ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network

ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network

ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-14 14:27:24 - last edited 2024-07-12 08:29:11
Model: ER706W-4G  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: _V1_1.0.4 Build 20240329

Hello, we bought the new router ER706W-4G. After installing I have problems pinging my devices after several minutes of inactivity (payment terminal, thermal printer, other printers). It looks like these devices go in sort of sleeping mode and then some pings don't work.

When using the ISP modem directly, I don't have this issues. It's only with the router. All devices are connected directly to the router with cable.

I already configured a different subnet, did IP mac binding, and for the rest I am just using the default router settings in a simple network setup.

 

An example of ping: 

PING 192.168.25.5 (192.168.25.5): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
64 bytes from 192.168.25.5: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=100.129 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.25.5: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=81.342 ms

It's mostly the first 3 pings that don't work (after several minutes of inactivity).

Our POS system gives errors because it cannot find the terminal or printer. After several tries it works, but it is not ideal.

So for now we changed back to our ISP modem, but we hope on using the router soon because we want to have control over the network.

Someone any idea what the problem is? Is it a problem because it is a new router? I also tried the latest firmware, but it didn't fix the issue. 

Many thanks! 

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#1
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1 Accepted Solution
Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network-Solution
2024-07-12 08:29:01 - last edited 2024-07-12 08:29:11

Hi @KTS-UK 

Thanks for posting in our business forum.

KTS-UK wrote

  @MisterW Hi there, I have the exact same problem.

 

I'm in the UK and my ISP (BT Business) supplied a BT smart hub.

 

I swapped it out for an ER706W and I have added an OC200 controller.

 

I've set up a lot of networks using Omada kit without issue.  The problem I'm having in this situation is that all WiFi devices do not respond to pings, whereas all my wired devices do.

 

All my wifi devices (multiple TP Link Tapo P110 plugs, Tapo cameras, wifi strip lights, Meross power strips, Amazon Echo devices, phones, iPads, laptops etc) do not respond.

 

Yet, they are all working, can be seen on the network and all other functions appear normal.

 

I'm interested in this thread and would appreciate it if there was an update or solution.  Many thanks

The issue has been located to be the ARP. This will be optimized in the future firmware update. Currently, we have a beta for this problem. You may click this and download it.

Best Regards! If you are new to the forum, please read: Howto - A Guide to Use Forum Effectively. Read Before You Post. Look for a model? Search your model NOW Official and Beta firmware. NEW features! Subscribe for the latest update!Download Beta Here☚ ☛ ★ Configuration Guide ★ ☚ ☛ ★ Knowledge Base ★ ☚ ☛ ★ Troubleshooting ★ ☚ ● Be kind and nice. ● Stay on the topic. ● Post details. ● Search first. ● Please don't take it for granted. ● No email confidentiality should be violated. ● S/N, MAC, and your true public IP should be mosaiced.
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#21
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20 Reply
Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-15 01:15:55

Hi @nui_p 

Thanks for posting in our business forum.

This is not a problem with the router.

If your device enters sleep mode after a while, you should turn off the battery saving or any green mode.

It is a router that just sends and forwards the network frames to the destination and it is not involved in your power-related or sleep/hibernate-related things.

As long as the ping to the gateway is okay, LAN 192.168.0.1, default, it indicates it is working fine.

Best Regards! If you are new to the forum, please read: Howto - A Guide to Use Forum Effectively. Read Before You Post. Look for a model? Search your model NOW Official and Beta firmware. NEW features! Subscribe for the latest update!Download Beta Here☚ ☛ ★ Configuration Guide ★ ☚ ☛ ★ Knowledge Base ★ ☚ ☛ ★ Troubleshooting ★ ☚ ● Be kind and nice. ● Stay on the topic. ● Post details. ● Search first. ● Please don't take it for granted. ● No email confidentiality should be violated. ● S/N, MAC, and your true public IP should be mosaiced.
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#2
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-15 05:59:27 - last edited 2024-04-15 06:15:20

  @Clive_A 

 

Hey, thanks for the fast replay.

 

I think I didn't express myself clearly enough.

 

I don't mean they are going into sleep mode. It 'feels like' they go in a sort of sleep mode.

 

These are business devices that need to be accessable all the time (payment terminal, thermal printer).

 

I'm 100% sure it is a problem with the router, because with another router (or the default ISP modem) I don't have this problem. So it's not the device that is going into sleep.

 

The ping just feels like it is in sort of sleep after some inactivity. 

 

We really tried everything (with terminal expert, netwerk experts, and POS system expert), just to conclude I went back to the simple ISP modem to fix the problem... So pretty sure there is some sort of bug in the new router, or another default setting I don't know of that is causing the problem. 

 

I really would like to use the router because of the 4G option, so would be nice to see an option to debug this.

