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General => Installation issues => Topic started by: RaoulDuke on October 09, 2007, 07:59:24 pm

Title: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 09, 2007, 07:59:24 pm
Hi,

I just installed Linux MCE 0704. As I started installing I noticed repeated disconnectes of my adsl connection. When the system was fully installed and booted, my Linksys Router was unable to establish an adsl connection. As soon as I plugged the network cable out of the Linux MCE machine, the problems were all gone.

The Linux MCE System is in the same ethernet segment as the dsl modem and the wan port of the Linksys router. Does Linux MCE somehow try to talk to the dsl modem?

Regards,

Raoul
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: MarcoZan on October 09, 2007, 09:59:26 pm
Hi Raoul

just an idea on what your issue may be.
LMCE has a  flickr based screen saver, that downloads new images from flickr site. Maybe this is somehow disturbing your router and causing disconnections. I know that some router are sensitive to continous download (my router for example does not like aMule ...).

If this is the case, you may solve your problem upgrading your router firmware or disabling pictures download. you can achieve this last option by renaming flickr.pl in /usr/pluto/bin

There are other posts in this forum talking about customizing flickr images that you may want to read.

HTH
Marco
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 10, 2007, 09:39:16 am
I don't think that it's a problem with flicker. I can download gigabytes, having bittorrent running, etc. This never caused any disconnect. LinuxMCE is not just causing diconnects, it completely prevents my dsl router from establishing any connection. When I tell the Linksys router to bring up the connection, it takes some minutes, then it tells me that it could not get an ip address from the pppoe peer. I think that the LinuxMCE tries to use the dsl modem for whatever and interferes with the communication between the router and the modem. I'll do some changes in my network and connect the dsl modem directly to the routers wan port, so that the LinuxMCE has no access to it. I think this will solve to problem, but I'm still curious what the LinuxMCE tries to do.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: totallymaxed on October 10, 2007, 11:03:33 am
I don't think that it's a problem with flicker. I can download gigabytes, having bittorrent running, etc. This never caused any disconnect. LinuxMCE is not just causing diconnects, it completely prevents my dsl router from establishing any connection. When I tell the Linksys router to bring up the connection, it takes some minutes, then it tells me that it could not get an ip address from the pppoe peer. I think that the LinuxMCE tries to use the dsl modem for whatever and interferes with the communication between the router and the modem. I'll do some changes in my network and connect the dsl modem directly to the routers wan port, so that the LinuxMCE has no access to it. I think this will solve to problem, but I'm still curious what the LinuxMCE tries to do.

It sounds to me like it might be that your Core's somehow offering DHCP addresses to the WAN side your Linksys... and if your Linksys is set up to get its WAN side connection from your ADSL providers DHCP server then that would certainly cause a problem like you have described.

Can you explain in detail how your Core/Linksys/network are laid out? what connected to what etc etc would help figure this out I think.

Regards

Andrew
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 10, 2007, 11:53:44 am
Can you explain in detail how your Core/Linksys/network are laid out? what connected to what etc etc would help figure this out I think.

I already mentioned that in the first posting. I do have a Linksys WRTG54G, the WAN Port of that router is connected to the rest of my network. The DSL modem is not directly connected to the Linksys WAN Port, ist just connected to my switched network and gets to the WAN port via some switches. So it is definitely possible for the LinuxMCE to have ethernet access to the DSL modem and the WAN port of the Linksys router. I never had any problems with that configuration before, there is a DHCP server running on the Linksys router, it never interfered anyhow. I don't want to LinuxMCE to act as a DHCP server in the network. I thought LinuxMCE might be so clever not to turn on any dhcp server as it got its own ip from another dhcp server at startup.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: Zaerc on October 10, 2007, 01:35:46 pm
How many network cards do you have in your core?
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: totallymaxed on October 10, 2007, 02:07:52 pm
Can you explain in detail how your Core/Linksys/network are laid out? what connected to what etc etc would help figure this out I think.

I already mentioned that in the first posting. I do have a Linksys WRTG54G, the WAN Port of that router is connected to the rest of my network. The DSL modem is not directly connected to the Linksys WAN Port, ist just connected to my switched network and gets to the WAN port via some switches. So it is definitely possible for the LinuxMCE to have ethernet access to the DSL modem and the WAN port of the Linksys router. I never had any problems with that configuration before, there is a DHCP server running on the Linksys router, it never interfered anyhow. I don't want to LinuxMCE to act as a DHCP server in the network. I thought LinuxMCE might be so clever not to turn on any dhcp server as it got its own ip from another dhcp server at startup.

Well thats would seem to be the heart of your problem. LMCE is fighting the DHCP in your Linksys. Turn the Linksys's DHCP off and you should find that your setup works fine.

By the way I have the same Linksys as you in my Home LMCE system. My Linksys's WAN port is connected to my Cable Modems LAN port and gets its WAN side setup using the my providers DHCP. My Linksys has its DHCP set to off and I use a single NIC in my Core. The Linksys has a fixed LAN side address IP of 192.168.20.1 and my Core has a fixed LAN side address in the same IP circle at 192.168.20.99 and my core has the Linksys set as its gateway/DNS (ie 192.168.20.1). My core then issues LAN side addresses in the 192.168.80.1 range from the same NIC. All devices on my LAN therfore get 192.168.80.1 addresses if they are themselves set to DHCP.

