Mysterious WIFI router problem.

[harshness]

There is sometimes when an update is just needed because you can’t foresee the future.

...

Firmware updates are needed, and needed often.

If you look at the nature of the Cisco updates, most of them are related to patching deficiencies in range checking and outright bugs rather than keeping the product up-to-date. Not good technique for a company claiming fitness for securing our networks. Damn the torpedoes is not a model for day-to-day business.

 

[EarDemon]

I'm not talking about enterprise grade hardware. I have no experience with Catalyst switches or Aironet WAPs or their security appliances. I'm talking about their Small Business product line which I use at work and home that does not run IOS. Looking at the release notes, its a mix of bug fixes and feature updates.

 

[TheForce]

Then we have you that seems to be completely averse to taking the next step of doing a factory reset.

That's not so. I wasn't doing it because I was just busy with other things and didn't want to take the time if there was something else at fault. Plus the concern that if the process took longer, I wasn't in a bind needing the internet, and having to fix something I broke in the reset process. I did do the factory reset, red button push for 10 seconds yesterday and the 2.4Ghz returned, just the same as it did by resetting just the PW before. Now we wait and see if it lasts longer than 72 hours. If so then that was what was needed.

I had forgotten that the router has a auto setup that returned my settings almost 100%. I did save the screens so if I needed to change things, I had a reference.

Definitely not an Apple problem either. It had nothing to do with Apple devices. That much was obvious since non Apple hardware also went down.

 

[Hall]

In a bind, needing internet ? You can reset and be up and running in 5 minutes. Yes, it can take a little longer to customize things but out of the box, it's going to default to WPA2-PSK security. The SSID may not be what you like but I mean, you can deal with that for a short bit.

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[TheForce]

I'm not as smart as you with this stuff so it takes me longer. So far so good. Been working for 24 hours. But don't worry, next time I will jump right into it now that I have done this and know what to expect.

I did notice that a number of my LAN connected hardware in the Home theater didn't return to the Network Map display, ie Denon AVR, Samsung UHP disk player, Sling HD, but the XBOX 360 and the PS3 did show up. Maybe I need to go into those devices setup and refresh. I'll test that out later this evening. All but one security camera is working. The one Panasonic PZT isn't working at all so I need to debug that. The other one is fine. But 10 cameras on my Qsee DVR are all showing up when I send them across the internet with my ipad connected to Verizon LTE. These are all LAN ethernet wired.

So, the reset isn't all back to the way it was yet but these are minor issues. I'll get them worked out over the next couple days if the reset fixes the original problem.

 

[TheForce]

I think Ear Demon was the first to suggest the reset and I held off fearing I would not be able to get it working again. But harshness and Hall beat me about the head to just do it and so far it's been 3 days and is still working fine!

I did use the auto setup guiding me through the process but still had to enter all the SSID and PW and other reserved IP's manually.

Had a few devices that didn't show up but realized I needed to actually use them and then once used for a few minutes, they are now in the list.

Only one device left to debug. The Sling adapter on my VIP722 is not seen. May need to troubleshoot that locally. It's the USB one sold by Dish. My other Sling HD connected to the VIP722K is working great!

Thanks to all for your suggestions. aside from getting the problem resolved, I now feel more comfortable with the rest process on this Linksys model. It really does a great job for my needs. Hopefully, it doesn't need the reset often.

 

[harshness]

The Sling adapter on my VIP722 is not seen.

IIRC, the TCP port of the Sling adapter is something other than 5001 (a good thing since you already have a Slingbox). The DISH support forum and elsewhere makes mention of port 5678.

The Sling Adapter is supposed to set itself up using UPnP but you may have to forward that port manually (on the router).

 

[TheForce]

I manually added the port forwarding, turned on UPnP. The ports that I was told were 80, 443, and 5678. I did all three. Still nothing so I need to do a bit more digging. I checked and everything is turned on.

 

[Hall]

Can you manually assign IP addresses on the Sling devices ? With DHCP, they may have had the same IP address for ages, even after the device reboots, the router reboots, etc, but now that you've reset the router, everything starts fresh.

Do you really have to forward 80 and 443 for one of the Sling devices?

