Browsers on network stop working, need to reboot router.

[r21420]

Problem Summery:
About two weeks ago, I started having problems. Multiple times a day all the browsers on my networked computers, all at the same time, will stop loading web pages. When this happens, rebooting the router will bring the network back up again, but then in 20minues to 3 hours, it will die again.

Networking information:
I have 10+ wireless connections on the network at any given time and two wired computers. Computers range from windows xp, windows 7, windows 8, android tablets, android cell phones,

My internet connection is through Century Link running a The Actiontec C1000A VDSL2 Modem. I have been using it with the same configuration for 3 years.

Troubleshooting.
I called CenturyLink and there are no signs of any problems on my network. The only indication they can see is my constant router reboots. Replaced the DSL router with another C1000A and did not fix the problem. When down, Century link can ping my router without problem. Century Link has thrown in the towel and cant figure it out.

IE and Firefox stops loading pages.
The Lan is completely good. When in down state, I can print on network, connect to computers, access routers web site.

When down, I am able to ping a web site from the command line but cannot access it from the browser.

Strange anomaly, I noticed the other day, sometimes when all other web sites are down, I can still access facebook.com and sometimes I can still access google.com.

Disconnecting and Connecting to the router does not fix the problem, only rebooting the router.

The only thing that has changed on the network during the last month was the first time addition of a new HP windows 8 computer (laptop). I have tried shutting down that laptop for a day and it doesn't make a difference, browsers still die.

It doesn't make a difference between wired computer and wireless computers, same thing.

I am out of ideas ... any help would be appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

One question: Have you been able to look at the C1000A activity logs to see if there is any common entry relating to the loss of browsing/web page access?

Likewise take a look at the computer event logs to see if anything shows up there.

My suggestions thereafter:

1) Double check all physical connections; ethernet, coax, power. Include jacks, connectors, and outlets. Look close. Swap cables out for known good cables.

2) Use some utility to scan your network looking for duplicate IP's or unexpected IP addresses. ( I use Advanced IP scanner, there are other such tools). Go back and ensure that all devices are correctly subnetted for your network.

From the command prompt you can further examine your network using commands such as "net use", "net view" , "nbtstat" etc.. Again the idea being that something may be amiss in the configuration. Determine which device is acting as the master browser - if you have two devices trying to do that then all sorts of problems appear. Much like confusion caused by duplicate IP's.


3) Look for other wireless networks that could be interfering. Check the channels being used by your devices.

Just some ideas to help things along. Please post any questions or additional findings.

 

[Solandri]

When down, I am able to ping a web site from the command line but cannot access it from the browser.

Strange anomaly, I noticed the other day, sometimes when all other web sites are down, I can still access facebook.com and sometimes I can still access google.com.

That sounds like a DNS or proxy problem. I'm leaning towards the former since you're seeing this problem on all your devices (a proxy is generally set up per device).

In the Actiontec's settings, change the primary and secondary DNS server settings to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. These are Google's DNS servers and are pretty reliable. They also won't do the nasty typo redirect many ISPs do which can make troubleshooting these kinds of problems a pain.

If that doesn't solve it, on one of your computers, open control panel -> network and sharing center -> change adapter settings. Right-click your network adapter and open the properties page. Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and click Properties. Manually change the DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4..

If this single computer remains working when the others stop, then it's definitely a problem with how the Actiontec is resolving and/or caching DNS requests. Unfortunately the Actiontec settings menus I've played with are poorly laid out and inscrutable. I ended up just getting my own router, and disabling the wireless on my Actiontec. I plugged the router into the Actiontec, and configured the Actiontec so the router was set to DMZ. That means anything the Actiontec received from the network, it sent directly to my router. So it was basically like my router was directly connected to the Internet. That resolved a lot of issues for me.

 

[r21420]

More trouble shooting today ... Today again, facebook.com will load but no other web pages will load. I am able to send and receive mail using smtp / imap while it is down.

Thanks for the feedback Solandri. I tried, while it was down, changing the DNS servers (one one PC) from Century Link to google 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 and 2001:4860:4860::8888, 2001:4860:4860::8844, no difference. I havn't done it on the router yet because when I do the router will reboot and then I won't be able to troubleshoot until it decides to go down again.

I had another power adapter for the dsl router, so I swapped that out. I thought it may have fixed the problem, but, no luck.

I had also tried turning the firewall off on the router and that didn't seem to do anything.

This one has me so puzzled.

 

[r21420]

Ralston18, thank you. I have looked at the logs and couldn't find any correlation yet. I have also looked for dup ip's but nothing. I will checkout advanced IP scanner.

 

[r21420]

I also hate the menus and functionality in the actiontec c1000a compared to some of the dsl routers that I have had before. I actually bought a Asus RT-n66u dual band 3x3 wreless-n900 Gigabit router, right after getting the C1000A because I was going to do the same thing, but I never could find a way to disable the wireless on the Actiontec. So the Asus still sits in the box.

 

[Ralston18]

I think this link will help you turn off the wireless on the Actiontec. (Do not have the router to test.)

http://m.setuprouter.com/router/actiontec/c1000a-centurylink/WiFi.htm

The Asus router's wireless can be turned off also - saw a link somewhere is this forum earlier.... Should not be hard to find via search.

I still tend to believe that there is a misconfiguration within your network or that one of the devices is intermittently losing connectivity. As a result the other devices become confused about which device keeping track of who's who and doing what.... Google "master browser" - everything that happens is a bit complex in my mind especially in a mixed device environment. I have been involved with a couple of similiar postings: very messy and the problem(s) just kept moving around. Will not go off in those directions per se until we can hopefully narrow things down a bit.

But connectivity does play a role as well as network/device configuration. Just eliminating possiblities is helpful. Or finding a specific error message.

 

[r21420]

Still having this problem; rebooting the router about every 30 to 60 minutes.
I have some updated trouble shooting I hoping to throw this out there so someone might say ''Aha! I know what it is".

It turns out that when the network gets locked out of loading web pages, it is only "HTTP" web pages that are locked out, "HTTPS" web pages work perfectly. FTP, PING, etc other network functions still work during this time but "HTTP" requests timeout.
I do not have a proxy server and have disabled automatic proxy setup on both IE and Firefox.

Anyone have any idea what might be causing this? Century Link is clueless.

Rebooting the router still fixes the problem, for about an hour; max.

 

[Ralston18]

Can you correlate the network lockout with any particular http website? I.e., all may work okay until one of your network devices attempts to connect or actually connects to that website. Then all other http websites are subsequently locked out?

You checked the logs earlier but they may be worth another look now that you have learned more about the problem.

When you reboot the router I expect that the firewall is enabled by default. Can you turn it off immediately - before any external web page connections are attempted? May put things at risk for a bit so, if you can, have as many other devices off as possible. My thinking being that the lockup could be caused by the firewall and remains locked up even if you turn off the firewall afterwards. Then only the reboot clears the router and it all starts over again.

Edit: Also look for anything hogging or blocking port 80 - I remembered seeing some such reference but have not found it again.