Lack of net accese after NTL Outage BH Postcode

[bhall]

NTL had a major outage Fri 27/1 in post codes BH1-22 & surrounding areas

All seems to be back up today (Sat) and the NTL status page says all was
fixed Sat 08:00

But for some reason I can now only use direct PC to (Samsung) STB connect.

The Linksys router (WRT54G - v5 - firmware 1.0.04) now just doesn't want to know

I've done the obvious
- Checked the MAC address (it hasn't changed) & replaced the router to STB
cat cable
- No other software changes since.
- No prior problems with the STB or router

PC talks happily to the router but thats about it. PC/Router was happily
working earlier on Friday

Any ideas, or further checks, that I can make to identify the problem?

[Chris W]

have you tried cloning the mac from the pc onto the router?

What ip does the router get when connected, is it 169.*.*.* or 10.*.*.* ?

[bhall]

tried recloning the MAC - but as it was unchanged i didn't expect anything to happen, and wasn't disappointed!

As for the IP address
connected direct 10.*.*.*
connected (not) via router 192.*.*.*

[Chris W]

urm- that's odd as 10.*.*.* is a provisioning address- so you should be able to browse, and 192.* is a private ip which you will only get on a local network (ie from behind a router).

[bhall]

Here's a fuller breakdown of ipconfig results DIRECT v ROUTER, just to make sure I'm quoting the right details. Remeber - the router is not connecting when it gives this response:
Any help?

DIRECT
Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : zzz
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Compaq NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 82.*.*.*
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 82.*.*.*
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.*.*.*
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.*.*.*
194.*.*.*
ROUTER
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : zzz
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : none
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : none
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Compaq NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.*.*.*
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.*.*.*
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.*.*.*
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.*.*.*
172.*.*.*


---------- Post added at 22:48 ---------- Previous post was at 22:42 ----------

P.S. I've a slight thread going on ntl.discussion.home-networking at present.

This doesn't seem to be a unique occurance, and NTL have been network reconfiguring & load balancing all last week

If the MAC's unchanged, would it help if I restore from an router config backup taken prior to the problem?

[Chris W]

The ip that i am asking for is the one that the router is getting- to find this you will need to log onto the configuration pages for the router. The pc and router seem to be communicating properly, it is router-> stb where the problem lies.

[bhall]

k - got you now

To do that I'll need to remove this direct set-up, reconnect the router, get the info, and then reconnect direct.

As the Mrs is watching TV at the moment that sounds like a first thing tomorrow morning job, or I'll get my nadgers chopped off sometime overnight!
I'll post back tomorrow - and thanks for the feedback so far, it's giving me a few more ideas which is the main thing.

[bhall]

right - picking up from where we left off...........

Info with router (taken from Linksys admin menus)
IP Address = 10.116.a.b
Def Gateway = 10.116.x.z
DNS1 = 172.16.30.83
DNS2 = 172.16.30.84
(Just a thought - is 172 right -the direct method uses ips 194.168.4.100?)

Routing table list
Dest --LAN IP --Gateway -- Interface
0.0.0.0 --10.116.x.z (same as def gateway above) --WAN (I/net)
10.116.a.0 -- 10.116.a.b (same as IPaddress above) -- WAN (I/Net)
192.168.1.0 -- 192.168.1.1 (router address) --LAN & Wireless

Tried
pinging IP address -works
pinging Def Gateway - fails

I've also tried release/renew all, and quite a few total power restarts across the whole of the end to end system, just to ensure it's all clean after changes.

(One 'feature' - the Linksys config restore doesn't seem to work for backups taken prior the firmware upgrade)
So the only idea I've got left now is to restore the router back to factory presets, and start as if it's just turned up from the shop.
If it still doesn't work, would that not indicate the router itself is the problem?

A long shot I know but at the straw grasping stage now.

[homealone]

I agree those DNS IP's look wrong

they should be

194.168.8.100
194.168.4.100

- the ones you are showing can't be pinged or traced & a whois shows 'blackhole at ARIN'???

[bhall]

Yep - I'd agree with those 194 addresses exactly.....so now for the $64mill question

How do I get them to be correct?
I figure it's a (semi) automated process
Is there any way to override with what I think that they should be?

[homealone]

Yep - I'd agree with those 194 addresses exactly.....so now for the $64mill question

How do I get them to be correct?
I figure it's a (semi) automated process
Is there any way to override with what I think that they should be?

a very good question, I wish knew the answer, in my router that info is 'read only' and cannot be changed.

- I'm assuming you have the router setup with 'obtain IP automatically' and 'DHCP server enabled'?

- other than that or reset to defaults I can't think of anything, sorry :(

[JohnHorb]

Interesting - 172.16.xx.xx is a private network range (like 10.xx.xx.xx and 192.168.xx.xx). (Not that that helps you, I'm afraid). I assume the linker is set to use dhcp ('obtain address automatically') on the WAN interface?

[bhall]

Yes to both posts
Ho hum - sounds like its time to rest the router back to factory defaults
At least I now know a little more than I did yesterday,

Thanks all for the help - I'll post once I've a resolution one way or another.

[JohnHorb]

On my router (Belkin), there is a seperate option to get DNS server addresses automatically or enter manually (i.e. a separate setting from 'use DHCP' for the WAN IP address). Clutching at straws, though.

[BBKing]

I agree those DNS IP's look wrong

They're perfectly all right with a 10.x WAN IP address on an STB - it means the MAC of the router isn't registered against the STB at ntl's end. If the PC's own MAC works, clone this onto the router's WAN interface, or dig out your provisioning details and (with the PC connected behind the router and using the 172.x DNS servers) go to start.ntl (or any other dot-separated hostname) in a browser and follow instructions.

[bhall]

Sorted.
I followed the router reset instructions on the Linksys site, using the NTL set-up Q&A (link at foot of post)
The router came back up clean, and managed to retain the firmware upgrade I'd made since it was new out of the box (whoppee)
Now the Router info reads:
IP address = 82.23.*.*
def gateway=82.23.*.*
DNS 1=194.168.4.100
DNS 2=194.168.8.100

So the IP addr & gateway 10.*.*.* has moved over to 82.*.*.* and the DNS is now pointing at the correct NTL addresses.
Better write it all down whilst I remember it all in case there's a next time (and isn't there always)
At least configuring the router the 2nd time was around was a lot quicker to do. Thankfully it's a cable & wirelss box - hate to have had the hassle of wireless only to contend with as well.

Thanks all who chipped in - talk about a restful weekend!
Computers - Hah!

http://linksys.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linksys.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=315&p_created=1084208997&p_sid=RK_-dYZh&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MTY0JnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnB fY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmc F9zY2ZfbGFuZz0xJnBfcGFnZT04JnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9d3J 0NTRn&p_li=&p_topview=1

[bhall]

..and only now do i spot the misspelling in the Post Topic
Groan

[BBKing]

I *suspect* that the factory-set MAC on the router is the one registered at ntl and the router had had this changed, or the local DHCP server was having a tizzy and failing to authenticate properly, perhaps as a result of the largish outage on Friday. Anyway, all's well that ends well.