Router losing/not getting WAN IP

MadRocker said: You can do a few things to get past this. First see what changed electronically wise in your house in the last 3 weeks or items that was moved, check for lights that flicker dimmer = sign of bad electricity coming into your house, maybe dew to severe weather in local region. Same for when you start the tumble dryer and dishwasher does the lights dip, tube light show this more than normal lights. Set a static ip in the router 192.168.1.54 where cable / modem is 192.168.1.* Or just set it to reboot say everyday at 4am or twice daily when lowest internet usage is used. Or check the wall power supply as it can fluctuate and the transformer power cable / plug either gets a spike or a dip and can not compensate for it or long enough to get past this. This is happening with my RT-N16 on the same wall plug as the tv especially now with the winter starting. I have had success with a lightning protector power strip and having the router transformer plug plug into this. Not all of them work the same so it is hit or miss testing. Also check with a $3 wall socket tester thing from home depot if the wall plug is properly earthed as this is a big cause of issues and makes most lightning strips fail if wiring is incorrect and destroys sensative hardware like pc's / satelite tv decoders, routers / modems ...... http://www.google.com/search?q=wall+socket+tester&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=univ... Also heat and static build-up or radiation interference. This all sounds stupid but you would catch the culprit and then have a stable router. Router on or close to a old square box tv's / crt tv = no go or being on the same wall power outlet as the crt tv or washing machine / stuff like that. Being on ch1 and some portable land line phones will interfere with this ch1 and cause disconnects from the internet as stupid as that sounds it happens. How this works = mystery but have changed channels where this happened and no more problems. Best is to get something like a opti ss1200 for $20, a Automatic Voltage Regulator and plug your modem and router into that. All this and shortest possible cable for the modem and using shielded cables / metal on side of lan cable fittings does help to get more out of your internet connection. If this fails then get a new router from walmart and test if it does the same then the power line has issues if not then the old router has micro fractures in the pc board and it is dying slowly. Somewhere in this you will find the answer, try the cheapest least invasive methods first. It might be something simple like the wan and power cable connector needs some solder on all the loose joints. Ask the isp if they changed protocols or updated ipv4/6 or other hardware that is linked to your modem or the modem firmware as this could affect older hardware / software standards and getting it to work.

No changes electroniclly in the house over the past 3 weeks. No severe weather.  I've not noticed any other issues with any other appliances (including my other router), so I'm doubting it being an electrical/house wiring issue.

• Set a static ip in the router 192.168.1.54 where cable / modem is 192.168.1.*

I'm not sure what you are suggesting here.  My cable modem gets its IP from my ISP.

I have (as of yesterday) set the DHCP assigned  IP from my ISP to be static on the router side WAN, and it has so far stabilized the network.  But that seems more like a workaround and something that is just going to cause regular issues (whenver my ISP assigns me a new IP).  So I'd still much rather figuer out why it's no longer as it has in the past.

• Or just set it to reboot say everyday at 4am or twice daily when lowest internet usage is used.

I suppose there's a script that could be ran to do that easy enough, but I'm not certain it would help (rebooting the router when the WAN IP is already lost doesn't seem to always work, it requires pulling the plug), and secondly this would still not really help me figure out the issue, but rather just temporarily plug the leaking pipe with gum.

• Or check the wall power supply as it can fluctuate and the transformer power cable / plug either gets a spike or a dip and can not compensate for it or long enough to get past this. This is happening with my RT-N16 on the same wall plug as the tv especially now with the winter starting.

  I have had success with a lightning protector power strip and having the router transformer plug plug into this. Not all of them work the same so it is hit or miss testing.

I suppose this is a possibility.  The whole set up is running through a couple surge supressors but I realize they may fail too.  Would certainly still seem odd that only the Router is suffering from it.  I have not considered the transformer cable yet as I don't have any real way of testing (aside from buying equipment as you suggest).  I consider that a fairly low probability (mostly in part because the only issue showing seems to be WAN IP related and nothing more)

The grounding on the electrical wiring seems fine. The protectors all have ground indicatiors and all are showing "Green" for protection.

The router sits on a shelf all by iteself, and the room is about 5-10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house normally, so I don't think heat is an issue.  There's not much of any visiable dust in the room either.

I have no land line phones, and my issues aren't related to wireless signal, so I'm not really considering interference issues of that nature.

As I've noted in my original post, I have indeed already tried a second router and it didn't display any of the problems my Netgear did. 

As of now, I seem to have stable internet access again (due to setting the WAN IP to the static ib te Router - something that I read as a recommendation in a different post here).  That helps, but I'm still concerned and don't like the idea of my router suddenly needing to be configured differently without me knowing why.  And depending on how often my ISP renew my IP, it may be a large inconvience.

