Router issues

[Merkuri]

So, last night I was editing some audio files and watching a video (nothing that was using internet) and then I decided to check something online. Chrome didn't want to go to any sites. I also noticed my Gmail Notifier had the exclamation point icon on it, meaning it couldn't connect to my mail. They were acting like I was offline, but I was obviously not offline since TweetDeck kept giving me Twitter updates.

I decided to wait a bit in case this was a temporary problem, so I went to play a game. In the meantime, my husband sat down at his PC and tried to get online, but he could not. I reset the router and the cable modem, but no dice. At one point I noticed my Gmail Notifier was back online, but I could still not bring up Gmail in Chrome.

Went to bed hoping the problem would solve itself in the morning, but it didn't. At this point I decided to restore an older configuration to the router, and the internet started working.

I had made a single change to the router's configuration about a week before this problem started happening, and that was just to forward a couple ports. I had done nothing to it the same day when the problem started.

This is not the first time the router has just crapped out on me and required me to reset it to factory settings or restore an old configuration for no good reason. About a month ago I was trying to forward a port to my husband's computer, something I've done many times, and the router would just not forward it until I reset to factory settings.

Why on earth would my router just stop working like that? Do routers start behaving funny when they're at the end of their lifespan? Is it time to get a new one? This one's about five or six years old.

 

[Umbran]

If you are in Eastern MA, and you get your internet connection from Comcast, the issue probably isn't your router.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/29/internet-blackout-hits-comcast-users-on-east-coast/?hpt=T2

The news article (timestamped around 4AM) claims it was resolved, but my attempts to get online before going to work this morning, and my attempt to call Comcast about it, say otherwise

 

[Merkuri]

Huh... I do have Comcast, so maybe that had something to do with it, but when I decided to reset my router to factory settings I made a backup of its configuration first. After I reset, the internet came back. When I restored that backup the internet went away again. Then I restored a "last good" backup I had made after the last time I had to reset the router to fix an issue, and it started working again.

Maybe the Comcast issue triggered a problem with my router which the factory reset fixed?

 

[Umbran]

I think the issue with Comcast makes it very difficult to diagnose your problem. Kind of like asking if you're having an allergic reaction when you already have a head cold. Wait until Comcast's got it's issue well and truly sorted out, and try again, and see what happens.

 

[Merkuri]

Well, everything is working fine right now (and was as of the router's reset to factory defaults this morning). I guess I'll give my router a pass this time, but I'm really getting fed up with random issues that require a reset to factory defaults, and if it happens one more time I'm seriously considering buying a new one. (I know you can hear me, router! You behave!)

 

[ssampier]

Some routers just have buggy code. You would think a router firmware is relatively simple, but no. I know our network engineers back in 2005'ish did some packet captures and found certain versions of Linksys routers wouldn't properly do an arp request.

I have been really happy with my Zyxel wi-fi router for years until the latest firmware. I sporadically have issues where I have to renew the IP address for it to work. This has happened with 2 different ISPs, so I know it's the router.

If I was really bored I could probably do a Wireshark capture and find the culprit. But as yet, I haven't been that bored.

 

[Merkuri]

Some routers just have buggy code.

This one worked fine for years, then all of a sudden in the last 6 months or so I've had several problems with it that appeared out of the blue.

 

[Redrobes]

When you get an internet fail then open up a DOS box and type

ipconfig /all

if it says that you have a 192.168.x.x type connection then its probably got it ok. If its not got it then a lot of the fields will be blank or you get a 169.x.x.x or 172.x.x.x then its probably not got an IP connection to the router. If you get this then your problem is with the DHCP settings. To fix that you could set your machine not to use DHCP and set up a static IP address like 192.168.0.50 and set that for the machine and router.

If you do get a connection then you should be able to access the routers web page for admin and also ping various sites.

ping www.google.com

If that does not work then it might be your WAN side not connecting to your broadband router. Look on the routers web page to see its WAN side settings. If you have a separate ADSL modem or fiber box then the IP address would likely be a 192.168.x.x type. If its built in then it would likely have a proper internet IP address, not private one, or something which looked a bit more random.

If you can see your separate modem then it would likely have a built in web server too. If that also looks ok then you should try a packet trace

traceroute www.google.com

and it should tell you where its failing to get the packets out. If that is Comcast then your stuffed. If and as it sounds its more local then it should say.

If you can see some web sites and not others then try the down for me or everyone site...

Down for everyone or just me?

Hope there is something in that which helps.

 

[Merkuri]

I know those tricks and tried most of them when the problem happened. The biggest confusion I had was when I went to the router's admin page and tried to ping Google and got nothing back at all. Not even a "Ping request could not find host www.google.com". I wasn't sure whether that was the router not working or the web being down.

I'm still not sure what it was, but after restoring an old router configuration it began working, so I'm still not sure what it was. Either the Comcast problems resolved themselves just when I did the restore or the Comcast problems had done something that screwed with my router settings, meaning my problems were persisting after the event was over.