My old router (connected to a cable modem) tends to drop wifi every 24 hours or so, so I thought I would get another one. I tried two, the Linksys WRT1200AC of the subject line, and a Netgear AC router. Neitehr one worked.

I would get the modem and router started, then boot my desktop. The indicator light would go on as it powered up, then would turn off in mid-boot. The desktop uses dhcp with no pre-assigned address. It works correctly on the old (Netgear) router, and worked on the one before that. It works plugging into the modem directly. But this behavior baffles me. Of course tech support at Linksys is no help. They asked if I had plugged in the ethernet cable. Sheesh.

Has anyone heard of such a problem? My desktop is a shuttle, with debian testing.
The network logs say that DHCPDISCOVER is never answered, so it gives up.

Hello and welcome to LQ.

Kind of a difficult for a one line answer.

Let us start with the router and let's assume you have a dedicated modem that you'd attach to the wan port of the router.

On normal start up on most soho routers, they should offer a dhcp address. If your linux has some static in it or it is not refreshing the lease then you may have to put a static ip in linux to contact the router. Then the first thing I'd do is try to access the router's gui.

What indicator are you referencing?

If the desktop works directly connected to the MODEM then I assume its functioning correctly and so something else is the problem. Not sure about your ISP but it is not uncommon for only one IP address to be assigned based upon the connected devices ISP. If you swap routers or your desktop cables connected to the MODEM make sure you cycle the MODEM's power. This will erase the MODEMs volatile memory.

What do you mean by can't connect? The desktop using DHCP should acquire an IP address if connected to a router regardless of the WAN side. You should be able to ping the router as well as access its web configuration pages.

First, to reply to jefro: Yes, I am connecting the router to a dedicated cable modem attached to the wan port of the router, then I attach the desktop machine to the router's LAN ports. I have tried several of the ports. As far as I can tell there are no static address on the machine. With the old router (which I am using now since the new one won't work), I do have the desktop directed to a fixed local LAN IP, but that is a function of the router (netgear), but that should stay with the router.

One bad thing, the result of ifconfig eth0 reports the same HWaddr as it does with the old router, so I guess something in the machine expects the old router to still be there. How do I tell it otherwise? But it also reports a new inet address. on the old router it is 10.... and in the new one it was 192.168.... I believe (I failed to print that, will try again. So, you think I should put a static IP address in the desktop? I will try that for the next boot.

To michaelk: The indicator light I meant was an led on the front of the new router indicating connections. It lights up for the port I plugged into for a while, while my boot process is looking for the right video settings (it's a long story with my Shuttle machine, but that has to be set manually to get decent resolution). Once the machine has done that (it takes exactly one minute), then the indicator light goes off, meaning, I presume, that the connection has been terminated by either the computer or the router.

/var/log/upstart/network-interface-eth0.log reports

DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
(lots of times), then
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

whereas the old router gives

DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPOFFER from 10.0.0.1
DHCPACK from 10.0.0.1
bound to 10.0.0.109 -- renewal in 37242 seconds.


So, if it really is this HWaddr issue, how do I reset it?

I can't see how a static IP or something like that could be causing the problem (though it might solve it!), since connecting the cable from the computer to the modem directly works fine. But then the phones, tablets, and my wife's laptop would not work, and that would be bad.

The desktop has no wifi built-in, and would require a card of some sort, but with no space in this little computer it'd have to be external, and more money than it is worth. I would like to get a more stable and faster (is it??) router working with this computer and the other devices. But this is a RPITA.

More to michaelk Can't connect means I can't ping the router, or anything else. No traffic seems to get through. I will print out the output of ifconfig in a few minutes.

Well, no luck so far. Ifconfig actually had no useful network information at all, no inet addr, etc. I tried setting a static IP, but again the connection went dead (the led on the router went out) during the boot. I tried installing NetworkManager (I had not needed it before). No difference.

The desktop PC is not acquiring anything from the router; it seems not to know it is there (and conversely). ifup eth0 does not help. I am very frustrated with this; any help would be appreciated -- and I thank the two of you who tried so far.

If you see a router flying out the window, that would be my house.

A quick test would to try a live CD to see to verify a configuration issue. The link light should stay illuminated

Put the old router in and see what it does. Maybe the cable was damaged? Dunno. Wild guessing here.

Live cd ought to help half split the problem.

Just a follow-up. I gave up on the router, took it back and got another one, not an AC router, but an Asus RTN-66U. Plugged it in, turned everything on, and it worked perfectly out of the box. Thank God that Best Buy has a good returns policy.

Thanks for the follow up. Please mark the thread as solved via the thread tools pull down menu at the top.