Refusing to connect please help

[Sal123]

Hello,

I am a TalkTalk FTTP customer and have been since May/June last year with no issues. However, I now have a very frustrating issue. Friday morning I found that none of my devices were able to connect to WiFi or Ethernet. I kept getting various errors like "connection failed", "Incorrect password", "unable to obtain IP address", "Can't connect to this network" etc. I rang TalkTalk technical support however they were no help at all. I'm not using the Amazon Eero router that was given to me by Talktalk as its not good enough for my network setup.  I thought that my TP-Link router must be bust so I went out and bought a new TP-Link router thinking that would fix the issue, however it hasn't, I'm still having the issue, its been more than 48 hours. I've tried restarting my router and the ONT multiple times which hasn't fixed the issue. I've even pushed the little reset button on the front of the ONT to reset it however it hasn't fixed it. I've had a look in the system logs of my router and can't see any related to devices trying and failing to connect however I found the following logs that are being spammed again and again every few seconds, that seems a bit weird but not sure if its normal:
 

2024-01-20 19:45:35 DHCPC INFO [14358] receive ack from server with ip xx.xx.xx.xx, options(lease=900;subnet=255.255.240.0;serverid=xx.xx.xx.xx;router=xx.xx.xx.xx;dns=xx.xx.xx.xx xx.xx.xx.xx;)

2024-01-20 19:45:35 DHCPC INFO [14358] send select request with options(cliid=01/5c:e9:31:00:c3:0d:;)

2024-01-20 19:45:35 DHCPC INFO [14358] 1/2 lease passed, enter renewing state

2024-01-20 19:38:01 DHCPC INFO [14358] receive ack from server with ip xx.xx.xx.xx, options(lease=900;subnet=255.255.240.0;serverid=xx.xx.xx.xx;router=xx.xx.xx.xx;dns=xx.xx.xx.xx xx.xx.xx.xx;)

I think its normal for TalkTalk to only have a DHCP lease time of 15 mins but I'm not sure if its normal for the same IP to be assigned again and again and again or if there is an issue on the back end somewhere that's preventing me from being assigned a new IP via DHCP.

Can some one please look at this and help? I work from home and really depend on having an internet connection. I would have phoned technical support again however, they're closed and I'm without internet.

Thanks

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Thanks for your help @KeithFrench 🙂

Michelle

[KeithFrench]

No problem.

[Sal123]

Hello Keith,

This indeed turn out to be an issue with the TP-Link router. I've provided with updated firmware by TP-Link and now that I've installed it, everything seems to working as normal again. 

Just want to thank you for responding and trying to help with the issue

Thanks

[KeithFrench]

Yes that sounds the best option.

[Sal123]

Hi Kieth,

This is happening over Ethernet too so not a WiFI issue 

It must be the routers, maybe TP-Link have changed something in the firmware that's broken everything. I'll see if I can get some support from TP-Link if not then i'll have to return the router and get another brand.

Appriciate the support though

Thanks

[KeithFrench]

If your devices won't connect, it is a router or WiFi reception issue, such as WiFi interference. I can provide help with the latter, but not if it is a fault on your 3rd part router.

[Sal123]

Hi Kieth,

Thanks for the info about DHCP, that all makes sense.

Yes its my devices that won't connect to the router, not just one but all of them. They do work though when assigning a static IP instead of using DHCP.

I did connect the Eero router back up while I went out and bought the new router, by the time I got back home which was about 30 mins or so later it was still working, so maybe it is a router issue. I'm not 100% sure though as I've not seen anyone else on the TP-Link forums with this issue, seems to be just me. 

Thanks

[KeithFrench]

The network DHCP server will often keep using the same IP address unless the router is turned off overnight & even then there is no guarantee that with Fibre this will change. I think all of this is a red herring.

Let's start from basics, theses errors that you mention("connection failed", "Incorrect password", "unable to obtain IP address", "Can't connect to this network") is this a device of yours that cannot connect to the router, or the router being unable to connect to the TalkTalk network?

The TalkTalk service centre is geared up to you using a TalkTalk supplied router, there is nothing stopping you using a 3rd party one, but TT cannot help you with it. Do you still have the TalkTalk router & if so can you turn the T P-Link off for at least 30 minutes, then reconnect the TalkTalk one up temporarily and see what happens with that one? 

[Sal123]

Hi Kieth,

Yes, I'm talking about the local DHCP server built into my TP-Link router that assigns IP addresses to my devices locally. If I create an address reservation on that which like asdigning a static IP then my device is able to connect.  Now when it comes to the WAN IP that's where I think the issue is, my router logs shows repeat DHCPC requests for a new a new WAN IP however for the last 48 hours since the issue started, it keeps getting assigned the same IP over and over. Even when I manually realease the WAN IP and request a new one I still get the same IP back. This might be normal but I don't think it is as that's not really how DHCP works, its supposed to assign you a new IP. This is why I believe the issue is on talktalks side.

Thanks

[KeithFrench]

Exactly which DHCP server are you talking about?

The DHCP address reservation for your devices is down to the DHCP server on your local subnet. I assume that your TP-Link routers have the DHCP server built into the router, like all TalkTalk routers. Alternatively, you might have your own DHCP server on your subnet. 

If you are talking about the router's WAN IP address this is allocated by the network and the address can't be reserved. These are the property of the network & you have no control over them. DHCP leases are set by the network and it is the responsibility of the DHCP client (your router in this case) to request an extension to the lease at 50% of the allocated lease duration. The network DHCP server will grant this.

So if it is the former situation you need to configure your own router, in its DHCP configuration to reserve your IP addresses.

[Sal123]

Hello Kieth,

Thanks for responding. Yes I've been using the router since I had the TalkTalk fibre line installed back in May/June last year without issues. I did connect the Eero backup and it was fine initially for about 30 mins (as was the new TP-Link router) after that all my devices are not able to connect over both Wifi or Ethernet. I've managed to find a temporary work around by creating an address reservation in my routers DHCP Server settings so each device that I create a reservation for can connect but this hasn't been an issue untill now and its not the way I want my network to be setup with every device having to have an address reservation in order to connect to the internet. Given that its happening on every router, I believe this has to be an issue on talktalks side

Thanks

[KeithFrench]

Is this router even compatible with the TalkTalk network? What happens if you put the Eero back on, does it basically work then?