New to this forum. Major problem

[Ronnie Bailey]

All my devices are hardwired with either cat 5e or cat 6. I have about 30 different hardwired devices scattered throughout my house. For the past month, I have been fighting the issue of one or more of my devices dropping off my network. Sounds spooky, but I check before I go to bed, and all are connected, when I get up in the am, one or more are dropped off the network. I can not figure it out.

Here is my setup. I have a roughly, 2 year old Asus RT-AC1900P router. From that router, that is sitting on my desk, I have one Ethernet cable going to my computer that is also on my desk, it never looses connection. I also have an Ooma VOIP box and 8 port Trendnet switch on my desk. The Ooma goes to the router as does the 8 port switch, and it does NOT drop off the network.

I have a cat 6 cable running from the switch on my desk to the entertainment center in another room. It connects to a brand new, Netgear GS116NA 16 port switch (purchased and installed yesterday, thought that was my problem child). Two or three of the devices that dropped of the network are connected to that switch.

I also have a cat6 Ethernet cable running from the switch on my desk to my basement, where it connects to an 8 port Ethernet switch. From that switch, I feed another 4 port POE switch for my security cams. I also have a single POE adapter that connects to the 8 port switch (have another cam connected to that adapter). Today, IT also dropped off my network. So, the only common thing is the 8 port switch on my desk. I just noticed that just now as I am typing this.

I moved the Ethernet cable from the router that was connected to my Ooma VOIP device. This freed up two ports on my Asus router, so I moved my cat 6 cables that went to my entertainment center and basement, from the 8 port switch to my router.

This will tell me if the 8 port switch is the problem child. BUT, it was always the same devices that were dropping off the network.

I paid $80 for a that new 16 port switch and it was NOT the problem. I really don't want to replace my Asus router, if it is not bad...........

Any ideas on what to try next??

Thanks

 

[HowIFix]

01. Try this firmware: [Fork] Asuswrt-Merlin 374.43 LTS (is the most stable ASUS firmware that exists and has nothing broken)
02. Test Spanning-Tree Protocol, If you have the same problem, disable this option and test again. (LAN -> Switch Control)
03. Change places, 8 and 16 port switches.
04. I do not know

 

[ColinTaylor]

Any ideas on what to try next??

Wait and see the results of this change.

The only thing I was going to suggest is that you a) replace the cable between the Asus and the Trendnet switch, and b) plug this cable into different sockets at each end in case one of them is damaged/dirty.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

01. Try this firmware: [Fork] Asuswrt-Merlin 374.43 LTS (is the most stable ASUS firmware that exists and has nothing broken)
02. Test Spanning-Tree Protocol, If you have the same problem, disable this option and test again. (LAN -> Switch Control)
03. Change places, 8 and 16 port switches.
04. I do not know

I am not prepared to swap firmwares. When I first got this router, I did try another firmware, but did not like it (forgot which modded firmware). I was going to do a reset, but that is my last resort.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Wait and see the results of this change.

The only thing I was going to suggest is that you a) replace the cable between the Asus and the Trendnet switch, and b) plug this cable into different sockets at each end in case one of them is damaged/dirty.

By moving my cables from the switch to the router, that should tell me if it is the switch or router.....

Thanks for the help. I will know in the morning if anything changes for the better.

 

[HowIFix]

I am not prepared to swap firmwares. When I first got this router, I did try another firmware, but did not like it (forgot which modded firmware).

Flash that firmware and you will not regret, I assure you 100%!

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Flash that firmware and you will not regret, I assure you 100%!

The Asus firmware has 6 different WiFi modes, does this firmware do that?? The other firmware I tried only had ONE account for each band, 2.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

So, I swapped the cables, so they connect directly to the router. While I was moving cables, I lost my WiFi. After testing another router, I found an on/off WiFi switch on the router. Anyway after pounding my head against the wall, I got everything hooked back up, but those SAME devices did not connect to the network. I have to power them down and back up. Both of those devices are Android boxes running LibreELEC and CoreELEC. At least my security cam (that is connected to a POE adapter), came back online.

If I still have the issue in the morning, I am going to ASSUME that the router is going to crap.

I like the Asus router because it has a builtin VPN and DDNS. I don't need to open any ports by using the VPN and DDNS, and I can still stream contents from my LAN over WAN. In other words, I don't need to open any ports, but I can still watch videos, connect to my NAS's any where in the world that has internet access. I can access all my security cams from anywhere........

 

[HowIFix]

The Asus firmware has 6 different WiFi modes, does this firmware do that?? The other firmware I tried only had ONE account for each band, 2.

That firmware has 7 Waifu modes

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

That firmware has 7 Waifu modes

Sounding good. What about builtin DDNS and VPN???