Is there any possibility that the router ignores the first 3 pings after some inactivity? 

 

Thanks for checking again. If you need some more information, please ask!

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#3
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-15 06:22:58

Hi @nui_p 

Thanks for posting in our business forum.

nui_p wrote

  @Clive_A 

 

Hey, thanks for the fast replay.

 

I think I didn't express myself clearly enough.

 

I don't mean they are going into sleep mode. It 'feels like' they go in a sort of sleep mode.

 

These are business devices that need to be accessable all the time (payment terminal, thermal printer).

 

I'm 100% sure it is a problem with the router, because with another router (or the default ISP modem) I don't have this problem. So it's not the device that is going into sleep.

 

The ping just feels like it is in sort of sleep after some inactivity. 

 

We really tried everything (with terminal expert, netwerk experts, and POS system expert), just to conclude I went back to the simple ISP modem to fix the problem... So pretty sure there is some sort of bug in the new router, or another default setting I don't know of that is causing the problem. 

 

I really would like to use the modem because of the 4G option, so would be nice to see an option to debug this.

Is there any possibility that the router ignores the first 3 pings after some inactivity? 

 

Thanks for checking again. If you need some more information, please ask!

So, your ICMP seems to be done on macOS? Maybe it is your system? Have you done it on a Windows?

TBH, I haven't encountered any problems during the years of testing with the ping. Never experienced any ping problems like this. I am confident that it is rare to be the router problem. I indeed faced ping problems before and I was pretty sure that was either my mistake or misconfig. If they are through, they work well.

 

I was also in the alpha test with ER706W-4G with my Windows 10, 11, and Linux VM. And with the very early firmware which was never public and during the test I did with it, I did not experience the same issue over the VPN tunnels and LAN.

 

If you are looking for further troubleshooting, run two computers on the router, not switch, ping each other, and monitor if there is any loss. If there is no loss, then you cannot say it is the problem with the router. Pick one of your payment devices, repeat the test. Stop pinging and start again after a while to repeat and see if you can steadily reproduce the problem.

I also recommended you ping the gateway to monitor if there is any loss, that was not answered but with a statement that you asserted it is not a problem with the devices yet the router.

 

You probably should show your diagram, too.

 

Please mosaic your sensitive information. Here is a list of information considered sensitive:

1. Public IP address on your WAN if your WAN is.

2. Real MAC address of your device.

3. Your personal information including address, domain name, and credentials.

For troubleshooting purposes, when a WAN IP is needed, please leave some values visible for identification.

Best Regards! If you are new to the forum, please read: Howto - A Guide to Use Forum Effectively. Read Before You Post. Look for a model? Search your model NOW Official and Beta firmware. NEW features! Subscribe for the latest update!Download Beta Here☚ ☛ ★ Configuration Guide ★ ☚ ☛ ★ Knowledge Base ★ ☚ ☛ ★ Troubleshooting ★ ☚ ● Be kind and nice. ● Stay on the topic. ● Post details. ● Search first. ● Please don't take it for granted. ● No email confidentiality should be violated. ● S/N, MAC, and your true public IP should be mosaiced.
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#4
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-15 06:45:00

  @Clive_A 

Thanks again for the fast reply.

We did a lot of testing already. I'm indeed pinging from my macbook, because that was the most easy way to test.

But we have the same ping problem when pinging from Windows (our POS system. After 5 / 10 mins the devices don't react anymore and printing a ticket, or doing a payment give an error the first time. When I cancel the transaction and do it again, then it works. I see the same results when doing simple pings in Windows Terminal - first 3 pings fails, then succeed) to the payment terminal, thermal printer, label printer after some inactivity. I have a feeling it only happens with these kind of devices. But it only happens with this router, not with another router, and not when directly connected to ISP modem which is indeed very strange! We are already in business for 4 years. We changed to this router because we wanted 4G backup, and control over the network within the Omada system.


The most basic setup we already tested with, and also encounter the problem:

 

Router: 

   LAN: Payment terminal
   LAN: Thermal printer
   LAN: Windows PC (POS)

 

No other devices connected. 

Default settings of the router (no omada controller). 

 

I think pinging the router itself works fine (I'll test it later today when in the business). That's the weird part, I THINK it only happens with devices like the payment terminal, thermal printer, label printer. 

I'll keep you posted later today. 

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#5
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-15 08:18:57

  @nui_p 

 

Sounds like it could be an ARP cache issue. Printers don't tend to 'speak' unless they are spoken to so there's no traffic from them to keep the ARP cache entry updated.

Could be that the ARP cache timout is longer on your ISP router and so you dont see the problem unless the printer isnt used for a very long time.

 

@Clive_A  what is the ARP cache timeout on the 7206 ? can it be changed ? can a static ARP entry be set using /etc/ethers ?

