DMA2200 Lockup issue work-around

[hokie21]

I set my two Linksys DMA2200 Media Center extenders up maybe 9 months ago. They both worked really well --- Until about about 3 months ago. Then I would see them both frequently freeze. If I looked at the log on my Windows 7 Media Center I would see the message, "Media Center Extender user was abruptly disconnected" Event ID = 117 Task Category = Session Enforcement.

How strange I thought. What has changed? What really worked well a few months ago now wouldn't go more than 30 to 60 minutes before freezing. I searched the Internet and found many reports of this problem, but I found no solutions.

Using Wireshark I was able to capture the event and it's clear what is going on. Since I've implemented my work-around, I've had no freezing problems at all. The DMA2200s are now both "rock-solid."

I had streaming media running from the Media Center to the extender. What I found just before the freeze event was that my daughters Samsung Galaxy tablet would ARP, get the address of the media center extender and would then make a TCP connection to the Media Center attempting to gather the Media Center's UpNP device description file. Apparently DMA2200 doesn't like this much. DMA2200 doesn't provide a proper reply. Galaxy Tab tries again. The Media Center Extender application on the DMA2200 appears to die as it reports "ICMP Destination Unreachable (Port Unreachable). The IP stack on the DMA2200 doesn't die, but continues to function normally and the DMA2200 will respond to pings and will provide other ICMP responses. The Media Center notices that the Extender is no longer acking the streaming video data and then attempts to diagnose the link issue by using a qWAVE bandwidth diagnostic. The DMA2200 application is dead at this point and doesn't respond. The Media Center logs event 117 and Media Center Extender is now locked up.

If this were a supported product, the solution would be for Linksys to fix the firmware so that it couldn't be crashed by this UpNP query. Since Linksys isn't supporting this product any longer, the only solution is to prevent this traffic from ever hitting the Extender. (My daughter didn't volunteer to take her tablet off the network). It's likely that other modern media devices would have a similar issue. When the DMA was being developed years ago, this Android tablet scenario no doubt couldn't be tested. It's also likely that other modern media devices would make a similar UpNP query of the DMA.

My solution was to segregate the media center network from the normal household LAN. I did this using my Netgear GS108t Smart switch to segregate the switch into two logical switches using the switch VLAN function. I connected an Ethernet jumper cable between the two logical switches. I added a MAC ACL to the ingress port for the media center VLAN that only passes traffic from the mac address of the media center computer and the router/DHCP server. So now the only traffic that can move from the houshold LAN to the media center LAN is media center traffic or DHCP/DNS/Internet traffic. Any traffic is allowed from the Media Center LAN to the household LAN.

Another alternative solution to this problem would be to solve the problem at layer 3 by adding a second NAT router behind the primary router. The media LAN (HD Homerun, Media Center PC and Extenders) would then be connected behind the secondary router. This would still allow the Media Center to get to the Internet for guide data.

I hope that this solution works for you and you can continue to enjoy your DMA2200/DMA2100 for many more years.

[Crash2009]

Wow, you got a grip on this one. Great job! Wonder if all extenders could benefit if they were setup like this? Androids have been problematic on my network too. Haven't looked into it too deep though.

[hokie21]

I doubt there is code reuse between the Linksys extender and Xbox or Ceton extenders. On the other hand it couldn't hurt to segregate the media LAN and see if the situation improves. An even easier temporary solution would be to banish all media capable TVs, smart phones, etc for a few days and see if the freezes stop while those devices are unable to access the LAN.

One other thing I noticed -- momentary disruptions of the network connection to the extender sometimes result in a "would you like to reconnect" type of message. Other times it will cause a lockup similar to the one discussed above. I don't know why the engineers on this product thought you might not want to reconnect. Every other network device I've seen can tolerate a temporary network outage without such issues or manual intervention. Not a good design in my opinion.

[mark1234]

I relegate all the household Android devices to the guest wifi that my router offers. I'm not letting them near my PCs!

[IownFIVEechos]

My first thought was that you could add a firewall rule to block the mac address from incoming requests to the Media Center from any device you want to stay away? Wouldn't that make life a lot less complicated?

[hokie21]

Two problems with that approach.
1. Guest devices may appear on the wifi. It needs to be a "permit" rule rather than a "deny" rule for this reason.
2. The low-end switch that I am using only supports "ingress" rather than both "ingress" and "egress" rules. Egress rules would have simplified it a bit in that I would not have needed a separate VLAN.

