Internet Keeps Disconnecting (Wired Connection) / Network Problems

The last few days my internet has been really unstable and pretty random at times. At any given moment the connection could drop for 3-5 minutes at a time and then automatically reconnect itself. Other times it could last for several minutes or even hours with no disconnects.

I have Verizon DSL with an Actiontec Modem/Router. My computer in particular is a desktop with Windows 7 and I always have it on a wired connection with wireless disabled. This problem in particular has been occurring within the last few days and nothing has been changed in terms of hardware/cables.

I have tried a power cycle already and switched ethernet ports for the connection to check to see if that helped and it didn't. I even went ahead and did a restore factory defaults on the router and if anything that helped only for the rest of the night.

I briefly talked to the Verizon people and one of them suggested replacing the router, but I feel like this isn't an issue with the router and is something on their end. I see no reason why the router can work for extended periods of time at any given moment and have no problems previously, and now suddenly it cuts out randomly.

Another thing I just now noticed, is that the network information given on the router's page does NOT match up with what is given on my desktop when I do ipconfig/all. And my desktop is in fact connected to that router, so I'm not even sure how it is displaying that.

When I look at the System Log of the router, I see a ton of what appears to be DNS errors. And it seems to happen for both DNS servers given.

I'm asking for help to see what could be wrong before I go and replace the router.

 

What is the IP scheme of your network? Is it 192.168.1.X or 192.168.0.X? Are all your devices using DHCP? Can you change the LAN to a different scheme, at least for testing for a little while? It could be a pain if you have static ip's for things like network printers but it's worth testing for a few hours. Try something like 192.168.7.X (for your screen name) or 192.168.77.X.

Have you added anything to your network recently? A new blu-ray player, a print server, anything like that?

 

It is 192.168.1.X. I'm not sure if everything is using DHCP since there are A LOT of things that could connect to our network in the house and I'm not sure how all of them work, so I'm not sure if I can change the LAN or whatever either.

Originally I had a few of my own devices set to static IPs, but the other devices throughout the house (brother's / dad's stuff) were just set to automatic. This was never a problem before really.

The only thing particularly "new" to the network was my brother's Ipad but he got that back in Dec. and the problems have just now started to occur within this month so there's nothing really new there that might cause the problem.

Because of all the DNS errors I was seeing in the System Log, I changed one of the DNS servers last night and that seemed to "fix" the problem and it lasted all through the rest of the night and early this morning. But coincidentally or not, right after my brother got home the connection started to randomly disconnect again....

I don't think it is particularly caused by any of the devices on the network because at times it will just be my PC on the network that I can visibly see + our Vonage router which nothing else is plugged into.

As it stands now, the Gateway IP address and the Subnet Mask still don't match up with what shows on the router and what shows on ipconfig/all, which I still don't understand how that is even possible.

Before the router randomly disconnected this evening, I saw that the connection had been up for 19 hours straight without disconnecting, which still leads me to believe it isn't just the router that's the problem.

I honestly have no idea what is going on and it's very annoying when it happens.

 

I don't think that it's a coincidence at all. Since everything else is set to automatically obtain it's IP, change the scheme at the router.

Most routers support backing up of the configuration file. Do this first. If my suggestion fails, just load the configuration file and you are back to where you are right now.

I'm curious now about the gateway and subnet so maybe you can explain a little more about your setup? You own the DSL modem/router? You have just this one device and no other switches, routers or access points?

You said your gateway and subnet don't match up. Can you give an example? You might be looking at the WAN side of the router -- the side that is talking to Verizon. The LAN side likely has a subnet of 255.255.255.0 and a gateway of 192.168.1.1 and that is normal. If you have something different, please let us know. There are other variations that are also normal, just wondering if there is a clue there.

Why do I think you need to change the IP scheme? I didn't explain. The gateway for the majority of networks with this scheme is 192.168.1.1. The most common default ip for a device (this is changing and becoming less common) is 192.168.1.1. If a device on the network has the same IP as your gateway, your computer will flip flop between the two devices. When it sees the router it will have connection, when it sees the other device it will not have internet. Changing your IP scheme will immediately fix this issue. Does your brother have a phone that is wireless enabled? It could be his phone. Have him turn off the wireless network feature, does that fix it? Regardless, the fastest diagnosis, fix and preventative is to change, if you can.

 

What do you mean by changing the IP scheme? I know about changing the IP of the specific devices, the DNS addresses and that other stuff but what in particular are you referring to when you mention the IP scheme?

