Solved Static IP, Router, Office Network losing Internet

[jimnycricket]

I recently switched to Time Warner (TW) cable for internet and VOIP (Ring Central) at my office. Ever since the switch, I am having to reset the modem and/or router when one or all stations lose internet connection. I am guessing, now, that it has something to do with static IP? This morning, I was successful re-gaining internet for the office by pulling the power cord on the router and re-plugging it after a minute or less. I will make the purchase of getting a static IP if I must but I want to isolate the cause.

 

[Wajiema]

Hi Jimny

First i want to ask what do u have for the DNS settings is it set to the router or the router's DNS and also what kind of router do u have. Is it wireless, what model and have u tried to do a hard reset on it to see if that might be the problem.

 

[jimnycricket]

I have Linksys E1200. Hard reset did not solve it. Internet setup on the router is set to Auto COnfiguration DHCP so the DNS (and Gateway) is automatically populated. (I set my computer DNS to something different to see if any affects is caused by DNS).

 

[Wajiema]

So did you just now change the DNS servers on the client computers, and did it help cause I know Time Warner sometimes has problems with their DNS servers. That's one of the reasons i use OpenDNS servers instead of the default ISP servers.

 

[jimnycricket]

With the Time Warner DNS Servers, they company network will be up and running for some time and one day, baammm - I need to reboot the router. I changed the DNS to 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 on my router. I hope this resolves it.

The question - wondering - still lingers: Is the dynamic IP causing me to reboot my router or was this DNS servers?

 

[Wajiema]

More than likely it was the DNS servers. Keep us post so we know if it was solved or not

 

[jimnycricket]

Two different threads, two different opinions:

1 - Most likely DNS
2 - setting has nothing to do with the internet disconnecting and I resort to rebooting router.

 

[Wajiema]

What i was trying to get at was if the ISP DNS sever is down then you will no get access to the internet. So if you was to change your DNS setting on your router to a public DNS like google or openDNS it might help resolve your problem.

 

[jimnycricket]

OK, I understand.

Is there a way to check and see if TimeWarner's DNS server was down on Monday?

 

[UsernameIssues]

I would suggest that you leave a constant ping running at all times on one of your computers. Just minimize the window. You can glance at that command prompt window when you think that you have lost connectivity.

If you need help setting up a constant ping, please see this post.

If you can no longer surf to a website - before you reset the router - check that ping window and see if you are getting all time outs. Time outs will mean that your connection to the internet went down or the server that you are pinging went down (slim chance).

If you can still ping (you get good returns), but you can not surf to websites, then it may indeed be a DNS issue. Buying a static IP from TW is not the answer. That has nothing to do with your problem.

 

[UsernameIssues]

What i was trying to get at was if the ISP DNS sever is down then you will no get access to the internet....

In general, yes; but not entirely true.

Each computer probably has one or more apps that do not rely on DNS for connectivity... like some antivirus apps try DNS, but if that fails, they try to update via a hard coded IP addresses. The same goes for many infections. I've seen posts where people had Skype working, but no DNS for their browser.

Also, each computer should be running a DNS service that caches previously resolved IP addresses. Some of these IP addresses will stay in that cache for days. Restarting the computer clears that local DNS cache.

 

[jimnycricket]

I would suggest that you leave a constant ping running at all times on one of your computers. Just minimize the window. You can glance at that command prompt window when you think that you have lost connectivity.

If you need help setting up a constant ping, please see this post.

If you can not longer surf to a website - before you reset the router - check that ping window and see if you are getting all time outs. Time outs will mean that your connection to the internet went down or the server that you are pinging went down (slim chance).

If you can still ping (you get good returns), but you can not surf to websites, then it may indeed be a DNS issue. Buying a static IP from TW is not the answer. That has nothing to do with your problem.

OK! I got rid of Static IP issue.
I will set up constant ping right now on our workstation which acts like our file server. Question - when I see that ping window got all time outs, how does that isolate what is my issue? I will deal with it then, I suppose. I am off to setting up constant Ping.

No one has questioned my router yet - I used to have and use the CIsco WRVS4400N (I would still would like to go back to this since this routher allows VPN which I will need). Ring Central recommended E1200 because of some setting/configuration. A friend of mine tells me that Cisco WRVS4400N can do the same.

 

[jimnycricket]

So far so good... my router is steady. Google Ping has time 126ms, 146ms from time to time.

 

[UsernameIssues]

~~~
Question - when I see that ping window got all time outs, how does that isolate what is my issue? I will deal with it then, I suppose. I am off to setting up constant Ping.
~~~

Let's assume that the day starts normally and you can get to websites.
When you cannot surf to websites, check the ping window.

