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Intermittent internet connection problems

Notre2
Organizer

After every few days, when a device which was previously connected to my wifi network attempts to connect it connects, however it has no internet access. Other devices that are actively connected continue to work. The workaround is to reboot the router. This allows all devices to work again -- until the next time the problem occurs.

 

I did some troubleshooting of my own, and had these observations. First, when the router is in this weird state, I am unable to access the router configuration page via a web page. Normally I can browse to 192.168.1.254. However, when the router is misbehaving, this never works (even from a wired connection). Second, when a client attempts to connect to the router's wifi in this state, it generally does not work although it says it has a network connection. Inexplicably, on these partially connected devices I am able to use a web browser and do Google searches. But none of the search results work (i.e. I cannot follow a search result link) nor can I directly browse to any non-Google search page (at least that I have discovered).

 

I also observed that when the router is in this weird state, then a device which is partially connected does not have the normal connection information. When I check the device's ip configuration, instead of having a 192. IP address, it instead has a 169. address. This is not my router's IP address (when functioning normally), as reported by https://www.whatismyip.com. Also, the device which is partially connected has a DNS set to 0.0.0.0. And the devices default gateway was not the router (192.168.1.254); I can't remember what it was. As an experiment, when the router was in this bad state, I changed a partially connected device's settings to use a static ip, explicitly setting a 192. IP address, setting the DNS to 8.8.8.8 and setting the default gateway to 192.168.1.254. After making these changes, the device was able to successfully connect with the internet.

I have a Telus T3200M modem/router combination. I'm not using an other routing devices (extenders, mesh, etc). Is there a firmware update I can try for this that may resolve this flaky behaviour?

19 REPLIES 19

NFtoBC
Community Power User
Community Power User

You can see if a new update is available through the admin page. If that does not help,  I’d suggest sharing the issues you have researched, and ask for a replacement router. Seems like the DHCP server in the device is not working properly.

 

NFtoBC
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Thanks for the advice.  I checked the router, and I don't see any way to manually update the firmware, but I do see a firmware version history section, and that shows a number of different firmware versions have been applied to the router, with the most recent one being in August.

 

I did set some custom DNS settings on the router, to provide content filtering for my kids.  I think I'll reset those to their defaults and see if that helps with stability.

Nighthawk
Community Power User
Community Power User

That's not a bad plan. I've run into some issues when putting custom DNS on the T3200. I just switched it on my devices instead. Some days Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) works better, some days 1.1.1.1 does. Just know that kids are smart and they will often figure a way around most filtering. Plus with secure connections on most websites now, and content delivery networks allowing one site to have multiple IPs, many filtering programs don't work well if at all anymore.


If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Like" or mark as an accepted solution if it solves your trouble. 🙂

To follow up on this, I have cleared all my custom DNS settings on the routers but unfortunately, that did not help.  I just cleared all my Scheduling Access rules (I had a lot), and I'm hoping that may help. 

 

My next thought (assuming removing the scheduling rules doesn't help) before trying to exchange the unit would be to do a factory reset of the T3200M.  Is there a way to do this?

NFtoBC
Community Power User
Community Power User

@Notre2 wrote:

My next thought (assuming removing the scheduling rules doesn't help) before trying to exchange the unit would be to do a factory reset of the T3200M.  Is there a way to do this?


There is a reset pinhole on the rear of the device.

NFtoBC
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MikeS68
Friendly Neighbour

Hi there,

 

You have described the exact same scenario I am running into as well and I have assisted one of our employees with the same issue at their home.  Every few days at random (this last episode actually lasted two weeks before going offline this morning), the router stops handing out IPv4 information to clients (DHCP).  Any device that was already connected and given the proper IPv4 information continues to work however if the client is restarted or tries to manually renew the IP, toast!  Rebooting obviously gets things working again however this is not a fix, only a workaround and after the fifth or sizth time doing it, it has become an annoyance.

 

IPv6 is still fully functional however I don't really leverage it for anything.  I have not checked firmware version or anything like that as I do not egenrally manage the unit, that is the responsibility of the provider.  I suppose a more permanent solution would be to turn into bridge mode and use my own router (I do this for my other Internet connection) however I just haven't had the time or the desire to do that.

 

It is somewhat bittersweet to hear that others are experiencing the same phenomenon, at this point, the why is unknown.  Given that you have said applying static IPv4 information and using an outside DNS server gets clients up and running again shows that it is most likely a localized process issue on the router that crashes, perhaps it is a DHCP daemon process.  Nontheless, I am considering calling support once I have a few hours to kill.

 

Regards,

 

Mike.

I'm having very similar issues and did have my router replaced. It didn't help. I'm frustrated and relieved to hear it isn't just me.

MikeS68
Friendly Neighbour

I have a feeling it is related to the recent firmware upgrade that took place.  On September 4th, 2018, my router was upgraded to 31.164L.16 from the previous version of 31.164L.12 which was put on back in November 8th, 2017.  I can see the upgrade history in the Advanced Setup under Modem Utilities --> Upgrade History.

I just had to power fail the device again this weekend as it stopped working (IPv4) and web page (stopped responding and handing out IPs on Friday).

While this is a simple workaround to resolve the issue, it has become an annoyance.

 

Regards,

 

Mike.

That timeline could fit for us too. What can I do to test the ipv6 theory?

