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Chris_Tucker
01-14-2007, 06:34 PM
Heres something strange and totally random for anyone with any knowledge of networking to ponder...
My desktop for all of its life (amd 64 3500+, asus socket 939 board, dont ask what model right now, because i cant find the book and i dont feel like rebooting, model will be posted tomorrow) Untill a few months ago used Linux, and my router would occasionally restart... then i switched to XP for gaming purposes, and occasionally i would lose access to the internet, but not the LAN, i could still access the things on my network, and other systems would still be able to access the internet, and nothing short of changing the network im connected to would bring back internet access for me. rebooting the desktop would not work, but manually restarting the router would work.

Now, somewhere along the lines i managed to change it so the ghost in the router came back and it was automatic restarting madness again... but without my desktop connected, no restarts at all. Also tried the router my ISP gives every customer for free, a router/modem/wifi combo SpeedStream 6520, that also restarted when my desktop was connected for long periods of time.
Also i have my desktop connected via a network switch since christmas, and my laptop is also on that switch, No change at all, still restarted. Also updated my drivers on my desktop for my network card. No change.

But, today, after some extensive changes to settings, i got a change. Its back to just the desktop losing net access, and still with the same topology, the laptop still can access the net no problem. But get this, rebooting the router manually did nothing more than give me about 5 minutes of internet access, then lost it again, back to just LAN access. Changed the MAC of my network card, ip, and even changed the network i was on, only changing networks helped. the second i got back to my own network, no dice. This time, rebooting the desktop fixed the problem, at least for now, so far it hasnt happened again to have a timeframe...

What could cause this ? Later this week i'll have a new motherboard showing up, also asus, because im doing some upgrades, so this board will be out of commission for a few months then once i can afford the parts, recommissioned as a linux desktop.

I'm totally stumped. this problem im positive resides in my desktop, it doesnt happen on any other of the 4 systems on my network. And it seems to be random, sometimes it happens twice a day, sometimes only twice a week. But at least its back to being localized to only affecting one system, as it was a royal pain when it would disconnect my server when the router restarted... and even worse when i didnt use my own router, because the speedstream all in one would also cause the ip to change if it restarted.

TMG
01-14-2007, 09:12 PM
Is this with the onboard NIC? PCI NIC? Wifi NIC?

Either way...its the NIC. Do you have another NIC you can throw in that box? Short of that theres really not much you can do.

Do you have MAC cloning enabled on your router? Not that it matters because your getting access on other machines but, some ISP's require you to register the router MAC with your modem, so if your getting access one minute and you switch hardware and you have no access you need to change the MAC to the registered MAC on the modem.

Chris_Tucker
01-14-2007, 09:34 PM
onboard nic, And i know its the nic. but its strange because it works when you move to another physical network, but come back to this one and it doesnt work again. its like windows, or the nic, doesnt like seeing the same dns server/gateway device 24/7/365, its like it wants to me moved around.... odd eh? I wont have the problem in a few days, and untill then i know how to keep it working, its just curiousity wondering what is causing this...

TMG
01-14-2007, 09:46 PM
Wait so when you are on another network you dont get these random disconnects?

Is this grabbing TCP\IP from DHCP?

Chris_Tucker
01-14-2007, 10:29 PM
No no, i mean when i cant access the internet, but i can access lan, if i switch to another network everything is fine, connect back to my network, and i still cant get on the internet, only LAN, and this is all connected to a network switch, that my laptop is also connected to, thats connected to the router. The laptop doesnt lose connection unless the router resets. And the im connected to doesnt have any affect either, can connect straight to the router and no change...
Also, its both with DHCP and static that the problem happens

magnum
01-15-2007, 08:34 AM
MAC cloning? Try that.

Chris_Tucker
01-15-2007, 10:06 AM
MAC cloning? Try that.
thats in the first post... already done. no luck.

magnum
01-15-2007, 10:11 AM
You run through the networking wizard? Sounds to me that XP might be incorrectly configured for internet use. Maybe also try another NIC?

