Could the Sparky have damaged my router?

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Kiwifruta

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#252774 11-Jul-2019 09:57

Hi.

On Tuesday morning the Sparky came around to wire up the garage door opener. He choose to hook up the wiring to the same circuit breaker that the ONT, router, switch, AP and SAM Knows box are connected to.

While he did his work he disconnected the power for a short time.

Once the power was back on the internet wouldn't connected. The lights on the ONT, router, switch, AP and SAM Knows box were working perfectly, but there was no internet connection via the AP nor ethernet cable to the PC.

So I logged in to the router, an Ubiquiti ER-Lite, the WAN interface eth0.10 had a public IP address. From the router I could ping 8.8.8.8 but not www.google.com, but pinging 8.8.8.8 and www.google.com from the PC would fail (time out?). I suspected a DNS issue.

Called the ISP, which ran some tests and said the ONT was fine and so was their connection to the ONT. Which narrowed down the fault to the router.

I have a couple of scripts for unblocking geo-restrictions and forcing google safesearch, so I thought the configuration file might have got corrupted, but reloading the configuration file made no difference.

In the end I resolved the issue by upgrading the firmware from v1.10 to v2.04. I didn't try reinstalling v1.10. So I suspect that an extra surge of power somehow corrupted the firmware.

Note, that this entire process to get the internet working again took about 36 hours. 36 hours without Netflix and Youtube during the school holidays, was actually a blessing because the 4 kids went outside for the day!

Is it likely that there was also physical damage router?

(This may or may not be related, but strangely, when I ssh in to the router it says something about the firmware (v2.04), I followed the instruction, but the next time I sshed in I had the same message. I confirmed the router is running from v2.04 and it's the default firmware. v1.10 is still on the router, but just as a backup if required. The router runs fine regardless. Perhaps it's worthwhile getting a spare nano USB with the firmware and config file on it.)

Cheers

chevrolux

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#2274533 11-Jul-2019 11:15

You probably checked this, but you didn't have a uncommitted config running perhaps? So on reboot, it was lost and returned to the last committed config?

Kiwifruta

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#2274539 11-Jul-2019 11:20

chevrolux:
You probably checked this, but you didn't have a uncommitted config running perhaps? So on reboot, it was lost and returned to the last committed config?

I didn’t check this. Re-uploading the configuration file would have committed it too, wouldn’t it?

chevrolux

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#2274655 11-Jul-2019 15:07

Kiwifruta:
chevrolux:

You probably checked this, but you didn't have a uncommitted config running perhaps? So on reboot, it was lost and returned to the last committed config?

I didn’t check this. Re-uploading the configuration file would have committed it too, wouldn’t it?

I wouldn't think so. But it would run on the re-uploaded config.

Generally a config wouldn't be committed (on any piece of kit, not just EdgeRouter), until the user actually says to do it.

I would take a punt here though and say @michaelmurfy probably knows what might have happened. I think of everyone on here he has screwed the Edgerouter's the most!

JeremyNzl

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#2274705 11-Jul-2019 15:37

Has to be configuration based, commit or corruption from power up and down

Edge router will be fed from a stepped down 24v supply not 230v,

Connecting and disconnecting a 230v supply at a domestic level would not produce enough inrush current to low volt or spike the router.

Batman

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#2274709 11-Jul-2019 15:56

i'm guessing totally unrelated but interestingly, when i reboot my router it only connects on the second reboot, sometimes third. never when you reboot it once.

bignose

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#2274716 11-Jul-2019 16:11

remember that the ER-lite has a reputation for killing it's internal USB pendrive - so if your upgraded and now working ER-lite suddenly stops again next time you upgrade (hence triggering switch to the other 1/2 of the flash memory) you'll know you need to replace the memory - been there, done that

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Kiwifruta

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#2274722 11-Jul-2019 16:29

bignose:
remember that the ER-lite has a reputation for killing it's internal USB pendrive - so if your upgraded and now working ER-lite suddenly stops again next time you upgrade (hence triggering switch to the other 1/2 of the flash memory) you'll know you need to replace the memory - been there, done that

Best for me to buy another USB stick sooner rather than later then.

Kiwifruta

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#2274723 11-Jul-2019 16:29

bignose:
remember that the ER-lite has a reputation for killing it's internal USB pendrive - so if your upgraded and now working ER-lite suddenly stops again next time you upgrade (hence triggering switch to the other 1/2 of the flash memory) you'll know you need to replace the memory - been there, done that

Best for me to buy another USB stick sooner rather than later then.

bignose

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#2274724 11-Jul-2019 16:35

Kiwifruta:
bignose:

remember that the ER-lite has a reputation for killing it's internal USB pendrive - so if your upgraded and now working ER-lite suddenly stops again next time you upgrade (hence triggering switch to the other 1/2 of the flash memory) you'll know you need to replace the memory - been there, done that

Best for me to buy another USB stick sooner rather than later then.

this is probably the easiest way to generate a suitable USB image

https://github.com/sowbug/mkeosimg

it's even more fun dealing with the flash going bad on an er-x (since it's not replacable)

Kiwifruta

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#2274727 11-Jul-2019 16:38

bignose:

this is probably the easiest way to generate a suitable USB image

https://github.com/sowbug/mkeosimg

it's even more fun dealing with the flash going bad on an er-x (since it's not replacable)

Beautiful! Thank you.