Reboot router at a set time?

[John Connor]

I have a WRT54GL flashed with DD-WRT. It has been a solid performer for at least eight years now and is still ticking. The thing is sometimes I think Comcast passes a release and the router chokes. It doesn't happen all that often. I have a DNS update client on a kitchen computer that is on 24/7 and it will say found new IP address, but actually the IP address is the same, so I think Comcast tried to release my IP address or something. I have heard that this happens and the Linksys routers were notorious for not doing a renew.

I used to have the router reboot on a schedule, but it became a PITA when I was using the Internet and that can be at anytime during the day and night. Should I be rebooting the router on a time schedule based on what I heard about release issues with the router and Comcast? I may buy a new ASUS RT-N66U sometime latter on though. I will be flashing it to DD-WRT.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Kind of crude but you could have a process running on a PC somewhere that tries to ping an several outside IPs. If it detects that it can't ping any of them anymore, it triggers a relay to turn the router off for a few seconds then turn it back on. Would be fairly easy to do with arduino. You don't want to bombard these hosts with pings so what I'd do is have the process ping one every minute or something and not always the same one. IF it can't then it tries them all.

Or for something REALLY crude, a Christmas light timer.

 

[Elixer]

Are you saying when your lease time expires, sometimes you get a new IP ?
It could be normal maintenance, it depends how often it does it.

I wouldn't bother to reboot the router, unless there is a problem.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I agree, I wouldn't reboot the router, just because you get a new IP sometimes when it goes to renew your IP using DHCP over the WAN. Now, if the router was flaking out, and you were losing wireless, and needed to reboot the router to restore it, or the router was getting overloaded with torrent connections, and needed to be rebooted regularly to clear the RAM / NAT mapping tables, then I could see rebooting it regularly.

I recall once seeing a command script that you could put onto a DD-WRT router to reboot at a certain time. That's not a feature of the firmware now?

 

[imagoon]

So I would point out that DHCP is a client activated protocol and that "Comcast tried to release my IP" makes no sense. I would be looking at something else.

 

[John Connor]

The firmware I have now, DD-WRT allows a reboot at a specific time. I can set it for everyday at such time. I didn't get a new IP address, but I assume it tried to renew and my DNS update client thrown up a new IP address detected, but that's not always the case. The IP never changes. When the client does this I assume Comcast did something. I use the MAC address clone feature to get a new IP address. Tonight I temporally lost WIFI, but LAN seemed to be fine. Unless the connection went back to normal by the time I checked a LAN connected computer, I don't know. I am hosting two torrents, but there were no leachers at the time this happened. I'm using Peerblock to block China, Taiwan and Russia. Windows firewall prevents input traffic from the torrent.

All I know is I saw on some forum that Comcast will send a release and Linksys routers wouldn't renew without a reboot.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Does this happen during heavy transfers? I noticed my ISP's lease time is 20 minutes, which is ridiculously short. If I'm in the middle of a very large file transfer and I'm completely saturating the connection and the transfer takes more than 20 minutes, the DHCP renew request sometimes can't make it through and then I will get a new IP instead of a renew. This will then kill the connection as the transfer source no longer knows where it's transferring to/from assuming it is the initiator. At least that is my theory, I would need to setup port mirroring and actually do a packet capture to prove it out but pretty sure that it is the case.

edit: nevermind we posted at same time. So if you're not getting a different IP it's not what is happening.

 

[John Connor]

Kind of crude but you could have a process running on a PC somewhere that tries to ping an several outside IPs. If it detects that it can't ping any of them anymore, it triggers a relay to turn the router off for a few seconds then turn it back on. Would be fairly easy to do with arduino. You don't want to bombard these hosts with pings so what I'd do is have the process ping one every minute or something and not always the same one. IF it can't then it tries them all.

Or for something REALLY crude, a Christmas light timer.

This seems interesting. Google revels this is a micro controller though? I was hopping for a program.

 

[John Connor]

I found this script, but I have IPtables in the firewall and wonder if I can use both at the same time?

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Useful_Scripts#Automatic_Connection_Repair_.28always_on.sh.29

 

[Red Squirrel]

This seems interesting. Google revels this is a micro controller though? I was hopping for a program.

