Too many things on ethernet... help

[Natural Mysteries]

I have a Canon 17" wide pro-1000 printer, the PC with Windows 10 Pro, a monochrome HP printer, two WD My Home Duo RAID1 systems, two Seagate d2 edt. hard drives 8 TB, a 10TB Seagate ext. hard drive...

All that stuff gave instructions to go online with Ethernet...

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

This last modem would go on then disconnect, repeat, repeat. which I think does damage to the equipment

So what have you done to have stability?

 

[DerKeyser]

I have a Canon 17" wide pro-1000 printer, the PC with Windows 10 Pro, a monochrome HP printer, two WD My Home Duo RAID1 systems, two Seagate d2 edt. hard drives 8 TB, a 10TB Seagate ext. hard drive...

All that stuff gave instructions to go online with Ethernet...

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

This last modem would go on then disconnect, repeat, repeat. which I think does damage to the equipment

So what have you done to have stability?

Are they all wired to switchports on the router? Then it might be the powersupply that’s inadequate. These home ISP routers are the cheapest of cheap crap, and if you online all the ethernet ports, you might be at the very limit of it’s powersupply.

If that’s the case, one fix could be to buy your own switch and wire everything into that. Then only one wire from that switch to the router which saves power on the router.

 

[Austinian]

I have a Canon 17" wide pro-1000 printer, the PC with Windows 10 Pro, a monochrome HP printer, two WD My Home Duo RAID1 systems, two Seagate d2 edt. hard drives 8 TB, a 10TB Seagate ext. hard drive...

All that stuff gave instructions to go online with Ethernet...

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

This last modem would go on then disconnect, repeat, repeat. which I think does damage to the equipment

So what have you done to have stability?

I have the Spectrum-supplied cable modem (no extra cost), but my own separate wireless router. It's all been very stable.

 

[RDKirk]

I have a Canon 17" wide pro-1000 printer, the PC with Windows 10 Pro, a monochrome HP printer, two WD My Home Duo RAID1 systems, two Seagate d2 edt. hard drives 8 TB, a 10TB Seagate ext. hard drive...

All that stuff gave instructions to go online with Ethernet...

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

This last modem would go on then disconnect, repeat, repeat. which I think does damage to the equipment

So what have you done to have stability?

It's unlikely any down-line equipment was damaged by Ethernet outages or other network issues.

It's also unlikely that the equipment you have on your network is too much to handle. Printers, for instance, are relatively low-data rate devices. Any half-way decent router should be able to handle that traffic...that's its only job.

If your Internet provider allows you to purchase your own modem and/or router, you can usually get better equipment at what will work out to be a better bargain in the long run. In that case, be sure to buy a router that will handle everything you need on the network.

In my case, my wireless/Ethernet router is in a hall closet, but all my Ethernet equipment is in another room. I run one Ethernet cable from the router to that room to a switch, and all the equipment is plugged into that switch rather than all the lines running back to the router.

 

[Ken Seals]

So what have you done to have stability?

I have the Spectrum-supplied cable modem (no extra cost), but my own separate wireless router. It's all been very stable.

Same here plus a ethernet Netgear wired switch. About 7 devices are connected to the switch with ethernet cables. This setup has been absolutely stable for years.

 

[PHXAZCRAIG]

Let's talk about that title - methinks you're going astray with that line of thinking.

If a switch has X number of ports, it's been designed to handle x number of ethernet connections, no problem. We;re not talking about much voltage here.

If you are talking about bandwidth reduction due to all the connections, probably not. Easy enough to isolate though - if you see a lot of fast blinking lights on one port, unplug that and see if things speed up elsewhere.

I have a Canon 17" wide pro-1000 printer, the PC with Windows 10 Pro, a monochrome HP printer, two WD My Home Duo RAID1 systems, two Seagate d2 edt. hard drives 8 TB, a 10TB Seagate ext. hard drive....

OK, no big deal. I have twice that running here. I outgrew a 16-port switch at one point and moved to a 24-port. I work on systems with 96 ports, and those are all people working on their PC's at the same time, all day.

