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Unidentified Networing Issue.

AnDtuigeannTu

How's it goin lads,

Recently (around 3 weeks ago) I've been having a randomly occurring problem where I lose the vast majority of my internet connectivity. The issue resolves itself after a seemingly random amount of time, or if I perform an ipconfig /renew from the command prompt.

The strange thing is that Win7 does not report my connection status as offline or as having no internet access, and I can ping around my local network so I have a logical address. In terms of my DNS, sometimes I can ping both addresses, sometimes I can't, when I can ping it nslookup responds with the correct information, and when I can't I get nslookup errors. Sometimes I can even ping around the opposite side of my broadband router so I believe that rules out a NAT problem.

Also of note: My computer is the only machine on the network that seems to be affected by this, I can access the internet on my phone and laptop while my PC cannot. The router configuration page also does not show my MAC and associated IP in the IP address management table, but to be honest it seems to randomly show connected devices by its own free will, even when the devices are connected and working.

Things I've tried:

Firewall disabling - Still happens.
Setting up a static IP - Still happens.
Setting up static routes to my DNS - Still happens.
Factory restoring my home router - Still happens.
Setting an infinite lease time for DHCP - Still happens.
Flushing DNS - Still happens.
Instating a new HOSTS file in the system32/drivers/etc/ folder - Still happens.
Clearing the ARP table - Still Happens.
Power cycling the router - Still happens.

One thing I did a few months ago that may be an issue is that I assigned a static IP to my PC's NIC using the configuration page of the router, there was no trouble afterwards though. The static IP management section no longer lists my MAC address in it's table though whenever I reboot the router or do a /release /renew I always seem to get the same IP address, unless staticly defined on my PC.

Been in touch with UPC and they report no connection problems on their end. Been sitting on wireshark during my free time and every time I stop getting traffic I look at the packets, I appear to be getting a few bad TCP packets and a load of ARP requests from my PC trying to find the router.

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Comments

AnDtuigeannTu

One thing I've forgotten to mention is that in an effort to try fix this problem, thinking it was a DNS issue, I changed my DNS to googles DNS servers, this hasn't affected the problem at all but hasn't been changed back.

Cuddlesworth

Have you tried updating the drivers on the NIC? Or replacing it.

AnDtuigeannTu

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Have you tried updating the drivers on the NIC? Or replacing it.

Thanks for getting back to me,

The drivers of the NIC are up to date, it's also the NIC of the mobo, but unfortunately I do not have a means of getting a new NIC (I'm pretty broke!). Is there a way of testing the NIC for errors without swapping it out?

Spear

We should differentiate if the failure is between the PC and router, or the router and the outside world.

When this next happens ping the router address and see what it returns. Then ping an address by both domain and IP. Google.com or their DNS server address will do.

AnDtuigeannTu

Spear wrote: »

We should differentiate if the failure is between the PC and router, or the router and the outside world.

When this next happens ping the router address and see what it returns. Then ping an address by both domain and IP. Google.com or their DNS server address will do.

Will do,

But just to note: last few times it has happened I have successfully pinged both sides of my router and have had managed to ping the other side of my connected WAN too. I have had mixed success with pinging my DNS and outside websites.

AnDtuigeannTu

UPDATE

Happened again earlier and I couldn't ping my broadband box even though I clearly had an assigned IP, a second ping worked after about 15 seconds though while I still had no functionality.

Spear

What's the uptime on the router after this happens? It could be rebooting on its own.

AnDtuigeannTu

Spear wrote: »

What's the uptime on the router after this happens? It could be rebooting on its own.

Hi, I spent the last little while searching over my routers web-enabled config menu and can't find anything that could remotely indicate it's uptime. I'm using an EPC2425 from Cisco. I tired telnetting in and using the Cisco OS command "show version" but I can't get the telnet to work, even while port forwarding.

Cuddlesworth

AnDtuigeannTu wrote: »

Hi, I spent the last little while searching over my routers web-enabled config menu and can't find anything that could remotely indicate it's uptime. I'm using an EPC2425 from Cisco. I tired telnetting in and using the Cisco OS command "show version" but I can't get the telnet to work, even while port forwarding.

Sweet Jesus thats a old box. It must be coming up on 8 years now.

Everything you have said implies that there is either a problem with your NIC or your router. I would have leaned towards NIC, since the problem seems isolated to your PC. Knowing that your router is so old, I now have my doubts.

ED E

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Sweet Jesus thats a old box. It must be coming up on 8 years now.

Everything you have said implies that there is either a problem with your NIC or your router. I would have leaned towards NIC, since the problem seems isolated to your PC. Knowing that your router is so old, I now have my doubts.

2425s were issued up to about 4 years ago. Not that ancient, certainly not as far as residential CPE goes.

