Problem with Broadband router [long] (text included this time!)

I'll try this again as I messed up the posting first time!

Posted separately to both u.c.home-networking and uk.telecom.broadband as I'm not
sure which is the better group to ask this in.

My setup:

2 desktop PC's both fast machines running WinXP Pro SP1 and one laptop running WinXP
Home. A laser printer with a network card, an 8 port Net-Lynx switch.

The network IP addresses are all set manually (primarily because that way I know what
is what), and also because the printer NIC can only accept manual setup. The network
works fine, all machines see each other, all can use the printer, files can be sent
from one to another and so on.
Originally I had an ISDN router attached to the switch and all machines could access
the Internet when that dialled in. Again the gateway was manually set on each
machine.

We've just got broadband, and so I bought a broadband router. I had problems setting
it up initially as I couldn't access it over the LAN, but I got round this by
attaching to its USB port and accessing it that way. I turned off the DHCP server in
the router and then found that I could access it over the LAN and access the
internet.

The router is a ZOOM ADSL X4 modem/router/gateway/firewall

Essentially the problem is as follows:

I can have everything working fine - network, net access etc. I can turn the
computers off, and back on again and still everything seems okay. However if I leave
the machines off for any period of time when I boot up again I lose internet access.
(The router is always left switched on and connected).

I can usually access the router over the network after losing internet access like
this (although sometimes I get access permission denied from it), and the connection
comes up as connected "Showtime" in ZOOM speak, but my computers can't access the
internet.

Sometimes things will suddenly spring into life - once this occurred as I turned on
my second PC, on other occasions I've needed to reset the modem, hook up the USB
connection again and go through a setup process - even then it can take a while for
things to work again. It is almost as if something in the router times out or goes to
sleep while there is no computer attached to it. If I leave my computer on then
internet access is fine with no loss.

I am okay with networking , but I know little about the finer points of setting up
the NAT firewall in the router. I'm also running ZoneAlarm Pro on my PCs but this
doesn't seem to be having an effect as turning it off makes no difference either way.

Help and advice much appreciated here.
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On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 19:21:06 +0100, wrote:

> I'll try this again as I messed up the posting first time!
>
> Posted separately to both u.c.home-networking and uk.telecom.broadband as I'm not
> sure which is the better group to ask this in.
>
> My setup:
>
> 2 desktop PC's both fast machines running WinXP Pro SP1 and one laptop running WinXP
> Home. A laser printer with a network card, an 8 port Net-Lynx switch.
>
> The network IP addresses are all set manually (primarily because that way I know what
> is what), and also because the printer NIC can only accept manual setup. The network
> works fine, all machines see each other, all can use the printer, files can be sent
> from one to another and so on.
> Originally I had an ISDN router attached to the switch and all machines could access
> the Internet when that dialled in. Again the gateway was manually set on each
> machine.
>
> We've just got broadband, and so I bought a broadband router. I had problems setting
> it up initially as I couldn't access it over the LAN, but I got round this by
> attaching to its USB port and accessing it that way. I turned off the DHCP server in
> the router and then found that I could access it over the LAN and access the
> internet.
>
> The router is a ZOOM ADSL X4 modem/router/gateway/firewall
>
> Essentially the problem is as follows:
>
> I can have everything working fine - network, net access etc. I can turn the
> computers off, and back on again and still everything seems okay. However if I leave
> the machines off for any period of time when I boot up again I lose internet access.
> (The router is always left switched on and connected).
>
> I can usually access the router over the network after losing internet access like
> this (although sometimes I get access permission denied from it), and the connection
> comes up as connected "Showtime" in ZOOM speak, but my computers can't access the
> internet.
>
> Sometimes things will suddenly spring into life - once this occurred as I turned on
> my second PC, on other occasions I've needed to reset the modem, hook up the USB
> connection again and go through a setup process - even then it can take a while for
> things to work again. It is almost as if something in the router times out or goes to
> sleep while there is no computer attached to it. If I leave my computer on then
> internet access is fine with no loss.
>
> I am okay with networking , but I know little about the finer points of setting up
> the NAT firewall in the router. I'm also running ZoneAlarm Pro on my PCs but this
> doesn't seem to be having an effect as turning it off makes no difference either way.
>
> Help and advice much appreciated here.


