I will attempt to explain this problem as best I can. I recently got high speed access to the net via a wireless dish. The dish has some client equipment in it and is connected to my PC via wired Ethernet.
My PC has been assigned a static IP for the network, and because we are behind a router its not a real world IP.
The problem is that rnadomly I loose my connection to the internet. I still show a connection on the LAN indictaors on the status bar.
Now I find that if I click Repair on the context menu for that connection everything is fine again.
This can happen a few times a day. The service provider swears its nothing at his end, and the fact that I have to repair to fix it kinda supports this theory. I dont know much about the gear but that its Trango. I am on XP SP2 with the latest IE7.
Open the Device Manager, locate the Ethernet card, open Properties and turn off the power option to "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".
The first thing to try is to disable power management on your computer's network adapter. Go to Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager. Expand the network devices category and find your ethernet adapter. Double-click it to get its Properties. Click on the Power Management tab and uncheck the box that says "allow Windows to turn off this device when not in use". See if that helps and if it does not, then please post back with a bit more detail about your particular computer's hardware and its virus/malware status.
Does it also have a statically defined gateway IP?
Are the DNS servers listed or are they set to obtain their addresses from the ISP router? (This is important. Check the settings).
The connection you're seeing in the system tray is the ethernet connection, not the wireless connection. You could block the wireless signal completely and it will still show that you're plugged into the Trango wireless bridge.
Impossible. All the you're doing is repairing the ethernet connection. Others have suggested checking the power save setting. My guess(tm) is that you won't find a "wireless" connection in the: Control Panel -> Network window and that the ethernet device on your unspecified model computer does not have a power save feature.
However, the question remains, why does it work for you. My guess is that you can get the exact same effect by simply unplugging the ethernet cable, waiting a few seconds, and plugging it back in. Does this also fix the problem?
- How many times is "a few"? Numbers please.
- Is there any pattern to the outages? For example, does it only happen during normal eating times, when microwave ovens tend to be operating? Is it different on weekends?
- Are you using the computer when it dies, or have you left it idle for a long while?
- You may have lost the internet, but have you checked if you've lost your ISP's gateway? Determine the gateway IP address by running: start -> run -> cmd ipconfig Then try pinging the gateway when it's working, and when it dies: ping ip_address_of_gateway If it does NOT work when it goes dead, you have lost your wireless connection to the WISP.
- Does it *REQUIRE* that the connection be repaired, or does it fix itself if you wait long enough? How long? Use: start -> run -> cmd ping -t ip_address_of_gateway and watch the error messages. When normal results return, it's back to working. If the downtime is approximately that of cooking a microwave dinner, I think we have the culprit. There also ping tools which will help run this test continuously:
No, it doesn't. For example, if the WISP's DNS servers were screwed up and not responding, it would appear that you can't surf the internet, while all that's happening is that you can't resolve the domain names into IP addresses. Try obtaining the IP address of a popular web site and using that instead of the name to see what happens when it does down. To get the IP address, run something like: ping
formatting link
then try the resultant IP address in the form: http://66.94.234.13If your wireless ISP is using some kind of DNS load balancing scheme, or you have one of the three possible DNS servers typed in wrong, you might see some problems.
It may also be something as simple as the time delay required to repair the connection if the outages are fairly short in duration.
Trango has a support forum. I suggest you ask about signal strength and interference problems.
If the diagnostics returns that you have a marginal signal to your WISP, you may need to tinker with the antenna, or do some repositioning to avoid interference.
If shedding light is anything like shedding fur on a dawg, I don't think you will want it.
My guess(tm) is that if you're absolutely sure your XP setup is correct, that your signal is good and strong, and that you have line of sight to your WISP, I would then look into interference problems. A "few" times per day sounds like a microwave oven. It does not need to be yours as anything along the line of sight (and beyond) to the ISP will cause problems. See the FAQ at:
Gee - Thanks for all the great suggestions so far!!
I have turned off power management for the adapter as instructed, but as i can not re[licate the problem at will, I will just have to wait and see.
Yes
They are listed.
I am running an Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with a AMD Athlon64
2.2Ghz 3500+ chip. The twin onboard (motherboard) ethernet adapters are Marvel Yukon 88E8053 Gigabit Ethernet Controllers.
Under power management for these adapters I have unchecked the setting "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
Will try that next time it does it.
