nickdalzell

odd bug here. my Mozilla Firefox 18 has just started this random issue. sometimes at random it will simply stop pulling up websites, eventually timing out with an error saying it cannot connect to site. clicking the 'retry' button does nothing in that error page. now if i simply restart the browser by closing and reopening it, it works fine again. i have determined my internet is not to blame. is this normal?

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argedion

try about config and disable ip6

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nickdalzell

i am using Linux. there is no 'IPv6'. i did try resetting the http.network.pipelining. setting in about:config and so far so good

argedion

yes but firefox by default has ip6 turned on for whatever reason I used to have the same issue then i switched to chrome and havent looked back.

nickdalzell

hmmm. well it's disabled now

i'd use Chrome too but there is no about:config and i'm one of the types who likes that option, gives a level of control no other browser has--besides i was sick of Chrome's 'sad tab' crap-never liked it when it was a Mac OS feature

Dngrsone

Ubuntu does support IPv6, theoretically. You can disable it in Network Connections.

nickdalzell

that never worked. but that laptop died eventually so it's no longer an issue. the replacement runs Kubuntu and never has this issue (although any browser seems to have issues with Google-owned sites or the search engine itself, you can be sure it will give me a host not found if i pull up Google or Youtube. hate using bing! think it's a router bug as tethering to my phone does not cause it)

Dngrsone

I have problems with my UVerse-supplied router, in that it uses AT&T's DNS servers, which are crappy. If you can change your router's settings to use the Google DNS servers, then that problem will likely go away.

I wouldn't use bing either. You should be able to change that in the browser.

nickdalzell

no i should have said i use Bing as Google gives an instant host not found error and a blank page. Bing is the only other search that compares with Google for relevancy. but i am trying to use little MS stuff. although i do love their nature theme.

I've tried Netgear, Linksys, and now Belkin for routers. every single one dies or has random glitches or malfunctions after a year. i got an old laptop with wifi and wired built in, and a usb dongle for wifi. i may just turn it into a better router

Speed Daemon

OpenDNS is another good option. Of course I'm a little biased, since I know David Ulevitch from when we were both involved in a non-profit colocation project.

nickdalzell

i have tried twice to get openDNS working but it keeps doing nothing. it hangs and everything is offline. my internet company has recently started using some VPN that issues some weird kind of IP to the clients on my network, they will not be the same subnet (in other words, they don't use 192.168.x.x for their IP address) and i think it stopped me from using openDNS replacements. every time i input them into my router the internet icon turns off and the modem icon flashes.

tether or not, it seems i tried Chromium but it refuses to even see my internet. it gets hung up at 'sending request' then times out claiming DNS lookup failure. on any site. Firefox seems to work fine in the meantime but nothing from Google works--unless i'm tethered

9to5cynic

Also, if you can't get DNS working right, have you tried duckduckgo? It's my search engine of choice.

Hmm... I just re-read your last post, can you give us an ifconfig.... I'm curious as to what IP range you are getting...

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nickdalzell

it is different than what my router has since it has recently started going through a VPN now but here goes:

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr e8:03:9a:82:bb:f4
inet addr:192.168.2.106 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::ea03:9aff:fe82:bbf4/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:586497 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:483708 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:472497127 (472.4 MB) TX bytes:68770034 (68.7 MB)


it used to issue out 192.168.2.x where 'x' is a single digit. now it adds a 1xx number. whatever it is i cannot force a static ip or a manual dns change without the router just kicking me off

Dngrsone

It sounds like you are loading down your wifi routers. You might invest in a business-class router.

nickdalzell

loading down how? they only have like three devices connected at best. most of them wired. the only wifi devices are my Wii, Laptop, and phone. i never let four or more connect because it WILL crash it. but i think the year life is more their horrid quality than anything else. i can get better results out of building my own and using Linux router distro to make it work--got enough spare parts to do that for nothing

Dngrsone

I know Netgear modems for sure overheat and flake when used on a continual basis. Despite fan mods and other such hacks, I ended up going to a more expensive gigabit router in order to keep my home network running smoothly.

nickdalzell

this isn't a modem, it's router. but the modem DOES disconnect when temps drop. i scheduled a service call so hope it will be fixed soon.

routers store bought are lucky to get past warranty

mikedt

Routers can be cranky things sometimes. Friend of mine had a TP-Link router/WiFi AP. As soon as we'd start the Mac OS X version of Transmission bittorrent it would instantly crash, and the internet would go dead. It was only the Mac version of Transmission that would do this. not the Linux version. And no other bittorrent clients would crash it either.

