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[Tommy Peel]

So I posted a while back about getting NAS setup and this is somewhat related... Anyway I ended up getting a router that I could connect a USB HDD to and use that for a NAS setup; that part has been fine. I initially got an Asus router and after getting 2 bad ones(packet loss and bad performance on all of our computers) I picked up a DD-WRT equipped Buffalo router. Currently the Buffalo is running a "community" build of DD-WRT instead of the one it came with(so I could do DLNA sharing from the NAS drive). This issue is my mom's laptop(a Walmart 2-3 year old Toshiba that runs great for what it is); she is constantly having trouble with it not loading pages and the internet being slow. Our other devices(MacBook Pro,Asus laptop, old Dell laptop, and a couple of Android phones) run fine from what I can tell. The issue with her's seems to be packet loss which I've confirmed with the command line ping test, while my MBP and Nexus 4 doesn't show any loss(ping test in terminal).

I'm at a loss as to what the problem is; I have the router setup to reboot every morning at 5am which didn't help much if any. Her computer shows good signal strength and we weren't having any trouble with our previous router(cheap Netgear). Are there any settings that could be causing the issue?

[Michael Brennan]

So I posted a while back about getting NAS setup and this is somewhat related... Anyway I ended up getting a router that I could connect a USB HDD to and use that for a NAS setup; that part has been fine. I initially got an Asus router and after getting 2 bad ones(packet loss and bad performance on all of our computers) I picked up a DD-WRT equipped Buffalo router. Currently the Buffalo is running a "community" build of DD-WRT instead of the one it came with(so I could do DLNA sharing from the NAS drive). This issue is my mom's laptop(a Walmart 2-3 year old Toshiba that runs great for what it is); she is constantly having trouble with it not loading pages and the internet being slow. Our other devices(MacBook Pro,Asus laptop, old Dell laptop, and a couple of Android phones) run fine from what I can tell. The issue with her's seems to be packet loss which I've confirmed with the command line ping test, while my MBP and Nexus 4 doesn't show any loss(ping test in terminal).

I'm at a loss as to what the problem is; I have the router setup to reboot every morning at 5am which didn't help much if any. Her computer shows good signal strength and we weren't having any trouble with our previous router(cheap Netgear). Are there any settings that could be causing the issue?

Just guessing - maybe a DNS issue? Easy thing to check would be to compare DNS settings with a device that is working well. Sometimes when troubleshooting I set the DSN server to google's DNS servers, or find the ISP's DNS server IP's and explicitly set them. Then I forget to put it back to the default setting which uses whatever the router is using. Then something breaks years later if I move or swap ISP's and the PC is still using the old DNS servers.

[Tommy Peel]

Just guessing - could it be a virus, or maybe a DNS issue? Easy thing to check would be to compare DNS settings with a device that is working well. Sometimes when troubleshooting I set the DSN server to google's DNS servers, or find the ISP's DNS server IP's and explicitly set them. Then I forget to put it back to the default setting which uses whatever the router is using. Then something breaks years later if I move or swap ISP's and the PC is still using the old DNS servers.

Well interesting I was using Google DNS on the laptop directly and was still having the issue. Also I've been using the Google DNS( 8.8.8.8 ) as my target for the ping tests. I'll look at the router's DNS settings to see what it's using as I have the laptop on auto DNS now. I want to say I was even getting packet loss while pinging other local networked devices, but I'll double check that in a little while.

Sent from my Nexus 4 running OmniROM 4.4 KitKat using Tapatalk Pro

[Jonathan Johnson]

What type of ISP connection do you have -- DSL, cable, carrier pigeon?

What equipment is on the WAN/ISP side of your router?

There are two possible causes that pop into mind:

• Double NAT: your router is assigned a private IP address on the WAN port (either manually or by DHCP) and it's connected to an ISP-provided router that's also doing NAT. In the case of DSL, you may be able to put your modem in bridge mode and have your router handle the PPPoE connection -- this will assign a public IP address to the WAN port of your router. Otherwise, you should disable NAT in your router, and configure a static route on the ISP equipment pointing to the LAN network via your router's WAN IP address.
• MTU: when connecting to DSL, you may need to change the MTU on your router from the default 1500 to 1492.

There may be other causes as well, but that's what comes to mind at the moment. This may not be the case for you, but maybe it will help someone else reading this thread.

[Rob Spence]

For my home connection, I just ignore the fact that the cable router/modem has features. I simply plug my router/firewall/WAP into it with the "internet connection" set at get address from network. I do, however, make sure my internal network number is different than the one supplied by the cable modem.

