? if so check the logs for the router connection to internet -could be ISP issues, router, or modem issues. If it is only the wireless devices, download a copy from the Apple store of Airport Utility and do a wifi scan for a few minutes. look for channel conflicts - two APs with the same or close channel and similar strength. On N you should use channels 1, 6, or 11 if possible. You may see them rising and falling a lot. Otherwise, it may be that the mini is in a wifi coverage hole when it occurs. You can check this out with the above if you walk around the house and see where the signal strength drops below about 68-72 db or is erratic.

 

[NowhereMan]

Thanks for the tips degrub! Over the past few hours things have been coming back to normal. I was able to successfully get all my Apple TVs online, the SmartTVs as well (they were even doing the 169.254.x.x), and I think the iPads are doing ok now as well, the kids haven't complained in a while. So it must have just been the home network was in a state of muckiness after the new GigaBlast was installed, and the resetting of my router etc. I'll dig into the logs to see if I see anything that sticks out. I did change my userid/password, but didn't restore any settings as I don't have a lot of customizations and really the only thing I had set was some Virtual Servers (NAT) for the Xbox One but turns out it doesn't need that, the 360 might but the Xbox One didn't. So I haven't restored those, I did screen shot what I had for them in case I wanted to reset them back.

So as of right now, seems things are back to normal, I was getting frustrated there for a bit yesterday and this AM with things acting up still. Hopefully they don't creep back up. If I get another issue with the DHCP IP assignments I'll go right to the logs. I bet the issues were from all these devices having IPs from the router before the reset, and afterwards they were just not rebooted and cleaned up. Thats what I've been doing this afternoon, just as you suggested. Went through to each location in the house and dealt with each user device one at a time, after the router reboot.

I do have the TP-Link Archer C2600 router and the TP-Link RE40 range extender, it seems some of the devices, iPads/iPhones, have a little issue when it comes to switching from the main signal to the range extender. I set up the wireless names to be the exact same so that it seemed seamless, but maybe thats not the best way?

 

[degrub]

Thanks for the tips degrub! Over the past few hours things have been coming back to normal. I was able to successfully get all my Apple TVs online, the SmartTVs as well (they were even doing the 169.254.x.x), and I think the iPads are doing ok now as well, the kids haven't complained in a while. So it must have just been the home network was in a state of muckiness after the new GigaBlast was installed, and the resetting of my router etc. I'll dig into the logs to see if I see anything that sticks out. I did change my userid/password, but didn't restore any settings as I don't have a lot of customizations and really the only thing I had set was some Virtual Servers (NAT) for the Xbox One but turns out it doesn't need that, the 360 might but the Xbox One didn't. So I haven't restored those, I did screen shot what I had for them in case I wanted to reset them back.

So as of right now, seems things are back to normal, I was getting frustrated there for a bit yesterday and this AM with things acting up still. Hopefully they don't creep back up. If I get another issue with the DHCP IP assignments I'll go right to the logs. I bet the issues were from all these devices having IPs from the router before the reset, and afterwards they were just not rebooted and cleaned up. Thats what I've been doing this afternoon, just as you suggested. Went through to each location in the house and dealt with each user device one at a time, after the router reboot.

I do have the TP-Link Archer C2600 router and the TP-Link RE40 range extender, it seems some of the devices, iPads/iPhones, have a little issue when it comes to switching from the main signal to the range extender. I set up the wireless names to be the exact same so that it seemed seamless, but maybe thats not the best way?

Apparently, i-thingies are reluctant to let go of an AP until about -72 dB signal level. There is a new wireless standard rolling out (11k ?) that helps address this and makes the switching more robust. Only some of the latest APs have implemented and there may not be full interoperability between vendors. The only other inexpensive choice is separate SSIDs and manual switching on the device. Depending on your house layout, you might be able to change to a high power -AC AP and get whole house coverage. Otherwise, i would wait for the updated APs to get more reasonable in cost.

Get a copy of Airport Utility on an I-PAD and walk around your house with it running documenting the signal levels and channels used. You may find that just switching channels could improve the bandwidth even if the signal is weak.

 

[NowhereMan]

Apparently, i-thingies are reluctant to let go of an AP until about -72 dB signal level. There is a new wireless standard rolling out (11k ?) that helps address this and makes the switching more robust. Only some of the latest APs have implemented and there may not be full interoperability between vendors. The only other inexpensive choice is separate SSIDs and manual switching on the device. Depending on your house layout, you might be able to change to a high power -AC AP and get whole house coverage. Otherwise, i would wait for the updated APs to get more reasonable in cost.

