network woes

[Trent Shipley]

Eric Shubert wrote:
> Trent Shipley wrote:
>> Benjamin Francom wrote:
>>> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 7:18 PM, Mark Phillips
>>> <mark at phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
>>>> Trent,
>>>>
>>>> I ran into a similar problem today - my network slowed waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down
>>>> on me. All I used was ping to methodically to check all the connections and
>>>> found that a switch was reseting itself and dropping packets. Basically, I
>>>> turn everything off, reset all the routers, cable modems, etc, and then turn
>>>> on one piece of equipment at a time and ping to the main router to see if I
>>>> can connect and if there is any packet loss. You can find a out a lot of
>>>> information by being methodical and knowing your network topology.
>>>>
>>>> Good Luck!
>>>>
>>>> Mark
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 5:52 PM, Trent Shipley <tshipley at deru.com> wrote:
>>>>> Somewhere my connection to the Internet is borken.  Load times take
>>>>> forever.  It doesn't seem to effect the wireless client routers, but I
>>>>> have had trouble on both the wired machines under Ubuntu 9.10 and
>>>>> Windows Vista.  Sometimes the Linux machine effectively looses
>>>>> connectivity with the Internet.  It comes back if I log out of my X
>>>>> session and log back in ... most of the time.  I have a firewall router,
>>>>> but effectively no household LAN since I've been too lazy to really
>>>>> figure out how to configure the Ubuntu desktop machine as a primary
>>>>> domain controller, then adjust it's firewall to suit.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd like an idiot friendly tool to help track this problem down,
>>>>> preferably on the Linux machine which seems to experience the problem
>>>>> most consistently.
>>>>>
>>>>> Baring a GUI tool friendly to mortal users, I am not above using the
>>>>> @#$% command line and a text editor.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I am not too network savvy.  I have to look up the layers of the OSI
>>>>> stack every time.  What is a reasonable diagnostic or fault tree for
>>>>> approaching my symptoms.
>>>>>
>>>>> It is also worth noting that this problem seems to date back to
>>>>> precisely when I upgraded from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10.
>>>>>
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>>> Unplug all devices for at least one min.  Start with modem and work
>>> your way up to the PC
>>> The Vista and Ubuntu machines are separate machines, not a single dual
>>> boot, right?
>>>
>>> tracert=windows
>>> traceroute=linux
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>> I have "rebuilt" the network a couple of times from the modem up.  My 
>> suspicion is focused on the Ubuntu desktop because of the coincidence 
>> that the problem started with a major upgrade.
>>
>> Yes. We have the following on the network ... not all at the same time.
>> * Qwest modem, outside the firewall.
>> * Netgear wired/802.11g wireless router. No evident problems with 
>> wireless connections.
>> * Ubuntu 9.10 on Dell hardware.  Wired connection. (Main suspect) 
>> Thinking about putting in a new Ethernet card since I have it "in stock" 
>> anyway and it's doing me no good in the box.
>> * Apple notebook.  Wired connection.
>> ** Windows Vista.  Have seen some symptoms.
>> ** OS X.  mild symptoms.
>> * Apple notebook.  Wireless.  No known symptoms.
>> * Apple iMac. Wireless  No known symptoms.
>> * (Occasional) HP netbook running Ubuntu 9.10 netbook remix.  Wireless. 
>>   No known symptoms.
> 
> That's helpful.
> 
> I really doubt the upgrade was a cause of any kind, given that your 
> Apple notebook (other wired) connection also experiences problems.
> 
> Have you tried alternate wired ports on the Netgear router? Sometimes a 
> single port/plug can be defective. The whole wired side of the router 
> might be failing as well.

I have tried swapping wires and ports.  It doesn't seem to help.

> Do you have a switch you can put in place of the wireless router to see 
> if the problem persists?

I don't have a spare switch.  Of course switches aren't too expensive. 
I just don't have much use for it outside of testing unless I change my 
network architecture to something like,
* Router
** Wired switch
*** wired computers.

> Does your DSL modem do dhcp/nat? (most do these days)
> 

The DSL modem definitely does dhcp.  I do not know if NAT is being done 
by the modem or the router.