I've also been experiencing similar issues, however it has been happening for months now. We got Telus Fibre installed in May, and the problem seems to occur every 2-3 weeks.

Similar to other posters, google will load, search results will load, but typically the links will not load. Microsoft Edge reports "The DNS name does not exist. Error Code: INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND".

It seems to start with some websites, but if left, eventually nothing will load, and it will eventually kill the Optik TV as well.

Router is not accessible via web interface when any of this is occurring.

The only solution has been to power fail the device.

We got the router replaced about 3 months ago. It seemed ok for the first month, but has started occurring again.

elixxiry
Just Moved In
After a while of searching i found this thread and it describes my issue EXACTLY! I’m not sure how to fix this issue permanently without just the bandaid fix of manually assigning an IPv4 address or forcing a router restart. It would be great if a more permanent solution was found...

MikeS68
Friendly Neighbour

There are a number of workarounds that are technically viable:

- Assign all devices with static IP addresses and DNS entries (forget about using the router as a DHCP service) or for anything else service related for that matter as long as it continues to pass traffic

- Have the router set to bridge mode and install and configure your own router

- Enjoy power failing the device every time this happens (for me it is on average once every week to two weeks)

 

Some less likely options I can think of would be to (assuming it is related to the firmware):

- Inquire with Telus if there is a newer firmware for the router that addresses the issue

- Inquire with Telus to back rev the firmware to the previous version if possible in an effort to confirm that it is firmware related

- Open a trouble ticket with Telus every time this happens and continue replacing the router every time this happens (any takers?!?)

 

 

Regards,

 

Mike.

 

Ours seems to be worse on the 5g,we have smart service turned off..

Did the latest firmware update seem to help??

MikeS68
Friendly Neighbour

hdsheena,

 

Our router firmware was upgraded to 31.164L.18 on December 5th and our system uptime is almost 11 days indicating there was a reboot sometime after the firmware update (not done by the household).  I personally have yet to experience the IPv4 issue since the upgrade so I would put my confidence level right now at about 70% that it has been resolved.  It usually didn't last for more than a week.

As I do not not have any information relating to the fixes and or changes to the latest firmware release, i.e. no release notes (does anyone have access to these?) I cannot comment on whether the issue was even addressed.  Being up for 11 days is a good sign however I would like to see a month of uptime before I commit to saying the issue is resolved.

 

In terms of WiFi, I have not noticed any degradation in performance although I really only use the WiFi for our mobile devices (phones).  All of our computers/home electronics are connected via Ethernet.  I am a bigot towards wired networking as it is far more stable and consistent in performance.

Not to mention I pre-wired the house when we built it :).

 

I ran a speedtest off my phone and here are the results... https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/i/3008639656.  I have Telus fiber 150 so the downstream is right on the money even for wireless (802.11ac on my iPhone 6s).  Upstream is meh and honestly good enough for what I do on the phone which is mostly text and voice and a few apps.

 

Regards,

 

Mike.

I've had what is probably the same issue for a year or so now.  I got around it (I believe) by assigning a couple of particular devices - an iPad air 2 and a Vizio TV - in the Smart Steering menu to connect only on the 2.4 GHz band.  But I had also made some DHCP reservations... so I'm not sure what was really the bit that helped.  Regardless, sometimes the devices would still wake up offline with no way to reconnect.

 

Recently, I had one of our Wireless Optik TV boxes go bad, and a tech came out to replace it.   I did a full on reset on the Actiontec T3200M prior to that in the process of trying to diagnose the problem with the Optik TV box.  In hindsight that was a mistake.  Also in hindsight I should have just had the tech replace the unit, as now I'm getting the same "time-out" connection issues with other devices as well (like an Apple TV box that never had this issue before).

 

Interestingly, I no longer see any way to check for updates in the Modem interface... perhaps it is there but I cannot find it.  The other weird thing is that I use a password manager (LastPass) and every time I login to the Actiontec interface LastPass wants to update the password.  If I let it, it overwrites with a huge (345 character) text string... which must be being written into that field by the Actiontec Modem in the process of actually logging in to the interface.  Very strange.

 

I saw one reference on some other thread (might have been at DSLReports) suggesting turning off WMM Power Save... but I don't know if that helped or not.  Very frustrating...

NFtoBC
Community Power User
Community Power User

@emcee2 wrote:

 

 

The other weird thing is that I use a password manager (LastPass) and every time I login to the Actiontec interface LastPass wants to update the password.  If I let it, it overwrites with a huge (345 character) text string... which must be being written into that field by the Actiontec Modem in the process of actually logging in to the interface.  Very strange.

 

 


Other password managers have the same problem with auto-filling the password field on the Actiontec admin login, so it is not just confined to LastPass.

NFtoBC
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MikeS68
Friendly Neighbour

To check your firmware history, log onto the Actiontec as admin and go to Advanced Setup.  Look under the Modem Utilities section on the left hand side menu you will see Upgrade History.  Click on that and it should show you your firmware changes.

 

I'm up 22 days so far without any issues so it is looking good.

 

Yes, you can get around the problem by statically assigning your IPs to devices thus removing the router from the problem.

 

For me, this was not isolated to wireless devices.  I had the issue with any device, wired or wireless when attempting to get an IP address from the router and on top of that the web page would not respond from a device that was statically configured and connecting successfully to the Internet.

 

Regards,

 

Mike.

With an update this did finally resolve for us!