Right now I have the beginning and ending IP address thing set at 192.168.1.64 and 192.168.1.254 if that's what you mean. I had my devices (PC,PS3,360) set to be static IPs in the 70s and 80s so the other devices would never really get those for that to be a problem, but I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to. But I have since did a factory reset on the router and changed all my devices to go back to be automatic for now so nothing is static IP.

The other thing to note is that when I'm in the DHCP settings, it says the Subnet Mask is 255.255.255.0, but for whatever reason when I look at it from the "Status" screen of the router it is showing as 255.255.255.255. In ipconfig/all it is showing as 255.255.255.0 as well, so I'm not sure why it is showing up wrong on the "Status" screen.

Also when I look at the Gateway IP Address on the router status page, it has 10.X.X.X, but on ipconfig/all the Default Gateway is the 192.168.1.1 which is what I'm sure it should be assuming they are in fact the same thing.

I haven't found out my brother's Ipad/cellphone/laptop MAC addresses to know which one he is using, but I can tell whenever he is using at least one of them when looking at the router page. But I can tell you that when they are connected they are still using IPs ending in the 60s as it is setup like I mentioned.

I can also tell which connection is the Vonage router because it is always on/connected and I know it's MAC address, and it's IP is also always in the 60s (or never changes since it never disconnects outside of when the internet does disconnect).

So I don't think it is an issue of one of the devices taking the 192.168.1.1 access.

As for my setup:
The DSL connection goes into the DSL modem/router which has wireless secured.

From that, one ethernet connects to our Vonage router which doesn't have any connections to it other than our phone connections, and it has the wireless secured so that no one can use it to connect to the internet through it.

From another port of the DSL router, it goes up to the room with my PC/PS3/360 which connects into a port switch. The other ports off the DSL modem/router are for my dad's laptop or are unused.

 

You have the cursed gateway address of 192.168.1.1. It doesn't matter what your router is issuing if another device is set to static. The other device doesn't even have to function properly on the network for it to be causing havoc.

I do not advise this lightly, I have been there with 35 users going down randomly for no reason at all. It went on for a week before the firewall manager came up with the idea of a rogue device - mine was a print server that was being used as a switch. In the meantime, I did more troubleshooting than you would believe with more geeky overqualified people than you can imagine. I probably spent 30 hours on it.

In the LAN setup section on the router, change the settings to 192.168.7.X instead of 192.168.1.X . (after backing up the config file) The router should want to reboot and the reboot should issue new IP's to all of the devices on your network.

The IP scheme and subnet that you see in the router would be the IP, subnet and gateway that it has on it's WAN side. You can ignore that part, that is what it uses to communicate to the modem and it's working fine. I can draw you a diagram if you want to follow how that setup works but it sounds like it is setup as expected.

 

I went into the LAN settings and changed it to what you said.

The connection again lasted through the night and into this afternoon, but just now (3pm EST), it randomly disconnected. No one else is home for anyone else's device to somehow interfere with the connection. Before it finally reset the connection I looked and saw that the connection was active for 14 hours straight.

So I don't really think changing the LAN settings helped because the same exact thing still occurred, since previously the connection would last late at night and throughout the day til afternoon/evening (last time it was 19 hours straight I think).

Also I'm not sure if it's normal or not, but when I changed the LAN thing it also changed the first DNS Server to the same address. Typically it was the same before, but now I don't know if it's supposed to be like that since this was an address that I just made up with the 192.168.7.X thing, so I don't know if it is a proper DNS address or if the 1st one is automatically going to be the same as the router.

There still appears to be DNS errors happening in the System Log even after I've picked different ones (like a Google Public DNS). Not only that, it appears that it is requesting to the wrong DNS servers listed unless I'm reading the System Log wrong. It does however eventually appear to try and go through the ones listed, but even then it still shows some DNS errors for those as well.

(GMT-05:00)14:57:41 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: No response for DNS request to server 68.237.161.12 yet.
(GMT-05:00)14:57:41 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: All DNS servers tried, no response.
(GMT-05:00)14:57:41 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: failed dns request len=77,srcip=192.168.X.XX, url=safebrowsing.clients.google.com
(GMT-05:00)14:59:00 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: No response for DNS request to server 71.242.0.12 yet.
(GMT-05:00)14:59:03 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: No response for DNS request to server 68.237.161.12 yet.
(GMT-05:00)14:59:03 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: All DNS servers tried, no response.

