ZenWifi XT8 suddenly no Ethernet connections working

[JulH]

I found this forum when searching to try to solve our recent network problem. Last October, I installed a mesh network using ZenWifi XT8 connecting to FiOS Gigabit Internet. No FiOS TV boxes, so I removed the Verizon router from the network setup.

So, Ethernet cable from FiOS source to XT8 WAN port in living room. Other 3 XT8s are scattered through the house allowing much improved WiFi. I have a Mac mini connected directly to the living room XT8's LAN port 1. LAN 3 has a Netgear 8-port Ethernet switch connected with things like Apple TV, Tivo, Ethernet cable to basement, receiver, and BluRay. Everything was working fine until a day or so ago, when anything connected to the LAN or Ethernet switch no longer can get Internet. Easiest items to look at are the Mac and the Apple TV, which both show self-assigned IP addresses starting with 169.254.xx instead of valid IP addresses starting with 192.168.xx.

I went through an extended tech support call with ASUS, which didn't help at all. I've now factory reset all the XT8s and moved a different one to be the starting router. Absolutely no difference -- WiFi still works fine, but no luck with anything connected to LAN ports. Any idea what's happening here? I did switch AppleTV and Tivo to use WiFi instead, but I'd prefer to have hardwired Ethernet as an option.

 

[tgl]

Was there a firmware update involved? If so, maybe going back to the previous version would help. A lot of people around here have learned the hard way to not allow automatic updates from ASUS. It seems like on average, their updates introduce about as many serious bugs as they fix; so you're best off finding a version that works well for you and being very cagey about moving off that.

 

[JulH]

I guess that's lesson learned on auto updates for ASUS. I don't think there's an exact timing match, however, as I think I updated the firmware a couple of weeks ago.

 

[glens]

If you want rock solid, use the GNUTon fork of Merlin's work. Though using it on mesh nodes likely require wired connection (temporarily) to attach nodes. Worth the "trouble".

 

[mlai]

I have 4 units of ET12 and the unit acting as router recently keeps on losing LAN (on all LAN1/2/2.5G ports) when I apply configuration changes as well. May not be completely the same problem but very similar. I find that if I manually disconnect and reconnect one of the ethernet cables connected to the LAN port of the router unit, all LAN ports will reactivate.

 

[RobJack]

LAN 3 has a Netgear 8-port Ethernet switch connected

Sounds like it could be a spanning tree issue. Try disconnecting the Netgear switch and see if your ethernet ports come back to life.

 

[JulH]

Sounds like it could be a spanning tree issue. Try disconnecting the Netgear switch and see if your ethernet ports come back to life.

Hmm, the disconnecting of the Netgear switch does seem to have had a positive impact on the ethernet ports awakening. Now is this a problem that will recur after a couple of days/weeks/months?

 

[RobJack]

Hmm, the disconnecting of the Netgear switch does seem to have had a positive impact on the ethernet ports awakening. Now is this a problem that will recur after a couple of days/weeks/months?

If your netgear switch allows you to enable "portfast" on the ports, please do so. Basically, it sounds like your netgear switch has been elected as the root bridge of your network, which is a bad thing. Too much to go into on this forum, so I'll direct you to a google search on spanning tree protocol to gain a better understanding of what may be your problem. Enabling portfast (if it's an available config option) may solve the issue.