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DHCP Lease - timings

Lawsofphysics
On our wavelength

I'm hopeful that there is a simple answer to a problem I've been having.

I work from home and sign in via a work VPN (Global Protect) and have had an issue for some time that the same time every day, the VPN would be interrupted I would need to sign back in and re-authenticate. This can be very disruptive in the middle of a meeting, for example. After lots of investigation - home and office - I recently noticed that the time of this is exactly the same time as my DHCP lease renewal.

For information, I have a mesh system (Tenda MW3) attached to the SH3. It appears to be the primary node which has the lease renewal time. I attempted to reset this by changing the time to late night - and I thought I'd cracked it - but it somehow changed again to this morning (a new time) and the reauthentication issue happened again. Has something else triggered the new time?

I have run a fault check and there are no issues. My BQM is below. I can attach upstream/downstream data if helpful. I won't do it unsolicited just yet.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/079ade288efbb65608f291deac98a97516...

Advice and tips gratefully received.

 

Thanks

Kev

3 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
The Hub router is a basic device the Tenda will be an improvement and be more flexible. Set it up in this sequence.

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Select the first Tenda unit that will be plugged into the Hub and then set it up to be in DHCP & Nat mode, and then disconnect all cables from it and unplug it - switch all the other Tenda's off and unplug them too.

Then put the VM Hub into modem mode ( see:- https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-hub-modem-mode ) and wait a few minuutes for the base light to turn magenta/purple (on a Hub3 - but not on a Hub4!) and initialise.

Once it’s in modem mode, the VM hub “MUST” then be powered off. Make sure it’s fully initialised (leave 5 min) and then put in the WAN cable to the VM hub. - NOW… power up the VM hub and you should get a connection after it initialises in a few minutes.

Switch the other tenda's on and use the recommended App to connect other Mesh units to the first one. This order only needs to be done the first time you connect the router to the VM hub.

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John
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I do not work for VM. My services: HD TV on VIP (+ Sky Sports & Movies & BT sport), x3 V6 boxes (1 wired, 2 on WiFi) Hub5 in modem mode with Apple Airport Extreme Router +2 Airport Express's & TP-Link Archer C64 WAP. On Volt 350Mbps, Talk Anytime Phone, x2 Mobile SIM only iPhones.

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If you're on 200 Mbps, and the wifi connectivity problems are continuing, then it may be time to ditch the MW3 and buy something a bit more capable.  When it works, Tenda gear is superb value, but it is a little prone to odd connectivity problems, and the MW3 is further hobbled by only having 100 Mbps ports, meaning that the maximum speed (and bandwidth shared by all wifi devices) is limited to around 95 Mbps in the real world.  I really wouldn't put an MW3 as router with a hub in modem mode unless this is on a VM 100 Mbps line.

I'm using a TP-Link Deco M4 on a 200 Mbps line, and that or the newer Deco S4 would be good lowish cost options that'd still be competent up to about 500 Mbps, although speeds via secondary nodes will always be slower on the secondary nodes of dual band mesh systems like these.  You could spend a lot more and get fancy, hopefully future proof mesh that features Wifi 6 and tri-band capability, that's a valid choice if you've got the money but overkill for most people.    

And with a more competent mesh, it's always best as others have said to put the hub in modem mode and let the mesh work as the designers intended.

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That's logical.  But as a possible workaround that costs nothing, why not enable only the Hub's 5 GHz wifi with full manual settings (not the "intelligent wifi" nonsense or auto channel selection), let that exist alongside the MW3's wireless, and use the Hub's 5 GHz signal solely for the work PC?

That might avoid any MW3 related DHCP furkling, although depends on the hub's wifi reach.

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17 REPLIES 17

Tudor
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

You need to read up the Tenda instructions as I assume you have the VM hub in modem mode and the Tenda in router mode. You could set the renew period to say 1 week instead of 1 day or better still give your machine a real fixed IP address so it does not have to use DHCP. 


Tudor
There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary and those who don't and F people out of 10 who do not understand hexadecimal c1a2a285948293859940d9a49385a2

Thanks Tudor. I had a feeling I might miss out something useful.

The SH3 isn't in modem mode, but the WiFi is switched off. The Tenda Mesh is in bridge mode.

I did give the lease time to be a shorter time (5 mins I think) in order to reset the lease period but it didn't take effect. I eventually did it by switching of fthe mesh, refreshing the DHCP, then switching the mesh back on late last night. However, it has reset to a morning time, even though I set it for 24 hours. Happy to try a week lease, but it doesn't solve the timing problem.

However, I'm intrigued by the second idea. How can I give it a fixed address? Are there instructions on this site?

Thanks

Use modem mode.

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ravenstar68
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

I think you're putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5 here.

As long as a device is connected to a network DHCP leases SHOULDN'T time out.

What normally happens is that at around 50% of lease time, a device will request a lease renewal from the device that gave out the lease.  The DHCP server will then normally send back an ACK and all that happens is that the client updates the lease timer.  Admittedly there is a possibility of the DHCP server sending a NACK, but normally that wouldn't happen.

Tim

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Adduxi
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@Lawsofphysics wrote:

Thanks Tudor. I had a feeling I might miss out something useful.

The SH3 isn't in modem mode, but the WiFi is switched off. The Tenda Mesh is in bridge mode. <snip>


Why on earth are you not using the Mesh system as your main Router?  Absolutely the Hub should be in Modem mode.  You will find the routing and other aspects of networking are far superior on the Mesh than the ISP supplied router (Hub) 

 

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Thanks for the advice.

 

The answer to the question of why not modem mode is simply because the engineer recommended the current set-up when it was installed. Who am I to question the 'expert' view of the best way to configuring the SH3?

I've been very open that I've not tried to diagnose the problem, but spotted an interesting repeating pattern. I'll try modem mode later when nobody else is using the internet and hopefully that will resolve matters. I'm still intrigued by the question of if/when/how the lease renewal is disrupting the work VPN - it is a coincidence that keeps happening. Maybe that will have to stay an academic question.

Thanks

Just to be clear, sorry. The connection to the wifi appears to be stable during the lease renewal time. But the authenticated VPN connection is dropped and I need to re-authenticate. This is the dispruption.

Kev

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
The Hub router is a basic device the Tenda will be an improvement and be more flexible. Set it up in this sequence.

---------------------

Select the first Tenda unit that will be plugged into the Hub and then set it up to be in DHCP & Nat mode, and then disconnect all cables from it and unplug it - switch all the other Tenda's off and unplug them too.

Then put the VM Hub into modem mode ( see:- https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-hub-modem-mode ) and wait a few minuutes for the base light to turn magenta/purple (on a Hub3 - but not on a Hub4!) and initialise.

Once it’s in modem mode, the VM hub “MUST” then be powered off. Make sure it’s fully initialised (leave 5 min) and then put in the WAN cable to the VM hub. - NOW… power up the VM hub and you should get a connection after it initialises in a few minutes.

Switch the other tenda's on and use the recommended App to connect other Mesh units to the first one. This order only needs to be done the first time you connect the router to the VM hub.

--------------------
John
--------------------

I do not work for VM. My services: HD TV on VIP (+ Sky Sports & Movies & BT sport), x3 V6 boxes (1 wired, 2 on WiFi) Hub5 in modem mode with Apple Airport Extreme Router +2 Airport Express's & TP-Link Archer C64 WAP. On Volt 350Mbps, Talk Anytime Phone, x2 Mobile SIM only iPhones.

 

@LawsofphysicsWhat speed is your VM connection?