Random network dropouts - how do I troubleshoot this?

[ideal2545]

Hey all,

Running into this weird issue, every device on my network is experiencing random connectivity issues. Wireless or wired. I can see that every 5-10 minutes or so if I leave a continious ping against opnsense when all our devices experience a momentary 'pause' - i get requiest timeouts at the same time:

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2346 ttl=64 time=0.872 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2347 ttl=64 time=0.439 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2348
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2349
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2350
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2351
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2352 ttl=64 time=0.785 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2353 ttl=64 time=0.797 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2354 ttl=64 time=0.710 ms

that every few minutes - any advice is appreciated, i'm not exactly sure where to start. I've tried the basics, restarting opnsense, rebooting or unplugging switches and nothing...

[meyergru]

This looks like a hardware problem to me.

1. You could ping other devices on your network simultaneously to compare. If they all are down, it could be the switch (or the access point).

2. You say "switches" - could there be a loop causing a broadcast storm? You can find that with a tcpdump.

3. Depending on your OpnSense hardware, it could be an incompatibility. Realtek chips do not work too good with FreeBSD, for example. Also, if you use 2.5 GBps NICs, they can cause problems.