Hope the above helps you.

All the best.

Andrew
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 10, 2007, 02:41:36 pm
I don't want to turn the DHCP in the Linksys off, because the LinuxMCE will just be a media player thats on for some hours every day, but I need the DHCP server to be on day and night. So, how do I turn off the DHCP server of the LinuxMCE? I can't remebert that the setup asked me about that, it's not very nice to enable a DHCP server without asking...
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: totallymaxed on October 10, 2007, 04:00:36 pm
I don't want to turn the DHCP in the Linksys off, because the LinuxMCE will just be a media player thats on for some hours every day, but I need the DHCP server to be on day and night. So, how do I turn off the DHCP server of the LinuxMCE? I can't remebert that the setup asked me about that, it's not very nice to enable a DHCP server without asking...

You can turn the Core's DHCP of in Web Admin... but you will loose the PnP Engine if you do;

Open a Web browser at the Core/Hybrid and go to 192.168.80.1 in the Address Bar

Login to Web Admin using whatever login you created at setup (ie the first user you created) and then go to ;

Advanced -> Networks -> Network Settings and un-tick 'Enable DHCP Server' then click 'Update' at the bottom of the screen and you done.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 14, 2007, 12:02:07 am
I just logged onto the machine and turned the dhcpd off, then plugged the network cable back in, and after a few seconds all the other machines in the network lost the internet connection again. I unplugged the network cable quickly, then everything went back to normal. So it's not the dhcpd that causes the problems.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: teedge77 on October 14, 2007, 12:17:49 am
can you give us a diagram...being very specific....what are the ports labeled that you are plugging things into....what ports go to what..how many switches...the more specific the better.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 14, 2007, 12:37:50 am

Just a quick drawing, but it should contain any relevant information. Nothing that I did not mention earlier in this thread:

http://www.funlynx.de/~borkert/setup.png

Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: teedge77 on October 14, 2007, 01:04:42 am
what is the ip linuxmce is using and what is the address of your gateway?
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 14, 2007, 01:27:37 am
The Gateway is 192.168.0.1

The LinuxMCE box gets the 192.168.0.109 from the DHCP server of the Linksys router.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: teedge77 on October 14, 2007, 01:39:44 am
have you tried plugging the dsl modem directly to the wan port of the wireless router?
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 14, 2007, 01:57:32 am
Yes, I tried that, and there are no connection problems then anymore. But I don't want to keep it that way, because I'll have to do too many changes in my network to get anything else working again with that changed configuration.

I just wonder what the LinuxMCE is doing to the DSL modem to create this problems.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: teedge77 on October 14, 2007, 03:04:12 am
hmmm...well i dont know enough about linux to know if itll try to take over the modem. it does seem like that is the problem.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: RaoulDuke on October 14, 2007, 12:19:24 pm
This is not a general Linux problem. You can configure a linux box to act as a dsl router, but usually no distribution does this by default without manually configuring that. So I wonder what this LinuxMCE thing does by default. LinuxMCE behaves very dominant by default, enables dhcpd without asking, messes around with the dsl modem without asking, all not very nice things that can mess up the whole network.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: tschak909 on October 14, 2007, 05:38:08 pm
have you listed all the iptables?

-Thom
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: marv2097 on October 15, 2007, 01:50:47 pm
Looking at your diagram it seems a few things are the wrong way around. My guess is that as you have you Wan port looped back to your Lan ports on the linksys when you plug the LinuxMCE box in you are creating some sort of loop.

I am confused why you have not got your ADSL modem ethernet port connected directly to the linksys WAN port. This should definately not be connected to the 4 port LAN side of the linksys. The only reason you would do it any other way is if you had multiple IP's from your ISP and had your own subnet. Is this the case?

I know you say you dont want to reconfigure your network but to be honest it is the only option to make it reliable and secure. I am sure you will find that if your network is connected correctly you LinuxMCE (1 nic or 2) wont cause any problems.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: pixelator on October 17, 2007, 11:01:52 pm
looking at you network design sketch, I can say your network is set up completely wrong.

First, what type - brand - model is the switch that you have the DSL modem plugged into?

Unless that switch also does the type of routing necessary to manage your WAN connection, you definitely should NOT have the modem plugged into it. Switches are not routers, Routers are not Switches. They each server different needs in a network.

Another issue i see right away is that you should never connect the WAN port of your router to a switch port on the same unit. Most manufacturers use this to do a hard reset of the equipment, it also creates a loop in the equipment. Simply BAD network design.

Take the advice of others who posted the same suggestions.
connect your ISP equipment to the WAN port of your linksys router.

If you don't want LMCE doing dhcp, then you can set the linksys router to hand out ips and turn it off in the LMCE admin pages. But you really do need a router/gateway device managing the WAN interface. A switch is simply not designed to do that.
Title: Re: Linux MCE kills my adsl connection
Post by: teedge77 on October 17, 2007, 11:12:16 pm
hmmm....pixelator has a very good point. also what kind of modem is it? is it JUST a modem (like an old speedstream) or is it a modem/router (like those stupid 2wires)? if its just a modem then it should definitely be plugged into something besides the switch. if its the router it should be ok to go from the modem/router to the switch. do you use one of the computers to connect the PPPoE or is it done inside the modem/router? was this setup working well before you got linuxmce going?