I've considered the Ubiquiti Edge router and AC AP route and ditching these consumer grade wireless routers but my cathedral ceiling where it would be perfect to mount the single AP and get whole house coverage poses a challenge to me. I'm not a good attic monkey!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[NowhereMan]

Well guess I spoke too soon, the iPad of mine and my MacBook Pro and now my Sonos devices (one hard wired, one wifi) are no longer on the network and I can't get them to get an IP from DHCP. I think this firmware I installed is bad. So ticked right now.

 

[NowhereMan]

I figured it out, just don't know how to fix it.

So recently I added/swapped out a couple of Linksys EG008W Gigabit 8-Port Workgroup Switches for two newer NETGEAR ProSAFE GS108 8-Port Gigabit Desktop Switches (GS108-400NAS).

I had the two older Linksys in place working fine on the network since I moved into this house. I added a NETGEAR ProSAFE GS116NA 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch (GS116NA) about 4 or 5 months ago and everything was fine. Two Linksys switches 8 port Gigbit and one Netgear switch 16 port Gigabit, all good.

Then I got my internet upgraded to Cox Gigablast and one of those Linksys switches died before all that so I took that time to just replace the two Linksys switches and get all Netgear switches, so now I have two 8 port Gigabit switches one in Living Room, one in my office. Then the 16 port Gigabit one is upstairs in the media room. The Living Room and Media Room switches just have consumer electronics in them, Roku, AppleTV, Xbox, BluRay, AVRs, etc. Just so I'm thorough enough, here is a list of what is plugged into each switch in each room...

Upstairs Media Room:

1. Xbox One
2. Samsung Smart TV
3. Samsung BluRay Player
4. AppleTV Gen 3
5. Denon AVR-2113ci
6. Sonos Connect
7. Apple Airport Express (created a bridge to make a second WAP)

Living Room Downstairs:

1. Samsung Smart TV
2. Samsung BluRay Player
3. Roku 3
4. AppleTV Gen 4
5. Caavo HDMI Switcher

Office Downstairs:

1. Xbox One
2. MacPro

So as you can see, not a lot of complicated stuff, but apparently when I swapped out the two old Linksys for the newer Netgear switches thats when things started going weird on me. And it all aligns with when I did all the swapping and then also got the upgraded Gigablast internet. So somehow I think I'm creating some kind of ARP storm or something, because immediately when I unplug the cables that feed to the 3 switches, my WiFi starts working and I can add devices to the wireless network, were they couldn't before.

So the noob question is, why can't I have these 3 unmanaged switches in 3 different spots in my house on the network to give all my devices "internet access"? It worked fine when it was 2 Linksys, but swapping those out for Netgear to match my 16 port Netgear and all being Gigabit, brings the network down. How can I fix this? I just thought I was doing the right thing getting all switches to be gigabit and Netgear so I could handle the new gigabit internet speeds. I guess this was a rookie mistake. Any tips on how to get everything going again? Right now I have nothing plugged into the 4 ports on the router its a Netgear R6300v2, so everything is Netgear, I just want my WiFi and Wired Network up again together!!

I had these issues with two different routers, a TP-Link Archer C2600 and now this Netgear R6300v2, so I don't think I have any real attacks, just maybe too many switches and ports or whatever, I don't know?

Saw this in my logs on the router:

[DoS attack: RST Scan] attack packets in last 20 sec from ip [205.234.175.175], Saturday, Dec 31,2016 10:54:36

 

[degrub]

I figured it out, just don't know how to fix it.

So recently I added/swapped out a couple of Linksys EG008W Gigabit 8-Port Workgroup Switches for two newer NETGEAR ProSAFE GS108 8-Port Gigabit Desktop Switches (GS108-400NAS).

I had the two older Linksys in place working fine on the network since I moved into this house. I added a NETGEAR ProSAFE GS116NA 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch (GS116NA) about 4 or 5 months ago and everything was fine. Two Linksys switches 8 port Gigbit and one Netgear switch 16 port Gigabit, all good.

Then I got my internet upgraded to Cox Gigablast and one of those Linksys switches died before all that so I took that time to just replace the two Linksys switches and get all Netgear switches, so now I have two 8 port Gigabit switches one in Living Room, one in my office. Then the 16 port Gigabit one is upstairs in the media room. The Living Room and Media Room switches just have consumer electronics in them, Roku, AppleTV, Xbox, BluRay, AVRs, etc. Just so I'm thorough enough, here is a list of what is plugged into each switch in each room...