A guest WIFI for Android devices would be another good approach to this. I know that my Android device caused the problem in this one case. I suspect that this behavior may not be unique to Android devices and that other types of devices coudl cause a similar reaction from the Media center extender. Best to keep all but required traffic away from the Media Center Extender.

[rabbit1543]

I had noticed this behavior some time back as well. Seems like you have a root cause. And that the s4 is not the only culprit.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=8&t=5311

Looks like vlans can get around this with if your network supports them. I have been avoiding this issue by making a conscious effort not to browse my pictures while an extender is on. I use local network resources via Wi-Fi to often to put them on a guest network. I am able to do vlans but have been too lazy to implement them.Might be time for me to look into fixing this without breaking other things

[hokie21]

Rabbit -- You're right. It does sound like a very similar problem. In our case we didn't even open the Gallery on the Samsung. It appears that it attempts that DLNA discovery just in case you want to share media.

[QingGuy]

This is exactly what my issue is! I was just logging on to update my post (http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=8&t=6846 chirp chirp). My update was going to be that my issue is time of day related, early in the morning through say 4:00 p.m. the extender works great, however, in the evening it freezes every few minutes or so . . . when my son home on his tablet or his Galaxy S4.

So good news bad news. Good news is the cause has been detected, bad news the solution seems far too over my head to implement. Ugh . . .

[hokie21]

There are easy solutions to this issue as well. You don't have to set up VLANs. As another poster mentions, you can use the "guest wifi" function if your router has that. Another option is to purchase a second access point/router. Connect the WAN port of that new AP/router (that would normally be connected to your Cable/DSL modem) to one of the LAN ports of your existing router. Only allow the offending devices to connect to the WIFI on this new AP/router. Don't let them connect to the old AP/router. Make sure "allow multicast" on this new router is disabled. Make sure that the new router is on a different subnet than the existing router (for example, one router on 192.168.0.x and the other on 192.168.1.x). This setup will allow the offending devices to connect to the Internet, but will block any access to other devices on the local network.

[QingGuy]

Thanks, ordered a NETGEAR WNDR3700 N600 that supports Guest. Easiest solution for me. Thanks again!

[QingGuy]

New router with Guest feature solved freezing issue for me. Been running since Saturday and not a single freeze!

[hokie21]

Excellent! Glad to hear it.

[cmgj]

I have had more issues with this. I would like to get this working ok without freeze up's. I also use local network resources via Wi-Fi to often to put them on a guest network. I also have a Chromecast. There are times that it will freeze up (extender) and i don't know what did cause it.

Can someone offer things like instructions for wireshark to monitor, or settings I can use on my tomato router?

Thanks!

[hokie21]

I'd say first make sure you are using a wired network. Using wireless adds additional possibility for issues. I'd then set Wireshark to capture only the IP address of the extender. Remember that for Wireshark to monitor your traffic you need a hub connected in the link between HTPC and extender or you need a "smart" or managed switch set up to mirror your extender switch port. This setup will cause Wireshark to capture all devices that are communicating with the extender. Check Wireshark when the lockup happens. Just prior to the lockup, who was communicating with the extender? What type of message was it sending?

Your Tomato router settings shouldn't matter. I'm assuming that everything is happening within your LAN and that you don't have any traffic going from your LAN to WAN. All your router should be doing is passing traffic between its switch ports which are "dumb" and not affected by (most) any Tomato settings.

[cmgj]

Thanks for the reply, I am unable to do any of the above.

I have determined that the application Serviio, along with the Galaxy Samsung "Photos" Application will lock up the extenders. I am still looking for a viable solution to this problem. I was wondering if there is a way to just block these requests from ever hitting the DMA's with the tomato firmware on my router.

Thanks!

[hokie21]

Look at my response #10. There isn't any way to do this just with your single existing Tomato router. You either need an additional router or a smart switch that will allow you to segregate the LAN traffic. The second router is the less complicated solution.

[blueiedgod]

Because we use multiple (low cost) routers set as AP's throughout the house, using guest network would only work in one part of the house, I ended up setting additional $10 routers WAN-to-LAN with their own IP Ranges, and specific SSID for the Android devices.

[rmalbers]

I just saw this thread when looking for something else. I had a problem with extenders locking when I added a Duaha security camera to my network. I fired up wireshark but could not really see what the issue was (lack of network IP knowledge). I ended up putting the camera's behind their own router on the network to isolate them and that took care of it. Seeing this thread makes me wonder/think that what I was seeing was this same issue.

[hokie21]

From what you describe, I think it is likely that it is the same issue.