Network connection issues and drop-outs

[bigdog989]

Hi,
So its been a few weeks now and I'm finally reaching out for help after trying everything I can think of..

My setup had been working fine for over 6 months when stuff started going wrong.

I currently have a freenas setup holding my media files as well as the Kodi(XBMC) mySQL database in a jail as well as the owncloud plugin. I first notice I had an issue when Kodi stopped loading on my media pc. It would hang at the splash screen. After reading the log file I noticed it couldn't find the media files (Samba share) or couldn't find the database. After a quick reset of the HTPC, NAS and router the problem went away but quickly came back.

It seems that randomly the freenas box can't be found on the network. What is even stranger is that sometimes I can't even access the freenas config webpage at its local address from inside my house however if I access it from its external address (I have it port forwarded in my router to access it when im away) that does still work!

I have since reinstalled freenas from scratch and even tried a new router but the problem continues. I just can't seem to pinpoint what is causing my network to act strangely. I've also notice that occasionally my pc is assigned a wrong ip even though the router should set the IP address via dhcp.

I know a lot of this sounds like a router problem, but i have tried a new one and had similar problems :/, im wondering if freenas is doing something to effect my network as without that server everything else normally runs fine.

The NAS and HTPC are connected to a TP-Link D7 via gigabit LAN and the rest of out network devices via Wifi

ifconfig:

Code:

em0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500                                                  
        options=40098<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWTSO>                                                              
        ether fc:aa:14:21:e0:56                                                                                                    
        inet 192.168.1.222 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255                                                              
        nd6 options=9<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED>                                                                                       
        media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)                                                                       
        status: active                                                                                                             
alc0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500                                                                    
        options=c319a<TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWTSO,LINKSTATE>                    
        ether fc:aa:14:21:e0:54                                                                                                    
        nd6 options=9<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED>                                                                                       
        media: Ethernet autoselect                                                                                                 
ipfw0: flags=8801<UP,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 65536                                                                         
        nd6 options=9<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED>                                                                                       
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384                                                                  
        options=600003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>                                                                      
        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128                                                                                                    
        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x6                                                                                 
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000                                                                                          
        nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>                                                                                  
bridge0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500                                                      
        ether 02:8b:a4:95:80:00                                                                                                    
        nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>                                                                                                  
        id 00:00:00:00:00:00 priority 32768 hellotime 2 fwddelay 15                                                                
        maxage 20 holdcnt 6 proto rstp maxaddr 2000 timeout 1200                                                                   
        root id 00:00:00:00:00:00 priority 32768 ifcost 0 port 0                                                                   
        member: epair1a flags=143<LEARNING,DISCOVER,AUTOEDGE,AUTOPTP>                                                              
                ifmaxaddr 0 port 9 priority 128 path cost 2000                                                                     
        member: epair0a flags=143<LEARNING,DISCOVER,AUTOEDGE,AUTOPTP>                                                              
                ifmaxaddr 0 port 8 priority 128 path cost 2000                                                                     
        member: em0 flags=143<LEARNING,DISCOVER,AUTOEDGE,AUTOPTP>                                                                  
                ifmaxaddr 0 port 1 priority 128 path cost 20000                                                                    
epair0a: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500                                              
        options=8<VLAN_MTU>                                                                                                        
        ether 02:8a:50:00:08:0a                                                                                                    
        nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>                                                                                                  
        media: Ethernet 10Gbase-T (10Gbase-T <full-duplex>)                                                                        
        status: active                                                                                                             
epair1a: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500                                              
        options=8<VLAN_MTU>                                                                                                        
        ether 02:e6:bc:00:09:0a                                                                                                    
        nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>                                                                                                  
        media: Ethernet 10Gbase-T (10Gbase-T <full-duplex>)                                                                        
        status: active 

Follow the link below for all my current console messages, hopefully there may be something in there that helps, for a reference the nas has an ip of 192.168.1.222, the HTPC 192.168.1.191 or 192.168.1.200 and all other PC's 192.168.1.100+
(note it has been restarted a few times tonight yet i haven't been able to get it to work at all :/

http://pastebin.com/baMvxJX2

If there is anything else that would help let me know, i'm still rather new at UNIX but ill do my best
Any and all help is much appreciated!

 

[pirateghost]

I moved this over to networking forum, as it isn't a bug report.
The first thing I notice is that you have connections via SSH from France...

By your own admission, you have done a bad thing by forwarding your ports to your FreeNAS box...This almost looks like you have been compromised.

 

[anodos]

I don't see anything in the log that is a definite indicator of compromise, but - as a matter of course - if I were you I'd reinstall FreeNAS and redo everything. This time around, spend some time looking into secure methods of remotely accessing your NAS.