Upstairs Media Room:

1. Xbox One
2. Samsung Smart TV
3. Samsung BluRay Player
4. AppleTV Gen 3
5. Denon AVR-2113ci
6. Sonos Connect
7. Apple Airport Express (created a bridge to make a second WAP)

Living Room Downstairs:

1. Samsung Smart TV
2. Samsung BluRay Player
3. Roku 3
4. AppleTV Gen 4
5. Caavo HDMI Switcher

Office Downstairs:

1. Xbox One
2. MacPro

So as you can see, not a lot of complicated stuff, but apparently when I swapped out the two old Linksys for the newer Netgear switches thats when things started going weird on me. And it all aligns with when I did all the swapping and then also got the upgraded Gigablast internet. So somehow I think I'm creating some kind of ARP storm or something, because immediately when I unplug the cables that feed to the 3 switches, my WiFi starts working and I can add devices to the wireless network, were they couldn't before.

So the noob question is, why can't I have these 3 unmanaged switches in 3 different spots in my house on the network to give all my devices "internet access"? It worked fine when it was 2 Linksys, but swapping those out for Netgear to match my 16 port Netgear and all being Gigabit, brings the network down. How can I fix this? I just thought I was doing the right thing getting all switches to be gigabit and Netgear so I could handle the new gigabit internet speeds. I guess this was a rookie mistake. Any tips on how to get everything going again? Right now I have nothing plugged into the 4 ports on the router its a Netgear R6300v2, so everything is Netgear, I just want my WiFi and Wired Network up again together!!

I had these issues with two different routers, a TP-Link Archer C2600 and now this Netgear R6300v2, so I don't think I have any real attacks, just maybe too many switches and ports or whatever, I don't know?

ok, they are plug and play but you could have a hardware issue or layout issue or connected device issue.
Do you have a wire connection drawing showing the 3 switches and router ?

do the three switches plug into three separate lan ports on the router or are they cascaded switch to switch ?

with all three switches unplugged from the router, are any of the lights on any of the switches blinking ? If so, unplug that device from the switch.

when you plug one ( do each one separately) switch in to the router, what do the orange/green lights do on the router ?
Does this correspond to a device port on the switch ?
Does the router AP continue to work ok ? if no, what happens when you unplug the cable to the device for that port ?
Does the ISPs modem lan port light to the router do the same thing ?
repeat for next switch.

if one of the switch to router connection drives the lights binking crazy and it is not related to a specific device plugged into the switch, try moving the switch to next to the router and use a different cable to make the connection. if the lights calm down, you may have a cable termination (plug) physical issue.

If all three switches plugged in separately are ok, then add on more switch and check the lights/wireless.

 

[NowhereMan]

degrub,

The 4 ports of the back of the router feed 4 separate lines, 2 of them go into my office where I have two ethernet plug ins on the wall below my desk, thats where I have one of these 8 port switches hooked up.
So the office gets 2 of the 4 ports on the router, the other two ports feed 1 to the Living room where I plugged it into one of these 8 port switches, and the other feeds upstairs where I plugged it into the 16 port switch.
When all this is hooked up, the WiFi and hardwired network is down, can't get on WiFi and my hardwired devices can't get an IP either.

So I unplugged everything from the router, except the two cables that go to the office, I removed the switch out of the office and just use the two ethernet ports there, one to my Xbox and one to my MacPro, and right now WiFi and the Xbox and MacPro work great.

So now I just need to do as you said and add the switches in one at a time, Living Room and Upstairs, and see which one is causing the outage, then troubleshoot from there, if its a certain device on that switch or just the switch itself.
Let me get back to you with some of those results, lots of walking up and down and all around and I'm under the weather too which makes this harder to do, lol.

 

[NowhereMan]

Upstairs I had a Range Extender too, which now I'm afraid to put back in that would bring it all down again. I think once I figure out what switch is causing the issue, I can revert back to my TP Link router which is better than this Netgear one and get my Range Extender back in too. Just need to figure out whats causing all the network to crash.

 

[degrub]

Upstairs I had a Range Extender too, which now I'm afraid to put back in that would bring it all down again. I think once I figure out what switch is causing the issue, I can revert back to my TP Link router which is better than this Netgear one and get my Range Extender back in too. Just need to figure out whats causing all the network to crash.

is the range extender wireless to wireless or is it on the ethernet cable or power cable or MOCA ?

 

[NowhereMan]

is the range extender wireless to wireless or is it on the ethernet cable or power cable or MOCA ?

Its wireless to wireless.

