Topic: I am constantly being cut off from the internet

[LANMonkey]

This is an old problem, but it is starting to occur with increasing frequency.

On a regular basis, at least once a week, I am no longer able to access the internet through my gateway SME 8.  I have tried turning the modem off, waiting a couple of minutes and then turning it back on again, but that doesn't work.  I've tried contacting my ISP to see if they are having problems and they don't report any.  The only consistent solution seems to be to reboot SME.  Rebooting SME all by itself doesn't seem to work, or at least only if I do it once.  Doing it once or twice in combination with turning the modem off and on always seems to fix it.

I also have websites using dynamic dns, and I assume they are no longer accessible when this problem is occuring.

What is going on or, how can I figure out what the problem is?

[CharlieBrady]

This is an old problem, but it is starting to occur with increasing frequency.

Don't report problems here - Please report bugs and potential bugs in the bug tracker

[LANMonkey]

What is going on or, how can I figure out what the problem is?

I don't even know if I have a problem yet.  I'm asking if there is a problem, or how can I find out if there is a problem.

[CharlieBrady]

I don't even know if I have a problem yet.

Seriously? "On a regular basis, at least once a week, I am no longer able to access the internet ..."

[JohnG]

What happens when you physically bypass the SME box?

As for the websites, next time call a buddy to check if they're still up.

[chris burnat]

I don't even know if I have a problem yet.  I'm asking if there is a problem, or how can I find out if there is a problem.

This issue should be reported to Bugzilla for investigation.  I myself have seen this on my setup, however resetting the router usually fixes it.  We need to find out if it is a router/ISP issue, or an SME issue.  The Forums are not the place to do this work.
Thanks.

[LANMonkey]

Thanks, I'll do that.

Please, whenever somebody refers a post here to the bug tracker, it should be just common sense to include a link to the bug tracker.  Or maybe there should be a permanent link somewhere on the forum header.

[CharlieBrady]

Or maybe there should be a permanent link somewhere on the forum header.

It's there, deviously hidden under the label "BUGS".

[Jáder]

This is an old problem, but it is starting to occur with increasing frequency.

On a regular basis, at least once a week, I am no longer able to access the internet through my gateway SME 8.  I have tried turning the modem off, waiting a couple of minutes and then turning it back on again, but that doesn't work.  I've tried contacting my ISP to see if they are having problems and they don't report any.  The only consistent solution seems to be to reboot SME.  Rebooting SME all by itself doesn't seem to work, or at least only if I do it once.  Doing it once or twice in combination with turning the modem off and on always seems to fix it.

I also have websites using dynamic dns, and I assume they are no longer accessible when this problem is occuring.

What is going on or, how can I figure out what the problem is?

Please verify if your server is not getting out of disk space.
I've seen this happens very often.

Code: [Select]

df -h
Other thing to verify is if your squid logs aren't getting beyond 2GB limit.

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ls -lah /var/log/squid
Keep one eye on them and post your results!
Good luck.

Jáder

[LANMonkey]

Here is what I am getting:

Code: [Select]

[root@xxx ~]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/main-root
                       36G  7.4G   26G  23% /
/dev/md1               99M   25M   70M  27% /boot
tmpfs                 251M     0  251M   0% /dev/shm
[root@xxx ~]# ls -lah /var/log/squid
total 200K
drwxr-x---  2 squid squid 4.0K Oct 23 04:02 .
drwxr-xr-x 50 root  root   12K Mar 26 04:02 ..
-rw-r-----  1 squid squid    0 Oct 23 04:02 access.log
-rw-r-----  1 squid squid  43K Oct 23 04:02 access.log.1.gz
-rw-r-----  1 squid squid    0 Oct 23 04:02 cache.log
-rw-r-----  1 squid squid 1.6K Oct 23 04:02 cache.log.1.gz
-rw-r-----  1 squid squid    0 Oct 23 04:02 store.log
-rw-r-----  1 squid squid 130K Oct 23 04:02 store.log.1.gz

Looks OK.  Funny you should mention disk space.  I am getting constant errors about disk space in backup messages:

==================================
DAILY BACKUP TO WORKSTATION REPORT
==================================
Backup of xxx started at Mon Sep  5 02:00:44 2011
Backup of mysql databases has been done
Mounting backup shared directory XXX
Backup temp directory /mnt/smb/tmp_dir/xxx is mounted and is writable
Using set number 3 of 3
Attempt full backup
Backup base file name is full-201109050200
Making backup in temp directory
Using a backup session timeout of : 28770 seconds


 --------------------------------------------
 101868 inode(s) saved
 with 0 hard link(s) recorded
 0 inode(s) changed at the moment of the backup
 0 inode(s) not saved (no inode/file change)
 0 inode(s) failed to save (filesystem error)
 287 inode(s) ignored (excluded by filters)
 0 inode(s) recorded as deleted from reference backup
 --------------------------------------------
 Total number of inode considered: 102155
 --------------------------------------------
Rotating backups in a new set /mnt/smb/xxx/set2.
Moving backup files to target directory /mnt/smb/xxx/set2
Disk space not available
Updating backup configuration data
Backup successfully terminated at : Mon Sep  5 02:58:10 2011

[purvis]

LanMonkey, who is isp your provider.
I have been having a bundle of problems with Comcast on a business connection.
If your running windows.
download a program i have written to ping one or more locations to test for such things as connection to the internet or a certain website or a piece of lan equipment
the program pings up to 9 sites or 1 location 3 times hoping to get a ping response
the ping timeout period for a particular location is 300ms and the program will retry sites after 3 seconds
use the program as you want and give it away as you want.
financeinla then a dot then a com then a forward slash then a testing then a forward slash then a pingsite

get internet.exe for windows, you might like it.
you can get a log report by clicking on the text box  in the gui, sorry you cannot copy the text to clipboard. that is the next thing for the program

you could do the same thing in a php script but you would not have immediate feedback on a windows desktop
the other files there are for my on going testing purposes

i will be removing the website in the future and erasing this message too, so get it while you can.

[Stefano]

LANMonkey

please, show the output of

Code: [Select]

df -i

thank you

[Jáder]

LanMonkey

One thead = one problem
if you have problems with backup, maybe your backup disk is full... so mount "/mnt/smb/xxx/" and execute both commando on it:

Code: [Select]

df -i /mnt/smb

df -h /mnt/smb

df -i (as requested by Stefano for your main disk) will show if you have inodes left. and df -h will show your disk space remaining on your backup disk.

[LANMonkey]

Thanks everyone for replying.


purvis, I am already applying ping to investigate my internet connection.  Every morning, first thing when I log in, I ping yahoo from the Windows command line,

Code: [Select]

ping www.yahoo.com
If that looks like it is not working, I'll try,

Code: [Select]

ping 123.123.123.123
and might see something like "network unavailable".

Unless your ping is doing something more exotic, I'll just stick with my pings.

Here you go Stefano,

Code: [Select]

[root@xxx ~]# df -i
Filesystem            Inodes   IUsed   IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/main-root
                     9484160   98472 9385688    2% /
/dev/md1               26104      50   26054    1% /boot
tmpfs                  64171       1   64170    1% /dev/shm
Yes jader, I only mentioned my backup in passing because of the possibility of a full disk.  Here is the feedback from your suggested queries,

Code: [Select]

[root@xxx ~]# df -i /mnt/smb
Filesystem            Inodes   IUsed   IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/main-root
                     9484160   98472 9385688    2% /
[root@xxx ~]# df -h /mnt/smb
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/main-root
                       36G  7.4G   26G  23% /

[Stefano]

so.. /mn/smb is a mount point for /dev/mapper/main-root?

please.. post the output of

Code: [Select]

mount

there's something wrong here

[CharlieBrady]

Unless your ping is doing something more exotic, I'll just stick with my pings.

I think it is very wise of you not to install software from a website you have no reason to trust.

[CharlieBrady]

Thanks, I'll do that.

When?

