Network problem

[JohnnyJazz]

The best way to understand my network is to look at the picture below.

The house has been totally wired for LAN during the last renovation with between one to five LAN socket in every room, the cables end up in a patch panel then go through a swicth D-Link DGS 1016D (16-Port Gigabit Unmanaged ) and a router gateway switch CISCO EPC 2325 provided by TRUE. Soon to be connect is a POE switch for the IP cameras (4 to 6). On the picture you can alo see a 16TB NAS WD MyCloudEX4 that is attached directly to the CISCO router.

At the moment I have 5 "windows" computers connected to this network + 1 MacBook, 1 iPad and two phones connected through wifi (ASUS RT-AC66U that I use as an AP as the WIFi signal from the CISCO is not strong enough for the upper levels of the house). Two of the computers are used as HTPC and are connected to 50' TVs.

I have a couple of problems that I can't identified the origin.

1/ I lose internet connection on a regular basis for short period going for 30s to 5 mn

2/ I was blaming it on True (and maybe I should) but I also lose access to the NAS so maybe it is the CISCO gateway that is to blame.

What do you guys think and which solution would you recommend ?

Please keep in mind I'm not an IT professional, just a retired guy with a hobby.

[KittenKong]

In your second picture Windows appears to be informing you that the NAS is unavailable but that you still have an internet connection (look at the network icon by the clock: this would normally be showing a warning if the internet was down).

Can your various PCs/Macs see each other on the network whilst you are experiencing the problem?

I suggest that the next time you have a problem you should look at the lights on the various boxes as they may tell you more about what is happening.

You could also try restarting all the devices if this has not been done for some time. It's amazing how often this can cure problems.

I should add that the admin logs of the gateway will tell you if your internet connection is going down from time to time, so have a look at that.

Edited November 24, 2015 by KittenKong

[KittenKong]

Not easy to make out the details but looking more closely at your first picture it seems that you have two switches and that both of them are connected to the router (one red lead, one green lead). It also seems that your NAS is connected to the router via the yellow lead.

Assuming that is so I would not do it that way.

I would connect the gateway to the best of those two visible switches using just one lead (the best switch will normally be the gigabit one, assuming that the other isnt gigabit), and I would connect the NAS directly to that gigabit switch also. Then I would connect the second switch to the first switch. This will reduce the strain on the gateway which will no longer have to handle any internal data transfers. I suspect that it's probably just falling over under the strain.

It might also be an idea to give your NAS a fixed IP address and then in Windows you can map the drive to that IP address rather than to a network name. Network names dont always work well and in fixed systems they serve no useful purpose anyway.

[bino]

I had all of the problems you are experiencing. Only resolved after complaining to TRUE every time it happened over a period of weeks. I only got a stable connection when they changed the Cisco DOCSIS router for another brand.

[RichCor]

Not easy to make out the details but looking more closely at your first picture it seems that you have two switches and that both of them are connected to the router (one red lead, one green lead). It also seems that your NAS is connected to the router via the yellow lead.

Assuming that is so I would not do it that way.

I would connect the gateway to the best of those two visible switches using just one lead (the best switch will normally be the gigabit one, assuming that the other isnt gigabit), and I would connect the NAS directly to that gigabit switch also. Then I would connect the second switch to the first switch. This will reduce the strain on the gateway which will no longer have to handle any internal data transfers. I suspect that it's probably just falling over under the strain.

It might also be an idea to give your NAS a fixed IP address and then in Windows you can map the drive to that IP address rather than to a network name. Network names dont always work well and in fixed systems they serve no useful purpose anyway.

^^^ THIS (all of it)

Ethernet is a 'star' topology. Don't connect it back into itself. The circular reference wrecks havoc on the routing logic.

[JohnnyJazz]

Not easy to make out the details but looking more closely at your first picture it seems that you have two switches and that both of them are connected to the router (one red lead, one green lead). It also seems that your NAS is connected to the router via the yellow lead.

Assuming that is so I would not do it that way.

I would connect the gateway to the best of those two visible switches using just one lead (the best switch will normally be the gigabit one, assuming that the other isnt gigabit), and I would connect the NAS directly to that gigabit switch also. Then I would connect the second switch to the first switch. This will reduce the strain on the gateway which will no longer have to handle any internal data transfers. I suspect that it's probably just falling over under the strain.

It might also be an idea to give your NAS a fixed IP address and then in Windows you can map the drive to that IP address rather than to a network name. Network names dont always work well and in fixed systems they serve no useful purpose anyway.

Thanks for the time spent studying my picture and your answer. I should have thought about that, I agree that the CISCO gateway probably can't handle the internal traffic. I was thinking of asking True for an upgrade but using the switch that I already have should do the trick.

I'll try the new configuration you recommend and report if there is any improvement

Edited November 25, 2015 by JohnnyJazz