Connection issues (or wifi issues?)

[Morris]

I think it’s more related to wifi, than WAN. This morning, when it failed, I have connected the laptop with a cable and It got an ip. With Firefox, I could access to the web ui, but with safari I couldn’t. To me everything is very wired.

This is what you described this morning:

"Hi

After some weeks it happened again, two times in a row. I have disconnected one node but it didn’t work. I connected the cable, and the laptop got ip, but I was unable to access to the internet either. Perhaps it’s time to to change the router.

Thanks,"

So your LAN was working properly yet you had no Internet (WAN).

I read through the thread and it lacks a lot of detail of your problem(s). Continuous mode should not get you blocked. It simply means the router will retry DHCP requests if the first one(s) do not work. Aggressive mode can result in your ISP blocking you and it's rather rare which is why it's the default.

 

[i5Js]

Hi @Morris

Thanks for your answer, you are right, it lacks a lot of details, because I can’t find any error message. I just trying to decribe what’s going on when it happens. I would like to be more precise, but I don’t know how. It seems apple devices are more sensible, specially with Wifi. My Lenovo can get an IP with wifi and cable, and I can login to the web ui, I see everything is up, WAN included, but I can go to the internet. Restarting the WAN,DNS, or WIFI services, doesn’t fix the issue, only reboot the router.

Thanks anyway.

 

[drinkingbird]

Hi @Morris

Thanks for your answer, you are right, it lacks a lot of details, because I can’t find any error message. I just trying to decribe what’s going on when it happens. I would like to be more precise, but I don’t know how. It seems apple devices are more sensible, specially with Wifi. My Lenovo can get an IP with wifi and cable, and I can login to the web ui, I see everything is up, WAN included, but I can go to the internet. Restarting the WAN,DNS, or WIFI services, doesn’t fix the issue, only reboot the router.

Thanks anyway.

Since you're not able to troubleshoot effectively, I'd recommend putting your node as your main (internet) router for a while and see if the problem goes away. That will at least narrow down which device has the issue.

But in reality, you need to spend some time when this happens and find where the issue is:

When it is down:
Wifi to the node - can it get an IP, reach the GUI, reach the internet?
Wired to the node - same tests
Wifi to the main router - same tests
Wired to the main router - same tests

Ideally set up different SSIDs on both, even if you just create a guest network on the node, so you know exactly which one you are connected to when wireless for the testing.

Whichever one can get to the GUI - what does it say on WAN status - disconnected? No internet? Does it have a WAN IP, DNS, and gateway showing?

The reason different devices behave differently is some OSes, if they see no internet (can't do a DNS lookup, etc) they will act as though you have no connection at all, when in reality you do have a LAN IP address and can access local resources. So it can be confusing. You need to specifically check the things above to effectively narrow down where your problem lies, and ignore whatever the OS is telling you about whether you have internet or not.

It could be a failing ISP modem, could be a bad connection from the pole, could be a failing router or node in your house, could be wifi interference, or any number of other things, but to determine that, need a methodical test to narrow down exactly where the problem is. Right now, it is just total guesswork.

 

[i5Js]

@drinkingbird I can share some results:

I using an Aimesh with one router and one node, so only one wifi. Using my Lenovo:

Wifi to the node - can it get an IP, reach the GUI, reach the internet? It can get ip, reach the GUI, no internet
Wired to the node - same tests: Same with the Lenovo, but my mac, IP but can’t open the web ui, neither internet
I couldn’t test with lenovo, only with my mac:
Wifi to the main router - same tests: Same with the node
Wired to the main router - same tests Same with the node

Whichever one can get to the GUI - what does it say on WAN status - disconnected? No internet? Does it have a WAN IP, DNS, and gateway showing?

Yesterday and the days before, everything was ok. WAN status connected, with WAN IP, DNS and gateway ok. On the logs there were not any error messages, some regular wifi connections and disconnections, but I guess because they moving from one node to another. BTW, I have the roaming assistance disabled.

I will wait for another failure to make extensive tests .