It varies, but the average would be twice.
Thats a interesting point - because it has been happening in the mornings, but also happens overnight (I am not on my computer but my MSN is logged out suggesting a loss of connectivity)
It has happened when I am using it, and I am pretty sure it has also happened when i am not.
Good suggestion.
Another good suggestion - will try that too.
Someone else mentioned Malware/Virus? I thought about that too - I have had my HiJackThis log checked over at CastleCops- and I am clean. Also running Ewido and Kaspersky - all clean.
The gateway connection recovered but not the internet? Is this wireless contrivance part of a mesh network or does your WISP use a store and forward system for their access points? Having a radio disappear from a mesh network will cause the network to re-route packets around the node. That could explain why it doesn't recover immediately.
If I really stretch my imagination, it's possible that the gateway might be alive, but no routing if there were some manner of exotic mesh routing protocol operating on this system. However, that's usually not the case. Does this wireless system include some manner of "monitor" program that is running on your computer that sends "keep alive" packets to the WISP?
My overactive imagination can also contrive a situation where the default route changes in response to RIP2 updates from the ISP. That would give you a proper ping return from the gateway, but would route all your packets to nowhere in particular. Run: start -> run -> cmd route print before and after the connection drops and note the default route listed at the bottom.
Ok, that's a good clue. Unplugging the ethernet connection usually causes the ethernet connection to reset and to obtain a new DHCP assigned IP address when plugged back in. However, you state that you have static IP address, gateway, and DNS servers, so that's not what's happening. Are you sure that they're static?
It's possible that the Trango radio is part of the problem. If it has an IP address, try to ping it. If your lucky, it's one IP address above or below your assigned IP address. However, it may not be easily accessible from your Windoze box. Try running: arp -a and see if you can identify the box. Trango starts with: 00-01-DE-xx-xx-xx
My crystal ball still says it's interference. However, the question is why doesn't it recover by itself. It should recover, but without detailed knowledge of the wireless topology, I can only speculate.
Explain what equipment. Make, model and exact ways it's all wired together.
What static IP? Presumably it's also got static DNS addresses too?
Spell it 'lose'.
Repair? With a static IP?
When it's working, try opening a cmd prompt and typing "ipconfig /all" and post the results here. Then, when it dies, use the same command and see if there's *any* differences.
When using the ping command, does it always return a successful ping to the gateway? Even before doing a repair or disconnect/reconnect of the ethernet cable from the PC to the router?
When it's working, what lights are lit on the router *and* on the back of the PC? Does your network card in the PC have lights for connection, duplex and speed (often color-coded)?
I'm left wondering if the wireless device isn't doing something to detect that the PC is connected and altering the wireless link. As in, it drops the internet link based on it thinking the PC isn't there. If that's the case then either your PC is "doing something" that confuses the router or the router itself is misconfigured or just plain defective.
When I do the repair I have discovered what is fixing the problem, it is the clearing of the arp cache.
I know this because I did a manual clear of the arp cache with "arp -d
*" and that fixed it.
I dont know much about arp but hopefully someone here can make some conclusions about this?
Its a Trango Fox 5310 Subscriber Unit. The ethernet cable goes from the back of the PC into a Power over Ethernet box, out of there and up to the roof where the Trango is. No routers at my end.
Yep - take a look at a screenshot here:
formatting link
Yep.
Ok, here it is when its working:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C:\\Documents and Settings\\Al>ipconfig /all
It always sends a successful ping to the gateway when working (occasionaly 1% loss)
I did try to ping the gateway when the connection when down, and on my second attempt I got a return, initally I thought it was just the connection between me the gateway being fixed, but now I think the whole connection was repaired. Sometimes it fixes itself after a few minutes - sometimes it takes longer. Have not quite worked this out exactely yet.
No router involved here - will check the PC.
Thanks Bill - will post the ipconfig /all when its not working....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C:\\Documents and Settings\\Al>arp -a
Interface: 192.168.252.1 --- 0x2 Internet Address Physical Address Type 192.168.252.254 00-02-a5-02-44-bd dynamic
I agree, the cable quality doesn't matter much for a short cable, but I have had some bad cables. Mostly, I believe, the contact between the cable and the connector, even with commercial cables.
In that case, the one answer is another host trying to come online with the same IP address. The router will then put that host in its arp table, disconnecting you. Clearing the arp cache will usually cause your host to arp, adding it to the router arp table.