I know that bittorrent is one of those things that can often bring down routers

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Last edited by mikedt; January 24th, 2013 at 11:49 PM.

nickdalzell

Torrent programs fall under the same glitch as Google.com and any site run by it. if my router was on now, and i was not tethered to my phone, this particular laptop will outright say 'host not found google.com' instantly. same for YouTube. Gmail. any Google site. Bing, however and any other site, works perfectly fine. i never changed any setting, it's still factory default. it just hates Google; Torrent programs, as rarely used as they are by me, will claim 'you got low-id'

weird part is how IE and any windows computer has none of that trouble, not even windows torrent programs. IE in Wine will connect to Google fine via my router. it's some combo of Firefox, Linux networking, and my router conflicting. also, my router has pretty bad DHCP pools. ever had a device on your network, say another laptop if on, 'steal' an IP Address from another connected device, thus bringing down the entire deal? my PlayStation 3 has that problem on wifi only

Last edited by nickdalzell; January 25th, 2013 at 01:20 AM.

Dngrsone

I meant routers, but anyway...

PS3 and Wii have a nasty habit of polling for an address every freakin' minute, which is hell on the logs. When they do this, they can steal your IP as soon as it expires, and before your other device (which could be waiting a while before asking for a new IP) polls the server again.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer to assign IP addresses when I can rather than allow DHCP to issue from the pool (it also keeps my wifi printer in one place). Unfortunately, I have not figured out how to get them to stop doing so. Not that I've spent a lot of time trying to do that-- I never touch them, to tell the truth.

mikedt

I'm sure the reason why bittorrent clients tend to crash routers is that they open many TCP connections at once, because that's how bittorrent works. It seems that some cheapo and consumer grade routers just can't deal with that.
Bad routers - VuzeWiki

What we had, it seemed like the Mac OS X version of Transmission was just enough to push the cheapo TP-Link thing over the edge, while the Linux version didn't. Probably a difference in the default settings. We just replaced the router in the end. BTW it wasn't a real Apple Mac, it was a Hackintosh that a friend in Shenzhen made up.

Nick what you've got does sound like a DHCP problem. Have you tried using a different DNS service like Google's or OpenDNS, rather than your ISP's own one?

Last edited by mikedt; January 25th, 2013 at 09:05 AM.

nickdalzell

i have already tried that--it *used* to work, but recently my internet service issues out some oddball IP address setup and any attempt to use static DNS will cause the internet light on the router to go out and the 'modem' light will flash off and on. if i put it back to auto, internet lights up and modem stays solid.

Speed Daemon

I can assure you that OpenDNS is (and has been) working fine. It doesn't require any client software on your side that could hang; all you do is plug in the IP addresses of their name servers and go.

If what you mean to say is that your DNS client is hanging, then that's a different issue.

What is this VPN for? How is your VPN client implemented?

Off hand I'd say that you need to tackle the Internet access part before moving on to setting up a VPN. Or if the VPN borks your Internet connectivity, you'll need to get that sorted out.

nickdalzell

no no, my internet has recently changed how their IP addresses work. on a client computer accessing the internet through my router and modem it will display 'virtual private network address' in place of IP Address in Windows Networking Center. since this change, i cannot use static IP or static DNS. if i so much as change the setting for either to static, my modem turns off and my router internet light goes out and the modem light blinks.

Speed Daemon

Your Internet? You have an Internet of your own?

If you're not on a virtual private network, the first thing to do is to disable VPN in Windows. Once you've fixed the misconfiguration, things should go back to normal.

nickdalzell

no, my internet service. the company supplying my connection is Q Wireless. i can't explain their IP setup as of recent. it does the VPN stuff on its own. i cannot change it without killing the connection. whatever it is it only works with automatic only. i may be able to set the router to static but i cannot change it from a client device. i will see if i can input the settings into my router config and get back--but i never noticed much as no client device will show the DNS setting i put into the router, it will just use whatever the ISP uses, regardless of my setting

but sure, wise guy, i could set up an intranet of my own if i wanted, not sure i could have an internet without tons of super computers though

Speed Daemon

Pardon me, then.

mikedt

"Broadband Q Wireless...Keeping America Connected!" ??
http://www.broadbandqwireless.com/faq

I just been reading through their FAQs.

"Q. What software do I need to use this service?
A. You need to be running either Windows 2000, XP, 98SE or Mac OS X as your operating system. The version of internet browser you need depends on your equipment and operating system for wired and wireless installations, as indicated below: For Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 SP2 or higher, Netscape Navigator 4.7 or higher, and Firefox. For Macintosh: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 or higher and Netscape Navigator 4.7 or higher."

Internet Explorer for Macintosh? Windows 98SE? IE4? Is this company not aware that we're well into the second decade of the 21st century?

