Internet Connection Drops on 1 PC in the network???

[Buick455]

EDIT: SOLVED - scroll down to post #5


:confused: Ok, my home network consists of a Cable Modem to a 4 port Wired Router with 3 PC's then a Link to a 4 port Wireless Router, with 2 PC's wired to and then a few Wireless Notebooks.

1 PC is giving me a strange problem, well strange to me anyway..

Short Description: 1 PC on my network loses the internet, but is still able to share files and print.

Long Description: All pc's on the network can communicate with each other (File & Print Sharing), and all get an Internet connection. BUT... one PC that is on the main router randomly loses its Internet Connection then needs to reboot to work again, all the others stay connected to the internet and each other. and the strange part is that the computer that loses the internet connection can still be seen and pinged threw the network, print on a shared printer, and transfer files back and forth...

Any Ideas??

Thanks In Advance

[davis]

Are both networks on a different subnet(example, router A is giving out 192.168.0.* and router B gives out 192.168.1.*)? Try updating firmware on both routers and re-installing the ethernet drivers on the computer thats dropping the net connection.

Sounds like either an ip address conflict, or the router is dropping the connection.

[Buick455]

Router 1/wired is on 192.168.1.1

Router 2/Wrls is setup as 192.168.1.2

Both routers firmware has been updated..
the part that gets me is the fact that the PC on router 1 loses the internet, but not the local.. like i said, i can still share files and print over the workgroup.. also i can still access the web GUI for the routers from the PC after i lose Internet.

I'm begining to think its a setting on the PC thats loseing the internet, and not on the routers. i cant think of what settings might be doing it tho. i just updated the NIC drivers on the problem PC and its still having problems.

can anyone think of a reason the internet would drop off 1 pc out of 5, and the workgroup still be useable.. i look at it as if i have a connection to the network, i should have a connection to the net as long as the other PC's still do.

ADDED: i went into the PC that keeps loseing the net connection ran "ipconfig /all" (the Internet was working at the time) and relized it isnt pulling the correct DNS Servers automaticly. i was getting the local IP of router 2 (192.168.1.2) instead of what all the other PC's have, so i changed it on the problem PC to what the other computers have for DNS servers.. twisting fingers :confused:

[davis]

thats the issue i was afraid of. you're running both routers on the same subnet. I wont go in depth here, but basically the routers are routing to 2 different networks even tho they're broadcasting the same one.

Routers should always be on a different network (simply giving them a different end ip doesnt solve the problem) so for example, you should move router B to 192.168.5.*because then its on a completely different network then router A and it wont be broadcasting false networks (which is probably what has happened, since the pc is being told the dns server is on the 2nd router, not the 1st one, cause its getting the broadcast from router B.

Try just changing the IP scheme like i said and see if it fixes your problem.

[Buick455]

Well i havent had a internet connection loss on the problem PC in almost a day since i changed the setting on the PC. i just used the DNS server IP's that the other PC's were useing, instead of automaticly finding them. that solved the problem so im gonna leave it, i also updated my DD-WRT firmware on the wireless router (I was running the Dec 12th version) and also re-set everything the way Linksys told me to..

Incase anyone needs this or finds this thread, here is what Linksys sent me for the WRT54GL settings for it to be used as a second to a wired router, hope it helps someone...

Thank you for contacting Linksys Technical Support.

First, we will need to do some changes on both router so that they will be cascaded properly. You may need to go through the steps below to get them connected properly, and at the same time, go through the points, you may have missed initially.

Step 1 - Physical connection and Hard Reset.

1. Remove the wireless router from the first router.
2. Connect a computer in one of the numbered-port in the router and remove all other computers.
3. Make sure that the device is turned on.
4. Press and hold the reset button.
5. After 30 seconds, remove the power plug while the button is pressed.
6. Let go of the reset button and turn on the device.
7. Reboot the computer.

Step 2 - Accessing the setup page.

1. Using a computer hardwired in the router, launch Internet Explorer.
2. In the address bar, type "http://192.168.1.1".
3. A login prompt will come on, leave the username blank and use "admin" for the password.

Step 3 - Disabling NAT in the wireless router.

1. Under the Setup Page click on Advanced Routing sub-tab.
2. Set the Operating Mode to "Router". If you don't see Operating Mode, look for NAT Firewall and click on "Disable".
3. Click on "Save Settings".

Step 4 - Disabling the DHCP

1. Under the Setup Page look for DHCP server then select "Disable".
2. Click on "Save Settings".
3. Don't wait for the previous page to come back, close the browser by pressing Alt+F4.

Step 5 - Change the device IP address

Under the Setup page, change the "Device IP Address" / "Local IP Address" of the router to "192.168.1.2" or something else that would match in your network, leave the rest on default settings then hit the Apply button. Don't wait for the previous page to come back, close the browser by pressing Alt+F4. Then reboot or restart the computer until it boots up back again.

Step 6 - Re-establish Physical Connection

1. Turn off the wireless router and the computer connect to it.
2. Connect a standard CAT-5 cable from one of the regular LAN ports or uplink port of the main router then connect the other end of the CAT-5 cable to one of the regular LAN ports of the second router.
3. Turn on the wireless router and wait 30 seconds.
4. Turn on the computer connected to it.
5. Try to get on the Internet. If you are successful, please proceed on how to change your wireless settings.

ALSO.. i would like to add, the first wired router is actualy assigning IP's to all the PC's in the house.. the second router is basicly running as a wired/wrls hub, nothing more.. im extremely happy now that everything is working :)