Very strange networking issue.

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Huecuva
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Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

I know. Sorry for the not so descriptive title, but this one is very hard to put into a phrase short enough for a title. Here goes:

First, system specs:

I'm running Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon X64 on an intel Core 2 Duo E8400 with 8GB of RAM and an (Asus, I think) GeForce 210 in an Asus PSK-VM motherboard.

This rig is almost never turned off or rebooted and serves as HTPC/Torrent seedbox.

I have been running Linux on this rig since before Mint 18 was released, having grown tired of Windows' constant desire to update to Windows 10 (which I do not want) and have found Mint to be easy to use and just as capable as Windows for any of the tasks I require of it on this particular computer. I had absolutely no problems at all up until a couple of weeks ago when HexChat mysteriously lost the connection to the rizon server on which my buddy has his irc channel. Nothing else had any networking problems and HexChat could even connect to other servers (I tried QuakeNet) but simply would not connect to rizon, repeatedly returning some nonsense about the server being unreachable. I know it was not unreachable because my main gaming rig (which runs Windows 7) could still connect to the rizon network without issue. Nothing I tried worked. I even tried installing another irc client (XChat IRC) and it would not connect to rizon either.

After a week or so with that problem, my Linux rig eventually also lost the ability to connect to Steam for some reason, though again, everything else (with the obvious exception of rizon) still worked.

I then realized that during all of my troubleshooting I had neglected to try one of the most obvious things: reboot the computer. I did so, and it worked. HexChat could now easily connect to rizon once more and I logged into Steam. Great.

Two days later. HexChat again lost the connection to rizon and once more kept saying the server was unreachable. I have just rebooted the rig again and now it is working again, though I still have absolutely no idea what could possibly be causing these very strange and particular connection problems that seem to appear out of nowhere. If I recall correctly, I may have recently installed updates before this issue started happening.

Note: Again, my Windows rig does not have this problem. It is isolated to my Linux rig. I only have the two computers currently operational so there is nothing else to compare to.

I hope that's enough detail for you. I can't think of anything else to add.

Thanks in advance.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
AscLinux
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by AscLinux »

How about some troubleshooting when it goes down again? Check DNS first, ethtool will tell you if physical layer is OK, route will tell you whether routing is proper.
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Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

Thanks. I will give that a shot. I just took a screenshot of the results of both of those commands while it still works so that I have something to compare it to when it stops working.
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by AscLinux »

Code: Select all

ethtool eth0 > eth0_status
Please see the example above. Normally it goes to the standard output - i. e. is printed on the screen. This will redirect the output of command into a text file.

More here: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/io-redirection.html
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Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

So I noticed last night that the update manager could no longer download all repository indexes and kept giving me errors when I tried to check for updates. Today, HexChat was again disconnected from rizon (no route to host). I ran both the ethtool and route commands in the terminal and the results are perfectly identical to when it was all working. Not even the tiniest difference.

Results when working:
http://i912.removed/albums/ac324/Deadsa ... orking.png

Results when not working:
http://i912.removed/albums/ac324/Deadsa ... orking.png

Does this tell you anything? Any other ideas? The issue with the update manager is kind of annoying as well. I don't want to have to break down and just format and reinstall but I may have to. In that case, I will install Mint 18.
AscLinux
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by AscLinux »

Did you check if DNS is working properly as I suggested before? Your images are no use for me, If you want them read copy and paste the text here, for people using text mode browser. Also, text can be quoted when necessary.
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Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

Here are the results of the ethtool and route commands:

Code: Select all

Settings for eth0:
	Supported ports: [ TP ]
	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full 
	Supported pause frame use: No
	Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
	Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full 
	Advertised pause frame use: No
	Advertised auto-negotiation: No
	Speed: 1000Mb/s
	Duplex: Full
	Port: Twisted Pair
	PHYAD: 0
	Transceiver: internal
	Auto-negotiation: on
	MDI-X: Unknown
	Current message level: 0x000000ff (255)
			       drv probe link timer ifdown ifup rx_err tx_err
	Link detected: yes
	
	Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
default         DD-WRT          0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0
192.168.1.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     1      0        0 eth0
Here are the results of ifconfig, in case that helps at all:

Code: Select all

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1d:60:6d:a2:50  
          inet addr:192.168.1.118  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:60ff:fe6d:a250/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:48987 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:59104 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:19631696 (19.6 MB)  TX bytes:10797099 (10.7 MB)
          Interrupt:17 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:3729 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3729 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:450587 (450.5 KB)  TX bytes:450587 (450.5 KB)
These results are were only just obtained after rebooting the rig again, but as I mentioned they are identical to when it was working. As for checking DNS, Linux is not my native operating system and I'm not sure how you want me to do that. I've just had to reboot my rig again because I found that youtube was "unreachable" as well, though I could still post here and use http://www.isitdownrightnow.com to verify that I was in fact the only one not able to get to youtube. This issue is becoming infuriating and seems to be getting worse. If you can please post some simple directions for checking my DNS, I will do that and post the results in a couple of days when everything shits the bed again. My DNS server is automatic and the address is my router IP address (192.168.1.1) if that's what you're asking about.

Thanks.

EDIT: After half of Led Zeppelin - Can't Quit You Baby, the video started buffering and when I refreshed, it is already telling me youtube is unreachable again. Though so far I'm still connected to rizon.

