Fios G1100 Router Intermittent Drops Internet Connections

Question

Years of Rock Solid connectivity has now been disrupted in the last month with daily intermittent dropouts.

The coax connected G1100 hasn't been changed in years, but I've observed the following behavior.  Using the  192.168.1.1 web interface and its PING diagnostic, the router consistently sees no loss in traffic (cnet.com, google, etc) -- but at the same time router clients fail to get address resolutions. The clients fail to get service randomly with some clients continuing to see traffic, while others drop off. Using an ethernet connected desktop to issue PINGs shows that targeted hosts cannot be found, but again the router diagnostic will reliably get hits every time. Sometimes wireless clients will go out, but the wired client will remain good.

The problem last anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes, generally self-correcting. But with the more frequent disruptions I've taken to rebooting the router at the 4-5 minute mark.

Any ideas and where might I look for a resolution??

Capricorn1 · Accepted Answer

It's possible that the G1100 is going bad, but other things to try:

When you encounter a device that doesn't seem to be working, try checking its network parameters to see if it has a valid IP address on your network. It should be something like 192.168.1.x where x is in the range 2-254. (This assumes the router is still set to the defaults for DHCP resolution.) If the device has an IP address like 169.254.x.x, that is an Automatic Private IP Addressing value, which means it didn't contact a DHCP server or the DHCP server didn't offer an IP address.

* For a PC, open an administrator command window and use the ipconfig /all command. Check the IPv4 address of the wired Ethernet or wireless connection in use.
* For an Android tablet or phone: (one of the following depending on the Android version)* go to settings --> Connections --> Wi-Fi --> Click on the Wi-Fi network in use --> Settings (Gear icon) --> View more --> IP address
* go to settings --> About [device|tablet] --> Status information --> IP address

* For an iPhone or iPad, I have no idea
* For a Mac, you should be able to open a terminal and run ip a, but I really don't know that.

The ipconfig /all command returns something like:

C:\Users\craig>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : NOTYOURS
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : home

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : home
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : [Removed]
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.54(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, December 7, 2023 11:25:14 AM
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, December 9, 2023 7:11:48 PM
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 100957206
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : [Removed]
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
                                       8.8.8.8
                                       8.8.4.4
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

If you don't have a valid IP address, try rebooting the router. Next, log in to the router, go to the Advance --> IP Address Distribution, and check the range of IP addresses being served. By default, it will be from 2 to 254 for the Start IP Address and End IP Address, respectively. If it's not that, you might want to expand it. Next, click the Connection list link and see what devices have IP addresses. I'm wondering if, over time, the router has seen enough devices come and go that it's run out of dynamic IP addresses. It should reuse IP addresses where the lease has expired, but I've seen routers that try to reserve used IPs to give back to a device when it reappears (even if it never will), and don't want to reassign them. You might have to delete some of the old entries (or reset the router back to factory defaults) if that seems to be the case. (I'm not sure if the G1100 gives you a way to clean up the list of leased IP addresses, but resetting the router would do it. That's a rather drastic approach.)

If only some devices are having issues with getting IP addresses, you could try assigning them static IP addresses in the G1100 (by MAC address). That is done through the Advanced --> IP Address Distribution --> Connection list and clicking the Add static connection + link.  You need the MAC address of course. For Windows PCs, it's part of the information returned in the ipconfig /all command. Android phones usually display it in the same area they show the IP address. (If you set a fixed IP address for an Android device, make sure that Randomized MAC is turned off on the device.)

There is also a possibility of some type of intermittent DNS server issue, but try out these things first.