Which is to say that you don't have a lot on Ethernet, but certainly enough to saturate it if doing heavy data copies between SSD drives.

All that stuff gave instructions to go online with Ethernet...

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

How about two ideas?

1. A batch of bad equipment. Unlikely but it happens.

2. Power issues. About the only thing I can think of that would damage modern hardware - especially something supplied in bulk that needs to be reliable - would be power spikes. Maybe excessive heat, but some of this stuff runs pretty hot anyway, with no problems.

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

Never rented one. Bought first one in 2001 or so, and have bought a couple since then.

ONE of those modems did fail, after a number of years (10+).

As for routers, I've had a couple dozen, plus worked on a lot. Routers in general are extremely understressed physically and rarely fail.

This last modem would go on then disconnect, repeat, repeat. which I think does damage to the equipment

Disconnect from what side? The LAN side or the WAN side?

If you are talking power cycling, yes that could be damaging I suspect. If you are talking disconnecting/reconnecting from the Ethernet side, that sounds like it could be:

1. duplicated IP address

2. Failing switch port

3. Routing loop?

Is this a cable modem? DSL? Was the installer competent?

 

[Eric Carlson]

Put all your networking devices: routers, modems, switches, etc., on UPSes.

I use my own WiFi/Ethernet router connected to the FIOS router via Ethernet. I also have a second mesh router connected to the first via WiFi. If I need more Ethernet ports, I'll connect one of my Ethernet switches to one of my routers, but all will be plugged into an UPS for clean AC power.

Don't put a laser printer on an UPS, unless you have a really huge server-sized UPS. Most everything else can go on an UPS. Inkjet printers are fine.

 

[sludge21017]

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

UBI?

I have a Motorola SB6121 for years... it's still holding strong. Its so old that Comcast won't let new people on with it for more than several years now. I keep waiting for it to die. But it handles the speeds allow me, ~112 down, ~7 up.

My Asus router lasted 5+ years, not sure what the problem was - wireless overloaded? Been running fine as an FTP server.

Belkin apparently didn't last too long for me.. that was near 15 years ago lol

 

[JeffSlade]

You did not identify your service provider which would be interesting to know so my response is specific to my provider Xfinity by Comcast.

I've had no issues using a Motorola modem I purchased.

I have 5 Ethernet switches in my house with one switch attached to the premise side of the modem. The other 4 switches fan off this main switch. I have two wireless access points which are part of my network as well.

Make sure the power to the modem is stable so you isolate that you do not have a premises side power issue causing your modem to go up and down. I have my modem on a UPS.

If your power is not stable it may be causing the modem to go up and down which as you know is not good.

After that if your power is stable to the modem seems either their modem is deflective or there is a problem on the provider side between the modem they installed and their DSLAM.

Your provider has the ability to understand what is happening on their provider side so ask them if they can share any reports on line quality between the DSLAM and the modem.

Also ask the provider how far your modem is from their DSLAM. There are distance limitations that can effect performance.

These are my thoughts.

I also have a device setup in a virtual wire configuration that sniffs each packet coming in and out of my network. Don't want to go into the weeds here so I'll stop here about this device.

If you have the right Ethernet switches you can set up subnetworks within your network of various security strength. For example I have a network called "No-Trust" where I let IoT devices connect because they have been known to be inherently un-secure.

Anyway I hope your issue gets resolved!

 

[foot]

I have a Canon 17" wide pro-1000 printer, the PC with Windows 10 Pro, a monochrome HP printer, two WD My Home Duo RAID1 systems, two Seagate d2 edt. hard drives 8 TB, a 10TB Seagate ext. hard drive...

All that stuff gave instructions to go online with Ethernet...

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

This last modem would go on then disconnect, repeat, repeat. which I think does damage to the equipment

So what have you done to have stability?

I have the Spectrum-supplied cable modem (no extra cost), but my own separate wireless router. It's all been very stable.