 

[degrub]

Sound like either the device or the switch port is being energy efficient and going to sleep.

If the issue only follows the device and not any cable, switch, router change, then you will have to see if there is a port “sleep” or “green ethernet” setting to change or some other “keep alive” setting.

You could get a cheap wireless router to test with to see if it is the router. Then use it as an AP if not.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Sound like either the device or the switch port is being energy efficient and going to sleep.

If the issue only follows the device and not any cable, switch, router change, then you will have to see if there is a port “sleep” or “green ethernet” setting to change or some other “keep alive” setting.

You could get a cheap wireless router to test with to see if it is the router. Then use it as an AP if not.

Strange that I never had any issues with setup until a week or two ago, been running the same system for at least a year. I will know in a few hours, if the 8 port switch on my desk was the problem. But, you may be on the right track, I will look at that next.

 

[degrub]

If that is the case for the original equipment, then not likely. With new switches/routers can be an issue.
Power supplies or power can also result in that kind of issue. Wall wart power converters can get flaky. Sometimes a well filtered UPS power supply helps.
Any firmware updates a couple weeks ago ?
Any power issues ? Lightning hits in the area in the last year ?

i had to replace my router for similar dropped connection issue a few years ago. The other things i mentioned just extended the time between drops.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Same thing today. All my devices were connected to my network last nigh when I checked, around midnight. This morning some of my devices had dropped off the network again. ONE is my security camera that is on a feed that goes from my router to the basement to an 8 port switch. That switch feeds another 4 port POE switch that has 4 security cams connected to it, but they do NOT drop off the network.

The other devices are connected to a new 16 port Ethernet switch that I purchased yesterday. That switch is fed directly from the Asus router using a cat 6 cable. So, the only thing that is common is the router. But I don't want to purchase a new router and still have the problem. I do have an older router, that I will replace the Asus with for further testing.

By powering off/on my devices, they all came online, EXCEPT, my security cam.

attached are the screen captures of my devices on my network.

Edit: The top icons from the IPScanner screen grabs are the devices that are not connected to my network, the little icon is grey if it is not connected.

 

[ColinTaylor]

TBH it seems unlikely to be the Asus, even though you appear to have tried everything else.

Ignoring the POE camera for the moment; the other failing devices are connected to the new switch, not directly into the Asus. If there were a hardware issue with the router's ports I'd expect to see problems with all devices attached to the new switch not just some of them.

As you know the problem occurs overnight I'd start by looking at the router's syslog (maybe the router is rebooting itself for example). For the devices that have lost their connection look in their log files as well.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

TBH it seems unlikely to be the Asus, even though you appear to have tried everything else.

Ignoring the POE camera for the moment; the other failing devices are connected to the new switch, not directly into the Asus. If there were a hardware issue with the router's ports I'd expect to see problems with all devices attached to the new switch not just some of them.

As you know the problem occurs overnight I'd start by looking at the router's syslog (maybe the router is rebooting itself for example). For the devices that have lost their connection look in their log files as well.

Speaking of rebooting, should all devices automatically connect after a reboot? I just rebooted, but the security cam still did not connect.

Is it possible that one of my devices is causing the issue?? Should I remove all the devices and inset one at a time each day, at bed time??

I am retired and live alone, so nothing is mission critical.......... NO WAF to bitch... , As long as everything is running when granddaughter comes over. We HAVE to watch our movies together.

 

[ColinTaylor]

It depends on the device.

When the router reboots a device plugged directly into it will see its network interface go down and then come back up again. This will force the client to reinitialise its interface.

Devices plugged into a switch are physically isolated from this process so their interface remains up. However they will have lost connectivity to the internet and other router services like DHCP and DNS, but they can still communicate with other devices attached to the same switch. How the software that's running on these clients will react depends on how it's written.

Check the logs as a first step.

 

[AndreiV]

From a quick Google this issue is not unknown :


https://www.google.co.uk/search?sou...99...0i22i30k1j33i160k1j33i21k1.0.N_y3-Jv4odc

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

From a quick Google this issue is not unknown :


https://www.google.co.uk/search?sou...99...0i22i30k1j33i160k1j33i21k1.0.N_y3-Jv4odc

Thanks, but it can't be the switch, just installed it and the other switch did the same thing.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

It depends on the device.

When the router reboots a device plugged directly into it will see its network interface go down and then come back up again. This will force the client to reinitialise its interface.

Devices plugged into a switch are physically isolated from this process so their interface remains up. However they will have lost connectivity to the internet and other router services like DHCP and DNS, but they can still communicate with other devices attached to the same switch. How the software that's running on these clients will react depends on how it's written.

Check the logs as a first step.

Thanks, I will check the logs when I return home.