HCHTech
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,153
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA - USA
Ok, I'm struggling a bit pointing the finger of blame in this issue.
I have a small client with fiber internet from one of our local ISPs. Fiber is a new service for them, only rolled out in the last couple of months, they previously only sold Cable & DSL service.
My client has a small ONT in their network room, one fiber connection in, two ethernet connections out. One ethernet connection goes to our Sonicwall, and one goes to their phone box (phone service is also provided by the ISP). There are actually two other ethernet ports, but they have been disabled - ISP states they are reserved for "future service offerings".
For about 2 weeks now, the client is experiencing intermittent internet outages, during which none of their 5 computers can get to the internet. The phones continue to work during the outage, though. Resetting their network equipment (ISP's ONT, Switch & Sonicwall) by power cycling the UPS restores the connection. ISP sent someone out, who stated that "Since the phones continue to work, it's not our equipment".
Internet connection is DHCP. The Sonicwall is pulling an IP of 24.101.241.x, subnet is 255.255.255.0, so it's a /24 network. using the ISP's DNS. They had an outage this morning, so I rush onsite to see what's up while it's still broken.
Visual inspection of the 3 pieces of equipment during the outage did not reveal anything - All lights that should be lit are in fact, lit.
Finally, I change the WAN connection BACK to DHCP, the Sonicwall pulls the very same address it originally had: 24.101.241.x, and suddenly has internet. All clients can now ping out and websites work again.
I'm not sure I'm ready to agree that the problem here is 100% the Sonicwall. It obviously didn't have a long uptime, It's resources aren't being taxed at all, and doing a Release/Renew doesn't restore the WAN connection. That, plus the fact that plugging a laptop into the ONT pulled a completely different IP - I would have expected the IPs to be closer in range - that's not a smoking gun, just a curiosity.
It seems to me that I should have been able to get a connection with the Sonicwall when I tried manually setting the 100.80.177.x address as a static WAN. Lastly, a quick scan of the SW logs only show "no connection" errors when the connection was down, nothing leading up to that point that might indicate a problem that was ramping up.
For now, I've left them with instructions to only power cycle the Sonicwall if the internet goes down again, maybe that will help point the finger. I'm left with suspecting the Sonicwall somehow as the problem, but unable to find any evidence proving that. I'm not ready to let the ISP off the hook just yet.
Did I miss anything diagnostic here?
I have a small client with fiber internet from one of our local ISPs. Fiber is a new service for them, only rolled out in the last couple of months, they previously only sold Cable & DSL service.
My client has a small ONT in their network room, one fiber connection in, two ethernet connections out. One ethernet connection goes to our Sonicwall, and one goes to their phone box (phone service is also provided by the ISP). There are actually two other ethernet ports, but they have been disabled - ISP states they are reserved for "future service offerings".
For about 2 weeks now, the client is experiencing intermittent internet outages, during which none of their 5 computers can get to the internet. The phones continue to work during the outage, though. Resetting their network equipment (ISP's ONT, Switch & Sonicwall) by power cycling the UPS restores the connection. ISP sent someone out, who stated that "Since the phones continue to work, it's not our equipment".
Internet connection is DHCP. The Sonicwall is pulling an IP of 24.101.241.x, subnet is 255.255.255.0, so it's a /24 network. using the ISP's DNS. They had an outage this morning, so I rush onsite to see what's up while it's still broken.
Visual inspection of the 3 pieces of equipment during the outage did not reveal anything - All lights that should be lit are in fact, lit.
- The computers all have correct IP addresses on the LAN, I can ping their switch, ping other computers and printers, and open up the management interface of the Sonicwall. Their LAN is working fine. No sign of things like a broadcast storm.
- No computer can ping 8.8.8.8, so no connection out.
- The management interface of the Sonicwall cannot ping 8.8.8.8, so no connection out there, either.
- Releasing / Renewing the WAN connection from the Sonicwall interface pulls the same IP as before (as expected) but still no internet and cannot ping 8.8.8.8
- Plugging a laptop directly into the ONT, the laptop pulls 100.80.177.x. subnet is 255.255.255.0, and DOES have internet (ping and websites)
Finally, I change the WAN connection BACK to DHCP, the Sonicwall pulls the very same address it originally had: 24.101.241.x, and suddenly has internet. All clients can now ping out and websites work again.
I'm not sure I'm ready to agree that the problem here is 100% the Sonicwall. It obviously didn't have a long uptime, It's resources aren't being taxed at all, and doing a Release/Renew doesn't restore the WAN connection. That, plus the fact that plugging a laptop into the ONT pulled a completely different IP - I would have expected the IPs to be closer in range - that's not a smoking gun, just a curiosity.
It seems to me that I should have been able to get a connection with the Sonicwall when I tried manually setting the 100.80.177.x address as a static WAN. Lastly, a quick scan of the SW logs only show "no connection" errors when the connection was down, nothing leading up to that point that might indicate a problem that was ramping up.
For now, I've left them with instructions to only power cycle the Sonicwall if the internet goes down again, maybe that will help point the finger. I'm left with suspecting the Sonicwall somehow as the problem, but unable to find any evidence proving that. I'm not ready to let the ISP off the hook just yet.
Did I miss anything diagnostic here?