I've been having problems with ipv6, which apparently has problems. On AT&T Community Forums AT&T suggested turning ipv6 off:

from the link:

"Since AT&T is still in the process of converting to IPv6, not all features may work as intended. Since you seem to only have trouble when connected to IPv6 it's likely a result of that. You may find it helpful to do some research on how you can improve your IPv6 connection through the use of network settings, or through 3rd party routers using IP Passthrough, but that is beyond the scope of our support."

https://forums.att.com/conversation...38d86fe4ba?commentId=5f57bca1bd255045b4e2e0f4

other info

https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32916406-Did-some-recent-change-screw-up-IPv6

 

[Austinian]

I have a Canon 17" wide pro-1000 printer, the PC with Windows 10 Pro, a monochrome HP printer, two WD My Home Duo RAID1 systems, two Seagate d2 edt. hard drives 8 TB, a 10TB Seagate ext. hard drive...

All that stuff gave instructions to go online with Ethernet...

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

This last modem would go on then disconnect, repeat, repeat. which I think does damage to the equipment

So what have you done to have stability?

I have the Spectrum-supplied cable modem (no extra cost), but my own separate wireless router. It's all been very stable.

I've been having problems with ipv6, which apparently has problems. On AT&T Community Forums AT&T suggested turning ipv6 off:

from the link:

"Since AT&T is still in the process of converting to IPv6, not all features may work as intended. Since you seem to only have trouble when connected to IPv6 it's likely a result of that. You may find it helpful to do some research on how you can improve your IPv6 connection through the use of network settings, or through 3rd party routers using IP Passthrough, but that is beyond the scope of our support."

https://forums.att.com/conversation...38d86fe4ba?commentId=5f57bca1bd255045b4e2e0f4

other info

https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32916406-Did-some-recent-change-screw-up-IPv6

I haven't yet seen a need to go to ipv6 myself, so I am unfamiliar with any problems regarding its implementation by home users.

 

[Natural Mysteries]

I got a lot out of your responses. I want to report in on what the tech guy did, who came out to the house.

1. He tested the Modum/router that I rent from Specrum. Not much comment except he worked backwards. So he checked the port condition where the cable came into the house. He called that weak and flimsy, and replaced it with, to my eyes, was a significantly heftier port.


Then he went outside to where the cable comes out of the ground and into their box. He replaced several connections. Then said the understatement of the decade,

Your cable looks really old. I'm going to replace it now, and another crew will show up in 7-10 days to bury it.

It was "original equipment"--1991.

I'm glad to hear of several modems that have lasted decades.

Several mentioned what you have been using for a long time. What would you recommend today?

Are there specs that I could go to a Microcenter and make a rationnal decision with?

I'm glad to have learned from a few responses that a switch with 6 or 8 or 10 ethernet ports is just fine.

So I'm down to two questions: what modem specs would you recommend?

I liked having the Router part of the Modem. Make sense or no?


John with the floppy hat

 

[Austinian]

I liked having the Router part of the Modem. Make sense or no?

Your choice, but I want them separate so I have complete control of the router; I don't mind Spectrum controlling the modem itself, but I don't want them able to mess with my house network.

Perhaps I am wrong about their control, because I've never owned a combo device, but I feel better with my own router.

 

[sludge21017]

Motorola kind of became a mess. They sold off their modem unit. Arris bought it in 2013?

I haven't bothered to research if Arris simple markets the Motorola brand these days or if Motorola started making them again. Confusing to me at least.

Just make sure it's a speed or 2 above what you think you'll ever pay for. I mean these days thats mostly what they sell anyways, so kind of hard to get around that problem. That's all the channel bonding upstream/downstream. More channels=more bandwidth.

--update--

Arris information

This link spells out that Zoom is using the Motorola name and it's not the same as the original surfboard modems.

 

[RDKirk]

I got a lot out of your responses. I want to report in on what the tech guy did, who came out to the house.

1. He tested the Modum/router that I rent from Specrum. Not much comment except he worked backwards. So he checked the port condition where the cable came into the house. He called that weak and flimsy, and replaced it with, to my eyes, was a significantly heftier port.

