Cisco WRP400 on Ripplecom

Irish Steve

Folks, looking for ideas.

Have a Cisco WRP400 router, providing 1 VOIP line, and broadband to an XP Pro SP3 fully patched machine, and having an ongoing hassle, which I think is router based, but proving it is proving to be hard. I've seen a lot of comments on Cisco board that this router has a nasty habit of hanging, and that's for sure happening, and if the PC is on site, the PC is also hanging regularly, but I've tried the PC elsewhere, and it's not hanging the same, which is confusing.

To compound the issue, the PC, Router and Network termination box are all running on a UPS, as this is a rural site with marginal power, and without the UPS, something like a compressor starting up will upset the PC.

So, what is causing hassles, the PC can be used for a number of hours, and then when left on but unattended overnight, there is a good chance that it will be frozen within an hour or 2, and if I try to access it using Teamviewer, it's locked, and won't be accessible until I return to the site and reboot either the PC, or the router, or maybe even both.

Another issue that's too regular is that the router will lock up, and when that happens, the only way to get the router back on line is to power cycle it, and then everything comes back up.

I've looked at all the logs, and there's nothing in either the router logs or the PC logs to indicate anything sinister. The only issue on the PC is that on startup, there's a serial error 18, but that's a pretty rare error, and Microsoft don't seem to know much about it.

So, short of putting wireshark on to a spare PC and leaving it run to see what happens, is there any other way to track down what's causing this machine to lock?

Are there any diagnostics I can leave running on the PC that might show up what's happening to lock it up?

Thanks

Steve

pizzahead77

Have you checked the Power Saving settings in the PC, that drive etc isnt going to sleep or anything like that

eirator

pizzahead77 wrote: »

Have you checked the Power Saving settings in the PC, that drive etc isnt going to sleep or anything like that

Good point iirc the default setting for XP is to set up network cards with the Allow the computer to turn of this device to save power check box ticked, but OP says it works OK in another location.

I've had similar "stupid" issues that just seemed random and one that crashed PC's and almost anything else in range was a RFI issue from a paging system it took about a year and thousands of pounds for someone to eventually work out that whenever the paging system was used to page someone on site the nearest computer crashed and needed a reboot :rolleyes:

Irish Steve

Valid thoughts, and have checked them, network and USB, just in case. The machine's been moved to another location, and run for a couple of days with no hassles, but it dies within a short time on it's normal site.

The "normal" site is in the middle of nowhere, so it's not an RF type issue, as there's nothing on site that emits RF, no masts, or local broadband routers even, which is why I'm tearing my hair out some.

eirator

Some random thoughts...

Lighting? I've seen some PC's near powerful outdoor security lighting cause an occasional crash. In that particular case it wasn't an issue as the lights normally came on after the office was closed but the lights were mounted on the walls outside the office and when they came on the nearest PC's screens would go mad and the odd time the PC directly opposite would lock up and need a reboot. Also had a classic once which you'll find hard to believe - cleaner came in every Friday night to a small office and the you guessed it plugged out the server and then plugged it back in when they'd finished. Even had one PC with constant HDD issues and 3 new HDD untill I was in the office one day when the cleaner came in and while I was sat at a nearby desk she rammed an upright vacuum clearner into the tower case on the floor under the desk a few times.

Stories aside can you shuv any old PC in the same location for a couple of days and leave it off the network just to see if it also reboots?

Also humidity? - sudden drop in temperature and condensation. Animals? - like a cat comes in and sleeps on the router it gets hot and bingo. Heat? Daft ideas but you really can't rule anything out. Yet another tall tale - once had a PC on the bench which had died after a family of mice had moved in (missing blanking plate) and p!ssed all over the motherboard there was a cute little nest of paper over the PCI slots - and a smell.

Does the router need to run 24/7 or can you get away with regular reboots by plugging it into a timer?

Also what do you mean by network termination box?

Irish Steve

ok, it's in an old portakabin, and not by any stretch of the imagination a new machine, but this behaviour is recent. The broadband is Ripplecom, which is wireless, so the network terminator is an Alvarion power supply that provides the power to the head unit, which is external, and the network signal comes out of the box and goes into the router, which then connects to the PC over standard Ethernet. The only other device on the router is an analog phone, and there's a USB connected Epson CX1100NF multi function laser printer on the PC,

No condensation, no furry residents, cleaner non existent, Router and terminator are wall mounted, so nothing sleeping there,

Will try a spare PC on the network, and might even stick wireshark on it to see if I can see anything strange happening.

eirator

I'd try the PC off the network for a couple of days just to rule out anything enviromental before you plug it into the network.

