IP Address changing causing internet disconnection?

[malawar]

Hello Friends,

 

The connection in my home drops at least once a day. I ended up replacing ALL devices and cables, but the problem persisted. The ISP replaced the ONT device and  says everything up to and including the new ONT is fine.

 

I've been reading something about IP addresses changing and causing dropouts? I have zero knowledge on the topic and might not be explaining the issue properly. Is there any simple way to verify if that's the issue? Is it something I have to check with the ISP or something that I can do by setting up my network properly?

 

As far as eero settings, everything is done through their app. There are a few network settings I can see that might be relevant. Maybe someone can guide me through what I need to change?

 

1) WAN Type

I have 3 options here:

• DHCP
  if I select this, I get no internet.
   
• Static IP
  I get 3 fields to fill up here, IP address, Subnet mask, and Router IP. I haven't tried selecting this option because I don't know if this is what I'm supposed to work with.
   
• PPPoE
  This is the current selection and what I think our ISP works with. I got the user/pass from the ISP, typed it in, and got internet connected to my main router.

2) DHCP & NAT

I have 3 options again here:

• Automatic
  This is the current selection and what is assigned by default, I never messed with it.
   
• Manual IP
  Selecting this shows two menus. First I would have to select the IP address prefix (192.168.0.0, 10.0.0.0 or, 172.162.0.0). Second, I would have to select the lease range (Subnet IP, Subnet Mask, Starting IP, Ending IP)
   
• Bridge
  As far as I understand, this setting is only for when you have a main router between the ONT and main eero router.

3) Reservation & Port forwarding

I dont know if this is relevant.

 

4) IPv6

This setting is set to on, but I doubt it has anything to do with the problem?

[Oshino Shinobu]

If your iSP uses PPPoE, that's what you need to use, unless they also support DHCP for WAN IP Addresses, which is unlikely for one that uses PPPoE. For static IP, it's something you won't have unless you're paying extra for it, and even then, they'd just assign you one and you'd still use your PPPoE settings to authenticate on the ISP's network.

 

For the most part, dynamically assigned WAN IPs won't change unless the device goes offline and the lease expires, at which point the IP will be released and added back into the available pool. For the most part, devices will try to keep the IP they're currently on, even after a reboot.

 

You can check what your public IP is using something like https://whatismyipaddress.com/ and check if it has changed after the connection drops, though this doesn't neccassarily mean that the connection is dropping due to an IP change, it may be that the IP changes because the connection dropped and it requested a new one when re-establishing the connection.

 

You shouldn't need to change any NAT settings. For DHCP, there's a possibility something on your network is attempting to use the same IP as your router which can cause conflicts.

 

Do you know what actually drops? Does the router reset? Is it one device that loses connection? Is it WiFi that drops? etc. May be worth calling your ISP to see if they can come out to do some line tests. Though ISPs are notoriously difficult to get them to accept any fault is on their side. I had an issue before with connections dropping multiple times a day and replaced different devices, used different settings etc. and nothing would fix it, then a few months later they just stopped. I can only assume that was down to a fault on the ISP's side/network side but I couldn't get them to do anything about it.

[malawar]

@Oshino Shinobu

 

You might be familiar with my situation from my previous post.

 

My setup is: ONT Box > Main Router > Unmanaged Network Switch > Other Routers

 

The other routers go offline randomly. Never the same ones. The main router never disconnects. I would venture down the path of "something might be causing a conflict". Maybe I can start by changing something in the DHCP & NAT settings using Manual IP. I just don't know what numbers to put? Do the prefixes make any difference?

 

I can only hope that something magically fixes my network like yours lol. 

 

 

[Oshino Shinobu]

4 minutes ago, malawar said:

@Oshino Shinobu

 

You might be familiar with my situation from my previous post.

 

My setup is: ONT Box > Main Router > Unmanaged Network Switch > Other Routers

 

The other routers go offline randomly. Never the same ones. The main router never disconnects. I would venture down the path of "something might be causing a conflict". Maybe I can start by changing something in the DHCP & NAT settings using Manual IP. I just don't know what numbers to put? Do the prefixes make any difference?

 

I can only hope that something magically fixes my network like yours lol. 

 

 

Ah, it's that one.

