Network Halp!

[Denchi]

So, I moved into a new place about 2 weeks ago, and I've had a few network issues ever since, and I've tried a lot of different things to try and fix it. So....bear with me as I try to lay everything out:

Custom built PC with a working WiFi PCI card and ethernet port. Absolutely no network issues in previous residence.

New residence is a large condo building. Their internet is a bit weird. They have a central line for all residents, we do not have access to a modem.

When I first moved in, the owner of the condo and his previous roommate simply plugged in a Linksys router to the wall jack and got wireless through that. My roommate doesn't play games, he only torrents, and he has a mac. He had little to no issues with this setup. The former roommate, however, did have some issues. Not sure what they were exactly, but I'll explain what's happening with me.

When I first moved in, I could only connect to the Linksys router about 20% of the time (Despite it being in my room). Either Wireless or Plugged directly into the router, 80% of the time it would start connecting, get stuck on "Identifying," and then resolve with limited to no connectivity (little yellow triangle next to the connection), which always translated to NO connectivity. Nothing I did seemed to resolve it, resetting router, restarting computer, "fixing" adapters, etc etc etc etc.

The 20% it DID connect, for no apparent reason, the internet would work (with about 100MB/s download and upload), but certain other things wouldn't. The gmail chat program would only kinda half-work, and League of Legends would allow me to log in, but PvP.net would disconnect sporadically, making it unplayable.

I thought maybe the router was fucked, so I went and bought an Asus RT-56u to test it out. Plugged the new bad boy in, got it running, BAM, same issue, no improvement.

Building management has been absolutely no help to me either. They don't know what setup they have, and they've contracted all IT support to some 3rd party fuckers that's PAID, so I'm really trying to avoid calling these assholes.

Anyways, important note, if I plug my ethernet cord directly into the wall, bypassing the router, no issues. Internet works fine, LoL works fine, Gchat works fine, everything works fine. No idea why.

I've tried opening all necessary ports to no avail, updating firmware, etc etc.

Some co-workers thought that maybe the building was trying to provide me with a DHCP address and it was causing conflicts. This didn't make sense since the building isn't really supposed to be "Routing" anything, but whatever, I went home and turned my router into simply an access point. In this mode, I can still connect the the internet, but still the same issue with LoL and Gchat.

Anyways, I'm fucking out of ideas. I wish I could call an IT person here at the building but I guess they don't have one. The contracted IT will charge me unless I can prove that the problem is outside of my unit. The fact that I can plug directly into the wall without issue is confusing as shit, and something they'll point at and try to back away from.

Anyone have any tips? Sigh...

[octopus]

Sounds like you have multiple issues described:
1) When connecting to wireless, sometimes you get stuck "identifying"

First of all, do you have the RT-56u router? Identifying is the receiving IP address (via DHCP) phase from your router, so the rest of the network in your building has nothing to do with it. If you're having issues connecting with 2 different routers the only answer is something is wrong with either your wireless driver or wireless device in your PC.

Also, have you tried giving it a static address to see if you see any issues connecting via wireless?

2) LoL and gchat connectivity when it does connect

I'm not familiar with LoL, but since you're playing inside a router, you may need to do some port forwarding:
https://support.leagueoflegends.com/...ort-forwarding

No idea about gchat.

[Arkanna]

1) Plug directly into the wall
2) Visit www.ipchicken.com. What IP does this report?
3) Open a DOS prompt and type "ipconfig /all". What IP is listed for your wired network adapter?

*Note* If the IP you get in #3 is different than the IP you get in #2, and it likely is, then there IS a router in your building somewhere.

4) If your wired adapter was able to pull an IP using DHCP, your router should be able to also. Just tell it to "Enable DHCP" on the WAN port.
5) You can manually assign an IP to your network adapter or not, it does not matter. Just make sure it's in the same subnet as whatever IP your router is set up on (NOT the WAN port IP) and make sure your gateway is set to whatever IP you assigned to your router.
6) It's possible your building's DNS servers (or whatever servers are handling your DNS) are overloaded, not set up right, or are slow. When you plug straight into the wall and get your IP, what two DNS server IP's are you given? Try manually setting 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.1.
7) Use PING commands to verify connectivity. For example, open a DOS prompt and type "ping 8.8.8.8". You may not receive a response; your building's hardware might be blocking ICMP (ping) traffic. Also try "ping www.google.com". If this test doesn't work while you're having connection issues, but DOES work when you're NOT having issues, the problem is likely your DNS. If that's the case and you haven't manually set DNS servers on your network adapter/router, set them to 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.1.

