Cannot figure out Networking problem....strange things going on here...

[TheNinja]

Location #1, downstair neighbor:
He has: DSL modem connected to a 4 port router/switch. On 2 of these ports he has CAT5 cable to his 2 computers and they have always worked fine and continue to work now. On 1 of these ports there is a WAP11 with an IP address of 192.168.0.99.

Location #2, upstairs (me):
I have: WAP11 with IP address of 192.168.0.100 going to a 4 port switch. Off of this switch I have 2 computers that both used to work.

PROBLEM: One night in the middle of the night location#2, computer#1 Internet stops working. I can ping my computer#2 and I can ping my WAP11 @ xxx.xxx.xxx.100, however I cannot ping anything beyond that. My computer#2 works fine and can ping everything and get on the Internet, only SOMETIMES. Other times I can only ping computer#1. His computers work fine and can ping both WAP11's and have Internet access all the time.

No DHCP running on my router and I have reconfiged my computer#1 IP settings more times than I care to mention. Why would it suddenly stop working?!?

UPDATE: OK...WTF?!?! - So I put a new network card in and it works for a while. Then all of a sudden (like 12 hours later)....nothing. Same problem as before. I can ping beyond my WAP. I didn't see any mac address blocking or anything on. What the hell is going on here?!?

 

[JackMDS]

Hmm. Experts Only? I guess I would pass.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
Hmm. Experts Only? I guess I would pass.

I had a couple of ideas, but I'm no expert.

 

[InlineFive]

Thanks for being so descriptive. So you are having problems sharing your neighbors' internet illegally? Well fork out the cash and get your own internet then. Problem solved.

-Por

 

[TheNinja]

Ok, i changed so experts and non experts alike can try it out. And I'm not illegally stealing anyone's DSL. I paid for home use DSL for a certain amount of bandwidth. I can use this bandwidth however I see fit, whether i split the bandwidth over 10 computers or whether I use it only on one it doesn't matter. Anyone with ideas or have I stumped you all? TIA

 

[n0cmonkey]

The original post is a little confusing for me, so I have some questions:

1. Is the neighbor using your connection? If not, what does that part of the post have to do with anything? Just the general status of the DSL connections in your area?
2. When computer A is not working, will computer B work?
3. When you ping, do you ping IP addresses, DNS names, or both? Try both if you didn't before (look up an ip address when it is working).
4. The computers that are not working, are they wired, wireless, or one of each?
5. Does this fix itself, or do you reboot or something to fix it?

 

[mcveigh]

I'm confused as to where the neighbor comes into this unless it's because he also has wireless and is on the same subnet as you.


maybe change to a different subnet like 10.10.xxx.xxx or 192.168.5.xxx.

and please answer n0c's questions for us all

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
The original post is a little confusing for me, so I have some questions:

1. Is the neighbor using your connection? If not, what does that part of the post have to do with anything? Just the general status of the DSL connections in your area?
2. When computer A is not working, will computer B work?
3. When you ping, do you ping IP addresses, DNS names, or both? Try both if you didn't before (look up an ip address when it is working).
4. The computers that are not working, are they wired, wireless, or one of each?
5. Does this fix itself, or do you reboot or something to fix it?

1. The neighbor actually lives downstairs, it's in the same house. We have seperate phone numbers, but he has the DSL coming to his line and we share it.
2. Computer B for me always works now, computer A never works. I only got it to work for 12-24 hours after I reformatted the computer and then it quit again and then I put in a new NIC to see if that was the issue.
3. I only ping IP address. I will check into the DNS names and see if I can ping. However I don't know how to get my computer A working again
4. All of the computers are wired in. I have two WAP11's and I have them set in Wireless Ethernet bridge mode. The downstairs guy has the router/switch combo with one CAT5 cable leading to the WAP set to 192.168.0.99 and I have a WAP upstairs with CAT5 going to a 5 port swith and my two computers plugged into the switch. And I have tried changing cables and ports on the switch as well.
5. It doesn't fix itself and now it won't work at all. It's just strange that my computer A pings 192.168.0.100 fine but cannot connect to xxxxx.99 when my computer B connects fine and both of his computers can ping anywhere on our network.

Either something is FUBAR on my computer network settings and keeps getting screwed up, or there is a blocking of ports/mac addresses somewhere along the line. I'm stumped fellas.

 

[TheNinja]

bump for Valentine's Day weekend

 

[dmcowen674]

Set the Gateway and the DNS settings on the machine not working to the same address as the machine on the DSL Modem. Either it is 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.100 and you should be fine.

The machine that is not working is losing the DNS.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Set the Gateway and the DNS settings on the machine not working to the same address as the machine on the DSL Modem. Either it is 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.100 and you should be fine.

