Network connection issues

[Margalis]

For the last few weeks when I play FFXI my connection is very spotty. I'll lost connection for 10-15 seconds at a time frequently and sometimes disconnect entirely. When I disconnect and then try to immediately use a web browser it won't be able to resolve hostnames for minute or so.

It's hard for me to tell if this is just an FFXI problem or a more general networking problem, but I have noticed that random websites will faily to come up pretty regularly now, making me suspect it is not a FFXI problem.

I have a router but I tried eliminating it and conecting directly, same problem.

I have RCN cable modem. Any ideas? Some software I can get to test or diagnose my connection? Known issues? Maybe my area has saturated the cable connection?

It's very frustrating, that game is basically unplayable now.

[Trippy]

If you get disconnected and immediately reset your modem does it work again or do you still have to wait a minute or two?

To diagnose the problem you can run tracert in a command window and check to see where it's getting hung up. Run it beforehand to a known IP and copy the results so you have a reference comparison. Run it with the -d switch when you are having issues so it doesn't need to do DNS lookups.

E.g. f13.net is now at 72.167.43.94 so you could type:

tracert -d 72.167.43.94

and see what path it takes. It's actually better to check against a router that closer to you to minimize extraneous problems along the way. E.g. if I run a tracert with DNS lookups from my house (SBC DSL) to f13.net I get:

Code:

Tracing route to f13.net [72.167.43.94]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
...
  4    13 ms    15 ms    15 ms  dist1-vlan60.sntc01.pbi.net [63.203.51.65]
  5    14 ms    15 ms    13 ms  bb1-g8-0-1.sntcca.sbcglobal.net [64.161.1.145]
  6    14 ms    15 ms    23 ms  151.164.95.218
  7    15 ms    13 ms    14 ms  asn6461-abovenet.eqsjca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.251.42]
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9     *        *       25 ms  so-1-0-0.mpr1.lax9.us.above.net [64.125.26.25]
 10    35 ms    35 ms    36 ms  so-1-3-0.mpr1.phx2.us.above.net [64.125.25.14]
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12    40 ms    40 ms    40 ms  ip-208-109-112-137.ip.secureserver.net [208.109.112.137]
 13   126 ms   236 ms    63 ms  ip-208-109-112-161.ip.secureserver.net [208.109.112.161]
 14   109 ms   102 ms   207 ms  ip-208-109-113-157.ip.secureserver.net [208.109.113.157]
 15    50 ms    38 ms    39 ms  ip-208-109-113-170.ip.secureserver.net [208.109.113.170]
 16    39 ms    71 ms    39 ms  ip-72-167-43-94.ip.secureserver.net [72.167.43.94]

64.161.1.145 is a good IP for me to check against since that's the main SBC router before the packets start to travel through interconnections (above.net in my case) before reaching GoDaddy and the f13.net server.

[Margalis]

Ok I just had a problem, ran tracert, here is what I got:


 1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 2     *        9 ms     9 ms  209.6.160.100
 3     8 ms     6 ms     5 ms  207.172.15.131
 4    19 ms    12 ms    11 ms  207.172.19.5
 5    15 ms    16 ms    16 ms  207.172.19.10
 6    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  207.172.19.21
 7    18 ms    20 ms    18 ms  207.172.19.64
 8    19 ms    18 ms    19 ms  207.172.9.66
 9    19 ms    21 ms    19 ms  64.125.30.122
10    19 ms    19 ms    19 ms  64.125.27.78
11    19 ms    21 ms    20 ms  64.125.28.13
12    39 ms    51 ms    34 ms  64.125.28.129
13    58 ms    45 ms    46 ms  64.125.28.50
14    69 ms    69 ms    69 ms  64.125.25.10
15    71 ms    71 ms    71 ms  64.124.113.62
16    81 ms    89 ms    93 ms  208.109.112.137
17    71 ms    71 ms    75 ms  208.109.112.161
18    75 ms    71 ms    71 ms  208.109.113.157
19    73 ms    73 ms    74 ms  208.109.113.170
20    72 ms    72 ms    71 ms  72.167.43.94

When I tried again with hostnames it worked and I got this:


 1     4 ms     5 ms     6 ms  bdl1.smr-ubr1.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.net [10.16.224.1]
 2    23 ms    37 ms    28 ms  vl200.aggr1.sbo.ma.rcn.net [209.6.160.100]
 3     7 ms     7 ms     5 ms  ge3-0.core3.sbo.ma.rcn.net [207.172.15.131]
 4    18 ms    11 ms    11 ms  pos5-0.core3.nyw.ny.rcn.net [207.172.19.5]
 5    59 ms    29 ms    29 ms  pos5-0.core2.phdl.pa.rcn.net [207.172.19.10]
 6    32 ms    26 ms    17 ms  pos5-0.core3.lnh.md.rcn.net [207.172.19.21]
 7    18 ms    19 ms    19 ms  ge5-1.border1.eqnx.va.rcn.net [207.172.19.64]
 8    19 ms    19 ms    20 ms  furies.mrf.va.rcn.net [207.172.9.66]
 9    19 ms    18 ms    21 ms  so-4-0-0.mpr2.iad2.us.above.net [64.125.30.122]
10    20 ms    19 ms    21 ms  so-6-0-0.mpr2.iad5.us.above.net [64.125.27.78]
11    20 ms    64 ms    35 ms  so-7-0-0.mpr2.iad1.us.above.net [64.125.28.13]
12    21 ms    22 ms    19 ms  so-2-0-0.mpr2.dca2.us.above.net [64.125.28.129]
13    46 ms    48 ms    46 ms  so-1-0-0.mpr3.iah1.us.above.net [64.125.28.50]
14    70 ms    71 ms    72 ms  64.125.25.10.available.above.net [64.125.25.10]
15    71 ms    71 ms    71 ms  64.124.113.62.godaddy.com [64.124.113.62]
16    73 ms    72 ms    71 ms  ip-208-109-112-137.ip.secureserver.net [208.109.112.137]

So it looks like the very first request to the 10.16.224.1 IP failed.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I've been having a lot of problems with my VPN connection that happen at about the same duration and frequency as my FFXI problems.

Edit2: When I do a google search on the name of that RCN server or the IP the first thing I get is WOW players complaining about similar problems.

[Trippy]

If you type in ipconfig do you see 10.16.224.1 as your gateway? You can use ping as a quick check to see if you can reach it the next time it happens. You can also ping 209.6.160.100 as well. E.g.:

ping -n 10 10.16.224.1

The "-n 10" means run it 10 times.

If you are having trouble reaching the first external hop then it could any number of problems including a dying cable modem on your end, a bad physical connection between you and the router on the other end or a flaky router on their side.

[Margalis]

Could not ping that IP when problem occurred.

Here is the ipconfig info:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : cable.rcn.com
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 146.115.34.195
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 146.115.34.1

Ethernet adapter {66D2BA92-5FD4-4FFC-B4F5-266CCF64321F}:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Default gateway is ? Not sure why it is what it is or why I have two different connections listed, but I suck at this sort of stuff.

Edit: I'm looking at my LAN settings and I see something unfamiliar for the Ethernet driver, "Eacfilt Driver." Googling it it looks like a VPN driver. I did install VPN software about a month ago, Contivity by Nortel which seems to match up with that.

[Trippy]

Do you see anything extra if you do "ipconfig /all"?

[Margalis]

I just tried turning off that driver, seemed to work better. I turned in back on and immediately had problems again. I'll try with it off for a while and see if that fixes the problem.

I've had issues related to VPN drivers before, and now that I think about it these problems starting happening around the time I got this VPN set up.

Edit: IIRC I'm using a shitty old version of this VPN client because customer doesn't support newer one for some reason...

[Strazos]

Since there's already a thread sort of, but totally unrelated....

Finally got a 360, which means that I need to use my old router to connect my PC and 360 to my modem.

Thing is, for some reason, I cannot connect at all once the router is hooked in. All the lights say things are good, but for whatever reason, I can't get a connection through. Tried swapping all kinds of cables; while they'll work between either device and the modem directly, going through the router does nothing.

Also, I was able to connect to the router's internal webpage settings once, but I haven't been able to get back. I also tried connecting my PC to all 4 ports on the back, with the modem in the WLAN port of course.

Any ideas? I'd very much like to not have to buy a new router if at all possible....I hate these damn things.

For reference, it's a Linksys BEFSR41.

[Margalis]

When I rewire it take my router and cable modem a while to cooperate, I have to power one down, power the other one down, etc etc. It seems almost random. I almost gave up one time when I couldn't even hit the internal webpage on the router, then it just randomly started working. I have a Linksys also.

You can try resetting the router, there is some button you press and hold in for a while.

I would just power down the router and the modem, power them back in different orders, ipconfig release and renew, etc etc. In other words, fuck around a lot. It works for me, and for the life of me I have yet to divine any sort of pattern.

It's like a bug I was once hunting down with a co-worker. To get the bug to happen you had to refresh the browser a ton of times. How many times? Our rule was it would start happening as soon as you gave up. And the rule worked! You'd refresh the browser for 20 minutes straight and not see the problem, finally turn to your buddy and say "ok, I *really* don't see it happening any more" and right then it would happen, like clockwork.

