MN-700 - Think I figured out why it drops connection

My brother happens to be in network operations at my ISP,
and we've finally pinpointed what we think is the problem.

I've seen reference to the fact that it seems to be a DHCP
problem, but no direct reason 'why'.

In reviewing the logs with my modem at the ISP, my brother
has found that the MN-700 does not appear to conform to
the DHCP protocol, in that it does not request to renew
the lease on an IP at the half-way point to expiry.

My ISP uses a 48 hour lease. According to DHCP, the
client (in this case, the MN-700) should request to retain
the lease at 24 hours...if it fails, it continues to
attempt at each half-way point (12 hours, then 6, 3 etc)
until the lease officially expires. Then it would a) try
to get the same IP all over, or, b) get a new IP as
configured by the DHCP service provider.

My logs indicate no requests to renegotiate the lease. If
I press 'Reload', my brother is able to see the request
for the IP lease.

This also explains why I drop off about every two days, if
I haven't played with my router.

I'm thinking that a PHP script that accesses the pages
and 'reloads' the router every 24 hours will solve the
problem.

Can anyone else confirm/reject this theory? Could it just
be a bug in the DHCP protocol for lease negotiation?

Better yet, do I get a free T Shirt from MS if I'm
right? ;o)


James Chambers

In article <1153201c3f59f$5a081470$(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> Can anyone else confirm/reject this theory? Could it just
> be a bug in the DHCP protocol for lease negotiation?
Hm, might explain why I never see any drops. My ISP's lease time seems
to be 4.5 days. But whenever it renegotiates, I pretty much always get
the same IP address (and I am pretty sure that when the IP address does
not change when renegotiated, it doesn't disturb anything). It might
also tend to explain why the drops seem to happen more to people with
DSL using PPPoE, as I would expect that a renegotiation might indeed
cause the PPPoE session to have to go away and come back, although I am
not sure if that would be the case if the renegotiation resulted in the
same IP address being assigned ...
--
Cheers,
BC

Can you provide
1: confirm cable or DSL or other type ISP and provide brand of modem?
2. confirm you are in router mode
3. what kind of DHCP server the ISP uses (from your brother)

The devs will look at this one.

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 13:45:25 -0800, "James Chambers"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>My brother happens to be in network operations at my ISP,
>and we've finally pinpointed what we think is the problem.
>
>I've seen reference to the fact that it seems to be a DHCP
>problem, but no direct reason 'why'.
>
>In reviewing the logs with my modem at the ISP, my brother
>has found that the MN-700 does not appear to conform to
>the DHCP protocol, in that it does not request to renew
>the lease on an IP at the half-way point to expiry.
>
>My ISP uses a 48 hour lease. According to DHCP, the
>client (in this case, the MN-700) should request to retain
>the lease at 24 hours...if it fails, it continues to
>attempt at each half-way point (12 hours, then 6, 3 etc)
>until the lease officially expires. Then it would a) try
>to get the same IP all over, or, b) get a new IP as
>configured by the DHCP service provider.
>
>My logs indicate no requests to renegotiate the lease. If
>I press 'Reload', my brother is able to see the request
>for the IP lease.
>
>This also explains why I drop off about every two days, if
>I haven't played with my router.
>
>I'm thinking that a PHP script that accesses the pages
>and 'reloads' the router every 24 hours will solve the
>problem.
>
>Can anyone else confirm/reject this theory? Could it just
>be a bug in the DHCP protocol for lease negotiation?
>
>Better yet, do I get a free T Shirt from MS if I'm
>right? ;o)

--
Barb Bowman
Expert Zone Columnist
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
MS-MVP (Windows)

>-----Original Message-----
>Can you provide
>1: confirm cable or DSL or other type ISP and provide
brand of modem?
>2. confirm you are in router mode
>3. what kind of DHCP server the ISP uses (from your
brother)
>
>The devs will look at this one.

1) cable modem, motorolla brand (model: cybersurfr wave
modem)
2) yes to router mode
3) DHCP server is red hat's DHCP daemon

thanks for looking into this...and i'm still hoping on
those t-shirts ;o)

what MODEL moto cyber surfer? is this a DOCSIS modem or the older
proprietary non DOCSIS modem?

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> Can you provide
>> 1: confirm cable or DSL or other type ISP and provide brand of modem?
>> 2. confirm you are in router mode
>> 3. what kind of DHCP server the ISP uses (from your
> brother)
>>
>> The devs will look at this one.
>
> 1) cable modem, motorolla brand (model: cybersurfr wave
> modem)
> 2) yes to router mode
> 3) DHCP server is red hat's DHCP daemon
>
> thanks for looking into this...and i'm still hoping on
> those t-shirts ;o)


--
Barb Bowman
Expert Zone Columnist
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
MS-MVP (Windows)

>-----Original Message-----
>what MODEL moto cyber surfer? is this a DOCSIS modem or
the older
>proprietary non DOCSIS modem?

it's the older one. / therein lies a problem?

....hhehe...i'm guessing a 'no' on the t-shirt then, eh?
lol ;o)

don't know if this is a problem or not, but if anyone is trying to
repro, they need this information. i don't suppose Shaw supports both
DOCSIS and proprietary on their system so that you could try a
different modem?

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 13:58:54 -0800, "James Chambers"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>what MODEL moto cyber surfer? is this a DOCSIS modem or
>the older
>>proprietary non DOCSIS modem?
>
>it's the older one. / therein lies a problem?
>
>...hhehe...i'm guessing a 'no' on the t-shirt then, eh?
>lol ;o)

--
Barb Bowman
Expert Zone Columnist
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
MS-MVP (Windows)

more info: i replaced my linksys router which had worked
fine with the proprietary modem for >2 years to go
wireless.

shaw supports DOCSIS and are now distributing them, but i
purchased my modem 3 months ago for $25 to save $6/month
rental. /

i called and they won't let me trade.

>-----Original Message-----
>don't know if this is a problem or not, but if anyone is
trying to
>repro, they need this information. i don't suppose Shaw
supports both
>DOCSIS and proprietary on their system so that you could
try a
>different modem?

there's not much more i can do to assist you.

James Chambers wrote:
> more info: i replaced my linksys router which had worked
> fine with the proprietary modem for >2 years to go
> wireless.
>
> shaw supports DOCSIS and are now distributing them, but i
> purchased my modem 3 months ago for $25 to save $6/month
> rental. /
>
> i called and they won't let me trade.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> don't know if this is a problem or not, but if anyone is
> trying to
>> repro, they need this information. i don't suppose Shaw supports both
>> DOCSIS and proprietary on their system so that you could
> try a
>> different modem?


--
Barb Bowman
Expert Zone Columnist
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
MS-MVP (Windows)

thanks barb...you had said that the devs would look at
this issue...do you know if anyone will be looking into
afterall, or would MS at this assume the problem is
localized to my situation and just disregard?

>-----Original Message-----
>there's not much more i can do to assist you.
>
>James Chambers wrote:
>> more info: i replaced my linksys router which had
worked
>> fine with the proprietary modem for >2 years to go
>> wireless.
>>
>> shaw supports DOCSIS and are now distributing them,
but i
>> purchased my modem 3 months ago for $25 to save
$6/month
>> rental. /
>>
>> i called and they won't let me trade.
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> don't know if this is a problem or not, but if anyone
is
>> trying to
>>> repro, they need this information. i don't suppose
Shaw supports both
>>> DOCSIS and proprietary on their system so that you
could
>> try a
>>> different modem?
>
>
>--
> Barb Bowman
> Expert Zone Columnist
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> MS-MVP (Windows)
>
>
>.
>