I have a small business client that has a fairly small network but its a graphics design company so they use a lot of bandwidth and have a lot of extra devices like printers and scanners. Their network consists of
- 2 Custom PC Graphics workstations with Win 7 Pro.
- 1 Mac Workstation
- 3 Win 7 Pro Laptops
- 2 Android Tablets
- 1 Chromebook
- 2 iPhones, 1 Android Phone
- 1 Tower server running Spiceworks, VIPRE server
- 1 Dell Power Edge 2950 running their storage, and Intranet server (for testing web designs).
- 1 HP Laserjet Pro 200
- 1 Epson Artisan
- 1 Epson Large format printer
They are running a workgroup so the routers are the DNS and DHCP for their site. The last 8 months their internet connection has been dropping constantly and when AT&T had a damaged line they took two weeks to bother to repair they switched to Level3. The drops seemed to not occur as often but still occurred.
The basic rundown is first they had a DLink VPN router that every hour or so their connection would drop. They would unplug it and plug it back in and the internet would pick back up again. The DLink was connected to their Level3 provided modem going out. The internal network was connected via a Cisco Small Business 10/100 16 Port Switch. When the internet would go out I tested a connection directly to the modem and the connection from the ISP never dropped. So I figured well it has to be the router if its not the modem and connecting directly to the router also provided no internet connection. Before they spent money on replacing a router if it was somehow a flakey modem anyway I contacted Level3 and they replaced the modem. The issues still occurred
So about two months ago I replaced the DLink with a Cisco RV042 and replaced the switch with an HP Procurve V1910 24 port managed switch (They wanted gigabit due to the file sizes being saved to their server and I got a good deal). Moved everything over to a small rack so all their networking was in one place.
Everything was working perfectly until a few days ago when the same issues that plagued the last router started occurring with the Cisco router. There is full connectivity for any device on the network to any other device through the switch. Power Cycle the router and the internet comes back up. Tested the connection again directly through the router when internet goes down and get nothing. Test directly to the modem and no issues. When the connection went down I even tried to access the router directly via the IP and could get to the login page but when I put in the username and password got a 404 error. Tried again and after about 6 tries it let me in but click any area such as DHCP and it gives a connection error. Went to Cisco's website and it was suggested to try and update the firmware to the lastest version (it was 3 versions behind). That took the router almost 3 hours to complete (thats just insanely long and Cisco agree and said to send it back to them)
So I was like ok just as a test let me put in a belkin home router I use as a test device for consumer consultations while I RMA their Cisco Router so they at least have internet without having to buy a new rotuer. Well the belkin router has lasted two days before its now having the same issue. What could be causing this?
No other devices on the power strip the routers have been connected to are having any issues including the modem. No strange devices have been added to the network. I'm a bit at a loss as this seems like a lot of routers having connectivity issues in a short period of time for it to be a coincidence.
