Internet constantly timing out, help please

[xbenjemimax]

Right, I operate a small internet café, I have 7 computers connected to a Dell Powerconnect 2716, which in turn connects direct to the router and then to the wall socket. There is also an older computer connecting to the router as a firewall. I'm not very technical when it comes to computers, kind of out of my depth. For a while I thought that maybe I have viruses that are causing the problem but Panda and absolutely everything else tells me I'm fine. My connection keeps timing out and I have to turn everything off, the router, the second computer being used for a firewall and disable the connection in my control panel/network settings, and then one by one turn it all back on. But then it could be finr for the rest of the day, it could work for 30mins or simply not work at all for ages. This has been slowly getting worse over the last few weeks and I'm losing money. Any help would be much appreciated, thank you very much, Ben Mc Donnell.

P.S. i tried to explain as best I can.

[xbenjemimax]

Does anyone have an idea what's happening?

[Ghost_Hacker]

I have seen this problem with switches. The best way to troubleshoot this if you have no tech know how is to simply turn off/on one device only and see if that resets the connection.

Since I have seen this problem with switches I would recommend turning the switch (dell powerconnect) off and then back on again. (you may need to unplug it to shut it down). Once its back up and you see green connection lights on the switch try your connection again. (whenever you lose a connection I would always check those green connection lights on the switch first)

If this doesn't work then I would try the same thing with the router and then the firewall. Again shut them down and power them back up one at a time (checking the connection after each power up) to help pinpoint where the problem is.

Once you pinpoint where the probelm is you can move further into fixing it.


Good luck :)

[xbenjemimax]

The only way it works is if I turn everything off, If I try it one at a time nothings solves the problem. The Dell power connect or the router always show the right lights to show it's working.

[Ghost_Hacker]

In that case I would contact the ISP and have them troublshoot the connection from their end.

Good luck :)

[xbenjemimax]

I did that when it first stated happenin, I got talkin to some guy in the middle east and he had me type in some commands on my end and he determined that there was nothing wrong with their end. just a few minutes ago I did start/run/cmd and entered tracert google.com. Does the following mean anything important?
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\cafe>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [72.14.207.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ironcurtain [10.0.0.1]
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.254
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 44 ms 44 ms 44 ms 83.71.112.161
5 45 ms 44 ms 47 ms 83.71.115.3
6 71 ms 72 ms 70 ms de-cix10.net.google.com [80.81.192.108]
7 111 ms 80 ms 119 ms 209.85.255.172
8 76 ms 75 ms 74 ms 209.85.252.5
9 178 ms 165 ms 163 ms 72.14.236.220
10 162 ms 162 ms 168 ms 72.14.233.113
11 166 ms 167 ms 168 ms 66.249.94.92
12 165 ms 167 ms 177 ms 66.249.94.50
13 * 165 ms 165 ms eh-in-f99.google.com [72.14.207.99]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\cafe>

[Ghost_Hacker]

No its just shows what "points" you connect to reach Google. The "request time out" is normal and just indicates that device is setup not to answer certain types of ICMP request.

It is not normal to have to "reboot" a whole network just to get an internet connection working. Have you made any changes prior to this problem occuring? For example have you added a new computer, made changes to your firewall, etc etc?

Have you tested LAN connectivity by pinging another workstation on your network to make sure the LAN is working correctly? For example you should ping your firewall and then another workstation on that network when the connection goes down.

[Variable]

Sounds like the problem is older computer connecting to the router as a firewall.

Someone set up a linux proxy server and iptables firewall maybe? Do you charge for internet access and have to give the people a user name and password? Do you know what OS runs on this machine?

If internet connection is free, buy a cheap router that has some some firewall features and be done with it. A long time ago making a old PC a linux firewall made sense, now devices are cheap and if you are losing money, it may solve your issues with the least technical know how. You could also ask the ISP if the router already has a firewall or if they could replace your unit with an updated one.

[Ghost_Hacker]

Yeap he could go that route, but I am betting he uses a "standalone" firewall as a way to block certain protocols and web sites giving him more control over how people use his internet cafe. In addition he would get more logging features.

As you know he won't get that kinda control outta the cheap router/firewall combos but it would solve the problem if his firewall has gone haywire.


If he is really not tech minded he could always just spend a few bucks and have someone come out and look into the issue. For example he could contact the tech/company which setup his network to begin with. (When running an internet cafe you really should look into this kinda relationship with a tech solution provider of sometype anyways unless you really want to "do it yourself". In that case be ready to lose money while you learn on the job how to get things working again).

Anyways hope it works out for ya :)