 

If the 7206 is based on an early version of Openwrt (like other models) then the ARP cache may well be defaulted to around 30 seconds. 

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#6
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-15 15:56:01

  @MisterW 

 

Thank you for thinking with me! That sounds indeed like a possible problem. 
 

I tried SSH into the router and was able to find the config menu. These are my options:

 

(config)#help

 

Commands available:

  help                                                 Show available commands

  exit                                                 Exit from current mode

  show system-info                                     Display system information.

  show history                                         Display command history.

  show monitor session                                 Display session information.

  show interface status                                Display interface status information.

  show interface switchport                            Display interface switch port information.

  show interface vlan                                  Display interface VLAN information.

  show arp                                             Display ARP entry information.

  show vlan                                            Display VLAN information.

  show vlan summary                                    Display summary of VLAN information.

  show ikev1 policy                                    Display ikev1 module entry information.

  show ikev2 policy                                    Display ikev2 module entry information.

  show transform-set                                   Display transform-set module entry information.

  show crypto map                                      Display map module entry information.

  show crypto ipsec sa                                 Display the SA information of the established IPSec.

  show all ikev1 policy                                Display all ikev1 module entry information.

  show all ikev2 policy                                Display all ikev2 module entry information.

  show all transform-set                               Display all transform-set module entry information.

  show all crypto map                                  Display all map module entry information.

  show access-list                                     Display entry information of ACL rules.

  show system-time                                     Display system time.

  show system-time ntp                                 Display system NTP server address.

  show time-range                                      Display time-range module entry information.

  show ip rip                                          Display RIP interface information.

  show ip ospf                                         Display ospf information.

  show ip ospf database                                Display the database information of OSPF.

  show ip ospf neighbor                                Display OSPF neighbor table information.

  show ip ospf interface                               Display the interface information of OSPF.

  show ip route static                                 Display entry information of static IP route.

  show ip dhcp server pool                             View DHCP server address pool.

  show ip dhcp server status                           Check DHCP server status.

  show ip http configuration                           Display http configuration.

  show network                                         Display OSPF network information.

  show nat virtual-server                              Display the entry information of NAT virtual-server.

  show nat one-to-one                                  Display the entry information of one-to-one NAT.

  show nat alg                                         Display the entry information of NAT ALG.

  show dhcp server                                     Display DHCP server information.

  show dhcp server client-list                         View DHCP server client information

  show dhcp relay                                      Display DHCP relay information.

  show snmp-server                                     Display SNMP server configuration.

  show ssh configuration                               Display SSH configuration information.

  clear history                                        Clear previously run commands.

  monitor session port                                 Set the observation port number.

  monitor session source port                          Set the mirrored port number.

  monitor session enable                               Turn on port mirroring.

  monitor session ingress                              Observe the received data stream.

  monitor session egress                               Observe the sent data stream.

  monitor session both                                 Observe the number of received and sent data streams.

  no monitor session                                   Disable port mirroring or delete monitor session/monitor session source port.

  no monitor session source port                       Delete monitor session source port.

  no monitor session enable                            Disable port mirroring.

  no vlan                                              Delete VLAN.

  no crypto ikev1 policy                               Delete the ikev1 module entry.

  no crypto ikev2 policy                               Delete the ikev2 module entry.

  no crypto transform-set                              Remove the transform-set module entry.

  no crypto map                                        Delete the map module entry.

  no access-list ip                                    Delete the name of the ACL rule.

  no time-range                                        Remove the time-range entry.

  no router rip                                        Disable RIP.

  no router ospf                                       Disable OSPF.

  no ip route                                          Remove IP route entry.

  no ip dhcp server pool                               Delete the DHCP server address pool.

  no ip http server redirect-to-https                  Cancel http-to-https auto redirection.

  no ip http secure-server                             Disable https service.

  no nat alg                                           Delete NAT ALG entry.

  no nat virtual-server                                Delete NAT virtual-server entry.

  no nat one-to-one                                    Delete one-to-one NAT entry.

  no service dhcp server                               Turn off DHCP.

  no snmp-server v3 enable                             Reset SNMP v3 configuration.

  no snmp-server v1-v2c enable                         Disable SNMP version 1 and version 2.

  no snmp-server v1-v2c contact                        Reset the contact information of the SNMP server.

  no snmp-server v1-v2c host                           Reset the host information of the SNMP server.

  no snmp-server v1-v2c device-name                    Reset the device name information of the SNMP server.

  no snmp-server v1-v2c location                       Reset the location information of the SNMP server.

  no snmp-server v1-v2c community                      Reset the community information of the SNMP server.

  no ssh server                                        Disable SSH service.

  interface vlan                                       Enter interface mode by vlan id

  interface switchport                                 Enter interface mode by port

  vlan                                                 Create new VLAN.

