I’m not an expert in networking so I’ll try to explain my home’s network connection:
Router 1 is connected directly to the Optimum Online Cable’s service provider modem and 3 computers are hooked up to that router (my SuSE 11.2 is one of these).
Router 2 is connected to Router 1 and several devices are connected to Router 2 (including a desktop computer). This is the downstairs network.
Occasionally, the downstairs network’s router (Router 2) will take over the entire network, making it impossible for the computers which are on the upstairs network to connect to the internet. When this happens, I have to restart my SuSE 11.2 computer and then it finds the correct router (router 1) and I can get on the internet.
My Question is: Is there a command that I can give SuSE 11.2 to simply restart it’s internet connection so that it can find the correct router to connect to so I don’t have to restart the computer? BTW, this problem also happens to my husband’s Windows 7 computer and he ends up rebooting the router and the modem, (and sometimes the computer too) while I simply have to reboot my SuSE 11.2 computer for it to find the correct router.
It should be possible to turn off the DHCP server in the router settings of the second router, if it has the option also set router 1 to act as a gateway and router 2 to act as a router. This will set router 1 to act as your DHCP server and gateway for the internet and router 2 will act like a switch with no control over the network.
First, any time you have cascading switches/hubs/routers, there can be odd side effects but problems usually occur more often the further you get from the “head” (Internet Gateway in your case).
I’m going to guess you really don’t have a router anywhere within your network (a router is defined as having a separate NetworkID on each network interface), you really hae either switches or hubs setup (all your machines are configured with the same NetworkID, eg 192.168.0.x
If you search these forums, you’ll find that there are two main methods of start/shutdown/restart networking on SuSE, and what you use generally starts with whether you’re configured to use NetworkManager in YAST or not.
If using NetworkManager, you can restart all interfaces with
/etc/init.d/network restart
See the options for /etc/init.d/network if you want more granular operations.
If you’re using IFDOWN/IFUP, use those commands naming the specific network interface.
Thank you for your reply.
Yes, the network is wired, not wireless.
I have tried ifup eth0 and ifdown eth0 but that had no effect so I’m guessing I’ll have to try the /etc/init.d/network restart command.
I have no idea about my computer using the YaST network manager. Everything network wise set itself up nicely when I installed the OS without any fuss from me.
I don’t think your computers have anything to do with your problem, they are just doing what the devices controlling your network tell them to do. Rebooting the computer or restarting the network devices are only temporary fixes. The problem sounds like the 2 routers are conflicting with each other. I had the same problem when I switched to DSL and the modem they gave me was set up to do the work of a router as well as a modem, all I had to do was set the modem to act just as a modem and not a router and everything worked fine. Check the settings in router 2, turn the DHCP server off and set it to act as a router not a gateway. Wired or wireless also probably doesn’t have anything to do with your problem, my network has 2 routers, both with DHCP turned off and set to be routers, connected using what is called a “wireless distribution system” behind a Smoothwall firewall which acts as my DHCP server.
So that would mean You’re most likely using NetworkManager cause using ifup/ifdown method isn’t auto magical. If I were You I would follow fucodclown suggestions as the seem to be the most likely permanent solution to yours and your husband’s problems
I agree with Fucodclown, disable DHCP on the Router 2. However, because you have the same problem connected to Router 1 and not Router 2, IMHO, the problem is with Router 1.
Router 1 should have a WAN IP address (static or dynamic) from your ISP and it should be different from the DHCP IP network addresses for the LAN.
If your Optimum Service modem provides username and password to Optimum, you should make Router 1 a DHCP client to the modem (or otherwise Router 1 provides the PPPoE login).
Then all other PCs and Router 2 are DHCP clients to DHCP Server Router 1.
Router 1’s network WAN IP address from the modem (ISP) should be different from your internal network DHCP IP addresses.
For example,
Router 1 might have receive a WAN IP address 192.164.1.54 from the ISP modem while
Router 1’s Lan IP address is 192.164.0.1 and provides DHCP IP addresses 192.164.0.2-254 to all connected devices including Router 2.
If Router 1 is using PPPoE to login, then its WAN IP address might be in the form of 10.x.x.x, 210.x.x.x, 70.x.x.x, etc.
I had this kind of thing running for a while here and as knurpht said to work reliably dhcp on router2 had to be off and static addressing does ensure that no computers try to use ip addresses that are already in use
With two routers providing dhcp and all the computers getting their gateway address via dhcp I suppose it’s possible that a computer would ask for an address and try to use as it’s gateway the first router it ‘talks to’ which may not be the one it should be using
When using ifup, by default it uses dhcp for everything and on the Global page there’s a setting called ‘Change default route via dhcp’, disabling that and specifying router1’s ip on the Routing page would at least make sure it’s using the correct router as the gateway
I don’t think it would then matter whether the machine is using dhcp or static addressing
Don’t really know much about how to set things in Network Manager handles because I never use it
Incidentally, if you can’t work it out, replacing the second router for a hub/switch would probably fix things as there wouldn’t really be anything to set up, just unplug the cables from router1, plug them into the switch and you’d be away
