Topic: dsl connection dropping

[b stephen harding]

We are experiencing intermitten connection drops with our DSL service provided by our provider IGS on there Deawoo DSL modem.  Now they say it is us(e-smith 5.0) or Bell.  How do I eliminate e-smith as the source of the problem.  IGS says they can ping us we have no connection?  They say that this mean that the problem is with Bell or us(e-smith) Could the problem be associated with the DSL modem?  Is there a manual command to start and stop PPoE?

 

Thanks
bruce

[Rob Hillis]

b stephen harding wrote:

> Is there a manual
> command to start and stop PPoE?

Yes - adsl-stop and adsl-start... (and I don't need to tell you which is which, right?  

[James Chance]

I'm seeing something similiar to this here. Network setup is an SME server/gateway with a Westell Wirespeed modem. Static external IP for the server. What I'm seeing is if any of the three machines in the network is rebooted, the dsl connection is reset. Every time. Doesn't matter what OS it is running (two of the machines have multiple Winblowz, Linux distributions, one even has OS/2 on it). What could be happening over the network that causes the dsl modem to reset the connection? I've also been having the problem of the modem just going deaf occasionally. Nothing that a flip of it's power switch doesn't fix, but irritating nontheless (especially as I'm running a mail server on the SME box). If that happens in the middle of the night, I'm not getting any email until I reset the modem the next morning. SWBell's first two levels of support has no idea of what could be happening...

Jim

[Allen Rapini]

I run sme5x over DSl, not the same carrier tho, without any problems at 3 different sites. You say that your is running as server/gateway, but the connection to the modem drops if any of the clients are restarted? If the e-smith is using two interface cards, the external interface to the modem can't "see" any of that type of activity.
What do your logs say during those restarts (/var/logs/messages)?

Have you made any custom mods?

Can you diagram the setup, like below or update it to show what you have?

modem
    |
ext interface
    |
e-smith
    |
int. interface
   |
hub
  |
client pc's

[James Chance]

Hello Allen,

Yes, my network diagram appears exactly as you show below. There is nothing in any of the logs that say anything useful (other than "host unreacheable" in a few places). No custom mods. Since I have a static IP, there is no PPPoE activity to log.  As the modem is on an external interface, I don't understand how it can tell another machine has rebooted, but it can. I'm using a Linksys BEFSR41 as just a switch btw. The WAN port is unused on it, since the SME v5 box is serving that purpose. And as it happens no matter what OS the rebooting box is using, it would seem to be network hardware related in some way, wouldn't you think? The SME box is assigning the internal network all of it's addresses via DHCP. I  may try turning that into a completely static setup and see if it effects this. Any thoughts?

Jim


Allen Rapini wrote:
>
> I run sme5x over DSl, not the same carrier tho, without any
> problems at 3 different sites. You say that your is running
> as server/gateway, but the connection to the modem drops if
> any of the clients are restarted? If the e-smith is using two
> interface cards, the external interface to the modem can't
> "see" any of that type of activity.
> What do your logs say during those restarts
> (/var/logs/messages)?
>
> Have you made any custom mods?
>
> Can you diagram the setup, like below or update it to show
> what you have?
>
> modem
>     |
> ext interface
>     |
> e-smith
>     |
> int. interface
>    |
> hub
>   |
> client pc's

[Richard Emory]

What hardware is your server?  
I am having a similar problem at one site.  When a user with a roaming profile logs off and his profile is being written to the server, the server drops all connections on the internal lan.  (Although I got a call today that it happened during some other demanding server loads) I can still access the server remotely.  The server cannot ping any of the internal lan but the outside is visible.  The server is a dual PIII with dual IDE raid drives.  We have switched out the LAN cards from another running system.  Still the problem persists.  Also nobody on the inside is able to access any service on the server (samba, mail, TCP/IC etc...) when this happens. There is no log in the /var/log/messages or /var/log/samba/log.nmbd/smbd or anywhere else that I can find.  My setup is similar to the one diagramed above.  Disk optimization is off.  Does this stuff ring a bell with anybody?

[Allen Rapini]

James
It sounds like you covered all the bases, but I was wondering if you could answer a few questions I had?

Have you tried substituting a different switch?
I have a similiar linksys sitting in the desk drawer, because it just doesn't "keep up" compared to the e-smith.

If you can make a crossover cable just to one pc on the internal lan, and restart the client PC, what happens?

Are you by any chance useing DHCP on the e-smith, and the linksys?
I don't know what your config is, but there is always the possiblity that the DHCP service is running on both the e-mith, adnd your linksys. I can see that there would be a conflict in that case, but for sure not enough to re-boot it...

Could they also be sharing the same IP address. The linksys defaults to 192.168.1.1, which the e-smith shouldn't be at.

You mentioned resetting something ( a flick of the power switch). Was that the e-smith, or the linksys?

You can always set the linksys up as intended, and set the DMZ value = to the e-smith. and see what happens, at least for testing. You lose some functionality, and you should also make sure to BLOCK ports 135-139 at a minimum.


Richard, your problem is much harder, at least to me, since you are getting very little feedback. You already switched NICs, and despite there being sometimes a lot of data in roaming profiles, it definitely shouldn't lock up the monster box you have.
If there is nothing in /var/log/messages when it locks, can you see what''s happening in top? It may be useful.
I would probably also try to restart in and selct e-smith-up and ruin in single processor mode. Your box is probalby overkill enuff to get by, and I have some recollection of errors with SMP machines, adn Samba, but nothing I can recall.