Random network disconnects

[Rataridicta]

Hello everyone, 

 

I've got some problems with my router/network configuration.

You see, it regularly happens that I, and everyone else in the network (though often not simultaniously) get randomly disconnecten from the router, this can be for  a few seconds or a few minutes after which the router automatically reconnects. This usually happens in bursts and most of all while gaming. Naturally very annoying... I was wondering if some of you could help me fix this issue. Preferably through Skype (so that I can screen share with direct feedback).

 

Some data about the hardware I'm using: I've got a 990FX fatality pro series mb from asrock, the lan ports of which I'm using and a Wireless Gigabit Dualband Router 300N X 5 router from Sitecom.

 

Thanks in advance!

[lufihengr]

How many devices are connected to your router at once? We had a similar issue with our old modem/router, since it could not handle all the devices, now we have a new router with a separate modem and all is dandy.

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

Try disconnecting everyone else from your network. And see what happens. If that solves your problem then one at a time add the devices back untill the problem occurs again. If disconnecting all other devices doesnt work start looking at your connection. Check your computers ip and dns setings against your routers. If all is fine try a different network cable or if your not using a cable plug one in. If that doesnt solve it then its probably a setting in your router somewhere.

[Rataridicta]

How many devices are connected to your router at once? We had a similar issue with our old modem/router, since it could not handle all the devices, now we have a new router with a separate modem and all is dandy.

Since the last reset (3:40 hour ago) the DHCP status shows 21 IP's, 2 of which are shown as expired (I've set lease time to half an hour due to the huge amount of IP's that were taken, don't know if this is relevant). And 4 of which are configured as static, these being the printer, my computer, my brothers computer and my other lan port (which is usually not used). We do have a separate modem.

 

Try disconnecting everyone else from your network. And see what happens. If that solves your problem then one at a time add the devices back untill the problem occurs again. If disconnecting all other devices doesnt work start looking at your connection. Check your computers ip and dns setings against your routers. If all is fine try a different network cable or if your not using a cable plug one in. If that doesnt solve it then its probably a setting in your router somewhere.

The disconnects are fairly random and not always there. So it will be hard to find a solution like that. Maybe it is relevant that after resetting it works for a few min (seems to support the theory of too many connected devices) And if that is the case, do you know of any way to solve it without buying new hardware?

I've got a spare computer laying around so I could install PfSense but that would require more electricity and thus not be ideal...

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

Do you have two cables connected from your pc to your network?   from your above post I have read it that you have two ports connected. correct me if i'm wrong.   If you do. disconnect one.  if you have both connected you will start creating issues on your network. Thus you get disconnects.

 

its strange that it seems to have problems as devices start to connect or the amount of devices.  Normaly I go up to hundreds of devices and IP's on my network with out any issues as well as sending large amounts of data over it. so i wouldnt blame the amount of devices just yet....

 

Rather than going though the bother of messing about and setting up pfsense just yet. I would change the wifi code so all devices cant connect for the time being. and unplug everything everything else but one PC and yours. then see how it goes.  It could be the amount of traffic rather than the amount of devices.  so you could have a go at DDOS ing another one of your pc's to see if you get disconnected.  (obviously sending less traffic than your nic's can handle so you don't force a connection to close) allthough i would leave this method till last but is always a good test of a network

 

Could you explain in more detail how your network is connected up.   eg. does it go modem, router , computers or switches or etc...  the amount of cables connected to where, things like this.

 

how many IP's is your address space allowing you to use? so realy i need the subnet of your network to find this out. So is it a  /24 (255.255.255.0) sub net ?

 

And last of all. has this only just started happerning ? is there a time at which it never happened and now it does. If so can you remember what you did or similar when the fault stated to occur?  I looked up the router and found it did automatic updates.  Maybe worth finding out what firmware version the router is on at the moment to see if there are any problems with that version or if you need to upgrade

[Rataridicta]

I've currently got one cable  connected to my PC, the other one simply has a static IP given to it, just in case the one I'm using fails (easier to reconfigure port forwarding that way).

 

The way our network set up is rather simple, we've got a modem connected to a 60 mbit down and (advertised 2 mbit up but this has been changed to 6+ considering I'm reaching speeds of 800-900 kb/s when uploading..) This is connected to my router which handles all the traffic. 2 devices (My PC and my brothers PC) are connected through LAN cables and the rest is used. I'm allowing my router to give up to 110 IP's (x.x.x.111 - x.x.x.220) and my subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 so there are plenty that could be used. I use the (x.x.x.100-x.x.x.110) range to set up  static IP's where ever they are needed.

 

Honestly it's been happening for a long long time. About a year ago I got convinced that it was the router, namely that it either couldn't handle the amount of devices or couldn't handle the data. (I had a Linksys WRT54GL) and thus changed it. Then it has been gone for a while, but started again pretty quickly. I've updated the firmware tried to manually manage the network by giving everyone separate IP's and because I am the one that has the most problems out of everyone, I've tried to set up QoS. Mainly for my gaming purposes but I've set it up for all ports. (I've pmmed you a screen shot of the settings). Nothing really worked for longer then a while which leaves me to believe that the solution goes beyond my knowledge of networks.

[Rataridicta]

I decided to run some speedtests. They might help some of you:

 

Through the modem itself:

 (To the closest server)

 some other server in the Netherlands.

Some server in Germany.
Some server in NYC

 

 

Through the router while being the only one connected:

Closest server
Lowest ping

Other one in the Netherlands (Same as before).

Germany, this one gave connection failures as seen here: 
Germany 2nd attempt. One small connection issue in the upload but nothing too significant.

NYC attempt 1. Connection issues: 

Attempt 2 failed completely after a connection issue at the end of the download

NYC attempt 3. Connection issues: 

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

hmmm. its definatly your router causing the issue then. being as you have no issues when connected directly to your modem.

 

Your settings seem fine.  Maybe its a good idea to load PFsense on to the old PC and test it for a bit. see if you get any change in how your network is effected.  If it fixes the problem then thats good in a way.  you could allways get a lower powered pc to put it on rather than something that eats power.

 

 

just a thought. have you ever tried hitting the factory reset button on your router?