Then he went outside to where the cable comes out of the ground and into their box. He replaced several connections. Then said the understatement of the decade,

Your cable looks really old. I'm going to replace it now, and another crew will show up in 7-10 days to bury it.

It was "original equipment"--1991.

I'm glad to hear of several modems that have lasted decades.

Several mentioned what you have been using for a long time. What would you recommend today?

Are there specs that I could go to a Microcenter and make a rationnal decision with?

I'm glad to have learned from a few responses that a switch with 6 or 8 or 10 ethernet ports is just fine.

So I'm down to two questions: what modem specs would you recommend?

I liked having the Router part of the Modem. Make sense or no?

John with the floppy hat

The benefit of separating the modem from the router is that router operation, maintenance, and upgrading (both hardware and software) is far more dynamic than modem operation.

With the modem, you can figure out for yourself the economics of renting from your Internet provider versus buying your own, but that's almost completely a matter of economics.

The real operational distinctions that make a difference in your life lie in the router. That's where you set your security measures, for instance. If you get a new ISP, you're probably going to have to replace the modem to match their technology (and they'll often jerk you around a lot if you force them to into your old modem), but you can keep the router that you've got integrated into your own network.

You will also want to upgrade your router drivers as often as the manufacturer releases them for security purposes, which is more often than ISPs do.

You can also decide to purchase a more capable router, particularly if you want better wireless capabilities.

 

[Eric Carlson]

Your choice, but I want them separate so I have complete control of the router; I don't mind Spectrum controlling the modem itself, but I don't want them able to mess with my house network.

I agree on separate modem and router(s). since the modem is somewhat specific to the ISP (or at least type of ISP), and the router is generic, and you have hundreds to choose from, from many brands. And you can also get a new router(s) in the future if your needs (or budget) grow, while keeping the same modem, Maybe you want to upgrade to a MESH network later, you can do that without changing the modem.

As for switches, you can use several switches on your network, and you can even get inexpensive 24 port switches if you need that many Ethernet ports in 1 location. You can also get managed switches if you want to divide up your network and monitor it.

 

[Morris0]

Let's talk about that title - methinks you're going astray with that line of thinking.

If a switch has X number of ports, it's been designed to handle x number of ethernet connections, no problem. We;re not talking about much voltage here.

If you are talking about bandwidth reduction due to all the connections, probably not. Easy enough to isolate though - if you see a lot of fast blinking lights on one port, unplug that and see if things speed up elsewhere.

I have a Canon 17" wide pro-1000 printer, the PC with Windows 10 Pro, a monochrome HP printer, two WD My Home Duo RAID1 systems, two Seagate d2 edt. hard drives 8 TB, a 10TB Seagate ext. hard drive....

OK, no big deal. I have twice that running here. I outgrew a 16-port switch at one point and moved to a 24-port. I work on systems with 96 ports, and those are all people working on their PC's at the same time, all day.

Which is to say that you don't have a lot on Ethernet, but certainly enough to saturate it if doing heavy data copies between SSD drives.

All that stuff gave instructions to go online with Ethernet...

I am now on a second UBI modem/router which is busted, a tech guy coming very soon, to replace it... do upload down load checks....

This is pretty bizarre .

How about two ideas?

1. A batch of bad equipment. Unlikely but it happens.

2. Power issues. About the only thing I can think of that would damage modern hardware - especially something supplied in bulk that needs to be reliable - would be power spikes. Maybe excessive heat, but some of this stuff runs pretty hot anyway, with no problems.

What has been your experience with buying your own modem and router?

Never rented one. Bought first one in 2001 or so, and have bought a couple since then.

ONE of those modems did fail, after a number of years (10+).

As for routers, I've had a couple dozen, plus worked on a lot. Routers in general are extremely understressed physically and rarely fail.

This last modem would go on then disconnect, repeat, repeat. which I think does damage to the equipment

Disconnect from what side? The LAN side or the WAN side?

If you are talking power cycling, yes that could be damaging I suspect. If you are talking disconnecting/reconnecting from the Ethernet side, that sounds like it could be:

1. duplicated IP address

2. Failing switch port

3. Routing loop?

Is this a cable modem? DSL? Was the installer competent?