EDIT #2: Well, youtube seems to be working again now, strangely. Maybe that had nothing to do with it. I'm not so certain of the reliability of sites like isitdownrightnow.
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

I lost the ability to connect to rizon again overnight. I tried connecting to the Linuxmint server and was able to do so. Nothing in ethtool, route, ifconfig or my DNS settings has changed.
isipokwe

Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by isipokwe »

I was having a similar issue. Try switching off "Away Tracking" : Settings -> Preferences -> User list -> Away Tracking.
That fixed my issue with disconnects.
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

Unfortunately, I do not see a "User List' under Preferences in the settings, and I can't find anything about away tracking under account details.

EDIT: Oh, you mean in HexChat. It's not an irc client issue. As I mentioned, I installed another irc client while HexChat was not working and the other client would not connect to the rizon server either. However, just to be thorough, I did just disable the away tracking in HexChat and tried to connect to rizon again by restarting the client. It didn't work.
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

Nobody has any more ideas? This is really starting to drive me up the wall. I have to reboot the rig every 2 days because it becomes unable to connect to only the particular IRC server that my buddy has his channel on and Steam also becomes unable to connect. I can't even begin to guess what is causing it. And now I'm having completely unrelated problems with my gaming rig! :evil:
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

I just noticed I seem to be unable to get to HTTPS sites on the Linux rig, as well. That might be related.

Does anyone know why this might be?
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powerwagon75
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by powerwagon75 »

Were you using Chromium v53? There is a known issue right now with it causing secure site issues do to certificates issue.

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=233612&p=1240223#p1240223

Also, out of curiosity, what does

Code: Select all

ethtool -S eth0
show you? Any fails? {if your eth is an number other than zero, modify coding accordingly}
Image
Custom Antec Outside tower w/Mint 20.2
HP lap w/Mint 20.3
Optiplex 960 "Frankenbox" w/Fedora 39/Mint 19.2/Mint 20.2
Advantech TPC-1551T w/LinuxLite
Acer C720 Chromebook w/GalliumOS
Mac PPC G4 w/Lubuntu
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

So...interesting new development. Just a few days ago, my gaming rig started to have some annoying connectivity issues as well. Completely different issues, mind. I would momentarily get booted from both MWO and Teamspeak simultaneously. Teamspeak would reconnect pretty much immediately but I would have to log back into MWO. It was pretty annoying, but given that my gaming rig is connected to my router on the other side of two decently long ethernet cables joined together with an ethernet coupler in the middle (which doesn't make for the greatest connection in the first place) I thought little of it.

However, when I got up to go to work this morning I discovered that a few of my open browser tabs containing HTTPS websites were not loading. Instead, Chromium was saying that my connection was not private. Maybe that's the issue that powerwagon75 is referring to. I could still post here, though. That above post was posted from the linux rig. As is this one.

When I returned home from work today, I found that not only could I not get online at all, I was unable to even ping my router. I connected to my wireless network on my phone (still broadcasting, at least) and was also unable to get online with that. I then tried my gaming rig. Again, no connection. Can't even ping my router.

So it appears that either I have a massive coincidence on my hands or my router has been at fault all along. I have hard powercycled the router in hopes that that will permanently fix the problem. Only time will tell.
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

powerwagon75 wrote:Were you using Chromium v53? There is a known issue right now with it causing secure site issues do to certificates issue.

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=233612&p=1240223#p1240223

Also, out of curiosity, what does

Code: Select all

ethtool -S eth0
show you? Any fails? {if your eth is an number other than zero, modify coding accordingly}

Code: Select all

NIC statistics:
     tx_bytes: 1036024
     rx_bytes: 15840038
     tx_broadcast: 58
     rx_broadcast: 108
     tx_multicast: 58
     rx_multicast: 20
     tx_unicast: 9315
     rx_unicast: 13651
     tx_mac_pause: 0
     rx_mac_pause: 689
     collisions: 0
     late_collision: 0
     aborted: 0
     single_collisions: 0
     multi_collisions: 0
     rx_short: 0
     rx_runt: 0
     rx_64_byte_packets: 1346
     rx_65_to_127_byte_packets: 1284
     rx_128_to_255_byte_packets: 393
     rx_256_to_511_byte_packets: 365
     rx_512_to_1023_byte_packets: 39
     rx_1024_to_1518_byte_packets: 11041
     rx_1518_to_max_byte_packets: 0
     rx_too_long: 0
     rx_fifo_overflow: 0
     rx_jabber: 0
     rx_fcs_error: 0
     tx_64_byte_packets: 741
     tx_65_to_127_byte_packets: 7440
     tx_128_to_255_byte_packets: 799
     tx_256_to_511_byte_packets: 366
     tx_512_to_1023_byte_packets: 61
     tx_1024_to_1518_byte_packets: 24
     tx_1519_to_max_byte_packets: 0
     tx_fifo_underrun: 0
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powerwagon75
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by powerwagon75 »

Thank you for the reply. Will look for a report back from you as time goes on. Might be time for a new router if issue continues? How old is your router? If not that old, look to see if there are any firmware updates for it.
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Acer C720 Chromebook w/GalliumOS
Mac PPC G4 w/Lubuntu
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

My router isn't that old, unfortunately. It's an Asus RT-N16. Last night I flashed an updated DD-WRT on it and my connection is still working this morning. So far so good.
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

Well, home from work now and it's still working. :D
Huecuva
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Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by Huecuva »

Well, it's still working since I reflashed DD-WRT. I think the issue is resolved.

Thanks guys.
goodguywitha45

Re: Very strange networking issue.

Post by goodguywitha45 »

Better late than never... I was going to suggest looking at the settings on the router; specifically the timeout (if it was DHCP) to renew. Glad you were able to correct it, although the actual cause was not realized.
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