At home I have a Virgin Internet connection, with one of their Super Hubs (the older "version 1" type).
Every so often the wireless connection drops out for a few seconds. By which I mean everything looks fine (connection is still healthy) but attempts to ping "the Internet" (eg Google's DNS on 8.8.8.8) go nowhere.
I suspect that the problem is the router but Virgin won't give me another unless I can "prove" that's where the problem is. They mostly blame wifi signal issues caused by other routers in the neighbourhood (and microwaves etc), which might or might not be correct.
When I put the router into modem mode and used my own wireless router, I no longer had the problem, however I did have other issues (which I think were caused by the wireless router and/or the Super Hub, but can't put my finger on what they might be - it was just generally unreliable). Following a visit from a Virgin engineer, at which point things were reset to a standard config, I haven't bothered to put my wifi router back in, but the occasional drop-outs are back (the first one within 10 mins of the engineer leaving).
Since then I have started monitoring wifi signals using an Android app (I couldn't make sense of Kismet on my laptop, and when I tried wavemon it crashed my laptop (kernel panic). The joy of proprietary drivers no doubt.. I have switched the wifi to a quiet channel although it's been changed a few times in the past without improving things and the most recent change has also not helped.
So, what I want to do is (a) monitor the wifi connection, by (eg) pinging both the Virgin hub and 8.8.8.8 from the laptop every second or so and logging any issues (thus I should be able to determine whether it's the wifi/router dropping out or the Internet connection). I would (b) do the same from my desktop to determine whether it's the wifi or the router (if it's not the Internet connection). And ideally I'd (c) do the same on my wife's laptop, but that is Windows 8 so I'd need something cross platform to do that. If there's something I can also do from an Android phone (d) that would be great.
Hopefully (a)-(d) will tell me fairly conclusively where the problem is, and if it's the router be enough to convince Virgin to send me a new one. It helps that my contract is up for renewal in Jan...
Any suggestions on how to do (a)-(d) and/or other ideas welcomed.
Other notes that might be relevant: I previously tried a cheap wireless-N USB dongle in the laptop and that made no difference, so I don't think it's the laptop hardware, Also, I am currently using a cheap no-brand Android mobile, and I've noticed that (at home only) sometimes the Wifi connection gets "stuck" - it stops working but if I try to turn it off it just sits in a half-way "trying to turn off but not off yet" state until I reboot the phone. I'll blame the cheap phone for failing to handle whatever is going on, but it's more evidence to me that it's something about the Super Hub wifi that's behind all this.
On 09/12/13 12:40, Mark Rogers wrote:
At home I have a Virgin Internet connection, with one of their Super Hubs (the older "version 1" type).
Every so often the wireless connection drops out for a few seconds. By which I mean everything looks fine (connection is still healthy) but attempts to ping "the Internet" (eg Google's DNS on 8.8.8.8) go nowhere.
Could be all sorts of things! </insightful comment>
It could be Wifi problem, or perhaps a DNS problem. In a mixed O/S environment it could be something like different machines fighting to be the DNS browse master. I've had this in the past - symptoms, basically, every now and again, nothing works for a little while. What do you do about DNS and or DHCP?
I suspect that the problem is the router but Virgin won't give me another unless I can "prove" that's where the problem is. They mostly blame wifi signal issues caused by other routers in the neighbourhood (and microwaves etc), which might or might not be correct.
Could be. Perhaps try with any microwaves off, baby monitors off, TV senders, USB, Sonos, Bluetooth or any other transmitters off. Any better?
When I put the router into modem mode and used my own wireless router, I no longer had the problem, however I did have other issues (which I think were caused by the wireless router and/or the Super Hub, but can't put my finger on what they might be - it was just generally unreliable). Following a visit from a Virgin engineer, at which point things were reset to a standard config, I haven't bothered to put my wifi router back in, but the occasional drop-outs are back (the first one within 10 mins of the engineer leaving).
Not good! Somthing generally wrong with your network or the Superhub?