[hey]

Anyways, important note, if I plug my ethernet cord directly into the wall, bypassing the router, no issues. Internet works fine, LoL works fine, Gchat works fine, everything works fine. No idea why.

Then your router is obviously the issue. Something is conflicting.

I'd double check that it's not a dhcp problem. Make sure you disable the dhcp server, then plug router into the wall via one of the 4 ethernet ports, not the the seperate wan port, then double check the ip address it gives you, and see if it works.

[Denchi]

Well thanks for the suggestions guys, giving me a lot of stuff to check out when I get home. I'll report back with the results later tonight.

To reiterate a few points:

- I have tried forwarding ports on the router, doesn't seem to work. After forwarding ports (for example, 80), and using a port checker tool, the port remains closed.
- I turned the router into an access point, thus disabling all DHCP functionality, and the issue persisted.

Either way! Appreciate all the responses. Networking is hard My 2 years of Cisco networking classes in High school (10 years ago) have totally failed me.

[Sonomaa]

it sounds like they already have it running on a router of sorts, so when you double router it its making it act funny, get a 5 port switch or set the router up as an access point

[Denchi]

Alright. Just to be as thorough as I can I'll post my results in picture form.

First off, plugged directly into the wall, IP Results from IP Chicken



Results from ipconfig /all while plugged in




Wired adapter while plugged into wall



So it does look like DHCP is enabled. I seem to still have problems with my router if DHCP is enabled. Should I try manually setting an IP?

Also, while plugged into the wall I thought I'd try League of Legends again......no dice.....PvP.net is crashing, so my entire theory is fucked. There have to be blocked ports on their end somehow.....

[Arkanna]

Well, your internet overlords definitely have a router on-site. They probably also have a firewall, and at least one switch. This probably has no basis in reality and there's not really enough information here to say this without a doubt, but, with the funky IP scheme they're using, it may have all been set up by someone that doesn't know what the fuck. Just seems weird to me to use a class C private range internally while using a class B subnet mask. Also kind of odd that their gateway's IP address is 192.168.168.168. Just observances though...

I think you should start by going into your NIC's properties and manually setting your DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 primary and 4.2.2.1 secondary. It probably won't change anything but it'll at least remove questionable DNS servers as the possible problem.

Do you have much packet loss? To test, open a DOS prompt and type "ping 8.8.8.8 -t" and watch it for a minute or three. You should get a reply on virtually every ping, with very very few "timed out" results, if any at all.

[octopus]

Since your building is already running a router, I suggest running your router in bridged mode.

[Denchi]

Ok, sorry, been real busy with other stuff. Finally got around to trying a few things out with this.

So, in addition to your suggestions, League of Legends support suggested that I change my default gateway from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.0.1 (I gave them a lot of logs/network results from my wireless connection through the router).

Simply trying to change the DNS didn't seem to make a difference. In my router's settings I was able to open up my WAN settings, and change DNS from automatic to not, then input your settings. This went through, and I was able to connect to the internet, but it didn't seem to make a difference.





I also went into my adapter to see what changes I could make. I wasn't sure exactly where to go as all I see is this.



I tried changing some things in IPv4 and IPv6 but they didn't seem to make a difference.

As for following the suggestion of LoL support, I'm totally unsure where to try and change my default gateway. The only way to see to change it is either in WAN or LAN settings. Trying to change the WAN settings I would need to set a static IP before I even get the OPTION to change default gateway. And it won't let me even when I try that. (this is me putting more or less random-ish values in for IP and Subnet)



Sorry, I should know this stuff but I'm noobish.

[Tajin]

Those values are not going to work.
You need an access point or a swith if you want to use wires. Or setup your router as an access point(that is disable dhcp on it or enable your router to get a dhcp address from the wall)
Hard to explain with a phone.

[Denchi]

Ok, so I've set up my wireless router as an access point. I'm still unsure how to follow League Of Legends support's instructions.....if I'm connecting wirelessly, I don't seem to have an option to change my default gateway (which is 192.168.168.168 through wireless). The only way I can seemingly change my default gateway is through my LAN settings. I don't WANT to use LAN, and even when I try to test it regardless, once I switch "Automatic IP" off in order to change the values, I don't know what IP address or Subnet mask to input.

GRrr