If the ping window shows all timeouts, then you are most likely no longer connected to the internet. What you do at that point depends on who owns the equipment between you and the internet. If TW provided a cable modem, then call TW and see what they have to say about your repeated disconnects. See if they can "see" your cable modem online. If you own the cable modem, then it might be time to replace it.

~~~
No one has questioned my router yet - I used to have and use the CIsco WRVS4400N (I would still would like to go back to this since this routher allows VPN which I will need). Ring Central recommended E1200 because of some setting/configuration. A friend of mine tells me that Cisco WRVS4400N can do the same.

I see no problem using that router - but TW might want it out of the picture while you are working on their cable modem disconnect issue.

 

[DreadStarX]

Another idea is, if its possible, directly connect the connection directly to a computer. Preferably a Laptop due to portability issues. Run the ping command that UsernameIssues suggested. I suggest doing this on a day you aren't going to be using the office much.

If you keep your connection steady, and have no problems, then you know it isn't the Cable box. If you have issues then, you know it isn't the router because you're directly connected to the cable box.

If that doesn't work, I would get a Static IP address and go from there. I've personally never worked with the router you have, but most of the newer model routers I have to manually setup my DHCP, and give it the Dynamic IP. But this was before I switched to Fiber Optic connection.

 

[jimnycricket]

Second day - other than some delay in the response time, both the constant ping to the router and google seem to be good. However, this has been the case before where it can go for weeks without issue and then one morning, internet is down.

 

[jimnycricket]

Second day - other than some delay in the response time, both the constant ping to the router and google seem to be good. However, this has been the case before where it can go for weeks without issue and then one morning, internet is down.

UPDATE: I was intrigued by one of the post about changing the modem's setting (ie DNS) so I inquired with Time Warner about gaining access. They don't allow clients to access their modem but they can "bridge" it to my router to "gain full access". I fully don't understand it but I decided to let him bridge it. He couldn't do it. He wasn't able to access my router. He rebooted the modem. He had me physically go through the power cycle and was not successful. He is sending out a technician to physically look at this modem. I am thinking this might have been the culprit for internet connection issue and me having to reboot the router.

QUESTION: Bridging the modem to the router. What is this and should I do this? At the end of the day, I will be perfectly fine without bridging it as long as I don't have to keep rebooting the router from time to time - leaving me to worry when I am away from the office that my staff is without internet.

 

[UsernameIssues]

I don't know what the TW tech will be doing, so I do not know if the TW tech is using the term bridging correctly. You can look at this Bridging (networking) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for more info. I'm not sure if it matters if TW bridges the modem to your router or not. I'll leave that for others in this thread to comment on.

Excluding bridging from the discussion - let me see if I can ramble on coherently about DNS settings:

The modem* gets:
an IP address from TW.
and DNS IP addresses from TW.
(A main DNS IP and one or more backup DNS IP addresses.)

For simplicity, I'll only mention one of your two routers
Your router gets:
an IP address from the modem
and one or more DNS IP addresses from the modem.

Each computer on your network gets:
an IP address from the router
and one or more DNS IP addresses from the router.

Normally, you can manually change the DNS IP addresses for the modem and/or the router and/or each computer.



The router has two main IP addresses:
The one that faces the internet (or that faces the modem)
and one that faces your network (maybe 192.168.0.1).

The router might (probably will?) hand out its 192.168.0.1 IP address as the DNS IP address to each computer on your network.

When a computer wants to surf to sevenforums.com
The computer asks the router,
"What is the IP address for sevenforums.com?"
The router asks the modem,
"What is the IP address for sevenforums.com?"
The modem asks TW's DNS server,
"What is the IP address for sevenforums.com?"

TW's DNS servers gives the IP address for sevenforums.com to the modem. The modem passes info to the router. The router passes that info to the computer. Wasn't that fun?

If you were allowed to change the DNS IP addresses on the modem, nothing much would change in that chain of events except where the IP address for sevenforums.com came from. If you did manage to point the modem to OpenDNS's DNS servers. Then the IP address for sevenforums.com would come from their DNS servers.

You can tell the router to skip asking the modem and go straight to OpenDNS for all DNS queries.

You can manually tell each computer to skip both the router and the modem and go straight to OpenDNS for all DNS queries.

Or - you can tell the router to automatically tell each computer to skip both the router and the modem and go straight to OpenDNS for all DNS queries.



*definitions are a bit of a problem here. Many of TW's "modems" are also routers and wireless access points. I don't know the make/model of the modem involved, but looking at this page, I see lots of modem/router combos. Some of TW's simplest "modems" with only one Ethernet port also perform Network Address Translations, so I would call them a modem/router combo.


Caveats to the info above:
1) I think that is how stuff works - I could be wrong.
Corrections and/or criticisms are welcome.

2) For simplicity, several other configurations were not mentioned.

3) Even if the info above is correct, TW (and other ISPs) used to ignore your settings and force DNS traffic to go to its DNS servers. I do not think that any US based ISP still does that... but you can see this post for links to discussions about that. I'm just not sure that I would call that DNS hijacking.

 

[UsernameIssues]

~~~
No one has questioned my router yet - I used to have and use the CIsco WRVS4400N (I would still would like to go back to this since this routher allows VPN which I will need). Ring Central recommended E1200 because of some setting/configuration. A friend of mine tells me that Cisco WRVS4400N can do the same.

Maybe it is just me, but I find it hard to keep up with your dozen or so active threads... so I did not comment on this. I figured that this was being handled in another thread.

So - sure, go back to using the Cisco WRVS4400N any time that you want. Your disconnects are not related to your E1200 or your WRVS4400N

 

[UsernameIssues]

Second day - other than some delay in the response time, both the constant ping to the router and google seem to be good. However, this has been the case before where it can go for weeks without issue and then one morning, internet is down.

UPDATE: I was intrigued by one of the post about changing the modem's setting (ie DNS) so I inquired with Time Warner about gaining access. They don't allow clients to access their modem but they can "bridge" it to my router to "gain full access". I fully don't understand it but I decided to let him bridge it. He couldn't do it. He wasn't able to access my router. He rebooted the modem. He had me physically go through the power cycle and was not successful. He is sending out a technician to physically look at this modem. I am thinking this might have been the culprit for internet connection issue and me having to reboot the router.

QUESTION: Bridging the modem to the router. What is this and should I do this? At the end of the day, I will be perfectly fine without bridging it as long as I don't have to keep rebooting the router from time to time - leaving me to worry when I am away from the office that my staff is without internet.

Yep, that would have been my guess as to where the problem is since you have already swapped out a router on your side of the modem.