Perhaps Q Wireless can't explain it either?

nickdalzell

MY router is partly to blame. i managed to get a partially solid connection by reconfiguring it. this particular entry into the router log is interesting, it happens when i lose connectivity.

DHCP Client: [WAN]Could not find DHCP daemon to get information

also, i get an error about not being able to sync to NTP server and sometimes that coincides with the above log entry too.

also, no dice with OpenDNS. the modem will have nothing to do with it. it always kicks off. even trying a static WAN Address using what the router gets Dynamically kills it.

here is the oddball IP i am referring to, this is what my router passes onto clients

VPN address:
69.196.204.248

Subnet Mask:
255.255.255.224

Gateway:
69.196.204.225

DNS:
8.8.8.8

the router USED to give clients something like this:

IP Address:
192.168.2.2

Subnet Mask:
255.255.255.0

Default Gateway:
192.168.2.1

DNS:
8.8.8.8

but it changed all by itself. the internet company seems to have done it, even directly connecting the modem to a laptop and bypassing the router will end up the same VPN crap

Last edited by nickdalzell; January 26th, 2013 at 08:46 PM.

nickdalzell

Think i solved this mystery. after viewing the logs in more detail, i was getting tons of releases, many attempts to renew, bad NTP sync, and lost DHCP WAN address issues. a lot of fails there. i just input the WAN address in manually under 'static' and it seems to be working so far


Speedtest results:

1.45Mbps down
0.10Mbps up

not sure why the upload is so darn slow but still....

Last edited by nickdalzell; January 26th, 2013 at 10:39 PM.

9to5cynic

that's a satellite company right? If so, that's probably why you're getting slow up.

Now, I do have a question for you guys though, (and I'm no expert), but am I mistaken in thinking that you wouldn't need a DHCP client on your router right? You'd connect to them via an IP, and then the router would dish out it's local IP scheme...?

I guess it's no real issue, sounds like you got things working.

nickdalzell

no, not a sat company, it's more like a cell service. can't really describe it. there's this TV style fixed antenna attached to my home, which transmits/receives a long-distance line-of-sight to a tower located up to 100 miles away. the tower is in clear view in Winter, but ironically it seems to drop out more often in the Winter. i have had this WAN send release glitch on many routers and only now have i seem to have fixed it via static settings

the router would send a discover packet through the WAN port to the modem, the modem would transmit back a receive, and then the router would get a dynamic (though never changing) WAN IP Address. the lease is usually around ~7.5 days. then the router would use this as the internet connection, then go to its normal scheme of sending out local IP Addresses using the WAN as a gateway to the clients (which used the router IP for their gateway) and so on. the problem is that after a few months to a year, the router seems incapable of holding onto these leases, and it just releases and renews on a rapid basis, off and on, and then the modem gives up until the router is power cycled. setting it to static seems to have alleviated this issue for the moment.

I truly believe this time it was possible there were two factors involved. 1) Firefox's max connections in About:config, 2) my ISP is probably having issues with their DHCP servers for their WAN gateway thus causing leases to time out, get dropped, or released before the time is up.

i have also set the router's IP pool to allow for only 5 total clients, that may help prevent router overload. i also got firewall turned off, protected mode on, and QoS on. also got it in 802.11b compatibility mode

Last edited by nickdalzell; January 26th, 2013 at 11:30 PM.

9to5cynic

Can you statically define some of the connections on your local end? I remember you saying that a couple of gaming systems were eating up IPs - and if that's the case you probably can statically assign the router to give the consoles a specific set of addresses.

And just for my clarity, in your WAN connection you're getting a public IP address from the ISP right? I'm just wondering if they treat each of their clients like a vlan in their over arching network....

nickdalzell

my PlayStation 3 is the one that 'steals' IPs. it still does it on Wifi. turn on the wifi on the console, instant router crash. all clients offline. turn it back to wired and static, all is normal. i also got the PS3 in a DMZ for the moment, still has the wifi bug though.

the IP my ISP gives me my router kept dropping. i finally managed the skill to fix that by statically assigning the ISP address manually so it no longer drops it. log is all clean for the moment


System Log 01/26/2013 23:59:53 192.168.2.3 login success
01/26/2013 23:59:47User from 192.168.2.3 timed out
01/26/2013 23:52:09 sending ACK to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 23:52:09 sending OFFER to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 23:51:16 sending ACK to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 23:51:16 sending OFFER to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 23:51:16 sending OFFER to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 22:22:26 192.168.2.3 login success
01/26/2013 22:21:18 User from 192.168.2.3 timed out

192.168.2.3 is my laptop. the 'timeouts' are from the power save mode in the wifi NIC. never causes problems, and 192.168.2.2 was my Android phone.

Last edited by nickdalzell; January 27th, 2013 at 12:05 AM.