  router vlan                                          Enter VLAN view.

  router rip                                           Enable RIP and enter RIP view.

  router ospf                                          Enable OSPF and enter OSPF view.

  crypto ikev1 policy                                  Create a new ikev1 module entry.

  crypto ikev2 policy                                  Create a new ikev2 module entry.

  crypto ipsec transform-set                           New transform-set module entry.

  crypto map                                           Create a map module entry.

  access-list ip rule deny                             Deny access, configure ACL related information.

  access-list ip rule permit                           Allow access and configure ACL related information.

  system-time manual                                   Manually set the system time.

  system-time ntp timezone ntp-server1                 Set preferred NTP server address

  system-time ntp timezone ntp-server1 ntp-server2     Set the secondary NTP server address

  local-user username password                         Set local user password.

  time-range week-date time-slice                      Configure time-range time.

  ip route                                             Add IP route.

  ip dhcp server pool                                  Create a DHCP server address pool and enter the DHCP configuration view.

  ip http port                                         Set http port number.

  ip http server redirect-to-https                     Set http-to-https auto redirection.

  ip http secure-port                                  Set https port number.

  ip http secure-server                                Enable https server.

  ip http session timeout                              Set http session timeout.

  nat alg                                              Turn on a NAT ALG function.

  nat virtual-server                                   Create NAT virtual-server.

  nat one-to-one                                       Create one-to-one NAT.

  service dhcp server                                  Enable DHCP.

  snmp-server v3 username password enable              Enable SNMP server v3.

  snmp-server v1-v2c enable                            Enable SNMP version 1 and version 2.

  snmp-server v1-v2c contact                           Set SNMP server contact.

  snmp-server v1-v2c host                              Set SNMP server host.

  snmp-server v1-v2c device-name                       Set SNMP server device name.

  snmp-server v1-v2c location                          Set SNMP server location.

  snmp-server v1-v2c community                         Set SNMP server community.

  ssh server                                           Enable SSH service.


I don't really find an option to check the ARP timeout cache.

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#7
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-15 16:23:07 - last edited 2024-04-15 16:25:06

  @nui_p 

 

but there IS a 'show arp'  command which I'm guessing will show the arp cache entries.

It would be interesting to see if there are entries for the printers before and after trying the ping command

If there's a change in the entries for the printers, then you could try repeating the show arp command and see if/when the entries disappear!

 

 

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#8
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-16 01:24:46

Hi 

 

@MisterW Thanks for your insight on this. It indeed looks promising in fixing this problem.

 

@nui_p Can you show the ARP cache?

If possible, can you bind the IP and MAC? Do the binding? See if this is helpful in resolving your issue on this.

Best Regards! If you are new to the forum, please read: Howto - A Guide to Use Forum Effectively. Read Before You Post. Look for a model? Search your model NOW Official and Beta firmware. NEW features! Subscribe for the latest update!Download Beta Here☚ ☛ ★ Configuration Guide ★ ☚ ☛ ★ Knowledge Base ★ ☚ ☛ ★ Troubleshooting ★ ☚ ● Be kind and nice. ● Stay on the topic. ● Post details. ● Search first. ● Please don't take it for granted. ● No email confidentiality should be violated. ● S/N, MAC, and your true public IP should be mosaiced.
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#9
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-16 11:44:52 - last edited 2024-04-16 12:04:46

  @Clive_A 

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

When doing a simple ping from local computer to the printer (or terminal), the ARP list is not updated (even if the ping is successful).

When doing a ping from router to printer (or terminal), the ARP list is updated and the printer is visible in the ARP list:

 

 

It dissapears again after about 3-5 minutes. 

 

IP-MAC binding was already tested as mentioned in my first post. Then the IP+MAC is visible all the time in the ARP list with the type "Local" instead of "Dynamic". But that didn't help.

 

A possible solution that seems to be working: cron job that pings the printer / terminal every 2 minutes, but this can't be a long term fix for me. 

Is there a way to change the ARP cache timeout of the router to see if that's the problem?

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#10
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Re:ER706W-4G - Problems pinging devices on local network
2024-04-16 14:22:43 - last edited 2024-04-16 14:24:42

  @nui_p 

When doing a simple ping from local computer to the printer (or terminal), the ARP list is not updated (even if the ping is successful).

When doing a ping from router to printer (or terminal), the ARP list is updated and the printer is visible in the ARP list:

 

Thinking about it a bit more, that's sort of to be expected, pinging the printer from the local pc will cause the pc to update ITS arp cache and not neccessarily the routers although any reply from the printer will be seen by the router.

 

Does the fact that the router doesnt have an arp entry for the printer definitely correspond with not being able to print ?

What protocol is being used to print ?

 

 

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#11
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