Again many thanks for your tips.

 

[drinkingbird]

@drinkingbird I can share some results:

I using an Aimesh with one router and one node, so only one wifi. Using my Lenovo:

Wifi to the node - can it get an IP, reach the GUI, reach the internet? It can get ip, reach the GUI, no internet
Wired to the node - same tests: Same with the Lenovo, but my mac, IP but can’t open the web ui, neither internet
I couldn’t test with lenovo, only with my mac:
Wifi to the main router - same tests: Same with the node
Wired to the main router - same tests Same with the node

Whichever one can get to the GUI - what does it say on WAN status - disconnected? No internet? Does it have a WAN IP, DNS, and gateway showing?

Yesterday and the days before, everything was ok. WAN status connected, with WAN IP, DNS and gateway ok. On the logs there were not any error messages, some regular wifi connections and disconnections, but I guess because they moving from one node to another. BTW, I have the roaming assistance disabled.

I will wait for another failure to make extensive tests .

Again many thanks for your tips.

So the issue seems to be on the WAN side of your main router. Could be in the router itself, or the ISP modem/connection.

When it happens next, use the Lenovo physically plugged into the main router LAN (since the apple seems to just block communication when it has no internet apparently):
Ping the router LAN IP (should work since the GUI works)
Ping the router WAN IP (you can get this from the GUI)
Ping the router's default gateway (can also be found in the GUI, should be similar to your WAN IP)
Ping google.com, see if it can resolve the hostname to an IP, and if so, whether it can ping successfully
If above fails, ping 8.8.8.8, see if that succeeds
Traceroute to 8.8.8.8, see where it fails (if it fails) and whether hostnames are getting resolved for any of the hops or if they all just show an IP.

This could be as simple as a DNS problem, but above will help narrow it down.

If you're comfortable SSHing into the router, do the same tests from within there too.

 

[i5Js]

Awesome approaching, I will do @drinkingbird

Thanks!

 

[Morris]

So the issue seems to be on the WAN side of your main router. Could be in the router itself, or the ISP modem/connection.

When it happens next, use the Lenovo physically plugged into the main router LAN (since the apple seems to just block communication when it has no internet apparently):
Ping the router LAN IP (should work since the GUI works)
Ping the router WAN IP (you can get this from the GUI)
Ping the router's default gateway (can also be found in the GUI, should be similar to your WAN IP)
Ping google.com, see if it can resolve the hostname to an IP, and if so, whether it can ping successfully
If above fails, ping 8.8.8.8, see if that succeeds
Traceroute to 8.8.8.8, see where it fails (if it fails) and whether hostnames are getting resolved for any of the hops or if they all just show an IP.

This could be as simple as a DNS problem, but above will help narrow it down.

If you're comfortable SSHing into the router, do the same tests from within there too.

I was about to suggest the same procedure. You might want to contact your ISP. Explain the intermittent lack of internet access and see what they see from there side. Possibly there is a week signal that they can address. The test results they run as well as the ones listed above will be very informative. When the problem happens again, after running and logging the results of the tests above, try resetting the ISP equipment rather than your router. If service restores, it's probably not your router.

Good luck

 

[i5Js]

Hi all, I think we have a winner, the main router. It just happened again, below the tests:

** Connected with cable to the main router: no ip, Lenovo could not get an ip, so no ping test.
** Connected to the aimesh node: It got an ip:

Ping the router LAN IP (should work since the GUI works): It worked
Ping the router WAN IP (you can get this from the GUI): It worked
Ping the router's default gateway (can also be found in the GUI, should be similar to your WAN IP). It didn’t work
Ping google.com, see if it can resolve the hostname to an IP, and if so, whether it can ping successfully It didn’t work, from lenovo or even from the main router
If above fails, ping 8.8.8.8, see if that succeeds. It didn’t work, same than other test
Traceroute to 8.8.8.8, see where it fails (if it fails) and whether hostnames are getting resolved for any of the hops or if they all just show an IP. It didn’t work, only one step with *

So I think the main router is failing, because of the software or a hardware issue.