One I did see once on a machine with both IP and Appletalk (ethertalk) was arp replies in both ethernet and SNAP format, causing the router to switch to SNAP format IP that the host would then ignore. A ping to any host not in the arp table would cause a new arp request, and the router would then stop sending SNAP encapsulated data. That is not likely to be your problem, though.
Better would be the results of arp -a on the router machine before and after. Otherwise, if there are any arp packets just before it dies in the ethereal output, post them.
Agreed. CAT6 is overkill. What limits high speeds is crosstalk (NEXT and FEXT). For short lengths, such crosstalk is negligible and almost any type of wire or cable will work.
All of the bad ethernet cables in my palatial office and trucker were made by me. There should be a clue here, but I'll pretend to ignore it. Most are visibly defective with: - creative wiring - split pairs - bad crimp - wrong type of RJ-45 plug - mangled plastic seperators between pins - partial crimp being the main culprits. In general, commercial cables are good enough.
Weird. You didn't answer my question as to whether your wireless ISP is part of a mesh network. If so, it would make sense that the destination gateway might change depending on the topology of the moment. I'll keep things simple and avoid this possibility.
The obvious question is whether the MAC address of the gateway (192.168.252.254) changes before it disconnects, and after it recovers. Try it before and after and see if there's a change. If it does change, well then you'll need to do something to forcibly expire the arp cache and ping the gateway, which should renew the entry.
However, if it doesn't change, then try this experiment. Run: arp -s 192.168.252.254 xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx to permanently set the MAC address of the gateway. If this fixes it, my guess(tm) is that either your ethernet driver or IP stack on your computah is having a bad day. It's suppose to send an ARP request to the gateway immediately after it detects a connection. It's not.
I just tried to simulate your problem. I have an ancient DWL-900AP+ setup in client mode connected to the neighbors WRT54G. Encryption is off. When I disconnect the antenna to simulate a connection loss, it takes about 2 minutes for XP to recognize that the connection is gone. Various services (AIM, Skype, PPTP VPN) fail prior to XP announcing a lost connection.
When I put the antenna back and try to ping the neighbors router, it takes about 20 seconds to re-establish the connection. Yours apparently takes either much longer or never succeeds. I just did it again, but this time, I had a continuously running FPING session running. The reconnection was about 5 seconds. This is the way it should work.
Nice:
5.3GHz. No mesh network. No microwave oven interference. Do you have line of sight? How far away is the central access point.
Perfect. No problems with the IP setup. I can't seem to get the secondary DNS server to respond to my DNS queries, but it might be firewalled to accept queries only from the WISP's network. nslookup Default Server: dns1.snfcca.sbcglobal.net Address: 206.13.28.12
DNS request timed out. timeout was 2 seconds. DNS request timed out. timeout was 2 seconds. *** Request to [201.55.12.1] timed-out
This is probably unrelated to the current problem, but you should check if your secondary DNS server is functional from your end.
Are the ping times (latency in msec) constant? In other words, do they always show the same number of msec, or do they vary all over the place? If they vary, it's a sign of interference or possibly wireless congestion. The extra delays are signs of packet retransmissions. Unfortunately, I can't tell where the gateway IP is located in your WISP's network, so it's difficult to isolate just your traffic results.
It requires traffic to fix itself. If the arp cache is being flushed, it won't repopulate the ARP cache untill it sends something to the gateway. What I find interesting is that the gateway appears to be functional, but nothing beyond it. Try using traceroute (Windoze tracert) to something else is going down along the path. It might be the backhaul between the central access point and where it hits a wired connection.
Well, that makes sense as the gateway is also a DNS server.
From your previous posting, the arp -a results are identical before and after the disconnect. If you preload the ARP cache with:
arp -s 192.168.252.254 00-02-a5-02-44-bd
methinks I can eliminate the arp cache as a probable culprit and move onward to whatever is preventing the connection from recovering gracefully. As far as I can tell, your system is operating normally except in one respect. It does not recover quickly or gracefully from a disconnect. I'm still not sure why, but in every other respect, it functions exactly like my quick test previously mentioned.
Also, I think you would do better to determine (or guess) why the system is showing disconnects in the first place. My guess(tm) is some obstructions in the path (trees, cars, excessive path) or interference from other users of this WISP system.
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