Internet Occasionally Drops for No Apparent Reason
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Does it have a lease from the modem? Do you know what IP the modem interface is using? You can just set the interface statically to an IP in the modem subnet.
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@stephenw10 If I remember right, it was set to default and just worked so I left well alone. If that is the case then the ip would be 192.168.1.1
No idea about the lease though
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Check Status > Interfaces to see if it has a lease.
If not try setting it to something in the modem subnet, assuming you're not using 192.168.1.X on any other interface already.
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@stephenw10 Doesn't look like it!
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Try setting it statically then. Perhaps 192.168.1.10/24. See if the firewall itself can then ping 192.168.1.1.
Still assuming you're not using that subnet anywhere else!
Steve
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@stephenw10 Assuming I am pinging correctly via "diagnostics / ping" with the hostname set as 192.168.1.1 then it isn't successful
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That's after setting that interface to something in the same subnet?
Check Diag > Routes to make sure it sees that subnet on igb0.
If so perhaps the modem isnt using that IP any longer...
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@stephenw10 yep, set to 192.168.1.10 and checked routes and that is ok too.
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Found it by guessing in the end, the modem appears to be at 192.168.2.1 and can ping from the firewall with interface set as 192.168.2.10
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Finally in to the modem, will now check the logs!
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Nice. So you will probably need to add an outbound NAT rule on that interface to translate client traffic to 192.168.2.10 to allow the modem to reply.
That or add 192.168.2.1 as a gateway on that interface which will that create the outbound NAT automatically. If you do that though make sure to set the default IPv4 gateway as WAN_PPPoE rather than automatic. Otherwise the system may failover to the modem as default if PPPoE drops.
With one of those in place you should be able to reach the modem gui from a LAN client.
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@stephenw10 Sorted NAT and can access the Vigor 130 GUI. However, there isn't an obvious way to see the Syslog when it is bridge mode so will have to look into that. I know it can be done via SysLog utility, just not managed to achieve it yet!
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First thing I'd check is the uptime if you can see it. Make sure it's not rebooting when this happens.
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Good to confirm. The speed it reconnected seemed unlikely the modem could boot that fast but good to know for sure.
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@stephenw10 Looking like a cable then or possibly the BT socket as it is one of those rubbish MK4 ones!
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I doubt it's anything upstream of the modem, like the BT master socket. pfSense shows it's actually losing link on the NIC which means it's an Ethernet problem between igb0 and the modem.
It could potentially be the modem dropping the link for some reason but I have no idea why it do that deliberately.
If it has any logs it might show that or at least show it also losing the link when pfSense does.One thing you could try here is putting a switch in between pfSense and the modem so that each side is only liked to the switch. It would have to be an unmanaged switch to pass the VLAN or have the VLAN configured on a managed switch.
Another thing would be to reassign the WAN to a different port to confirm it's not a failing NIC.
Steve
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@stephenw10 said in Internet Occasionally Drops for No Apparent Reason:
I doubt it's anything upstream of the modem, like the BT master socket. pfSense shows it's actually losing link on the NIC which means it's an Ethernet problem between igb0 and the modem.
It could potentially be the modem dropping the link for some reason but I have no idea why it do that deliberately.
If it has any logs it might show that or at least show it also losing the link when pfSense does.One thing you could try here is putting a switch in between pfSense and the modem so that each side is only liked to the switch. It would have to be an unmanaged switch to pass the VLAN or have the VLAN configured on a managed switch.
Another thing would be to reassign the WAN to a different port to confirm it's not a failing NIC.
Steve
The only thing between igb0 and the modem is a patch lead (already changed). Could swap the nic cards over to confirm but they are both new.
Spent a fair bit of time last night searching for modem logs. Using Telnet I can show the logs but they are empty, no idea why.
I do have an unmanaged switch here so could put that between pfsense and the modem but xan you explain how that would help?
Steve
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Sometimes you find that two specific NIC chips will either not negotiate a link correctly or are unstable when linked. It shouldn't happen because both sides should meet the specs for Gigabit Ethernet but it can.
Putting a switch in between means that both the igb NIC and the modem are linked to the switch not to each other so at the lowest level the link negotiation/stability is different.What NICs do you have in the firewall? If you have something that isn't igb you could try using that as WAN.
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@stephenw10 Cheers for the explanation. Currently there are two 4 port NICs (both the same model) in the PC. There is another port eth0 on the motherboard, which is unused except for diagnostics etc, so I could try that one.