Thanks for the thoughts, and I will certainnly look into some of the possibilities you suggest.

(Hey, where's the spellchecker here?  I didn't know I had to be paying attention ;))

*Update* Came home today and found no internet access. Turns out a change in IP from my ISP was the culprit. Not unexpected, but either really bad timing or it seems that the IP is changing often enough to make that option a real P.I.T.A.

I should also point it out that my problems seemed to originate from doing an update to the latest Firmware version I was using.

So, I assume (but not so sure any more..) that the issue is still software related. I'm just really not sure what else to try at this point if resetting it, flashing it, and repeating that process a couple times, from a couple different computers, and with a couple different firmwares.

Also, it appears my ISP hands out new IPs on a daily basis (at least) as it happened again the day after I set it static again.. so that's really not a long-term option. It would also make sense then that perhaps it's not that the Router is losing it's WAN IP randomly, but rather it's simply not able to obtain a new one properly (but recognizes a change, as it doesn't attempt to hold onto the old IP)

Ok, here's some more info. I'm hoping someone has run into this before and can help.

Thinking the issue was directlyrelated to my router, I went out and bought a NEW router. I picked up a Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H. I updated to the latest firmware for it, and guess what? Same result. No WAN IP.

So here's how it seems to break down. My router(s) work fine on their own (NetGear and Buffalo). My Modem WOrks fine on its own (Motorola Sufrboard SB6120). And my ISP seems to work fine also (Charter). But together, they don't work. They have all worked together in the past. I've tried various cables between them too (and all cables work in certain configurations).

So now I'm at a loss again (and also out another $100+ for a router if that's not the fix).

I'm now leaning towards something between My Modem and my router not getting along.

My ISP have signed off on any further support since the connectoin between them and my modem + 1 PC works fine (since I'm not leasing a modem or router for them, they won't assist any further).

I spoke with a tech from Buffalo last night for about 40 minutes before we got disconnected. We hadn't made any progress.

Looking around online, I see various reports of similar issues, but no real solutions/reasons. Most of the fixes offered involve power-cycling the components in a certain order. This doesn't help me as my problem isn't simply GETTING an initial WAN IP, but rather keeping it too. A power cycle will get me back on line temporarily (usually) but it seems that either randomly or when my dynamic IP from Charter changes, I'll be cut-off again as the router doesn't obtain the new configuration.

Help! =(

Liverpool said: Make sure to have the firmware on the SB6120 updated to the most recent version There is a bug in anything before Firmware Name: SB612X-1.0.5.2-SCM01-NOSH That could be part of the issue as i just for the most part been solving a similar situation Then make sure you have the most up to date firmware for the rt-n16 That I would think take care of the issues

I'm not sure which firmware you are reffering to.

The ones I tried were the latests one available at the time.  I only tried a couple older ones after the latest ones didn't work.

I've reverted back to the using the Buffalo router with the "user friendly" firmware they provide.  That seems to be working.  Sadly, the firmware is lacking in many features, has a horrible web GUI, and basicly defeats the purpose of utilizing custom firmware in the first place.  But at this time, I'll take it simply because it works.

Liverpool said: Is the firmware on your surfboard SB6120 the most recent firmware A lot of people have had issues with this modem and router connections due to the firmware on the sb6120 that is before this version SB612X-1.0.5.2-SCM01-NOSH 192.168.100.1 should get you log on to the modem to check Hope that helps

My apologies, I had only quickly scanned your last response.

 The modem is listing :"SB612X-1.0.3.3-SCM00-NOSH" as the firmware.  I'm not seeing any firmware downloads nor a place to upload/modify the firmware from the WebGUI.

I thought I read somewhere that the ISP plays some role in determining the firmware - but I guess that may not make complete sense here since it's my modem, not theirs.

Where do I get the newer firmware and how to load it?

Liverpool said: You have to contact Charter to get them to push out the firmware to you modem. Hopefully they have a web forum that you can use to contact them I just did it with media com and have notice a better response overall

Thanks.

No luck with their web chat, they told me to try calling instead.  I guess I'll do that and report back.

1-888-438-2427

I gave them a call and they said they'd send the update shortly.

I'll check again once I get home after work.

Thanks for the tip, I had read some reports of the issues, but I wasn't aware that it was something I could call and request be updated. I'd REALLY like for the update to resolve me issue..I ran out of other ideas (hence the new router with the stock firmware)

I contacted Charter about the firmware about a week ago. The rep said they'd send the firmware.

I checked today and there has been no change. I did a reboot of the modem just to make sure.

I'll have to try calling again....