Randomly failing to load webpages?

[hat]

Well, I guess its not the DNS then, because I can load a site, then it will randomly fail to load, then randomly start working again, all on the same site.

 

[westom]

Well, I guess its not the DNS then, because I can load a site, then it will randomly fail to load, then randomly start working again, all on the same site.

So what does ping -t xxxx report when that happens.

Another test for other functions. Ping has provided the IP address (yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy) for that web site. Instead of entering the URL in any browser, enter the IP address. Does that connect every time?

I suspect it does same due to symptoms you have reported. Once the browser has that IP address, then it only accessed the web site using that web site. But do it anyway to eliminate other suspects.

With confirmation from those tests, then move on to other suspects. IOW, "follow the evidence".

 

[hat]

Since I moved to the Netgear router, I have yet to fail to load a webpage (odd, I don't remember always having this issue with my DD-WRT box). Next time it fails, I'll try ping. I have yet to have ping fail to resolve the DNS, though.

I just remembered that if I follow a link that takes me to the failed to load page, I can try refreshing the page all day and it will fail every time. I have to go back to the page that had the link, and click on the link again for it to work.

 

[Neuromancer]

Glad you got it sorted hat. I had the same issue recently and it was the router

In fact it was a netgear router that had burned up

(white casing turned brown lol)

Now you have the joy of figuring out the fail point on your scratch built router I dont envy that. Could be a card, could be a software...yuck. If you do eliminate the issue, please keep us posted

 

[hat]

I haven't decided to say the issue is completely scrapped, just that it looks that way. I'll give it a week or so, and if I see the kind of shit I've been seeing, then I'll have to figure something else out.

 

[westom]

I haven't decided to say the issue is completely scrapped, just that it looks that way.

What is your Internet connection? Does this router connect directly to your Internet connection? Or does it connect via a modem?

 

[hat]

Cable over coaxial from wall -> Motorola Surfboard provided by ISP -> Netgear Router -> machines on network

 

[westom]

Cable over coaxial from wall -> Motorola Surfboard provided by ISP -> Netgear Router -> machines on network

Ok. So the Motorola Surfboard is the modem. It could be configures as a bridge or as a router. The Motorola is another important variable. And lights both on the Motorola and the router - especially lights that discuss the connection from router to Motorola and from Motorola to ISP are important facts.

Another important and relevant fact is a S/N ratio or Signal strength number (in dBs) for the Motorola to ISP connection. Unfortunately most DOCSIS modems do not provide that all so useful number. You might get lucky. But I am not familiar with that particular model. maybe someone else can say more.

 

[Neuromancer]

Ok. So the Motorola Surfboard is the modem. It could be configures as a bridge or as a router. The Motorola is another important variable. And lights both on the Motorola and the router - especially lights that discuss the connection from router to Motorola and from Motorola to ISP are important facts.

Another important and relevant fact is a S/N ratio or Signal strength number (in dBs) for the Motorola to ISP connection. Unfortunately most DOCSIS modems do not provide that all so useful number. You might get lucky. But I am not familiar with that particular model. maybe someone else can say more.

You can usually access the modem information via your browser.

Motorola usually uses 192.168.100.1 (at least lately)

I doubt that is the issue though as any modem I have checked has been at or outside the limits of what is supposed to work in S/N ratio, and they still work just fine. I think that the information I can find on the web about what is "acceptable" may be wrong or outdated.

 

[hat]

Pretty sure it was the router, the netgear one is working fine. Haven't failed to load a webpage yet.

 

[westom]

Pretty sure it was the router, the netgear one is working fine. Haven't failed to load a webpage yet.

More important is to learn from the experience. Obtaining those numbers from the modem when things are working is another example of why we fix things ourself. Learn now when numbers are good, the task is easy, and understood.

Then if the failure mysteriously returns, it is not so mysterious.

 

[qubit]

Pretty sure it was the router, the netgear one is working fine. Haven't failed to load a webpage yet.

Yep, it sure does sound like it. I read the whole thread before posting this and it seemed early on like it could be that old Celery of yours. I've seen network cards fail in creative (read: infuriating, intermittent and oblique) ways and I reckon it's the onboard NIC doing this.