I completely agree with Craig. I lead the team that ran a campus network with 5,000 ethernet connections and 20,000 wireless hosts. There are properly designed networks that are much larger than the one I just described.

In my experience in my home, the equipment the ISPs provide is unreliable and not very capable. Use your own and you will be much happier. Just avoid low end gear. Look owner reviews to chose reliable gear.

Morris

 

[Billiam29]

An item to be aware of regarding owning your own cable modem is the even though you own it, your ISP can update firmware on it at their discretion and you are not allowed to update firmware yourself even though you own the device. That’s the way it is in the U.S. at least. The page at cable modem maker Arris describing this is linked below.

This has only been a minor issue for me and never an issue for anyone I personally know. I just wanted to mention it because for some people it more or less removes the “being self-sufficient” aspect of owning your own cable modem and makes it pretty much just an economic proposition.

Arris - Upgrading Firmware on Cable Devices

 

[PHXAZCRAIG]

I've been having problems with ipv6, which apparently has problems. On AT&T Community Forums AT&T suggested turning ipv6 off:

from the link:

"Since AT&T is still in the process of converting to IPv6, not all features may work as intended. Since you seem to only have trouble when connected to IPv6 it's likely a result of that. You may find it helpful to do some research on how you can improve your IPv6 connection through the use of network settings, or through 3rd party routers using IP Passthrough, but that is beyond the scope of our support."

https://forums.att.com/conversation...38d86fe4ba?commentId=5f57bca1bd255045b4e2e0f4

other info

https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32916406-Did-some-recent-change-screw-up-IPv6

I haven't yet seen a need to go to ipv6 myself, so I am unfamiliar with any problems regarding its implementation by home users.

I've been working on IPv6 in my home network for 10 years, but it wasn't until this summer that I finally got it ironed out. My home web server (URL below signature) is fully IPv6-accessible now. There are a lot of little details to understand, but if you have a typical, simple home system consisting of a single subnet connected to a typical internet router, IPv6 should be already be completely functional if it is enabled at the router.

Windows not only defaults to enabling IPv6 (for a long time now), it also prefers it, which can sometimes cause some issues with some web sites.

There are a number of issues that can come up with IPv6 being preferred, and some routers may have an option to prefer IPv4 at least for DNS lookups. A typical instance would have a website come up if you disabled IPv6, but could as easily come up if this setting was made.

You do have to have a firewall and not just rely on NAT. If you don't know what NAT is, good, you don't have to unlearn stuff.

There are a number of IPv6 test sites, and if you don't host a web site or some publicly-available service, IPv6 tends to work fine, automatically. You should at least try it.

MY biggest issue, by far, with IPv6 is that I can't get a permanent IP address, even though I'm on a business internet connection with fixed IPv4 addresses. Worse, the lease time for my IPv6 addressing is only 24 hours. Mind you I'm not leasing a single public IP address here, I'm leasing a /56 subnet. I'm then passing off /60 subnet chunks to internal subnets (few home systems would have this) and using a /64 subnet for my main internal LAN. For a while, every time I changed something on my firewall/router, I would get a different IPv6 subnet, and then I would have to go into DNS and change my website's AAAA records, and go into my firewall and change the filter exception allowing traffic to the web server.

Those /56 numbers may mean nothing to someone who it primarily familiar (if that) with IPv4, but it's an absolutely HUGE amount of addresses!

In fact, there are:

4,722,366,482,869,645,213,696 addresses in a /56. It's designed to be carved up into 256 /64 subnets, each with about 18 million triillon available addresses.

And all on a 24 hour lease.

 

[Morris0]

I liked having the Router part of the Modem. Make sense or no?

Your choice, but I want them separate so I have complete control of the router; I don't mind Spectrum controlling the modem itself, but I don't want them able to mess with my house network.

Perhaps I am wrong about their control, because I've never owned a combo device, but I feel better with my own router.

I agree with this. A clear demarcation of responsibility. it avoids finger pointing

Morris