[LANMonkey]

Here it is, Stefano:

Code: [Select]

[root@xxx ~]# mount
/dev/mapper/main-root on / type ext3 (rw,usrquota,grpquota)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/md1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)


[Stefano]

ok..

you should repeat

Code: [Select]

df -h
df -i

during the backup, i.e. when something is mounted on /mnt/smb (now it's only a dir in /mnt, i.e. in /dev/mapper/main-root)

[Jáder]

ok..

you should repeat

Code: [Select]

df -h
df -i

during the backup, i.e. when something is mounted on /mnt/smb (now it's only a dir in /mnt, i.e. in /dev/mapper/main-root)

Or if it's a nightly backup, you could mount the backup device and try both commands anytime. Just remember to umount them after... or your backup will die because cannot mount an already mounted device (if it's not smart enough!).

[LANMonkey]

Or if it's a nightly backup, you could mount the backup device and try both commands anytime. Just remember to umount them after... or your backup will die because cannot mount an already mounted device (if it's not smart enough!).

If you could tell me how to mount the BU at any time, I could do that right away.

Can we assume this has nothing to do with my internet access?  Here is the original thread regarding Space Not Available during backups:

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,47706.0.html

[janet]

LANMonkey

Here is the original thread regarding Space Not Available during backups:
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,47706.0.html

Search the forums on mount and umount, you should find plenty of examples or read some of the USB disk and hard disk howtos for examples. Read even the Dar2 contrib wiki IIRC.

Where are your bug reports ? In both threads you were immediately asked to submit bug reports, and since July 2011 (8 months now) you still seem to be having issues.
The problem will be properly determined to be a bug or not a bug in bugzilla. Depending on the outcome you can then come back to the forums.
Documenting these sort of issues in bugzilla (whether it turns out to be a bug or not) will also help future users who have the same or similar problem, ie they find an answer in bugzilla when searching.

[purvis]

Charlie
do not look a gift horse in the mouth.
and yes it does do more than an simple pnig
it logs and displays your up and down internet connection
place on the command tail about four internet sites that you can receive a ping from
i found that using my main dns server from my isp, then 8.8.8.8, then one of my locations, then google or yahoo.
if the first pinged site does not return a response then it moves on to the next site
you can have up to 9 sites, but around four is the best number of sites to ping
if you just place one site to ping, then it will ping that same site 3 times and if it does not get a response on all three, it logs your internet as down
after 3 seconds it will then repeat the ping of the sites to check your status of an internet connection
you could probaby find software else where that might be better and do more, but mine is simple run and uses low cpu and does not write to the disk
to get the log, just click on the small text in the gui
i made the gui as small as possible to allow you to see it on the screen
if you minimize the program, you can tell the status by looking at the minimized gui title, if your connection is up, then the title is in upper case, if it is down, then lower case

this program is really good too for just monitoring a single location, like i have been having to do in various ways because of internet disconnects.
it was so bad, i had to run the program at all workstations upon bootup at each workstation so the people at the location would not go crazy trying to figure out whether the internet was
up or down by walking to looking at lights on internet equipment every 30 minutes. people do not want go to a command prompt and ping a location and try to figure out what is going on. that is big time frustrating for most all people, even me.

 

 
 

[janet]

purvis

Charlie
do not look a gift horse in the mouth.

I think that comment is inappropriate.
It is usual practice when supplying executable programs, to also supply the source code, so that peer review can take place.
When supplied as an exe file, no one knows whether your ping program does anything else it should not do, or whether it has security flaws etc etc etc.
Bugs could easily have been introduced without your knowledge and cause problems for unsuspecting and trusting users.

If you post exe's to the net, also post the source code for peer review, comment and if necessary, correction or amendment.

Charlie is very correct to advise users not to use unknown programs from untrusted and unknown websites.

[purvis]

Mary,
Charlie's comment that the site i posted was untrusted and there was no reason to trust it was a very high insult to me.
His words deserved an appropriate response
As long as i have been on this forum, there was no reason for his comment.
I was easy on my words to him.
 
Just because he puts in time, does not give him a reason to be so rude. He can do that on another site.
I said this was my site in the original post.
And i rarely give out for FREE my hard work that goes into my programs. The program is free but the code is not.

Sorry Mary, i do not feel bad about the words that i chosen.
I just feel bad about dropping to his level rude behavior.

[chris burnat]

This thread is degenerating into what appears to be a rapidly diminishing standard and is leading noways.
Locking to prevent further deterioration, LANMonkey please bring your issue to Bugzilla where it can be dealt with in clean air.
Thanks.