If you want to troubleshoot that Celery, may I suggest the following:

Once you have run with the Netgear for a while, switch to the Celery and run it as it was. It should start failing intermittently (heck, you could try to induce it by wiggling the network cable at the socket - and check the network cable isn't intermittent, either...). Once you see it do this a couple of times, put in a PCI network card and see how it goes.

I'll bet money the problem disappears.

Let us know how you get on. I'll keep the sub for this thread open.

EDIT: I've just realised that you've got a CF card in there instead of a HD. This will be a prime suspect, due to the limited lifetime of flash memory.

I had one of these in an IPCop box and after a few months, the Linux kernel would start crashing horribly or do strange things. Reinstalling from the CD would cure it temporarily, but it gradually grew worse and worse. Problem disappeared once I put a hard disc back in there.

So, once again, try the Celery as is. Now, once it starts failing, swap the CF card for a HD and see how it goes. If still bad, leave the HD in there, but this time fit a network card.

 

[hat]

I ran well with the netgear router for a while, except not being able to connect to BC2 servers (I had another thread about this issue with no dice). Then it occurred to me that I had switched the LAN/WAN devices around... I typically used the onboard for WAN, and the network card for LAN, but I switched them around in a test. I switched them back and I'm still having the issue (randomly failed to load this site just before I posted this).

I don't know about the CF card dying... you'd think if a data block died, it wouldn't work at all, not just randomly fail to load webpages sometimes.

Well, I don't want to use my netgear router because it fails with BC2, but it doesn't fail to load webpages like my DD-WRT router does... man, what the shit?

 

[Neuromancer]

(WAN/LAN on desktop PC or the celeron router PC?)

Either way, sounds like you have a bad onboard NIC for whatever machine you are talking about

 

[hat]

The router. It worked fine when I used my netgear router (except in BC2, which works fine with my DD-WRT router), but no matter if I use the onboard nic or the lan card was my WAN port it still fails to load webpages randomly.

 

[caleb]

packetloss

run -> ping -t your.bridging.to.isp.router.ip.here

and watch if it looses any

 

[hat]

Wow, I re-wrote dd-wrt to the cf card with physdiskwrite and somehow it remembered my configuration... if I fail to load webpages again, I'm probably going to re-write it again, but after I write zeros to the drive.

 

[hat]

Still failed to load webpages. I thought it might be good to try a different router software... running monowall instead of dd-wrt now.

It's working so far, but even if it does work I don't want this to be a permanent solution. Does anyone know of any other router software that would have the "gamer" dmz function, as is typically found in consumer routers?

 

[hat]

Have yet to fail with monowall, will probably try reinstalling dd-wrt sometime soon.

 

[qubit]

Have yet to fail with monowall, will probably try reinstalling dd-wrt sometime soon.

That's great it's working. So are you running this on the exact same hardware then? I'm thinking network card and CF card in particular.

You may also like IPCop or Astaro.

www.ipcop.org

www.astaro.com (use the free home use version)

 

[hat]

Yeah, same exact hardware.

 

[hat]

Back to DD-WRT... somehow, even after using diskpart to "clean" the partition before installing monowall, then using diskpart to clean again before re-installing DD-WRT, iy still managed to remember my configuration! I don't take this is a good sign... I'll probably be failing to load webpages again soon.

-ed: wrote zeros to the drive with WinDLG, didn't remember my settings after that. I failed to load the main forum page here once already, but the home page was also being pretty slow... maybe the server crapped out on me?

 

[westom]

I don't take this is a good sign... I'll probably be failing to load webpages again soon.

This time you have tools to determine what causes a problem or at which network level your problem resides.

 

[hat]

So I'm failing to load webpages again with DD-WRT. Guess DD-WRT is crap for some reason now... it didn't always do this.

 

[qubit]

So I'm failing to load webpages again with DD-WRT. Guess DD-WRT is crap for some reason now... it didn't always do this.

I think it's time you swapped out that CF card and network card for troubleshooting, like I advised a while back. The CF card especially, as it's likely have something to do with the DD-WRT mysteriously "remembering" your configuration when there's no possible way it can do this. It might happen if the sectors won't erase properly, because it's faulty.

Remember, these things have a very limited life and can start failing unpredictably, like I found out when I experimented with one.