Since then I have started monitoring wifi signals using an Android app (I couldn't make sense of Kismet on my laptop, and when I tried wavemon it crashed my laptop (kernel panic). The joy of proprietary drivers no doubt.. I have switched the wifi to a quiet channel although it's been changed a few times in the past without improving things and the most recent change has also not helped.
I've used Wifi-Analyzer on Android. I've moved to a quiet channel as many nearby hubs seem to use Channels 1 and 6 (BT & Virgin). I don't know what options are available to you, but I'd suggest something like this to see if anything improves Use 2.4Ghz not 5Ghz for compatibility with drivers & hardware (although a test on 5 if your stuff supports it might help rule out interference)
Use 144Mbps or perhaps 54Mbps not 300. Greenfield mode: Off WPA2-PSK if at all possible [probably AES]
Firewall on at Low if you run any internet facing servers, higher if not.
So, what I want to do is (a) monitor the wifi connection, by (eg) pinging both the Virgin hub and 8.8.8.8 from the laptop every second or so and logging any issues (thus I should be able to determine whether it's the wifi/router dropping out or the Internet connection). I would (b) do the same from my desktop to determine whether it's the wifi or the router (if it's not the Internet connection). And ideally I'd (c) do the same on my wife's laptop, but that is Windows 8 so I'd need something cross platform to do that. If there's something I can also do from an Android phone (d) that would be great.
ping has -i to specify an interval. -c specifies a count, so -c 1 will do one ping only </hunt for red october> Ping returns an error code, so if it doesn't work, you can run a command, or vice versa
This thread might help http://superuser.com/questions/596854/how-can-i-run-an-arbitrary-command-whe...
I'd be tempted to try some tracerts with both a URL and an IP address when the problem exists, and see if you get a complete routing failure with both indicating a wifi or network failure, or only with the URL indicating an internal DNS problem. Also it could reveal if the internal network is OK by tracing as far only as the router and no further.
You could do a similar batch file in Windows as Ping and Tracert are available (or at least were on older versions of Windows)
Hopefully (a)-(d) will tell me fairly conclusively where the problem is, and if it's the router be enough to convince Virgin to send me a new one. It helps that my contract is up for renewal in Jan...
Any suggestions on how to do (a)-(d) and/or other ideas welcomed.
Other notes that might be relevant: I previously tried a cheap wireless-N USB dongle in the laptop and that made no difference, so I don't think it's the laptop hardware, Also, I am currently using a cheap no-brand Android mobile, and I've noticed that (at home only) sometimes the Wifi connection gets "stuck" - it stops working but if I try to turn it off it just sits in a half-way "trying to turn off but not off yet" state until I reboot the phone. I'll blame the cheap phone for failing to handle whatever is going on, but it's more evidence to me that it's something about the Super Hub wifi that's behind all this.
Could be caused by the hub, or something the phone doesn't quite understand. As an aside, I wouldn't go above Channel 11 whilst testing as I've had an experience where a visitor's laptop couldn't connect to my network on a Channel above this.
Good luck.
Steve
On 9 December 2013 20:50, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
It could be Wifi problem, or perhaps a DNS problem. In a mixed O/S environment it could be something like different machines fighting to be the DNS browse master. I've had this in the past - symptoms, basically, every now and again, nothing works for a little while. What do you do about DNS and or DHCP?
DHCP is dished out by the router, including DNS settings which I usually override to give 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 but since the reset haven't done so I guess they'll either be the router's IP or a Virgin one.
However the symptoms include not being able to ping 8.8.8.8 so DNS shouldn't be an issue (and for that matter it's normally noticed when navigating pages of a website, eg sending an email via webmail, where the DNS should already be cached by the browser).
Could be. Perhaps try with any microwaves off, baby monitors off, TV senders, USB, Sonos, Bluetooth or any other transmitters off. Any better?
None of those on in my own house except maybe bluetooth, although of-course I can't vouch for the neighbours. The house is detached but it's only ~2m to the nearest neighbour.
Use 144Mbps or perhaps 54Mbps not 300.
Virgin's engineer knocked it down to 54Mbps (or at least that's what he said he did, I haven't looked at the settings).