You'd have to write a program to talk to the micro controller. Basically because the router is a rather proprietary OS that is closed there's probably not an easy way to actually tell it to do something from outside manually doing it in the web interface. So that's when the micro controller comes in.

Rebooting is overkill mind you but it may still work.

 

[VirtualLarry]

When the client does this I assume Comcast did something.

Probably an incorrect assumption.

Tonight I temporally lost WIFI, but LAN seemed to be fine.

Sounds like the router or the power brick is going out on you.

All I know is I saw on some forum that Comcast will send a release and Linksys routers wouldn't renew without a reboot.

"I saw on some forum"...

Chances are, the router is going down temporarily (either just the wireless, or the whole thing), and Windows is detecting this, and the DNS update client app also detects this, and pops up a message like it does when the PC renews its IP.

I think that it may be time for a new router, quite frankly.

 

[John Connor]

You'd have to write a program to talk to the micro controller. Basically because the router is a rather proprietary OS that is closed there's probably not an easy way to actually tell it to do something from outside manually doing it in the web interface. So that's when the micro controller comes in.

Rebooting is overkill mind you but it may still work.

I did find a program that uses telnet to reboot the router, but I don't need that.

 

[John Connor]

Probably an incorrect assumption.

Sounds like the router or the power brick is going out on you.

"I saw on some forum"...

Chances are, the router is going down temporarily (either just the wireless, or the whole thing), and Windows is detecting this, and the DNS update client app also detects this, and pops up a message like it does when the PC renews its IP.

I think that it may be time for a new router, quite frankly.

Router is fine. I have had no problem with it. It was more than likly Comcast. The DNS client is on a LAN connected computer and I was using my laptop. Why would there be a renew IP script made in DD-WRT?

 

[mikeymikec]

"Reboot router at a set time"

Mains time switch set to switch off at silly o'clock and switch back on a few minutes later?

 

[Red Squirrel]

I did find a program that uses telnet to reboot the router, but I don't need that.

Oh does it have telnet? That may be an option. There may be a command in there to do a release/renew. No typical for consumer routers to have telnet or ssh.

 

[John Connor]

My router has a built in SSH server! LOL And yes, telnet is there too, but I don't use it so it's off.

This is why I have a DNS update client. For Teamspeak and the SSH server so that when the IP address changes I can still use a host name and get through providing the DNS client pushes the new IP to the server.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I assume Comcast did something.
Tonight I temporally lost WIFI

Router is fine. I have had no problem with it. It was more than likly Comcast.

Believe what you want, then.

 

[John Connor]

Well, Comcast has been less than stellar here.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I was just trying to point out (perhaps a bit cryptically) that if your wifi went out (and not the internet connection), then that's an issue with the router, and has nothing to do with Comcast.

Also, as pointed out, DHCP is a client-driven protocol, there's no way that I am aware of to force your IP lease to expire pre-maturely. So Comcast isn't releasing your IP on you.

It is possible that the router is failing to properly renew the IP though, which again, points at the router, not Comcast.

 

[John Connor]

Maybe it was the local IP address renew and not the external.

 

[imagoon]

Maybe it was the local IP address renew and not the external.

The only device that "releases" and "renews" is the router. The DHCP server itself just stores the lease. Your device is expected to renew the ip or release it when the IP expires. Sounds more and more like a router issue.

 

[gsaldivar]

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-TM01...l+outlet+timer

 

[John Connor]

Once again. I have the capability to have automatic rebooting in the router's settings. My question is whether I should I use it. Funny thing happened. Comcast just updated my IP address.

 

[azazel1024]

No, you shouldn't use it. You should replace the wallwart power supply and/or the router. You are running a ~12 year old router. Do you still run computers that are ~12 years old? Just spend $30 and replace it with a 802.11n router that is going to be massively more capable and faster and not on the fritz.

They do make em that'll take DD-WRT or OpenWRT.

 

[John Connor]

I was planing on the router I mentioned in post #1. Mainly for IPv6 capability, but that's it. I don't transfer files over the network and thus 10/100 is fine as my ISP speeds will never get higher than that.