On Wednesday, June 18, 2014, John Jason Jordan <joh...@comcast.net> wrote:
> My home network is all cat6 wiring, including jacks and patch cables,
> and both my laptop and my desktop are gigabit capable. I pay Comcast
> for 50 Mbps which is fast enough that Ktorrent shows download speeds up
> to 7 MB/s when I download a distro ISO.
>
> The network consists of a Motorola Surfboard SB-6121 modem (DOCSIS 3.0,
> rated for about three times the speed I pay Comcast for), a D-Link
> DGL-4100 router, connected to a Linksys WRT-G (only used for the
> phone), and two gigabit rated 8-port switches. With the exception of my
> phone, both computers (laptop and desktop), laser printers, and an
> HDHomeRun TV tuner are connected by ethernet, although the laptop
> simultaneously connects to the WRT-G.
>
> About a month ago I was suddenly unable to connect to the internet.
> Eventually I discovered that one of the two switches was unplugged from
> the wall wart, probably thanks to the cat. But before discovering the
> unplugged switch I tried numerous fixes, including swapping out the
> DGL-4100 router (gigabit rated) for an older D-Link DI-604 (not
> gigabit rated). When I finally discovered and fixed the unplugged switch
> I just left the older DI-604 router connected.
>
> Last week I downloaded the latest ISOs for a couple distros, and noted
> that my download speed was only about 3.5 MBps, where it was usually
> twice that. These ISOs usually have hundreds of seeders, so I always get
> close to the maximum that I pay Comcast for. I also used Speedtest.net
> to verify that my maximum download speed is now about 3.5 MBps. My
> first paranoid thought was that Comcast was either back to throttling
> torrents, or they were giving me only half the bandwidth I was paying
> for. (The 50 Mbps is a recent upgrade from my previous 25 Mbps plan.)
>
> I decided that the first thing I should do is swap the DI-604 router
> back for the DGL-4100. After doing so I discovered that my network was
> working perfectly, but I could not reach the internet. I tried the
> usual troubleshooting procedures - power everything down and back up
> again, one device at a time, swap cables, mutter expletives, etc.
> Nothing worked.
>
> Eventually I decided to look at the admin page for the DGL-4100 using
> Firefox from the laptop. But I could not get the page to load. Instead
> I got:
>
> Please wait...
> The gateway is currently measuring your network connection.
> Accessing this web page might have an effect on the measurement.
> This page will refresh shortly.
>
> After 10-15 minutes the login page suddenly appeared, but as soon as I
> entered the username and password (both "admin"), the page would revert
> to the above error message. I also tried it with Chrome, and from the
> desktop as well, with the same results. Using my phone because I had no
> internet connection to Comcast, I googled on the above error message. I
> got half a dozen hits, but none of the suggested fixes resolved the
> problem.
>
> I also tried a hard reset on the DGL-4100, even though I knew that this
> would wipe out the five reserved IP addresses that I had set up (for the
> WRT-G, the HDHomeRun, the desktop computer, and two for the laptop -
> but don't ask me why the laptop has two MAC addresses). However, the
> reset accomplished nothing.
>
> By this time I had been muttering expletives to myself for over an
> hour and was running out of fresh ones to use. So I decided to give up
> on the DGL-4100 and go back to the DI-604, which had been working fine.
> However, after reconnecting all the cables to the DI-604 and powering
> it on I still could not get to the internet, although my own network
> was working OK.
>
> However, unlike the DGL-4100, I was able to get into the web interface
> for the DI-604. I reserved the five IP addresses as above, something I
> had not bothered to do previously, and then renewed the lease.
> Afterward I noted that ifconfig on the computers showed the new IP
> addresses. But I still could not get to the internet. Eventually I
> decided to reserve an IP address for the modem, something that I had
> never done before for any router. The DI-604 had not automatically
> detected the modem, but I was able to reserve an IP address for it by
> manually entering its MAC address. And after renewing the leases again
> I was finally back on the internet.
>
> Here are some questions that I have for the network gurus here:
>
> 1) Does it make sense that my current lowered speed is because I am
> using the older non-gigabit rated DI-604 router?
>
> 2) Why did reserving an IP address for the modem make any difference?
>
> 3) Has anyone had the above error message and, if so, how did you fix
> the problem?
>
> Other suggestions and observations welcome!
>
>
Whenever i reset / reflash / power cycle any router connected to an cable
(or DSL) modem, I THEN power cycle the cable modem. Having the internal
net up but no internet means your router does not see the cable modem or
vice versa. Hence the error.
Your DGL glitch sounds like an IP adress conflict, when you hard reset, it
would have reverted to whatever default factory IP etc. It would have also
reset DHCP and if you then had multiple DHCP servers running...
Your laptop has 2 MAC: one for wired and one for wifi. Using both is a bit
silly...
Non gigabit systems can usually do 100Mb/s so is your even older that it
dropped to 10Mb/s or was it set that way. Full or half duplex ? Heck maybe
just power cycling everybody will magically fix that so that everything can
autonegotiate the same speed.
Hope that helps. Time for me to hop back onto I-5 traffic!
Ed
--
You! What PLANET is this!
-- McCoy, "The City on the Edge of Forever", stardate 3134.0
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