Question

Internet applications timing out or dropping off

Asked by: wiggy353

Last week we had a lightning strike hit the building. Some machine and devices were affected, but most were fine. One of the devices that no longer works is our router. It was a Cisco 870. I replaced it with a Linksys that we had sitting on a shelf. It is a Linksys RT31P2. It was easy to setup and got us back up and going fast.

However, there seems to be a problem. We have two other locations that we remotely access data through a program called PrintSmith. Since we changed out the router, users have been loosing the connection quite often, like they are timing out. We did not have this happening before the changing of the router.

What should I be looking for to fix this?

Thanks

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Asked On
2008-08-12 at 07:55:22ID23641421
Tags

Linksys

,

router

,

rt31p2

,

network drop off or time out

Topics

Network Routers

,

DSL Lines / Cable Internet

Participating Experts
3
Points
0
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: stsonlinePosted on 2008-08-12 at 08:55:11ID: 22214409

I suspect your new router isn't configured to pass broadcast-type traffic.

Many printers use broadcast traffic to allow access, similar to arp broadcasts and DHCP servers - effectively, the printer keeps "talking" so users can easily browse and connect to the printer. Broadcast traffic doesn't cross routers - check your router manual for a command similar to Cisco's 'ip helper' command.

 

by: Bill_FleuryPosted on 2008-08-13 at 00:23:17ID: 22219709

Are you sure your modem (or whatever you have for an internet connection) is healthy after the lightning strike?  Have you ran a continual ping test out to one of your other sites?

 

by: wiggy353Posted on 2008-08-13 at 12:30:58ID: 22224788

Bill,

I ran a continuous ping for about half an hour. Most of the time it was around 60 ms, but there were times that it jumped up to around 400 ms for about 10-15 pings and then went back. Then there was a fairly long period where it got up to around 800 ms. I'm not sure if that is a problem with our modem or just because of network traffic. Or if that is enough for the program to time out. Your thoughts?

Thanks

 

by: stsonlinePosted on 2008-08-18 at 06:26:56ID: 22251592

I wouldn't think 400-800 ms would be great enough to cause a connection timeout but it is possible. I'd start by checking to see if the PrintSmith application has a timeout setting and if so, is it adjustable. You may also want to put something like Wireshark or TCPDump on your network and watch the users' traffic - see if you can detect what and/or when the connection drops and what the traffic looks like when that drop occurs.

 

by: hgrunwellPosted on 2008-12-05 at 14:31:26ID: 23109479

PrintSmith uses your serial # as the port address. Make sure that port is setup appropriately on your router. What worked for us was setting that port to have a higher QOS value. Hope that helps.

 

by: wiggy353Posted on 2008-12-31 at 09:17:06ID: 23271451

Actually, what this came down to was the amount of memory on the router. The new one that I installed did not have as much as the original, so the routing tables would drop off as it ran out of memory. I purchased a router with more memory for the routing tables and have not had any problems since then.

Thanks!

 

by: Bill_FleuryPosted on 2008-12-31 at 09:19:18ID: 23271477

Wow, that's obscure!  Good job on fixing it.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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