Resolved: Sudden loss of internet connection, Archer C7

I suddenly lost internet connection yesterday and I've tracked the issue back to the Archer C7 router which is running OpenWRT. I inherited this router from the person who installed OpenWRT and I know next to nothing about it, so I tried the steps on the Troubleshooting Internet Connectivity page (https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-quick-start/ts-internetconnectivity) but to no avail. I did try changing the IP address of the router, but that didn't touch the problem. I've confirmed that the internet connection works (I can plug my computer directly into the modem and everything's fine), that traffic is flowing across the LAN (I can access the router's OS and my smart lightbulbs are fully functional), and that the issues is with the router. Any recommendations are welcome and I'm happy to provide whatever other information I can. Thanks, in advance!

There really isn't a lot of information to go by here, but a few thoughts...

  • Aside from potentially setting your wifi SSID and password, have you made any other customizations to your configuration?

  • What type of internet connection do you have (cable, DSL, fiber) and how does your router normally get an IP address (usually DHCP or PPPoE, rarely static IP)?

  • What version of OpenWrt is your router running? If it is not the latest (18.06.2 as of this writing), you might want to go ahead and upgrade it. If you don't have any customizations (first question), you would probably be well served by not keeping the settings and just starting over (it would be a good idea to save a backup first, though, just in case).

  • Are you certain that your OpenWrt router is the cause of the issue? Have you ruled out the upstream stuff (i.e. cable/dsl modem, ONT, etc.)?

  • Are you aware of any changes to the router or network prior to your connection going out?

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One more thing to try:
if you go to http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci/admin/network/diagnostics (or whatever your router's IP is) and try Ping or Traceroute and see if any packets will get received. If packages are lost then try wit 8.8.8.8 instead of openwrt.org and see if that will work.

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Thanks for the response @psherman!

  • As a heads-up, I upgraded to the newest support version of OpenWrt (18.06.2) and reset it to default settings.

  • I'm not sure about the customization, since I'm not the one who set it up. That was done a few years ago and I only recently inherited it. I didn't see anything super custom-looking in the settings, though. Most of the advanced features looked like they weren't provisioned.

  • I've got a cable modem and it's currently set for DHCP.

  • Just upgraded!

  • It's definitely the router. If I plug the modem directly into my PC the internet connection is strong and stable. I did some checking with the cable company, as well, and everything looks good from their end.

  • No. There were no changes prior to the connection going out. I hadn't even signed into the OS since I got the router.

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And the router started working again right after I posted that/finished updating the OS. Thanks, everyone!

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