Those in bold are NOT the DNS servers setup on the router, so I don't understand what is going on with that. Why would it be sending DNS requests to DNS servers I don't even have listed? The System Log continues on like that for quite a while til it gets to this:

(GMT-05:00)14:59:49 Wed Jun 27 2012 pppd[XXX]: LCP terminated by peer
(GMT-05:00)14:59:49 Wed Jun 27 2012 pppd[XXX]: MRU: 1500
(GMT-05:00)14:59:49 Wed Jun 27 2012 pppd[XXX]: Modem hangup
(GMT-05:00)14:59:49 Wed Jun 27 2012 pppd[XXX]: Connection terminated.
(GMT-05:00)14:59:49 Wed Jun 27 2012 pppd[XXX]: Connect time 846.8 minutes.
(GMT-05:00)14:59:49 Wed Jun 27 2012 pppd[XXX]: Sent 28362514 bytes, received 1263415139 bytes.
(GMT-05:00)14:59:49 Wed Jun 27 2012 pppd[XXX]: Doing disconnect
(GMT-05:00)14:59:49 Wed Jun 27 2012 pppd[XXX]: Exit.

Then it continues to do some other technical stuff. One of them says "read opt dns" and proceeds to list the DNS servers that I have setup on the router. But then when it lists the primary DNS and secondary DNS they are the ones from above. After that it proceeds to go into DNS errors again except this time at least eventually lists the DNS servers I have when it says "failed dns request".

Following all that is when it probably reconnects, and since it just happened, has now been connected for 23 minutes.

 

On the computer that you are using for testing, can you go into the IP settings and change the DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.2. These are public servers that are reliable. I can't see that it fixes dropping but it should elimate the DNS issue you are seeing.

 

I changed them like you said, and it is still getting those DNS errors in the system log after I did a full power cycle to make sure everything was reset properly.

It is still giving DNS errors as if it is using the wrong ones:
(GMT-05:00)17:28:46 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: No response for DNS request to server 71.242.0.12 yet.
(GMT-05:00)17:28:46 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: No response for DNS request to server 71.242.0.12 yet.
(GMT-05:00)17:28:48 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: No response for DNS request to server 68.237.161.12 yet.
(GMT-05:00)17:28:48 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: All DNS servers tried, no response.
(GMT-05:00)17:28:48 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: No response for DNS request to server 68.237.161.12 yet.
(GMT-05:00)17:28:48 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: All DNS servers tried, no response.
(GMT-05:00)17:28:48 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: No response for DNS request to server 68.237.161.12 yet.
(GMT-05:00)17:28:48 Wed Jun 27 2012 syslog: All DNS servers tried, no response.

I can most definitely tell you I do in fact have the DNS servers set to the ones you told me, and yet it is doing that stuff above.

When I do ipconfig/all on this PC, it is also showing the old DNS servers I had setup, even though I did a power cycle as I mentioned and made sure everything was off for several minutes. But even those aren't the same as the ones listed above.

I have no idea what is going on between that and the random disconnects.

 

What are you using for anti-virus / anti-malware? We might need to check it in the malware forum to make sure it is clean.

Can you copy/paste your ipconfig /all here? i want to just see if there is anything there with bridging or some other oddity.

 

For anti-virus I'm using AVG free edition. For anti-malware I'm using IObit Malware Fighter and Malwarebytes'.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\zeth07>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : XXXX
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domain_not_set.invalid

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : domain_not_set.invalid
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX (edited)
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.XX(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, June 28, 2012 11:41:32 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, June 29, 2012 11:41:32 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
4.2.2.2
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{"Bunch of numbers and letters"}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes


And for reference, here's the router status page:


Hopefully I edited anything that I should've.

You can see that it's been connected for 13 hours straight but we'll see if later today it starts to randomly disconnect like it has been. You can also see that the settings in the router page don't match up with the ipconfig. It should be noted that I did go back and make the LAN settings to the default 192.168.1.1 since the other thing didn't help at all.

 

DNS servers need to be set to 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.2 on the computer. You must remove 192.168.1.1 from the DNS table on the computer completely.

The ipconfig from your computer will not match the config on the router. It is correct the way it is. There are two side to each device, a WAN (that looks at the internet or the next connecting device) and the LAN (local area network that talks to your home network). The numbers on each side of that are different by design. The external IP's, password for the ISP, etc, are on the WAN. The settings for your home network are on the LAN.

Since you may have more than one issue it is best not to undo a troubleshooting step unless we call it temp. If we fixed one of 3 issues but you undid it, we'll go in circles.

