Changing DCHP results in lost connection to router/internet

[nitehawke]

I've completed a successful install of my Amahi HDA with one glaring flaw. Changing the DCHP server from the router to the HDA left me without access to the router or the internet.

Everything went well on my second attempt. The first attempt had one hiccup at the end. At the end of the second install, I was prompted to turn off the DCHP server on the router, reboot the HDA, then reboot all the machines on the network. After the reboot, everything appeared to be in good working order: All the pc's could read and write data on the HDA (on an xfs partition I might add) and the HDA was discovered on the network. Setting up users and shares without any problems. However, once I tried to access the internet, it began to get gloomy.

Since I could not access the internet, I tried to log into the router to check it's status and I could not get in. I tried getting on the 'net from all the pc's and the HDA but to no avail.

The documentation for the router in question, D-Link DIR-655, does not provide any clear answers. I am not using the wireless capabilities (completely hard wired throughout the house). ISP is AT&T DSL on a SpeedStream 4100 modem (set in bridge mode). There were no exotic setup conditions regarding the router prior to installing the server.

I'm sure it should be a simple configuration change but I'm not very fluent in "networks." I've left everything as it is and posted this from work.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Nitehawke

[cpg]

we need to do a better job at the switchover.

we should recommend the user to do checks to make sure the HDA machine itself can access the internet.

can you try this first? reboot if necessary -

perhaps your network settings are not right?
can you double check them?

another idea (reaching a bit), maybe you disabled the *external* dhcp client in your router?

you don't want that. you want to disable the *server* in the LAN, i.e. nothing in the WAN side.

[relrobber]

can you ping the router?

[nitehawke]

Hello guys,
Sorry it took so long to get back. This is one big headache for me as I am not very good at networking (clueless is a better term).

After much trial and error, I decided to take the HDA off line just so that I could get back here and see if there were any responses to my desperate plea.

Actions taken:
I rebooted everything at one point or another. Didn't help.
Powered everything on in different sequences to see if that would work. It didn't.
Used the recommendation in the FAQ to shut off the monit and dhcpd services. Did that in conjunction with completely shutting down the HDA. No luck.
Pinging the router was futile as I don't know what the new IP address is. I used the original address, no response. By the way, aren't the IP addresses supposed to be in 1-99 range (ex 192.168.1.xx where xx is the number in question)? The IP addresses that Amahi was providing the computers were .101, .102, and .103. Just wondering.

I am hesitant to make any network setting changes in the HDA as I think that it is configured correctly and I think the problem is in the router/DHCP configuration. Here is what I can tell you:

In the network proxy preferences (System>Internet and Network>Network Proxy):
First tab (Proxy Config) is set to Direct Internet connection
Second tab (Advanced Config): Ignore host list is blank. The field below that input box in populated with: localhost, and an IP address starting at 127....

At the Network Configuration (System>Administration>Network):
Devices tab: eth0 is active - Type: Ethernet)
Hardware tab: shows NIC data - Type: Ethernet, Device: eth0, Status: system)
DNS tab: Hostname: localhost.localdomain, Primary DNS: 192.168.1.10, Secondary DNS: blank, Tertiary DNS: blank, DNS search path: home.com
Host tab: blank

Selecting the Edit button while on the Devices tab yields a new dialog box (Ethernet Device):
General tab (Nickname: eth0)
The only checked box is "Activate device when computer starts."
Statically set IP address (on): Manual IP Address Settings - Address: 192.168.1.10, Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0, Default gateway address: 192.168.1.1 (I tried to ping this address thinking it was the router without any success).
Route tab: blank
Hardware device tab: shows the NIC, Device alias number (unchecked), Bind to MAC address (checked): data present but I don't think it is essential to provide the actual value here. If it assists you, I will provide it.

Are there any other network settings I should be looking for or inform you about?

I'm in the process of resetting the router so I can check the settings (primarily the DHCP settings, as cpg suggested that I may have disabled the wrong server).

I will be back...

[relrobber]

The individual number sets in IP addresses can be anything from 1-254. They don't have to be under 100. Disabling the DHCP server on your router wouldn't have changed the IP for your router, as all the ones I've used had a static internal IP. Your gateway address should be your router address. I would think that you would need a secondary and tertiary entry in the DNS settings so that the HDA's DNS server could update it's cache, but I find that mine is setup the same as yours, and I'm not having any problems.

[salocinbake]

Could it be this...http://forums.amahi.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=87#p298

Salo

[duwady]

Pinging the router was futile as I don't know what the new IP address is. I used the original address, no response.

Are there any other network settings I should be looking for or inform you about?

I'm in the process of resetting the router so I can check the settings (primarily the DHCP settings, as cpg suggested that I may have disabled the wrong server).

I will be back...

I also had D-Link, and I believe it uses 192.168.0.1 as the default ip address for the router. If this was the ip address that you used to ping the router before, or to access it, once you close the DHCP server portion, your router will not be part of your network because it will be part of 192.168.0.* network and HDA DHCP gives out 192.168.1.* addresses.

Since your machines were all talking to each other fine, the problem is at the router.

You can reset the router, disable the DHCP, but make sure that the router ip address is set as 192.168.1.1 before your save and exit from it. Otherwise, you will have the same problem; router in a different network, and everything in the different network.

