kmerenda's profile

Teacher

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9 Messages

Monday, January 28th, 2013 2:13 PM

Wireless Receiver Brings Down Network When Plugged Into Ethernet

I have a 2-wire 802.11b/g gateway connected to a wired u-verse DVR and a u-verse WAP for the wireless receivers.  I then have 2 wireless receivers.  One of the receivers I use wirelessly, but the other is connected via ethernet because its primary location is very far from the WAP.  Both receivers are paired with the WAP, but only one is actually running wirelessly.

 

This setup worked fine until this weekend, when the wireless receiver that was connected via ethernet started acting up.  I rebooted that receiver, and it booted back up into update mode (gear with progress bar, then 2 gears with progress bar, then a few more reboots. then back up).  Now, when I plug ethernet into that wireless receiver, it causing packet loss across my entire WAN.  When I plug that receiver into the LAN, my other two receivers will start to show really gittery picture/audio, and a ping to Google's DNS (8.8.8.8) will start to have 50-60% packet loss.  The second I unplug the ethernet from the wireless receiver, the problem stops. 

 

I called tech support and the said they found a problem outside and were going to send an outside tech, but my service works fine as long as this one receiver isn't connected to ethernet.  I've only seen packet loss like this before when two devices on the same LAN have the same MAC address. 

 

Is it possible this could be because the wireless receiver is paired with the WAP and connected to the LAN at the same time?  Doesn't seem likely, but the only other thing I can come up with is that the NIC on the receiver is shot.  Either way, it feels like AT&T may be wasting my time investigating outside, unless there is actually another problem in addition to this one.

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Employee

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90 Messages

11 years ago

I would say it's possible the box being paired to WAP and connecting over Ethernet simultaniously may be an issue. You could try disconnecting power to the cisco WAP, then reconnect the box to ethernet and see if your network stays up. If it does, you can perform a disaster recovery on the wireless box while connected to ethernet to remove the pairing.

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Official Solution

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

OK, everyone - I have a bit of an update.

 

I took the problematic receiver and connected it directly to the RG.  So, the RG had WAP on port 1, Wireless receiver on port 2, computer on port 3, ethernet run downstairs to my DVR on port 4, and a second wireless receiver connected to the WAP.  Immediately after powering up the wireless receiver I started seeing packetloss.  The packet loss stoped when I unplugged the ethernet cable from the receiver.  I called tier 2 support and they said that, although they don't have any technical documentation on the wireless receiver, the believe it is not meant to work when connected to ethernet.  I didn't accept that solution. 

 

Tier 2 advised me to unplug power from the WAP, then connect the problematic wireless receiver to power and ethernet, and leave the other wireless receiver alone.  I did this, and it worked - no packet loss!  Then I plugged power back into the WAP and the packetloss came back.  So, the tier-2 tech decided that i just couldn't have it the way I wanted.  I asked him if it was possible to un-pair the wireless receiver from the WAP, to which he said no.  I argued with him, saying that since it was unpaired when I got it, there must be a way to do a factory reset and unpair it again.  He walked me through doing a disaster recovery on the problematic wireless receiver, with it plugged into ethernet  and power removed from the WAP.  This worked!  Next, we restored power to the WAP and rebooted the other wireless receiver that used the WAP  - success!  I then checked the network quality and it looked good!  So I moved the problematic wireless receiver back downstairs to my bedroom, plugged it in to ethernet and power, and it was all jacked up again.  I determined that the way to get it back online was to remove power from the WAP, power up the ethernet-connected receiver and let it boot all the way to live tv, then power up the WAP, then reboot the other wireless receiver.  It seems that the wireless receiver prefers to connect to the WAP when it can, and anytime it had both connections it would tear down the network.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

You could try swapping the two wireless receivers and see if you get the same behavior.  You could also try swapping the ethernet port on the RG that your using for the box that's giving you issues..  Maybe it's acting flakey.

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

Thanks.  I'll try those solutions tonight.

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

11 years ago

What else is connected to the same port of the RG as the STB that is causing the issue?

 

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

I've tested it in a few different scenarios.  The RG is in an office on the second floor of my house.  There is an ethernet drop that goes from that floor down to the master bedroom, and another drop from that floor to the living room.  The RG has a 1-foot patch cable to each drop outlet in the office, and a 1-foot patch cable from the drop outlet in the bedroom to the wireless receiver.

 

In the living room, the outlet is connected to a Cisco wireless router that is configured in bridge mode so it is just a wireless access point and switch. 

 

So, I have tried the wireless box connected directly port 1 on the RG via the bedroom ethernet run, and have tried it connected to port 2 on the RG by connecting it to the cisco router-turned-AP in the living room.  In both configurations, it causes packetloss across the entire LAN.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

Ah ha!!  Any of the STB's or DVR's must be on their own Cat 5e run to the RG.  They cannot be plugged into any other router or once turned on they will flood the dataswitch or router with the IP TV traffic and make the internet inoperable.

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

OK, well, I had 2 out of 3 boxes connected to a switch for the last month with no issues until yesterday.  Also, if they need a dedicated run, why does the network go haywire when I give the wireless receiver a dedicated run?

Teacher

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9 Messages

11 years ago

Also, the U-Verse guys GAVE me a 4-port switch when they installed.  They never mentioned not to plug a receiver into it.  I appreciate your assistance, but that doesn't seem like the problem I'm experiencing.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

What kind of switch is it? 

A switch does not have to be Gigabit, it can be Fast Ethernet (100Mbps), but it must:

 

• Support 802.1p priority queuing

• Must have enough processing power to not be overwhelmed by excessive multicast/broadcast traffic.  Many 100 Mbps switches do not meet this requirement, that is why Gigabit is often recommended even though the bandwidth isn't required.

 

I have one of these and it works fine.

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