That's how my router is. As soon as I'm ready to give up after rewiring it starts working again.

[Engels]

Also, I was able to connect to the router's internal webpage settings once, but I haven't been able to get back. I also tried connecting my PC to all 4 ports on the back, with the modem in the WLAN port of course.

For reference, it's a Linksys BEFSR41.

Have you reset the router to factory defaults? There's a pinhole thingie at the back that you depress with a straightened paper clip for 8 seconds or so that will wipe all previous configurations and reset the password. In case you're wondering, for that particular router, the admin username & password are admin, admin.

I found a nice chap on the internetz that has a configuration help page for just that router.

[Strazos]

I tried using the reset button for like, 20 seconds (the only "hole" on the router that seems appropriate). Still cannot even ping 192.168.1.1

What ipconfig gives me is:

connection specific dns suffix: (blank)
autoconfig ip: 169.254.91.42
subnet mask: 255.255.0.0
default gateway: (blank)


This is after resets and such. I tried leaving all components powered down for a few hours, then powering up the router, then modem, then PC. Still nothing. As soon as I swap from connecting the modem to the router to directly to my PC, I can connect to the internet just fine. Same goes for my 360.

I hate networking. Do I just need to bite the bullet and buy a new $60 router?

[Margalis]

autoconfig ip looks a bit suspicious. Check out this thread:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-72559.html

[taolurker]

From Margalis' link:

Is your ethernet cable verified as being good? Are you sure it is a straight-through ethernet cable rather than a crossover?

I was actually thinking of asking this when I first saw this thread, but essentially the discussion arrived here anyway.

[hal]

Since there's already a thread sort of, but totally unrelated....

Finally got a 360, which means that I need to use my old router to connect my PC and 360 to my modem.

Thing is, for some reason, I cannot connect at all once the router is hooked in. All the lights say things are good, but for whatever reason, I can't get a connection through. Tried swapping all kinds of cables; while they'll work between either device and the modem directly, going through the router does nothing.

Also, I was able to connect to the router's internal webpage settings once, but I haven't been able to get back. I also tried connecting my PC to all 4 ports on the back, with the modem in the WLAN port of course.

Any ideas? I'd very much like to not have to buy a new router if at all possible....I hate these damn things.

I had a similar issue where the 360 would interfear with one of my PCs. Put the 360's address to xxx.xxx.xxx.10. It seems to just be a given. Worked for me anyway.

For reference, it's a Linksys BEFSR41.

[Trippy]

Your router is not configured to do NAT and DHCP.

Presumably you only have one Internet-facing IP address from your ISP (169.254.91.42) and your cable modem is presumably a bridge not a router. You need to configure your router to assume that IP and then turn on NAT and DHCP on the router. Your PC and Xbox 360 will then assume 192.168.X.X IP address with their gateways set to internal LAN IP of the router (something like 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1, that'll be set automatically by DHCP).

Edit: reading the user guide if you've reset the router then it should have DHCP turned on by default so make sure you are using the proper cables as mentioned above and reboot your PC after you think everything is connected properly. Check ipconfig and see what your IP address is now. It should be a 192.168.1.X number (192.168.1.100 is configured by default to be the first IP in that range). If not type in a command window:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

and see if that picks up a new IP address. If it does try going to 192.168.1.1 for the router setup page.

[Engels]

From that board that Margalis linked to:

When you have your PC set to obtain an IP address automatically and there is no DHCP server to be found, then Windows will use what's called Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) and the address range 169.254.0.0 - 169.254.254.254 has been set aside by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for this purpose.

In other words, I'm not sure the 169.254.91.x subnet Straz is seeing is the incoming IP address, but a failed communication to the router somehow. It could be a blown port on either the router, the nic on the puter or a cable fault.

[raydeen]

Just to add to what Trippy had:

Occasionally I have to reset my connection as my router doesn't always dole out the proper IP addresses. I made a batch file called reset.bat and placed it on my desktop. It's a simple txt file but naming it with a .bat runs it.

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

I throw that middle line in for good measure. I've seen this problem on Linksys routers where if one machine gets on and grabs an IP, the router attempts to give the same IP (or another used IP) to the second machine. I've had this problem and a friend of mine as well and this lil' batch file usually does the trick.

[Strazos]

I'm just copping out and buying my buddy's router for like $40. I didn't even have to touch it and it works. As a bonus, it also has wireless for my PSP.

[Margalis]

Thought I'd bump this just for a final resolution. My cable modem died completely, won't power on. I got a new one and now my network connection issues are fixed. So it looks like that was the culprit all along.