Linux MCE kills my adsl connection

[RaoulDuke]

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.

[teedge77]

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.

[RaoulDuke]

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.

[tschak909]

have you listed all the iptables?

-Thom

[marv2097]

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.

[pixelator]

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.

[teedge77]

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?