Chris_Tucker
01-15-2007, 10:51 AM
You run through the networking wizard? Sounds to me that XP might be incorrectly configured for internet use. Maybe also try another NIC?
Already know another nic would work, and networking wizard doesnt change anything... its completely random, as im typing this from that system right now

brian_holiday
01-16-2007, 08:00 AM
It is a longshot, but I would try manually setting both Windows and the router (if possible) to half duplex. I have had issues for years with autonegotiation, across a variety of hardware platforms when using MS products.

I would also add a switch between you and the router to see if the problem moves. From all the troubleshooting done to this point, you may have found a driver issue with the Windows implementation. I am not as sure as the others that this is showing a bad NIC. Hardware was the same and it worked "better" under Linux. There may not be a link between the reboots and the PC. I didn't see a brand for the router, but I have had heat lock-ups with linksys and netgear. I finally got the routers off a carpeted floor and the problems went away. Seems I was restricting the airflow.

Here is a question to the greater community, would the DDWRT firmware show any addional detail on this?

BH

Chris_Tucker
01-16-2007, 09:45 AM
Ive been highly considering getting another modem / router (WRT54G of course), not because of this problem but in general.
I cant try the half duplex idea because that would restart the router, bringing down the entire network again, and as of right now thats not something i can do without consequences....
The switch idea, already done, has been that way since christmas, and my laptop is also on the switch, it remains unaffected even when the desktop cannot access the internet.

brian_holiday
01-16-2007, 01:05 PM
So to clarify, you put it on the switch and the PC quits working but the laptop which is also plugged into the switch continues to function. The router then is unaffected by the lockup of the PC, and neither is the switch. Is that what has occured?

It sure would be nice to look at the error count on that port, unfortunately that isn't usually available of home use gear...

Ricky
01-16-2007, 02:20 PM
that has been happening to me lately to only i just loss internet access and the network works just fine this is on both my desktop and laptop and i keep having to reboot the computers just so i can be online it get really annoying yesterday i had to reboot my laptop like 10 times cuss of that and the router is working just like nothing happened the only way for me to get back on line is to reboot the computer what is cussing this ??

Chris_Tucker
01-16-2007, 03:51 PM
So to clarify, you put it on the switch and the PC quits working but the laptop which is also plugged into the switch continues to function. The router then is unaffected by the lockup of the PC, and neither is the switch. Is that what has occured?

It sure would be nice to look at the error count on that port, unfortunately that isn't usually available of home use gear...
Exactly. but when it happens i can still access LAN.
And before i made that last change, i would never lose access, but the router would reset at about the same times its making me lose connection.

TMG
01-16-2007, 04:00 PM
Wait, I thought that your desktop is disconnecting from the network, but your other PC's still retain the internet connection.

But I think what your saying is you lose internet connection accross the board, you lose lan access on one PC, but retain lan access on the other 4?

In that case it could be your modem itself not supporting the connections, net work cable, mac conflict...etc.

Have you checked to see if there are any mac conflicts?

How many available leased IP's do you have?

I still think it could be/is the nic...

Do you have logging enabled on the router? Pull some logs...

Are you still running smoothwall?

Edit: Also have you tried uninstalling the nic card completely, reboot, then reinstall? Or rolling back your driver to a previous version that worked.

Chris_Tucker
01-16-2007, 06:57 PM
No, its only the 1 pc that loses anything. the router resetting happens when this doesnt, and vice versa, both problems never happen together I only ever get one or the other
When it happens this system loses internet access, but not LAN access, i can still access my server which is a hop from here, to a switch, to the router, then to the server. But i cannot access any form of the internet (yes, that includes direct IP)
And yet the laptop which is connected to the switch aswell, never experiences trouble.
When i move my PC to a new network (without restarting) it works fine once the network settings are.. set. move back (still no restart) and set them back, No internet, just lan. change ips, same thing, change macs, same thing.

no mac conflicts, no ip conflicts, this happens when set to both DHCP and static, and happens nomatter what way the network is set up, and nomatter the router, after a while, the problem returns. And the cable run is not long, its about a 5 foot cable to the switch.
There are 2 static dhcp (router is set to always give certain mac's the same ip) ips set, and 1 dhcp client, and this system, which is static manual.

TMG
01-16-2007, 07:07 PM
You have 2 routers? where is the dhcp server in the network.

Chris_Tucker
01-16-2007, 08:16 PM
You have 2 routers? where is the dhcp server in the network.
I didnt say that...