 

[degrub]

Its wireless to wireless.

you loose at least 50% of available bandwidth on wireless that way assuming it is using the same band for repeating as for wireless devices. Since you have switch upstairs, i would just add an access point - either a dedicated or a wireless router in AP mode. If it was having difficulty, perhaps that could be some of the issue.

 

[NowhereMan]

So you think the RE was the issue? Cause I pulled it out of the wall last night and it was still having issues with no WiFi and hardwired devices having issues getting IPs.
I do think your idea is good though about the WAP hard wired in up there, you think its ok to have mixed brands? I can put my TP-Link back down here and use the Netgear up there as a WAP?

 

[degrub]

So you think the RE was the issue? Cause I pulled it out of the wall last night and it was still having issues with no WiFi and hardwired devices having issues getting IPs.
I do think your idea is good though about the WAP hard wired in up there, you think its ok to have mixed brands? I can put my TP-Link back down here and use the Netgear up there as a WAP?

it just adds load. if the behavior was the same without it, then it was not likely an issue. Sure, you can mix brands unless the standard is too new in the adoption/roll out cycle. i would set the AP radio to a different channel if on the same N or AC group of bands.

 

[NowhereMan]

Ok so I plugged in the 8 port switch in Living room and the 16 port upstairs, with nothing plugged into them except the uplinks from the router. Tested my 3 devices I had on the network (Xbox 1, MacPro, iPhone 7) two hard wired and on wireless. At this point all is good.

I then started adding devices to the Living room switch, one at a time, watching them come online and using my Fing app to see them add each time I plugged in a new ethernet cable to the switch. I got all of my devices downstairs in the Living room online (Roku, AppleTV, Samsung TV, Caavo HDMI Switcher). Each one came online and my WiFi was still good.

I went upstairs to tackle the 16 port switch, only 10 used up there. Everything came online and was good. Then I came down stairs to finish my last devices, two iPad minis and a Sonos Play. One of the iPad mini's connected fine, the 2nd one didn't and neither did my Sonsos or my wifes iPhone 6, so it appears something caused it to go bad again. I unplugged the 16 port router upstairs hoping to get these last two devices online, the iPad mini did successfully join but my wifes iPhone didn't.

So thats where I am now, my entire 10 devices upstairs unplugged and my wifes' iPhone not connecting. Its just doing the self assigned IP 169.254.x.x stuff...I guess my Sonos is too, I'm so frustrated, beyond words right now.

 

[NowhereMan]

And now I've unplugged the two cables that feed the Living room and Upstairs, so its just the WiFi and my two cables in the office for my MacPro and Xbox One, rebooted the router and I still can't get my wifes iPhone or this wireless Sonos on the network. At this point I'm baffled.

Is there a device limit that can get on the network with these routers? I had 25 devices, I wouldn't think that is too much?

 

[NowhereMan]

I think I may have found my culprit! We'll see after awhile anyway. For some reason in the advanced tab of my admin page on my router there is an ARP Binding page, ARP Binding is turned on, the ARP list had two pages of devices, then below this there was a Bind List, and lots of devices in there including my wifes, I think I might have added these devices earlier when I was troubleshooting, so I removed them all and immediately her iPhone connected to the WiFi and my Sonos Play 1 works now.

So we'll see how stable this network acts...fingers crossed.

 

[degrub]

And now I've unplugged the two cables that feed the Living room and Upstairs, so its just the WiFi and my two cables in the office for my MacPro and Xbox One, rebooted the router and I still can't get my wifes iPhone or this wireless Sonos on the network. At this point I'm baffled.

Is there a device limit that can get on the network with these routers? I had 25 devices, I wouldn't think that is too much?

Anything in the router system logs ?

i don't know of any limit (other than available range for DHCP).

i use mac address to IP address binding to lock my wireless network down with the option set to drop any device mac that does not match. Sounds similar. And probably your earlier hunch was correct. Hope that clears it up.

There should be log entries for a "mismatch" or "not on the approved device list".

 

[NowhereMan]

I've been up and running smooth now for about 12 hours, so I'm feeling much better now, I've learned some things even if it frustrated me to get there. Thanks for your help degrub.

So I have this Netgear R6300v2 and this TP-Link RE450, you think I'd be better off turning the R6300v2 into a WAP upstairs, rather than using the RE450 like I was before, where it was connecting to the current WiFi and created a new one upstairs? Your logic sounded reasonable, and its easy enough to do and try, I know lots of people do this with routers, so guess I can too, I'll just have an extra RE450 laying around.