The machine that is not working is losing the DNS.

Still doesn't seem to be working. I think I will physically take the non-working PC to the downstairs network and hook it up wired. That will tell me if the problem is with my WAP11's or not.....I think

 

[TheNinja]

Anyone with ideas yet. Certainly I could not have stumped a computer geek...I mean computer elite board.

 

[Mucman]

Clear your arp cache on A, and try ping 192.168.0.99. Then view your arp cache. Did the whole arp process complete?

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: Mucman
Clear your arp cache on A, and try ping 192.168.0.99. Then view your arp cache. Did the whole arp process complete?

I'm sorry, i don't know what arp cache is nor how to clear it

 

[Mucman]

Originally posted by: Staley8

Originally posted by: Mucman
Clear your arp cache on A, and try ping 192.168.0.99. Then view your arp cache. Did the whole arp process complete?

I'm sorry, i don't know what arp cache is nor how to clear it

I'm hoping that unix arp commands are the same as Windows arp commands

To flush the arp cache issue the command : arp -d -a
To view the arp cache issue the command : arp -a

Here's a sample output :

blackgate (192.168.1.1) at 00:60:97:09:17:6c on bge0 [ethernet]
iolo (192.168.1.128) at 00:a0:cc:63:4e:ce on bge0 [ethernet]

 

[TheNinja]

dang....it didn't seem to fix anything. Can still only ping on my side of the WAP for computerA but computerB is fine. I think the hardware is doing something funky b/c I put on an old image from my last install (my last working copy) and it didn't work this time around, however when i made the image it worked fine. WTH is going on here. HEre is a dumb question, if my power supply isn't enough would that affect it? I got nothing left to guess here.

 

[Mucman]

No... I want you to clear the cache, then try pinging 192.168.0.99. Even if the ping fails, I want to see if there's an arp entry for that IP.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: Mucman
No... I want you to clear the cache, then try pinging 192.168.0.99. Even if the ping fails, I want to see if there's an arp entry for that IP.

Thanks for the ideas so far Mucman. I will check it when I get home from work today and post back here with results. Unfortunately I'll be gone a large part of the weekend, I'll post what I can when I can. Thanks again everyone for the suggestions, I hope to figure this out.

 

[TheNinja]

AFter I try to ping 192.168.0.99, which is the other WAP, I get:

Interface: 192.168.0.103 --- 0x2
Internet address of 192.168.0.22
physical address of 00-xxxxxxx (looks correct format)
type: dymanic

Why is it picking up 192.168.0.22?

 

[Mucman]

What machine is 192.168.0.22? Or a better question is: Where in your network topology is 192.168.0.22?

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Staley8
I didn't see any mac address blocking or anything on. What the hell is going on here?!?

How are you determining that there is no MAC address blocking going on?

My suggestion: Fire up Ethereal. See what's going out, see what's coming in.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: Mucman
What machine is 192.168.0.22? Or a better question is: Where in your network topology is 192.168.0.22?

I don't know who 192.168.0.22 is but it shows up on both my computers in the arp table. When I set computer A to 192.168.0.22 I get an IP address conflict. I don't think the downstairs guy has 0.22 b/c computer A can ping 0.22 but cannot ping anything beyond my WAP. Something wierd on my end is trying to take 192.168.0.22?

 

[Mucman]

Something with the IP of 192.168.0.22 is replying to your arp request for 192.168.0.99. Better check to make sure someone isn't hijacking your wireless connection.

Run a packet sniffer and see if you can see traffic from 192.168.0.22.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: Mucman
Something with the IP of 192.168.0.22 is replying to your arp request for 192.168.0.99. Better check to make sure someone isn't hijacking your wireless connection.

Run a packet sniffer and see if you can see traffic from 192.168.0.22.

I think the guy from downstairs has an old Win98 machine on, it could be 192.168.0.22. Could a virus on that machine cause it? He may not have virus protection. I'll go have him turn that machine off and see if it helps.

 

[Mucman]

Originally posted by: Staley8

Originally posted by: Mucman
Something with the IP of 192.168.0.22 is replying to your arp request for 192.168.0.99. Better check to make sure someone isn't hijacking your wireless connection.

Run a packet sniffer and see if you can see traffic from 192.168.0.22.

I think the guy from downstairs has an old Win98 machine on, it could be 192.168.0.22. Could a virus on that machine cause it? He may not have virus protection. I'll go have him turn that machine off and see if it helps.

Well... if you find a machine with that IP, try turning it off and see what happens. Perhaps check if that MAC corresponds to the downstairs wireless bridge.