Ubuntu 12.10: Firefox 'loses' internet connection

[nickdalzell]

no, my internet service. the company supplying my connection is Q Wireless. i can't explain their IP setup as of recent. it does the VPN stuff on its own. i cannot change it without killing the connection. whatever it is it only works with automatic only. i may be able to set the router to static but i cannot change it from a client device. i will see if i can input the settings into my router config and get back--but i never noticed much as no client device will show the DNS setting i put into the router, it will just use whatever the ISP uses, regardless of my setting

but sure, wise guy, i could set up an intranet of my own if i wanted, not sure i could have an internet without tons of super computers though

 

[Speed Daemon]

Pardon me, then.

 

[mikedt]

no, my internet service. the company supplying my connection is Q Wireless.

"Broadband Q Wireless...Keeping America Connected!" ??
http://www.broadbandqwireless.com/faq

I just been reading through their FAQs.

"Q. What software do I need to use this service?
A. You need to be running either Windows 2000, XP, 98SE or Mac OS X as your operating system. The version of internet browser you need depends on your equipment and operating system for wired and wireless installations, as indicated below: For Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 SP2 or higher, Netscape Navigator 4.7 or higher, and Firefox. For Macintosh: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 or higher and Netscape Navigator 4.7 or higher."

Internet Explorer for Macintosh? Windows 98SE? IE4? Is this company not aware that we're well into the second decade of the 21st century?

i can't explain their IP setup as of recent. though

Perhaps Q Wireless can't explain it either?

 

[nickdalzell]

MY router is partly to blame. i managed to get a partially solid connection by reconfiguring it. this particular entry into the router log is interesting, it happens when i lose connectivity.

DHCP Client: [WAN]Could not find DHCP daemon to get information

also, i get an error about not being able to sync to NTP server and sometimes that coincides with the above log entry too.

also, no dice with OpenDNS. the modem will have nothing to do with it. it always kicks off. even trying a static WAN Address using what the router gets Dynamically kills it.

here is the oddball IP i am referring to, this is what my router passes onto clients

VPN address:
69.196.204.248

Subnet Mask:
255.255.255.224

Gateway:
69.196.204.225

DNS:
8.8.8.8

the router USED to give clients something like this:

IP Address:
192.168.2.2

Subnet Mask:
255.255.255.0

Default Gateway:
192.168.2.1

DNS:
8.8.8.8

but it changed all by itself. the internet company seems to have done it, even directly connecting the modem to a laptop and bypassing the router will end up the same VPN crap

 

[nickdalzell]

Think i solved this mystery. after viewing the logs in more detail, i was getting tons of releases, many attempts to renew, bad NTP sync, and lost DHCP WAN address issues. a lot of fails there. i just input the WAN address in manually under 'static' and it seems to be working so far


Speedtest results:

1.45Mbps down
0.10Mbps up

not sure why the upload is so darn slow but still....

 

[9to5cynic]

that's a satellite company right? If so, that's probably why you're getting slow up.

Now, I do have a question for you guys though, (and I'm no expert), but am I mistaken in thinking that you wouldn't need a DHCP client on your router right? You'd connect to them via an IP, and then the router would dish out it's local IP scheme...?

I guess it's no real issue, sounds like you got things working.

 

[nickdalzell]

no, not a sat company, it's more like a cell service. can't really describe it. there's this TV style fixed antenna attached to my home, which transmits/receives a long-distance line-of-sight to a tower located up to 100 miles away. the tower is in clear view in Winter, but ironically it seems to drop out more often in the Winter. i have had this WAN send release glitch on many routers and only now have i seem to have fixed it via static settings

the router would send a discover packet through the WAN port to the modem, the modem would transmit back a receive, and then the router would get a dynamic (though never changing) WAN IP Address. the lease is usually around ~7.5 days. then the router would use this as the internet connection, then go to its normal scheme of sending out local IP Addresses using the WAN as a gateway to the clients (which used the router IP for their gateway) and so on. the problem is that after a few months to a year, the router seems incapable of holding onto these leases, and it just releases and renews on a rapid basis, off and on, and then the modem gives up until the router is power cycled. setting it to static seems to have alleviated this issue for the moment.

I truly believe this time it was possible there were two factors involved. 1) Firefox's max connections in About:config, 2) my ISP is probably having issues with their DHCP servers for their WAN gateway thus causing leases to time out, get dropped, or released before the time is up.

i have also set the router's IP pool to allow for only 5 total clients, that may help prevent router overload. i also got firewall turned off, protected mode on, and QoS on. also got it in 802.11b compatibility mode

 

[9to5cynic]

Can you statically define some of the connections on your local end? I remember you saying that a couple of gaming systems were eating up IPs - and if that's the case you probably can statically assign the router to give the consoles a specific set of addresses.

And just for my clarity, in your WAN connection you're getting a public IP address from the ISP right? I'm just wondering if they treat each of their clients like a vlan in their over arching network....

 

[nickdalzell]

my PlayStation 3 is the one that 'steals' IPs. it still does it on Wifi. turn on the wifi on the console, instant router crash. all clients offline. turn it back to wired and static, all is normal. i also got the PS3 in a DMZ for the moment, still has the wifi bug though.

the IP my ISP gives me my router kept dropping. i finally managed the skill to fix that by statically assigning the ISP address manually so it no longer drops it. log is all clean for the moment


System Log 01/26/2013 23:59:53 192.168.2.3 login success
01/26/2013 23:59:47User from 192.168.2.3 timed out
01/26/2013 23:52:09 sending ACK to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 23:52:09 sending OFFER to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 23:51:16 sending ACK to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 23:51:16 sending OFFER to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 23:51:16 sending OFFER to 192.168.2.2
1/26/2013 22:22:26 192.168.2.3 login success
01/26/2013 22:21:18 User from 192.168.2.3 timed out

192.168.2.3 is my laptop. the 'timeouts' are from the power save mode in the wifi NIC. never causes problems, and 192.168.2.2 was my Android phone.