[SOLVED] Static IP Addresses in Wireless Home Network

[caljohnsmith]

I have to admit that it is some time since I was professionally employed in the Internetworking field, however I can say that my own home router exhibits this behaviour (I know, technically it should not but we live in a world of cheaper devices with non-standard functionality). It's just a suggestion .

Thanks for sharing that, that's definitely useful info then since I've not yet encountered that behavior with just the few routers I've used; but as you pointed out, with the huge variety of routers on the market, I'm not surprised it can happen.

[Jacobian]

Well, you guys did it: You fixed me. I'm posting this message from a static IP address!

Thank you very much

But there's a story to tell, so I'll tell you how it happened:

In response to your posts, I tried everything that was suggested: I reduced my DHCP IP pool, so that the DHCP is only permitted to give out IP addresses from 192.168.0.8 to 192.168.0.254.

Then I ran the network diagnostic commands: for static IP addresses both inside and outside the DHCP pool, then again with and without the DHCP pool restricted. And nothing worked. Not even the gateway ping test.

Then, suddenly, I got a phone call.

And when I came back in again, the static IP address was connected. The network applet was still showing no available networks, but somehow Firefox had loaded its webpage, the buddy list was up... it was like stepping out for a moment and returning to the Twilight Zone.

I ran ifconfig, and sure enough, my static IP address was listed. I could connect to the router now: there was my static IP address in the list of active users!

That's not the way this usually works, is it? You just step away for a moment and everything works?

Well, I wasn't expecting that. *Of course* I ran upstairs to tell the rest of the family what had just happened, and everybody was very happy...

And then I came downstairs again, and nothing worked anymore. Heh.

But it turns out that by restarting the networking services, you could recreate the Twilight Zone scenario...

It's very subtle: I missed it before, because the network applet wasn't listing any available networks. However, after restarting the network services, after a delay, there WAS a connection.

When I got called away to the phone, the router was apparently just about to complete the static connection. While I was away, the router accepted and the Internet services completed, and I returned to a working system.

However, our router is a bit unreliable. I had noticed that during my testing, the router would occasionally drop connections and I would sometimes have to restart the router.

I tried to compensate for this by repeating the tests until I was sure of the results.

Well, by the time I got back downstairs, it must have dropped the connection. Running '/etc/init.d/networking restart' must have repeated the request for a static IP address, which the router fulfilled. Thus recreating the Twilight Zone scenario.

The network applet really doesn't list any wireless networks, but perhaps that's by design? I'm not in roaming mode, after all: I'm using a specific configuration. I did notice that even though no wireless networks are offered, there is no red X over the connection icon, which would ordinarily mean that all devices are disconnected. So perhaps even this is not as mysterious as it seemed.

It looks like I can reliably reconnect to the wireless network simply by running the '/etc/init.d/networking restart' command.

So I believe I am fixed.

I was using alanmilne's suggestion when everything started working, so I'm not sure whether it's actually required or not. But I'm not very inclined to change it now that everything is working. Besides, it's nice to know that we have a safe block of static IP addresses that are guaranteed to be free for static connections.

However, it was only by running caljohnsmith's diagnostics that I noticed the static network was working. The applet itself was not enough for me to realize that anything was different.

So thank you everyone! I'll give you all a formal thanks via the forum mechanism if it will let me.

[caljohnsmith]

Well as long as things are working, Jacobian, that's what counts, even though what you describe does seem a bit strange. By the way, is by chance your router a Linksys WRT54G? I'm only asking because I have one and had problems with the connection being flaky, but I found out that it is actually a bug in their firmware that can be circumvented with a few simple steps. Anyway, if you have a WRT54G, let me know, and I might be able to help you with your sporadic internet connection.

To mark the thread as solved, simply go to the top of the thread, click "thread tools", and then click "marked as solved".

[Jacobian]

We have an ActionTec gateway router. It has been very flaky for everyone. I'll check to see if there are any updates for the firmware.

Thanks again for all your ideas and for following this thread. I'll mark this as solved.