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[TheForce]

Hall- so far that hasn't worked so the tech help on port 80 and 443 and 5678 help didn't! It is just a thing that isn't working but I hardly ever use that sling anyway. I actually can't recall the last time I used it. The sling box HD connected to my 722K is working great connected to the DVR via component. It has it's own ethernet cable.

I have a few more things to try before just giving up on it.

 

[stardust3]

Don you can use a port checker like this...http://www.canyouseeme.org/ to make sure your port forwarding is working and setup correctly. It's a great tool for stuff like this.

 

[harshness]

The ports that I was told were 80, 443, and 5678.

I saw that too, but if you forward the HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443) ports, you need to make sure that you configure the remote administration port for something else (often 8080).

In addition to port scanners, I've found that dynamic DNS providers like no-ip.com are an invaluable tool for figuring out what's going on between the outside world and your LAN. They are a convenient way, supported by most routers, to keep track of your dynamically assigned Internet IP addresses.

 

[klang]

Only one device left to debug. The Sling adapter on my VIP722 is not seen. May need to troubleshoot that locally. It's the USB one sold by Dish. My other Sling HD connected to the VIP722K is working great!

Have you tried re-configuring the Sling Adapter from the 722? I had the the same setup when I was a dish customer and recall having to discover the WiFi network and redo it anytime I had an network issues or rebooted my router.

 

[TheForce]

Never did get the Sling Adapter to work with the Apps. I see it in the setup on the 722 as connected. I see it in the router list. But no go on the app. The only sling is the HD box I have connected to my 722K. The only time I may want it anyway is if my wife wants to watch something she recorded and that has never happened yet.

The PW for my 2.4Ghz wifi is holding steady. I guess the reset with the red button on the back was the trick. So, we're good.


Funny thing happened Friday, though. My wife told me her Apple watch was not responding to phone calls anymore. So I immediately went to the router thinking it went out next. No, it was in the active list. Checked her iphone and saw the Blue Tooth was not connected. Tried to pair it several times and it just didn't want to connect. Decided to do the hard reset. That didn't work either so I wiped her phone and reinstalled from the backup. Connected to the watch immediately. Problem solved!

Not so fast. Later that afternoon, I saw my Apple Watch was not receiving phone calls either. How could this be? So I did the same thing, rebooted and then reinstalled the backup. That fixed the BT connection.

This is crazy but then I heard on the news from the President that the Russians were hacking! At least I know now why all this happened this week. The Russians are coming to get us! But I should not have anymore problems with this because The President said he kicked them out of the country. Since they left, my problems have not returned.

Can you believe that?

 

[Hall]

What does the router have to do with phone calls ?

 

[TheForce]

What does the router have to do with phone calls ?

Nothing. But nothing else worked either. All the stuff that is supposed to come through wifi to the phone was Dead. Why all this happened, I have no idea. But it's all working now.

 

[waylew]

 

[Foxbat]

Don, I'm surprised you don't have the AirPort Extreme/Time Capsule for your home router. It checks Apple for Firmware updates and is fairly easy to administer. I am forced to use the 2-Wire box that AT&T provides with my U-Verse service, otherwise I would be using the AirPort for managing my home LAN/WLAN.

Since Apple is apparently leaving the home networking space, I'm looking at Synology routers (https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/RT1900ac) as a possible replacement. But since I'm locked into the 2-Wire box for VoIP and Internet, there isn't any hurry for me. There may be too many knobs, bells, and whistles for the average home user, but the Network Systems Analyst in me wants to be able to see how much traffic my devices are generating. At CES 2017, Synology announced the RT2600ac which is immense overkill for most home LANs, allowing Quality of Service down to the device and application level. At the projected price point of $225-275 it isn't cheap, but then the AirPorts aren't too cheap, either.

 

[Hall]

It shouldn't need firmware updates... If it does, it was broken when they released it.

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[harshness]

It shouldn't need firmware updates... If it does, it was broken when they released it.

The updates aren't always the fault of the hardware vendor.

Sometimes the underlying code or standards are updated or deprecated (as in the case of SSL).

With devices that have to inter-operate with devices from multiple vendors, sometimes you have to build in safeguards to prevent problems caused by carelessness and/or hubris on the part of a third party.

I think we'd all prefer that the vendor make provisions rather than declare everything else to be broken.