AnDtuigeannTu

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Sweet Jesus thats a old box. It must be coming up on 8 years now.

Everything you have said implies that there is either a problem with your NIC or your router. I would have leaned towards NIC, since the problem seems isolated to your PC. Knowing that your router is so old, I now have my doubts.

Yeah it's also a pretty bad box, terrible WiFi on the thing, had to cable up two PC's at opposite ends of the house just to get them stable access.

If I called UPC and asked for a new box, do you think they'd send me one? If so do you think they'll charge?

I'll try get my hands on a PCIe/PCI NIC but it's looking like a longshot so far. I have very few friends who would have something like that lying around and even then it's a small chance with the ones who might.

AnDtuigeannTu

Also, any chance a slight failure on a mobo NIC would have any effect on the rest of the mobo?

Spear

AnDtuigeannTu wrote: »

Yeah it's also a pretty bad box, terrible WiFi on the thing, had to cable up two PC's at opposite ends of the house just to get them stable access.

If I called UPC and asked for a new box, do you think they'd send me one? If so do you think they'll charge?

I'll try get my hands on a PCIe/PCI NIC but it's looking like a longshot so far. I have very few friends who would have something like that lying around and even then it's a small chance with the ones who might.

If you complain to UPC that it keeps restarting, I'd expect them to replace it, though that may be with a newer and DOCSIS 3.0 compatible modem.

AnDtuigeannTu

UPDATE

So I managed to get my hands on a NIC, didn't solve the problem, still getting random bouts of dropped traffic. Also the box isn't rebooting, I can access the routers config page during the time I have no internet traffic and it says it is online, this is backed up by the fact that my phone can access the internet via the wireless during this time.

Another reason that I think it might actually be my PC is that I use the same Ethernet cable for my PC on my PS4 to play online because the WiFi is bad and the console maintains a stable connection no problem.

At a serious loss here for ideas.

ED E

Sudo rm rf.

But seriously, this sounds like software. Do you use Avast perhaps? Any smartDNS etc?

AnDtuigeannTu

ED E wrote: »

Sudo rm rf.

But seriously, this sounds like software. Do you use Avast perhaps? Any smartDNS etc?

Yeah I use Avast. Has this been known to cause networking issues? No smartDNS or anything like that. I initially had Spybot running too when the problems started up and when I uninstalled it the problems persisted.

I mean even when I had everything hard coded in (bypassing DHCP etc.) I was sometimes stopped from pinging local addresses, and then other times I would have no traffic and be able to ping local addresses.

ED E

AVASTs smart filters cause chaos when they go awry. It proxies all traffic.

Uninstall it, run ccleaner, reboot. Test like that for a day or two, see if its improved.

AnDtuigeannTu

ED E wrote: »

AVASTs smart filters cause chaos when they go awry. It proxies all traffic.

Uninstall it, run ccleaner, reboot. Test like that for a day or two, see if its improved.

Will do, do you have any other recommended anti-virus that will work for the mean time? I'm a little paronoid about going online without some sort of anti virus.

AnDtuigeannTu

More Updates

Went all of two hours after uninstalling Avast and rebooting and I got the same issue, reconnected almost immediately though. The traffic dropping out hasn't lasted for an extended period of time for a couple days now, I can start getting traffic again after about 5-10 seconds without having to do a /renew. No idea when this started happening exactly so I don't know what change is causing this to happen.

EDIT: Here's another thing I've noticed that's pretty strange but may not have any bearing. When I turn my PC on first thing or after a reboot etc. Steam will tell me exactly how long it's been since my friends have been last online. When I get my traffic dropped these times will change. They change to the length of time has passed since the traffic was last dropped, it'll refresh the time if traffic drops again or a friend comes online but other than that the time won't revert to the actual time.

ED E

Those times on steam are unreliable. Ive seen it go from a week to two hours to a week all within 20 minutes.

Boot ubuntu off a USB and have it play back a 6hr youtube video, see if loses the link at all. Rule out hardware completely.

Bog Standard User

are you getting unidentified network on ethernet or wifi? sounds to me like a crap driver is the cause

list your network adapters

if using a Qualcomm Atheros wireless adapter on windows 8.1 64bit try using the windows 7 64bit driver.

on my laptop the windows 8.1 64bit driver craps out all the time but the windows 7 64bit driver works perfectly

AnDtuigeannTu

Bog Standard User wrote: »

are you getting unidentified network on ethernet or wifi? sounds to me like a crap driver is the cause

list your network adapters

if using a Qualcomm Atheros wireless adapter on windows 8.1 64bit try using the windows 7 64bit driver.

on my laptop the windows 8.1 64bit driver craps out all the time but the windows 7 64bit driver works perfectly

Nah I'm using win7 64-bit. I've used two different Ethernet ports (mobo and a PCIe nic) and the problem has persisted so I think that rules out the drivers (considering both ethernet ports were manufactured by two different companies). I'm also using an wired connection, as wireless is hugely unreliable where my PC is as there is a metal girder right above it.