I have been doing it this way for a long time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Tommy Peel]

What type of ISP connection do you have -- DSL, cable, carrier pigeon?

What equipment is on the WAN/ISP side of your router?

There are two possible causes that pop into mind:

• Double NAT: your router is assigned a private IP address on the WAN port (either manually or by DHCP) and it's connected to an ISP-provided router that's also doing NAT. In the case of DSL, you may be able to put your modem in bridge mode and have your router handle the PPPoE connection -- this will assign a public IP address to the WAN port of your router. Otherwise, you should disable NAT in your router, and configure a static route on the ISP equipment pointing to the LAN network via your router's WAN IP address.
• MTU: when connecting to DSL, you may need to change the MTU on your router from the default 1500 to 1492.

There may be other causes as well, but that's what comes to mind at the moment. This may not be the case for you, but maybe it will help someone else reading this thread.

For my home connection, I just ignore the fact that the cable router/modem has features. I simply plug my router/firewall/WAP into it with the "internet connection" set at get address from network. I do, however, make sure my internal network number is different than the one supplied by the cable modem.

I have been doing it this way for a long time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

To update this, I've got the modem(Wireless LTE modem which is on the outside of the house aimed at the tower and powered with a POE) setup in bridge mode so I'm pretty sure I'm not in a double NAT situation unless there is one on the carrier side(on the other side of the modem). I don't seem to be having issues with any computers except my Mom's; all the others seem to be fine. I know the external address isn't the same as the internal. The external is a 174.x.x.x(I think) while the internal is a typical 192.168.1.x. Also there aren't any other wireless networks very close >100 yards from the house.

Basic signal flow the internet comes from the wireless LTE signal -> modem on the outside of the house -> ethernet cable -> POE -> ethernet cable -> Buffalo router ->WiFi to all but one or two devices plugged into the router network ports.

If I swap the Buffalo router for the Netgear her computer does fine; all other devices are fine(best I can tell) regardless of the router.

I think I'll try plugging her computer into the ethernet port and see if the problem persists. Let me know if you have any other ideas.

Thanks for the help,
Tommy

[Jonathan Johnson]

With a 174.x.x.x address on the WAN interface of your router, it's highly unlikely that you have a double-NAT situation as that is not one of the RFC 1918 private IP addresses.

I have zero experience with LTE modems, but doing a little research, I see suggestions that Verizon LTE devices connect by PPPoE, so the MTU should be set to 1492 (or, in some reports, 1428).

I'd suggest setting the MTU on the WAN interface of your Buffalo router to 1492 (or maybe 1428) and see what you get. If it doesn't improve -- or if it makes things worse -- you can always change it back.

This page has instructions for determining the optimum MTU:
http://www.tp-link.com/en/article/?faqid=190

[Jonathan Johnson]

For my home connection, I just ignore the fact that the cable router/modem has features. I simply plug my router/firewall/WAP into it with the "internet connection" set at get address from network. I do, however, make sure my internal network number is different than the one supplied by the cable modem.

It will usually work that way, but if the WAN IP address of your router has an RFC 1918 private address (such as 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x) you have a double-NAT situation.

You'll most see this cause problems when you try to set up a server on the internal network and have it accessible from the Internet. Even if you do get it working, there may be random connection failures.

You can also see problems with VPN connections and some stateful protocols (such as FTP or SSH). VoIP phones might fail. Remote access applications like LogMeIn or GoToMyPC might not work properly.

In some cases, performance will be impacted even for simple web browsing -- but that is more dependent on the quality of the routers and how well they are able to handle connection tracking.

[Tommy Peel]

With a 174.x.x.x address on the WAN interface of your router, it's highly unlikely that you have a double-NAT situation as that is not one of the RFC 1918 private IP addresses.

I have zero experience with LTE modems, but doing a little research, I see suggestions that Verizon LTE devices connect by PPPoE, so the MTU should be set to 1492 (or, in some reports, 1428).

I'd suggest setting the MTU on the WAN interface of your Buffalo router to 1492 (or maybe 1428) and see what you get. If it doesn't improve -- or if it makes things worse -- you can always change it back.

This page has instructions for determining the optimum MTU:
http://www.tp-link.com/en/article/?faqid=190

Thanks I'll give that a try when I get home.

Sent from my Nexus 4 running OmniROM 4.4 KitKat using Tapatalk Pro

[Tommy Peel]

Changing the MTU seems to have helped. I'll give it a day and let you know how it does.

Sent from my Nexus 4 running OmniROM 4.4 KitKat using Tapatalk Pro

[ProSoundWeb Community]