 

Alright I put the LAN address back to 192.168.7.X like you mentioned. And went and made sure the computer's DNS were set to the ones you said, as well as in the router settings still.

Does this mean I need to set the DNS addresses on every device? Previously whenever I changed the DNS address in the router settings it would show up the same on the other devices as well even when set to automatic, it only appeared different now through ipconfig even though I don't remember it doing that before.

We'll see if the connection lasts throughout the rest of the night.

 

For now, I was looking at why that computer would have unresolved DNS issues. I'm not really looking to fix that on the whole network until I can isolate what the issue is. There is a pretty famous piece of malware that redirected traffic to malicious DNS servers and then manipulated your browsing to their own sites. There are others that create proxies. I'm looking for a clue as to what is doing it and possibly there is a relation between them all.

How many devices are having disconnect issues?

 

also, the "two sides to each device" was supposed to say two sides to each router/internet device. There aren't two sides to your ethernet card, there are two sides to your wireless router and your internet modem. It took me a while to catch on to the concept. It's not a straight road through the router, it's like you drive in speaking latin and drive out speaking english.

 

Ok so almost like clockwork my connection disconnected at around 3pm today even after I made all those changes. No one else was home for any other connections to interfere. I was on the computer for a good bit of time prior to the disconnect without any issues.

As for what devices are having disconnect issues, since the router is disconnecting and reconnecting I would assume all of them have the issue when it happens. As soon as I notice the connection drop I check the router page and it shows that the router is "Not Connected" and within a few minutes it'll go through the process of connecting again.

I could set up another computer to see if it somehow stays connected the whole time but I really doubt it is an isolated case with just my computer.

The system log still shows DNS errors when it happens as well. But it is showing the proper DNS addresses as it is happening, EXCEPT for when it is in the process of reconnecting it shows different DNS addresses as "primary" and "secondary" in the log which I don't understand but maybe that's related to something else entirely.

I do appreciate all the help.

 

Router disconnects around 3pm each day. You stay connected to the router but the router drops off it's connection to the ISP's device. You are wired to the router. Could it be an attempt at updating that is set to run at 3pm instead of 3am and is failing and rebooting?


I was going back through your posts to remind myself how you are setup.
Tell me how close I am to you setup

DSL Modem/router with Verizon
. - switch for PC/PS3
. - vonage device
. - dad's laptop ethernet cable

Ok, so writing it out I went and googled "vonage causes internet drop". Not good. That it's random but also now not so random says to me something is on a schedule, probably set for a time to check for updates. I haven't seen a modem do that but apparently Vonage devices have had issues.

"I have been using vonage for two years +, without problems until the past few months, now my device often disconnects from the internet. I follow the recommended fixes. They last for a few hours, them off again. I moved the device some distance away from other devices, same problem."

"I'm not sure if its the service or if they sent out a Firmware update to the devices which is now causing this issue but after calling them with the problem they didn't have a resolution for it other than if it happens again call them back ASAP.

The person I had on the phone kept trying to blame my ISP provider and they are the problem. I just end up unpluging the Vonage portal and I'm back online but now with out a house phone."

"I've had Vonage for quite some time now and never had any connectivity problem until i switched my telephone adapter to the Vportal (used to have the Linksys adapter). I believe the adapter does not deal well with DHCP on the router and that is when the conflict occurs and the connection gets dropped"

____

And let me just note that Vonage support was terrible when i have called them. If you can be without Vonage around 3pm, I would eliminate them and monitor further.

(I will eventually probably have you all over the house and in every configuration but I'm tenacious and you are too!)

 

That is correct for how it is setup.

So you think the Vonage router is somehow causing the Verizon modem/router to reset? That seems plausible, I guess I could try it out, although it doesn't really "fix" the problem since we would need the Vonage service eventually outside of getting rid of it entirely.

But I will definitely do that for the rest of the night and into tomorrow and see if the connection stays up and go from there if it does to see what I can do about it.

Again I appreciate all the help in trying to figure out this problem.

 

Well that didn't help at all. Had the Vonage router unplugged, did a full power cycle leaving everything unplugged for over 10 minutes, and the router still disconnected within the first few minutes of me being online.

Now I don't know what it could be. We are in fact getting sent a new modem/router from Verizon, but I still don't understand what could be the problem considering the circumstances of everything.

 

You definitely know all the symptoms and I think you've eliminated everything else. Routers do go bad, I've had it happen on a regular home wireless router. The 3pm thing is weird but who knows. Good luck!