Johnboy1951

ED E wrote: »

Those times on steam are unreliable. Ive seen it go from a week to two hours to a week all within 20 minutes.

Boot ubuntu off a USB and have it play back a 6hr youtube video, see if loses the link at all. Rule out hardware completely.

+1 (or any Live Linux)

AnDtuigeannTu

ED E wrote: »

Those times on steam are unreliable. Ive seen it go from a week to two hours to a week all within 20 minutes.

Boot ubuntu off a USB and have it play back a 6hr youtube video, see if loses the link at all. Rule out hardware completely.

Okay man, it'll be a couple days before I can really get around to trying this fully because I have a busy few days before the Easter break but I'll get back to you after. Just one thing though, usually if the connection drops while watching a Youtube video I won't notice unless I try to go to another site or load another tab, this is because for some reason I start getting traffic about 5-10 seconds again after the drop. Like I said the computer doesn't seem to get disconnected from the network, I just lose all traffic. The video will typically, in this time, play out to the point it has buffered up to and then by the time it reaches the end of the buffered video the traffic has usually started coming in again.

This doesn't really seem to be a problem unless I'm on Skype or playing games online, in which case I'll get dropped from games or from a call every 20-30 mins.

What I'm trying to say is there any other methods I should try while on another OS that would give me more data to work with? I doubt I can run online games on a USB loaded Ubuntu efficiently enough to stress test a network connection.

AnDtuigeannTu

UPDATE:

So I ran Ubuntu off of a flash drive for a few hours and had a few network drops. So now I'm positive the issue is hardware based. Could an Ethernet cable be responsible for this kind of behaviour or should I look more closely at the broadband box?

Azhrei

This issue pops up every now and then on our media pc and it drives me crazy. Hasn't happened in a while so fingers crossed, but I would get hair-tearingly angry whenever it did, since it always took forever to solve and it was always something different that did it. I have this combined text file on my desktop that has my own information as well as some advice I found on the 'net. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it doesn't.

If the usual bull**** of ip/address, network/address, select home computer, etc. doesn't work, try this -

1. Assign an ip address

2. In IPv4, choose "Use the following DNS server addresses", and add the ip address of the router in the preferred server path.

The issue is that the ROUTE table contains a phantom persistent default route 0.0.0.0 to one of the network interface cards. This activates the "Unidentified Network" (Public) every time the network connection becomes active. Sharing permissions are turned off.

My solution is to use the Windows Command Screen as Administrator and remove all default routes.

ROUTE DELETE 0.0.0.0

This removes the default routes from all network interfaces. You must then reapply the necessary default routes to your interfaces (Do not use address of the network adapter as the default). If you have an isolated network (without any router, firewall, or gateway) with more than one computer -- I do this in a development laboratory -- is to choose for default address for Vista, 2008, Win-7, to be the IPv4 address of any other attached network interface.

I don't know why Microsoft deciced to make the default routes 0.0.0.0 persist in the routing table instead of just being bound to the network adapter. The network stack used by XP, 2000, 2003 systems do not have this problem.

IPCONFIG/ALL > Physical Address

Media PC - 006097981E6B

Other - 006097981E6A

Other - 006097971E5B

Other - 006097981A6B

Other - 001143ADC852

Other - 1234567890CA

RESET TCP/IP - netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

I dunno, it may help, it may not. Despite installing another nic into our media pc, it still pops up from time to time. Never had this issue in XP, ffs.

AnDtuigeannTu

Azhrei wrote: »

This issue pops up every now and then on our media pc and it drives me crazy. Hasn't happened in a while so fingers crossed, but I would get hair-tearingly angry whenever it did, since it always took forever to solve and it was always something different that did it. I have this combined text file on my desktop that has my own information as well as some advice I found on the 'net. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it doesn't.

I appreciate the help but I have discovered recently that the problem is now affecting more than one computer (including a computer running Ubuntu) which leads me to believe either my Ethernet cable is faulty and is causing traffic to not find its way to and from my computer. Or, what Wireshark has been suggesting, that the router is dropping its ARP table at random periods of time and causing network errors.

Either way, I'm gonna call UPC on Monday (the twitter account said they'd be open on the bank hol) and see if they'll send me a new modem/router, at the very least it will rule out the modem/router being the source of the problem.

Azhrei

It's also affected my desktop several times. We've changed routers, changed ISP's even, and it has never gone away fully. I think it has more to do with the change to the networking setup Microsoft has done rather than anything else - when it screws up, it really screws up. Of course, hardware could be the issue but I really doubt it.