Network 'half working'?

DavisBXL

Very confused by this. Over the last week my home network has had a few days where both the wifi and wired connections have gone funny. I changed nothing in terms of set up on those specific days. In short, the network seems to be randomly disconnecting certain devices for periods at a time.

My set up (slightly complex but not unreasonable):
ISP modem, router turned off, wired to Netgear Orbi mesh router & repeater ('satellite'). One additional dedicated VPN router using DD-WRT wired to the Orbi.

Basically seems to be no logic behind the disconnections - phones, laptop, smart TV - all at different times show the network but say no internet connection. Others meanwhile work fine. Resetting the main router (Orbi) doesn't seem to lead to perfect results, yet the internet overall remains available to most devices, and for a few days had no problem with anything. Then today it began playing up again. I did one factory reset last week, but in the end the problem came up again (albeit slowly).

There's no major bandwidth use simultaneously, and the ISP has good reliable speed and a generous allowance. Firmware updated on all 3rd party routers (ISP one is same as it ever was - reluctant to go near it).

Basically, wtf? Dodgy firmware? Ideas? Should I be prioritising internet traffic across the network, even if I can't see anything being a bandwidth hog?

Thank you!

smuggler.ie

DavisBXL wrote: »

Very confused by this. Over the last week my home network has had a few days where both the wifi and wired connections have gone funny. I changed nothing in terms of set up on those specific days. In short, the network seems to be randomly disconnecting certain devices for periods at a time.

My set up (slightly complex but not unreasonable):
ISP modem, router turned off, wired to Netgear Orbi mesh router & repeater ('satellite'). One additional dedicated VPN router using DD-WRT wired to the Orbi.

Basically seems to be no logic behind the disconnections - phones, laptop, smart TV - all at different times show the network but say no internet connection. Others meanwhile work fine. Resetting the main router (Orbi) doesn't seem to lead to perfect results, yet the internet overall remains available to most devices, and for a few days had no problem with anything. Then today it began playing up again. I did one factory reset last week, but in the end the problem came up again (albeit slowly).

There's no major bandwidth use simultaneously, and the ISP has good reliable speed and a generous allowance. Firmware updated on all 3rd party routers (ISP one is same as it ever was - reluctant to go near it).

Basically, wtf? Dodgy firmware? Ideas? Should I be prioritising internet traffic across the network, even if I can't see anything being a bandwidth hog?

Thank you!

Can you confirm that, out of three "routers", only one set to serve as DHCP?
"no internet" might indicate that client devices "don't see" gateway or don't get DNS settings from device that serve it.
once you get "no internet" check what IP stats that device has acquired
Each of your "routers" should be configured with static IP and DHCP disabled, except only one

DavisBXL

Thanks for the reply!

So I've been trying to read-up on DHCP conflicts since your message. Maybe you can give me some pointers:

ISP Modem has DHCPv4 server enabled, with a gateway of 192.168.1.1

Orbi Router has:
An IP address on that domain 192.168.1.4x
DHCP Server: same IP as ISP (192.168.1.1). Same for DNS server.
Default Gateway is also 1.1 <-- Is this the issue? Do I need to change it to 192.168.2.1 for instance?
On the Orbi, there is also the option to change it directly from Router to AP, if that would be somehow simpler. I would prefer to limit reliance on the ISP modem/router to simply the entry point and rely on the Orbi as the main device.

(3rd router is turned off for now, but am presuming I want to turn of DHCP leasing on that (it's running DD-Wrt)

Hope the above is clear. I'll keep digging but thanks in advance for any advice!

smuggler.ie

DavisBXL wrote: »

Thanks for the reply!

So I've been trying to read-up on DHCP conflicts since your message. Maybe you can give me some pointers:

ISP Modem has DHCPv4 server enabled, with a gateway of 192.168.1.1

Orbi Router has:
An IP address on that domain 192.168.1.4x
DHCP Server: same IP as ISP (192.168.1.1). Same for DNS server.
Default Gateway is also 1.1 <-- Is this the issue? Do I need to change it to 192.168.2.1 for instance?
On the Orbi, there is also the option to change it directly from Router to AP, if that would be somehow simpler. I would prefer to limit reliance on the ISP modem/router to simply the entry point and rely on the Orbi as the main device.

(3rd router is turned off for now, but am presuming I want to turn of DHCP leasing on that (it's running DD-Wrt)

Hope the above is clear. I'll keep digging but thanks in advance for any advice!

Only one device serve DHCP, all other should be disabled. After that no need to worry about gateway. All your devices need to be on same network(first three octets define it NNN.NNN.NNN.hhh) to be able to communicate unless you have proper router with multiple interfaces.


Set ISP modem on 192.168.1.1, DHCP range from 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.90 (this will give you 81 IP's for clients - more than sufficient for standard household)

Set second modem("router") on 192.168.1.2, disable DHCP
Set third on 192.168.1.3 , disable DHCP


If available, once all work OK, take config backup from each device - will help quick restore in case you ever need to reset device for whatever reason.

DavisBXL

Thanks once again for the tips. My ISP modem seems to be completely locked down, so setting a DHCP range seems not to be an option.

I've settled on making the second router an access point, and disabling DHCP on the third. So far seems to work. If you see any pitfalls please shout!

Backups done

Cheers!

smuggler.ie

DavisBXL wrote: »

Thanks once again for the tips. My ISP modem seems to be completely locked down, so setting a DHCP range seems not to be an option.

I've settled on making the second router an access point, and disabling DHCP on the third. So far seems to work. If you see any pitfalls please shout!

Backups done

Cheers!

Who is ISP and what router is that?