I've done several of these types of jobs in the past and they are always really obvious once you know what the problem is but often you are looking in the wrong place or not in the right place to notice exactly what combination of events occur that cause the issue.

Is the VOIP port used? Any chance calling it under certain conditions affects the router? Its not plugged into a wireless phone of any kind?

Also have you checked the earthing on the power points and connected equipment, never had it cause any computer crashes but seen a couple of instances where multiple earths on long cable runs (doesn't sound like you'll have any here) created massive network issues. Basically one main earthing point is good but earthing a long network cable at each end at two locations like when going from one cabinet or termination point to another can be bad. No earth also bad. - but you probably know all that

Irish Steve

eirator wrote: »

I'd try the PC off the network for a couple of days just to rule out anything enviromental before you plug it into the network.

Did that, took it home and for good measure hung it on my own network for a couple of days, and it didn't hang, though it was less than happy running backup for some reason.

I've done several of these types of jobs in the past and they are always really obvious once you know what the problem is but often you are looking in the wrong place or not in the right place to notice exactly what combination of events occur that cause the issue.

Do I ever know that feeling. I've had some that are exactly that, very obvious once the real cause is found, and I once spent a week looking for a floating earth on a site that had been working perfectly for over 18 months, then all of a sudden one Monday morning, the machine refused to power up, and it wasn't till a new replacement machine did exactly the same thing when put in that socket that we found the socket was floating, but somehow, the original machine had worked perfectly for over 18 months..

Is the VOIP port used? Any chance calling it under certain conditions affects the router? Its not plugged into a wireless phone of any kind

VOIP is used, but it's a normal analog phone, and the times when it's being used the machine seems to be happy, it's out of hours that the darn thing locks up most often, when there's no one within miles of it.

Also have you checked the earthing on the power points and connected equipment, never had it cause any computer crashes but seen a couple of instances where multiple earths on long cable runs (doesn't sound like you'll have any here) created massive network issues. Basically one main earthing point is good but earthing a long network cable at each end at two locations like when going from one cabinet or termination point to another can be bad. No earth also bad. - but you probably know all that

Not checked the UPS yet, I've been working, possibly wrongly,on the assumption that the UPS would whinge like hell it if wasn't happy with it's environment, and the machine and both network boxes are all on the UPS, the printer is not, don't have the capacity when the fuser is warming up, but it's not been an issue previously. There's only one machine as such on the network, the router is only there to give the split for Ethernet and VOIP after the network signal comes in off the external aerial. There's no other machines or connections that could be giving earth loop issues,

I have seen issues where the router locks up and has to be rebooted to get it back, and been wondering if that's related, but the lock up is a known issue with the router that Linksys seem to be unable or unwilling to fix,

The annoying aspect is that there's nothing in any logs or reports to indicate that there's a problem, it's simply a case that it hangs, and when it does, it's gone, the only way back is to hit the power button and wait the 10 seconds, then reboot, it's completely unresponsive to anything else.

I shall get there, even if it means swapping out the motherboard, but that's a last resort, if for no other reason than to replace the Mobo means a lot of messing, or a new mobo, processor and memory, as the one that's there is capacity limited, so not worth straight swapping as such, even if I could get a new board that old. I am wondering if some of the capacitors on the Mobo are on the way out, and that it's not smoothing as it should, but why only on one location, that's confusing some, as I don't run it on UPS at home.

Oh the joys of computing!

Thanks

Steve

eirator

Sorry, what I ment by try the PC off the network was put in another random PC and just leave it powered up on site but totally unconnected to the network. Then when you have to go back anyway to reboot the PC that is on the network check if the off network PC is working or not. In a couple of instances I've had it would have proved the network wasn't an issue and saved time replacing a lot of network components.

Did also have a spot in one building that seemed to be a computer black spot. It was near a reinforced pillar and any PC's placed near through the wierdest errors but worked fine further away, didn't get a chance to investigate that one as it was just easier to move someones desk around.

btw RE: earthing, is the portacabin earthed with a decent earthing spike?

plus any UPS software you can run to monitor the UPS and even use it to reboot the PC once a day to save you the effort.