Hope that makes sense. cpg and others, please jump in and correct me, as I am talking from Windows and Network point of view, not Linux or Amahi point of view.

Duwady

[cpg]

I also had D-Link, and I believe it uses 192.168.0.1 as the default ip address for the router. If this was the ip address that you used to ping the router before, or to access it, once you close the DHCP server portion, your router will not be part of your network because it will be part of 192.168.0.* network and HDA DHCP gives out 192.168.1.* addresses.

ohhhh, no, no, no!

the HDA should be programmed according to the configuration that you set in your profile for that HDA in http://www.amahi.org !
that configuration should match your network, not the other way around!

Since your machines were all talking to each other fine, the problem is at the router.

if your router can be changed, rather than changing a misprogrammed HDA, that can save you a reinstall, since at the moment we don't support changing those settings (they kind of get spread fairly deep) all over and it's not easy to cahnge.

[nitehawke]

I've been away for a while (business trip) but I shall now recap my situation.

Duwady (and anyone else who might be interested),

Yes, that was the solution (although I arrived there at a much more leisurely pace than I would have liked)

I arrived home Thursday afternoon and decided that I was going to fix this problem no matter how many hours it took. Keep in mind that I don’t have much networking experience.

I took all the PC’s off the network except for my main unit. Reset the modem and router to their defaults. Fun, fun, fun.
Booted up my computer and made sure I could access the internet. Fantastic. Login into the router setup page and disabled the DHCP. Rebooted the PC. (Some of my steps may seem redundant, ridiculous, or unnecessary but, like I said, I don’t know much about networking.) Lost my connection to the internet but I expected that.

Shutdown my computer and booted the HDA. … hmmm. Still can’t see the router or internet. Fired up the Network Config page and checked all settings. I remember noting that the router address is 192.168.0.1. The Network Config page says the default gateway (which I now know in this case is the router in network wiz language) address is 192.168.1.1. That’s not what the router is so I will change it (remember my savy networking skills come into play here). Change the default gateway to 192.168.0.1, save the settings and close the Network Config. Just to be sure, I start it up again and verify that it is still 192.168.0.1. …. Good, that should fix it.

Reboot the HDA and …. What the *$#@!&! I still can’t see the router! I check the Network Config (I think I can do it with my eyes closed now) and the gateway is back to 192.168.1.1. …Huh? I know I saved it. I’ll try it again. That ought to do it.

Reboot the HDA and, just for the fun of it the router, too. … Third, fourth, fifth time’s the charm. …. Oh c’mon, what’s going on here? The gateway is back to 192.168.1.1! (Slowly but surely, I’m becoming a network guru).

I decide to reset the router, put the PC on line, and look for any other settings in the router config pages to see what’s going on. I just can’t understand why the server keeps resetting the gateway to 192.168.1.1 when I know it’s 192.168.0.1. After about 10 minutes of frustration, I’m back at the network config page. … DHCP is disabled and the IP is right. 192.168.0.1. (Okay, maybe not a guru, more like an expert). Let’s see what happens if I change the router IP address to what is shown on the HDA gateway (192.168.1.1).

Shutdown the PC, reboot the server. Log in and … I’d better check the Net Config page before I do anything else. I’m sure that the gateway address is probably 192.168.2.1 or something odd like that … Hey, it’s still 192.168.1.1. That’s weird. Let me check the … Hey! I can see the router! Let me see if … I don’t believe it! I can do a Google search for any network administrator position I now qualify for!

Approximate elapsed time: 45 minutes. Go figure.

Obviously, the reason for the gateway address changing from 192.168.0.1 back to 192.168.1.1 is because the HDA (192.168.1.10) is expecting it there. That is my overly simplified explanation for it. (Alright network idiot, but I'm trying)

I head downstairs and proclaim to my wife, “I am king of all I survey! I have fixed the network!” (Picture me standing in the kitchen, fists on my hips, chin held high, giving her my best profile).

She looks up from her magazine and says, in her best sarcastic tone (and believe me when I say she is the queen of sarcasm), “Oh, really? At what time is it going down again?” Quickly, I turn and bound up the stairs to what I can do to accomplish that task!

I apologize for making a short story into a long one but I’m pretty good at that.

Thanks again to everyone who helped, or tried to help, me with this problem. I'll pay more attention next time.

[duwady]

the HDA should be programmed according to the configuration that you set in your profile for that HDA in http://www.amahi.org !
at configuration should match your network, not the other way around!

What you say makes perfect sense, and I agree. However, I do not remember amahi.org asking for my network id, because, if it had, I would have definitely given 192.168.0.*, which is what I have been using. That was why I was surprised that amahi.org showed it as 192.168.1.*, and I had felt uncomfortable with it and had mentioned it right at the beginning of this thread (entry # 2.) I sure missed the part where it asks for home ip addressing.

if your router can be changed, rather than changing a misprogrammed HDA, that can save you a reinstall, since at the moment we don't support changing those settings (they kind of get spread fairly deep) all over and it's not easy to cahnge.

While that may be the right reason, for a noob like us, I though HDA was hard-wired to 192.168.1.* network, and changed the ip address on the router to match it. Hey, it is better to mess around with something I know...

But I learnt a lot while playing around like this.

Thanks, everybody.