 

My initial though would be the "other routers" you have are causing conflicts. If they're consumer grade/ISP routers, they often don't like having their routing functions turned off and lack dedicated AP modes.

 

If the main router is not diconnecting, then don't change the NAT settings, it's not the problem, something else is.

 

What are the other routers you have? I'd advise against having multiple routers in one network. If you're using them to provide WiFi signal, your best option would be to replace them with dedicated access points. For the sake of testing, you can turn off the other routers and just leave your main one on and see if it drops. My expectation is that the other routers haven't been confitured properly and are causing IP/DHCP conflicts.

[malawar]

3 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Ah, it's that one.

 

My initial though would be the "other routers" you have are causing conflicts. If they're consumer grade/ISP routers, they often don't like having their routing functions turned off and lack dedicated AP modes.

 

If the main router is not diconnecting, then don't change the NAT settings, it's not the problem, something else is.

 

What are the other routers you have? I'd advise against having multiple routers in one network. If you're using them to provide WiFi signal, your best option would be to replace them with dedicated access points. For the sake of testing, you can turn off the other routers and just leave your main one on and see if it drops. My expectation is that the other routers haven't been confitured properly and are causing IP/DHCP conflicts.

Sounds like we might finally be closing in on the problem.

 

We have a mixture of eero routers.

x6 eero pro 6,

x9 eero 6,

x3 eero 6 extenders.

 

There's 18 in total. We used wireless extenders where we could. Everything else is wired.

 

The main router NEVER drops. The only thing that we could always rely on was restarting the devices. I did know why it worked, but if I understand correctly now, it resets the addresses and probably resolves any conflicts that might have caused the drop. There was a disconnection a while ago, and I noticed that all the routers got new addresses after the restart. Except the main router. What you've mentioned aligns with what we've been experiencing. This article also mentions more ways that IP conflicts can happen that kind of fit our scenario.

 

…I still don't know what I need to do to fix it though... lol

 

Do you think bridge mode would work? The article mentions this:

 

"For example, you might have your own wireless router connected to your ISP's modem and router combo. If both devices are trying to act as a router, they might hand out duplicate IP addresses."

 

However, there's no ISP router. Just the ONT or Modem. I don't think bridge mode is relevant? Maybe there's something to do in reservations & port forwarding? The app says this about it "IP reservations allow you to keep the same IP address for a particular device".

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 hour ago, malawar said:

Sounds like we might finally be closing in on the problem.

 

We have a mixture of eero routers.

x6 eero pro 6,

x9 eero 6,

x3 eero 6 extenders.

 

There's 18 in total. We used wireless extenders where we could. Everything else is wired.

 

The main router NEVER drops. The only thing that we could always rely on was restarting the devices. I did know why it worked, but if I understand correctly now, it resets the addresses and probably resolves any conflicts that might have caused the drop. There was a disconnection a while ago, and I noticed that all the routers got new addresses after the restart. Except the main router. What you've mentioned aligns with what we've been experiencing. This article also mentions more ways that IP conflicts can happen that kind of fit our scenario.

 

…I still don't know what I need to do to fix it though... lol

 

Do you think bridge mode would work? The article mentions this:

 

"For example, you might have your own wireless router connected to your ISP's modem and router combo. If both devices are trying to act as a router, they might hand out duplicate IP addresses."

 

However, there's no ISP router. Just the ONT or Modem. I don't think bridge mode is relevant? Maybe there's something to do in reservations & port forwarding? The app says this about it "IP reservations allow you to keep the same IP address for a particular device".

Bridge mode is for when you want to use it as a modem only, not what you want to do.

 

What is your main router? Is it another one of the Eero devices?

 

I'm not familar with the Eero units so not sure if they actually provide routing functions or are just access points for WiFi. If they do provide routing functions and your main router connected to the ONT is not one of the Eero units, then what's likely happening is the Eero system is trying to assign IP addresses over DHCP, or are trying to use a static IP they have configured, but it's already been handed out by your main router, leading to a conflict.

 

There's a few things you can try. First thing to do is to see if you can sign in to manage your Eero devices and see if they have any settings to put them in Access Point Mode (or something to that affect). If they do, set them to that mode. It seems that Eero calls it bridge mode (which really isn't what it should be called), so if your main router is NOT an Eero device, set the Eero devices to Bridge mode and see if there's any change