 

[pirateghost]

I don't see anything in the log that is a definite indicator of compromise, but - as a matter of course - if I were you I'd reinstall FreeNAS and redo everything. This time around, spend some time looking into secure methods of remotely accessing your NAS.

The only thing that stands out as a compromise is that the OP is from Australia, and he had logins from France...

 

[bigdog989]

hmm yes that doesn't sound great :/
I guess ill reinstall everything again and leave it un-forwarded till i get authentication via key instead of password

However I'v reinstalled the software a fair few times in the last few weeks, surely this hasn't happened every time?

 

[bigdog989]

So i reinstalled everything from scratch and everything worked perfectly for a day and a half and now the weird network problems begin again.

current console msgs can be found here, although they seem a little more normal ---->http://pastebin.com/0RxES8ag

SAMBA shares start to vanish off network, i am unable to connect to mySQL server which is in a jail and the Freenas web settings page will not load until router is restarted, although this doesn't always seem to fix the problem :/

Are there any other logs that may shine more light on the issue?

 

[SweetAndLow]

Hardware specs?

 

[bigdog989]

Freenas Box:
16gb g.skill ram (motherboard max) (NON ECC)
2.8GHz Intel Celeron (G1840)
H97N-WIFI motherboard with 2 NIC's (Intel i217V and Atheros 8161B) both gigabit and both work but still have the problem
6x 3TB HHD's - 3x WD - 3x Seagate

And as mentioned before an TP-Link Archer D7 router and also tried a TP-Link TD-W8950N

 

[Ericloewe]

Atheros is crap and FreeBSD support for the consumer PCH GbE adapters (i217V, i218V, etc. - only the LM versions are explicitly supported) is dubious.

 

[bigdog989]

Well that probably doesn't help :/

But surely as the system was working perfectly a month ago these NIC's couldn't be the problem could they?

If i was to install a new network card, I only have a PCIE port which limits things a little would this be a good choice of network adapter...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HP-Intel...abit-Server-Adapter-PCIe-NC360T-/351448487674

 

[Ericloewe]

Any PCI-e Intel GbE NIC is fine. The Pro/1000 is typically cheaper, and fitting it in a PCI-e slot is easier (you might not have a 4x available).

But surely as the system was working perfectly a month ago these NIC's couldn't be the problem could they?

Sometimes, it's hard to tell.

 

[bigdog989]

The only port I have available is a pcie x16 but I believe they are backwards compatible with x4....

May buy that one on ebay and give it a go

 

[Ericloewe]

The only port I have available is a pcie x16 but I believe they are backwards compatible with x4....

May buy that one on ebay and give it a go

Right. Smaller cards are always ok. Larger cards would also be ok, but few slots are actually shaped to allow that.

 

[bigdog989]

Larger cards would also be ok, but few slots are actually shaped to allow that.

Yeah haven't seen one of those slots yet :)

 

[pirateghost]

The only port I have available is a pcie x16 but I believe they are backwards compatible with x4....

May buy that one on ebay and give it a go

They are compatible all the way back to pci-ex1

 

[bigdog989]

So good and bad news

I got a new Intel gigabit card and it works in the x16 slot as expected but the issues continue.
However I think I've been able to pinpoint the issue to my router/ADSL2+ connection

It seems as though some devices on my network are given an ip address via the routers built in DHCP,
while others seem to be assigned an address from what looks to be a router/gateway that my ISP owns.

So what ends up happening is i have devices on my network that are connected via the local network and some on, lets call it a ghost network.
These are on different subnets and thus local data doesn't travel between them. And because of all this weird stuff going on i'm having random connection issues

More proof of this is the fact at one stage my pc and mobile (when on wireless) had different external ip addresses even though they should be all going through the one router/internet connection.. :S

So im still stuck, my ISP's support people don't understand what im talking about and I assume this is a bit irrelevant to this forum now :/

But thanks for all your suggestions

 

[Ericloewe]

Try to set the ISP's crap to some sort of bridge mode. Some support that.

 

[bigdog989]

Try to set the ISP's crap to some sort of bridge mode. Some support that.

I can't find any settings related to a bridge mode but I believe my router is already using one

 

[pirateghost]

Your router is acting as a router. It has a public IP address

 

[bigdog989]

Your router is acting as a router. It has a public IP address

That public IP is seen on some of my devices using (http://www.whatsmyip.org/) (these devices are working correctly), others seem to connect through my router to a different default gateway, one owned by my ISP, they get given completely different IP settings and come up with a completely different public IP address... (these devices cannot communicate with the ones that are working correctly)