It sounds like you have most things set up correctly, but you didn't
include any of your network IP details. If you manually allocate the IP
addresses they must all be in the same range:- eg: 192.168.0.1 to
192.168.0.254 The subnet masks must all be the same: 255.255.255.0 should
do the trick. The default gateways should all be set to the IP address of
the Zoom router. And the DNS IP addresses must either be your ISP's DNS
address or the IP address of the router if DNS relay is enabled on the
router.

OK if all is well so far. Some routers support "dial on demand" so the
router will indeed drop the connection after a pre-set time. Probably best
to disable this. Is the router set to automatically re-make the
connection if it fails? Does the router's leds indicate the link is up all
the time. You could have a line fault.

If you think your router is set up ok. You need to do some diagnostic
checks using "ping" and "tracert". Have a play with tracert while the
network is up and running try (from a command prompt):

tracert www.bbc.co.uk

You will get a trace all the way to the BBC. Take a note of the first
network address after your router and the BBC's IP address. you can ping
them by typing:

ping <ip address>

Armed with this information, the next time the connection fails first ping
the router:

ping <router's ip address>

If that works ping the next network element, this is beyond your ADSL
line. If that fails the problem is either on your network or the router or
the ADSL line. If you can ping it OK you may have a DNS problem. Try
pinging the BBC's IP address (not thr URL) If that works OK, DNS
resolution is not working so the connection will appear dead to browsers.

You should now be able to work out where the fault is the next time your
connection fails.

Hope this helps, Graham

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 19:21:06 +0100, stormsinger <> wrote:

>I can usually access the router over the network after losing internet access like
>this (although sometimes I get access permission denied from it), and the connection
>comes up as connected "Showtime" in ZOOM speak, but my computers can't access the
>internet.

"Showtime" means that the router is seeing a DSL signal from the
exchange.

>Sometimes things will suddenly spring into life - once this occurred as I turned on
>my second PC, on other occasions I've needed to reset the modem, hook up the USB
>connection again and go through a setup process - even then it can take a while for
>things to work again. It is almost as if something in the router times out or goes to
>sleep while there is no computer attached to it. If I leave my computer on then
>internet access is fine with no loss.

Looking at the manual for your router, it appears that, by default,
they don't automatically reconnect if the ADSL Connection drops.

You have to things to check in the WAN configuration options.

1) Check that "Disconnect Time" is set to 0, to ensure that the router
doesn't drop the connection after a period of inactivity.

2) Set "Automatic Reconnection" to 1, which, as the saying goes, "does
exactly what it says on the tin".

Good Post, BTW.

Derek

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Graham <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

<snip>
>
>
>It sounds like you have most things set up correctly, but you didn't
>include any of your network IP details. If you manually allocate the IP
>addresses they must all be in the same range:- eg: 192.168.0.1 to
>192.168.0.254 The subnet masks must all be the same: 255.255.255.0 should
>do the trick. The default gateways should all be set to the IP address of
>the Zoom router. And the DNS IP addresses must either be your ISP's DNS
>address or the IP address of the router if DNS relay is enabled on the
>router.

The network IP details are as you say, as are the DNS addresses and gateway.
>
>OK if all is well so far. Some routers support "dial on demand" so the
>router will indeed drop the connection after a pre-set time. Probably best
>to disable this. Is the router set to automatically re-make the
>connection if it fails? Does the router's leds indicate the link is up all
>the time. You could have a line fault.

Link appears to be up so I'm going to try your other suggestions next time the link
fails
>
<snip>
>
>You should now be able to work out where the fault is the next time your
>connection fails.

>
>Hope this helps, Graham

Thanks for all that information, I've printed it all off for when I next need to
leave my computer off for a period of time.



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Derek <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 19:21:06 +0100, stormsinger <> wrote:
>
<snip>
>
>Looking at the manual for your router, it appears that, by default,
>they don't automatically reconnect if the ADSL Connection drops.
>
>You have to things to check in the WAN configuration options.
>
>1) Check that "Disconnect Time" is set to 0, to ensure that the router
>doesn't drop the connection after a period of inactivity.
>
>2) Set "Automatic Reconnection" to 1, which, as the saying goes, "does
>exactly what it says on the tin".

I'll try these suggestions and post back with outcomes

>
>Good Post, BTW.

Thanks :-)

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