Thanks for reading

 

[Morris]

This is very strange as the router provides DHCP, DNS and connectivity for the node. Try backup your config and JFFS partition. Then copy all critical configuration info and swap roles by manually configuring the replacement router. If this works, try swapping back, first with backups and if you still have issues, factory reset the router and manually configure.

 

[i5Js]

I did a factory reset and restored only DHCP settings, and because it didn’t work, I started this thread. I was thinking, like you said, to swap the roles. The main router as node, and the node as main router.

 

[Morris]

Oh, that history is very important. You can swap roles of node and router or just replace the router. It sounds sick. If you swap roles you may see problems move to the node.

 

[i5Js]

I was thinking to reset both to default settings, then change the roles. is it ok?

 

[drinkingbird]

I was thinking to reset both to default settings, then change the roles. is it ok?

If you were able to ping the WAN IP of the router but not the ISP default gateway, that points to the ISP modem or network. Not impossible that it is the router, certainly try swapping them to see if it resolves the issue, then you'd have your smoking gun. If it happens again, the issue is almost certainly beyond the router WAN.

It is odd that you couldn't get a DHCP IP from the main router but could from the node. I do think I've seen someone post a similar behavior when their internet was down (not being able to get an IP from the main router, I don't think they had aimesh).

Try resetting and swapping them and see what happens, looks like you may have to run that way for a few weeks to a month to be sure.

Do not restore any settings at all, you can manually re-enter DHCP reservations and stuff but do not restore from any sort of backup or file.

 

[Morris]

I was thinking to reset both to default settings, then change the roles. is it ok?

I'm convinced the router is defective yet if you want more assurance, go ahead.

 

[Morris]

If you were able to ping the WAN IP of the router but not the ISP default gateway, that points to the ISP modem or network. Not impossible that it is the router, certainly try swapping them to see if it resolves the issue, then you'd have your smoking gun. If it happens again, the issue is almost certainly beyond the router WAN.

It is odd that you couldn't get a DHCP IP from the main router but could from the node. I do think I've seen someone post a similar behavior when their internet was down (not being able to get an IP from the main router, I don't think they had aimesh).

Try resetting and swapping them and see what happens, looks like you may have to run that way for a few weeks to a month to be sure.

The wired client could not get an IP when connected to the router. This is a local issue. When connected to the node it got an IP (from the router) yet it could not get across the WAN. This feels like the router is dropping the data, the same cause as the local host not able to get an IP.

If he swaps router and node the symptoms will change if I'm correct. I expect all will be find on the router yet problems may appear on the node.

 

[drinkingbird]

The wired client could not get an IP when connected to the router. This is a local issue. When connected to the node it got an IP (from the router) yet it could not get across the WAN. This feels like the router is dropping the data, the same cause as the local host not able to get an IP.

If he swaps router and node the symptoms will change if I'm correct. I expect all will be find on the router yet problems may appear on the node.

The node is literally just a switch hanging off the main router when it comes to wired devices, so it really makes no sense that it could get an IP connected there but not to the main, the laptop was essentially cabled directly to the main at that point, so I'm thinking a possible issue with the testing methodology (or something as simple as ports in the main router is dusty due to lack of use, etc). Like I said, certainly not impossible, and swapping the roles is the next logical step at this point.

 

[i5Js]

Thanks guys for your advice. Next time, I will try first to restart the isp router and I will try the test before again.

Thanks again

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks guys for your advice. Next time, I will try first to restart the isp router and I will try the test before again.

Thanks again

May or may not tell you anything, since restarting their device will bounce the WAN port on the Asus which might "wake" it up. But certainly worth a try. If it doesn't fix it, then at that point you know it is almost certainly the Asus. If it does, it doesn't necessarily tell you one way or the other.

 

[i5Js]

It happens again. I can’t troubleshoot a lot because I need to work. I have restarted the isp router but still not working

 

[i5Js]

And the wan led is in red