Greenfield mode: Off
Never heard of this one, will check but what is it?
WPA2-PSK if at all possible [probably AES]
Should only be WPA2-PSK (everything that's using wifi should be using it but it might be that the router would allow alternatives).
Firewall on at Low if you run any internet facing servers, higher if not.
Only firewall is whatever the router has (generally relying on NAT apart from that).
Ping returns an error code, so if it doesn't work, you can run a command, or vice versa
Good point, I didn't think about using ping itself.
I'd be tempted to try some tracerts with both a URL and an IP address when the problem exists, and see if you get a complete routing failure with both indicating a wifi or network failure, or only with the URL indicating an internal DNS problem. Also it could reveal if the internal network is OK by tracing as far only as the router and no further.
I always test using ping to 8.8.8.8 so I'm pretty sure DNS isn't relevant. Last time it happened my desktop (cabled connection) was still able to access the Internet through the router ruling out a lost Internet connection, and I have now had one occasion where my wife's laptop lost connection (Win8) but my Linux laptop was still connected fine. The wife's laptop is brand new (arrived yesterday) so its the first time I've been able to test from two laptops simultaneously. Worth noting that the only way to get it to work again on the Win8 laptop was disconnect from the wifi network and re-connect.
Good luck.
Thanks, I think I'm going to need it!
On 11/12/13 11:12, Mark Rogers wrote:
On 9 December 2013 20:50, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
[]
Use 144Mbps or perhaps 54Mbps not 300.
Virgin's engineer knocked it down to 54Mbps (or at least that's what he said he did, I haven't looked at the settings).
Er, look at the settings if you have a problem with the router! :-)
Greenfield mode: Off
Never heard of this one, will check but what is it?
Explained here better than I could: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-30Mb-Setup-Equipment/Greenfield-mo...
[]
Firewall on at Low if you run any internet facing servers, higher if not. Only firewall is whatever the router has (generally relying on NAT apart from that).
Well if your router is like mine, it has a firewall which can be enabled or disabled. Seriously, if you're having problems with your router, I'd check everything/all settings on the router. There's also diagnostic pages there somewhere, so if you get there during an outage, you may be able to see what's up - and/or you may be able to see from the router's lights if it's lost connection.
Ping returns an error code, so if it doesn't work, you can run a command, or vice versa
Good point, I didn't think about using ping itself.
I'd be tempted to try some tracerts with both a URL and an IP address when the problem exists, and see if you get a complete routing failure with both indicating a wifi or network failure, or only with the URL indicating an internal DNS problem. Also it could reveal if the internal network is OK by tracing as far only as the router and no further.
I always test using ping to 8.8.8.8 so I'm pretty sure DNS isn't relevant. Last time it happened my desktop (cabled connection) was still able to access the Internet through the router ruling out a lost Internet connection, and I have now had one occasion where my wife's laptop lost connection (Win8) but my Linux laptop was still connected fine. The wife's laptop is brand new (arrived yesterday) so its the first time I've been able to test from two laptops simultaneously. Worth noting that the only way to get it to work again on the Win8 laptop was disconnect from the wifi network and re-connect.
OK, so that suggests it's just the wireless. Still Tracert might be worth a go as it may give an indication of how far the it can get - I suspect it would fail at the first hurdle, but it may be that it can get as far as the router.
It could be that the IP address leases have expired from the router's DHCP server and are not renewed, or a taking a while to renew. If so and if you come round to suspecting DHCP, if you have a server, try turning off DHCP on the router and running DNSMASQ on the server. Did you connect/pair the laptops to the router using WPS? I've tried that to have it work for a while and then fail completely. However, with manually set up connections I've not had problems. Are you doing any sort of IP address or Mac address filtering? If so, that could be failing and blocking the wireless for a while. Are you broadcasting the SSID? Some of my devices only work reliably if I do.
Can you check the IP addresses of the machines before and during a failure? Windows might initially connect, then decide it can't see the original network and decide to allocate a new IP address in a different sub-net.
HTH!
Steve
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Mark Rogers -
steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk