I ran into the following issue and am trying to understand why it happened, and how I can resolve it more quickly in the future.
First, here's my setup:
Now to my problem:
This setup usually works well, and does what I need.
But occasionally (I'd say about 3 times a year), the CleanRouter stops working properly. It'll lose Internet connectivity totally, or sometimes wifi will stop working. Usually, power cycling the CleanRouter fixes this problem.
But this morning was different. When I woke up, my Google Home Hub had no internet connectivity. And my video doorbell went offline overnight.
Also, my ethernet devices had no connectivity at all - none of them. But wifi was working only from the CleanRouter. Obviously, none of my access points worked because they're all connected by ethernet, which was dead.
I shut the CleanRouter off and back on. In the past, this has cleaed up any issues I had. But this time, it didn't.
Ethernet worked but only when connected directly to the CleanRouter's ports. Nothing going though the Netgear switch connected directly to the CleanRouter worked. I tried connecting the switch to my TP-Link router intead, and still nothing going though the switch worked.
I contacted CleanRouter support, and they saw from the logs that my router crashed ALOT and he factory reset the router. After the router came back up and I configured it, I expeceted everything to just work. But anything connected to ethernet though the swtich was still dead. Only devices connected directly to the CleanRouter ethernet worked.
I got very frustrated but was able to ignore it and work the whole day (I have a separate VPN I connect to for work that was totally unaffected by this problem).
After work, I went back to troubleshooting after my frustration wore off and I had a clear head.
I shut down EVERY DEVICE in the house including all the access points. I then rebooted the CleanRouter again with nothing connected to it, and then reconnected the switch, turned on all the devices (one access point at a time) and everything worked, This was about 5 hours after I gave up in the morning.
My question is: Why did everything work in the afternoon, but not in the morning, after I power cycled the CleanRouter but didn't turn anyhing else off and back on again? Why would that have kept everything connected to the switches from getting ethernet connectivity?
Was it the turning everything off before I bounced the CleanRouter that cleared up the problems, or was it just that enough time passed for anything that was cached to get cleared?
I'd like to understand what happened, so I can fix it quickly next time it happens.
First, here's my setup:
- I have Verizon FIOS coming to the house.
- I have an ethernet connection from the ONT that connects to a TP-Link Archer C4000 router. This is my 192.168.1.1 network.
- I have a CleanRouter Pro (https://cleanrouter.com/purchase/#Router_Select) that hangs off my TP-Link router. This is my 192.168.2.1 network. This is the network that's used for pretty much everything else. I have 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz wifi enabled, as well as a bunch of wired devices (computers, printers, Roku players, smart TVs) all connected by ethernet.
- To allow so many ethernet connected devices, I have 2 8 port switches, as well as 2 2 ethernet connected access points around the house. These access points are old routers that have had DHCP turned off.
- All my devices on the 192.168.2.1 network go though a Netgear switch (a basic switch, not a smart managed switch). That is, I have a single ethernet cable from a CleanRouter port to the switch. Nothing else is connected to the CleanRouter by ethernet.
Now to my problem:
This setup usually works well, and does what I need.
But occasionally (I'd say about 3 times a year), the CleanRouter stops working properly. It'll lose Internet connectivity totally, or sometimes wifi will stop working. Usually, power cycling the CleanRouter fixes this problem.
But this morning was different. When I woke up, my Google Home Hub had no internet connectivity. And my video doorbell went offline overnight.
Also, my ethernet devices had no connectivity at all - none of them. But wifi was working only from the CleanRouter. Obviously, none of my access points worked because they're all connected by ethernet, which was dead.
I shut the CleanRouter off and back on. In the past, this has cleaed up any issues I had. But this time, it didn't.
Ethernet worked but only when connected directly to the CleanRouter's ports. Nothing going though the Netgear switch connected directly to the CleanRouter worked. I tried connecting the switch to my TP-Link router intead, and still nothing going though the switch worked.
I contacted CleanRouter support, and they saw from the logs that my router crashed ALOT and he factory reset the router. After the router came back up and I configured it, I expeceted everything to just work. But anything connected to ethernet though the swtich was still dead. Only devices connected directly to the CleanRouter ethernet worked.
I got very frustrated but was able to ignore it and work the whole day (I have a separate VPN I connect to for work that was totally unaffected by this problem).
After work, I went back to troubleshooting after my frustration wore off and I had a clear head.
I shut down EVERY DEVICE in the house including all the access points. I then rebooted the CleanRouter again with nothing connected to it, and then reconnected the switch, turned on all the devices (one access point at a time) and everything worked, This was about 5 hours after I gave up in the morning.
My question is: Why did everything work in the afternoon, but not in the morning, after I power cycled the CleanRouter but didn't turn anyhing else off and back on again? Why would that have kept everything connected to the switches from getting ethernet connectivity?
Was it the turning everything off before I bounced the CleanRouter that cleared up the problems, or was it just that enough time passed for anything that was cached to get cleared?
I'd like to understand what happened, so I can fix it quickly next time it happens.
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