Asus RT N56U (No Internet Access after reset) LAN Working Fine

[bronh242]

I've only been working in IT for like 10 months so I'm still fairly new to this stuff.

The router is providing Internet access to all systems connected to a 24 port switch on a patch panel. The LAN had been experiencing problems for a couple of weeks now as far as computers being able to connect to the internet. Ethernet ports connected to the horizontal run through out the building have been magically going dead (sometimes they come back up, then go dead again, some stay dead).

Me and another tech (who is also pretty new) have been scrambling to get people back up, using WAPS and setting up wireless routers in WISP mode and piggy backing off of the wireless network that WAS up. Now that's down to, after I reset main router in the server room (Or what should be the main router, no one had the password). We know some other guy who works there has been connecting his personal router to the network (without permission).

I am assuming his router, where ever it is in the building (decent size building) has DHCP turn on, and is connect directly to the ISPS modem and is causing problems because the main router (server room) also has DHCP turned on. When connecting to the router at one point after a couple resets, it gave an IP conflict error message. Also at one point when I connected the ethernet cable (supposed to be the ISPs main ethernet cable) directly to my laptop, I wasn't able to get internet either. However, i was able to connect to the a router setup page (if I remember I wasn't connected to the server room router wirelessly during this either)
.
Its failed on a number of occasions to get a DHCP address from the ISP when set to automatic and so no internet. I don't think its a PPPOe connection with a username and password either, last I checked the ISP they say they use doesn't do username and passwords. No one seems to know what internet package they have (they assume its a business class fiber connection). My supervisor is just says tell them to call the ISP (but it can't be the ISP in this situation imo).

The network has no documentation whatsoever and the company I work for has no toner probe/generator

Also the patch panel is a massive cable kludge.

What do you guys think?

 

[thecomputerguy]

I've only been working in IT for like 10 months so I'm still fairly new to this stuff.

The router is providing Internet access to all systems connected to a 24 port switch on a patch panel. The LAN had been experiencing problems for a couple of weeks now as far as computers being able to connect to the internet. Ethernet ports connected to the horizontal run through out the building have been magically going dead (sometimes they come back up, then go dead again, some stay dead).

Me and another tech (who is also pretty new) have been scrambling to get people back up, using WAPS and setting up wireless routers in WISP mode and piggy backing off of the wireless network that WAS up. Now that's down to, after I reset main router in the server room (Or what should be the main router, no one had the password). We know some other guy who works there has been connecting his personal router to the network (without permission).

I am assuming his router, where ever it is in the building (decent size building) has DHCP turn on, and is connect directly to the ISPS modem and is causing problems because the main router (server room) also has DHCP turned on. When connecting to the router at one point after a couple resets, it gave an IP conflict error message. Also at one point when I connected the ethernet cable (supposed to be the ISPs main ethernet cable) directly to my laptop, I wasn't able to get internet either. However, i was able to connect to the a router setup page (if I remember I wasn't connected to the server room router wirelessly during this either)
.
Its failed on a number of occasions to get a DHCP address from the ISP when set to automatic and so no internet. I don't think its a PPPOe connection with a username and password either, last I checked the ISP they say they use doesn't do username and passwords. No one seems to know what internet package they have (they assume its a business class fiber connection). My supervisor is just says tell them to call the ISP (but it can't be the ISP in this situation imo).

The network has no documentation whatsoever and the company I work for has no toner probe/generator

Also the patch panel is a massive cable kludge.

What do you guys think?

Some smarter people than me will probably chime in but having more than one DHCP server on a network is absolutely asking for problems. DHCP should be provided from ONE device no matter what. If that server cannot provide enough IP leases then you need to look into VLANS, but I havent run into any business where 253 IP's aren't enough for a standard small business.

Secondly DUMP THAT ROUTER ASAP. That router is a router you would find in a small apartment and has no business running a small business network. Not only is it completely inadequate and insecure it is not capable of providing you with the information you need to troubleshoot this problem.

Based on the cheapness of the setup I'd recommend replacing ALL of the networking products. Simply to break it down, get a USG or USG Pro + Cloud Key + a Ubiquiti 48p (Non-POE) switch and then daisy on an 8P or 16P Ubiquiti POE switch to power the Cloud key and subsequent AP's that you will be replacing with UAP-HD Pro's, then at that point you can just being to troubleshoot the intermittent internet issues.

 

[bronh242]

Some smarter people than me will probably chime in but having more than one DHCP server on a network is absolutely asking for problems. DHCP should be provided from ONE device no matter what. If that server cannot provide enough IP leases then you need to look into VLANS, but I havent run into any business where 253 IP's aren't enough for a standard small business.

Secondly DUMP THAT ROUTER ASAP. That router is a router you would find in a small apartment and has no business running a small business network. Not only is it completely inadequate and insecure it is not capable of providing you with the information you need to troubleshoot this problem.

Based on the cheapness of the setup I'd recommend replacing ALL of the networking products. Simply to break it down, get a USG or USG Pro + Cloud Key + a Ubiquiti 48p (Non-POE) switch and then daisy on an 8P or 16P Ubiquiti POE switch to power the Cloud key and subsequent AP's that you will be replacing with UAP-AD Pro's, then at that point you can just being to troubleshoot the intermittent internet issues.

Interesting...

Yeah a lot of the stuff there is pretty old. They even have some WINDOWS XP machines on the network. Servers with IDE hard drives (though I don't think they use them much). One server is still using server 2008.

What is a decent router for a place like this? I'd say at most they have probably 30-50 machines one the network (not counting people who shouldn't have access to it). Thing is they don't have radius set up or nothing so it's a free for all and is always slow (even when it's up).

Thing is I'm not a network pro, I'm still in the process of getting a network cert and they throwing me into this place lol... - _-

 

[thecomputerguy]

Interesting...

Yeah a lot of the stuff there is pretty old. They even have some WINDOWS XP machines on the network. Servers with IDE hard drives (though I don't think they use them much). One server is still using server 2008.

What is a decent router for a place like this? I'd say at most they have probably 30-50 machines one the network (not counting people who shouldn't have access to it). Thing is they don't have radius set up or nothing so it's a free for all and is always slow (even when it's up).

Thing is I'm not a network pro, I'm still in the process of getting a network cert and they throwing me into this place lol... - _-

They probably need a USG pro ... and with all unify products you can setup guest networks and VLANS if you get a unify switch.

Considering what you just said about their hardware they probably need to spend a good $10k-$20k on hardware alone.

No disrespect but you are attempting to chip away at a problem that is much much bigger. If they are truly that far behind I'd probably quote them extremely high and plan on spending a solid few weeks there to get them straightened out, and you'd be partially abandoning your current clients for this one. That or just NOPE the F out of there and let their infrastructure fail so they'll have no choice but to spend the money.

The situation they are currently in spells craigslist tech who got a fulltime job elsewhere and lowballed everything they have.