Devices connected over wi-fi are regularly losing internet access

[BritishCounterpart]

I have a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ connected to a network switch that is connected to two ASUS routers, set us as a Mesh, with one being a node and using the PI's DNS.

Devices connected are keep losing internet connect and network connect, e.g. when it goes down, it's still connected to the wi-fi but can't access the internet or pi.hole. So i think there could be an issue with the DHCP and assigning of IP addresses. Sometimes the devices will begin to work again on the network and other times, they need to be disconnected and reconnected to the wi-fi to work. But when after a while, the network begins not working again.

Here is a recent log after a device lost connection to the network but stayed connected to wi-fi.

https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/OeDiSOr5/

If anyone could help, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Jamie

[jfb]

@BritishCounterpart

when it goes down, it's still connected to the wi-fi but can't access the internet or pi.hole

When this happens, are you able to communicate with an external server directly without using DNS resolution? This command from the terminal or command prompt on a client will show:

ping -c3 8.8.8.8

[yubiuser]

@BritishCounterpart

Pi is setup as the DHCP.

Pi-hole is not configured to be your DHCP server.

[✓] IPv4 address(es) bound to the eth0 interface:
    192.168.1.2/24

*** [ DIAGNOSING ]: Discovering active DHCP servers (takes 10 seconds)
   Scanning all your interfaces for DHCP servers
   Timeout: 10 seconds
   
   WARN: Could not sendto() in send_dhcp_discover() (/__w/FTL/FTL/src/dhcp-discover.c:233): Network is unreachable
   * Received 300 bytes from eth0:192.168.1.1
     Offered IP address: 192.168.1.2
     Server IP address: 192.168.1.1
     Relay-agent IP address: N/A
     BOOTP server: (empty)
     BOOTP file: (empty)
     DHCP options:
      Message type: DHCPOFFER (2)
      server-identifier: 192.168.1.1
      lease-time: 86400 ( 1d )
      renewal-time: 43200 ( 12h )
      rebinding-time: 75600 ( 21h )
      netmask: 255.255.255.0
      broadcast: 192.168.1.255
      wpad-server: "
"
      dns-server: 192.168.1.2
      router: 192.168.1.1
      --- end of options ---
    
   * Received 300 bytes from eth0:192.168.1.1
     Offered IP address: 192.168.1.2
     Server IP address: 192.168.1.1
     Relay-agent IP address: N/A
     BOOTP server: (empty)
     BOOTP file: (empty)
     DHCP options:
      Message type: DHCPOFFER (2)
      server-identifier: 192.168.1.1
      lease-time: 86400 ( 1d )
      renewal-time: 43200 ( 12h )
      rebinding-time: 75600 ( 21h )
      netmask: 255.255.255.0
      broadcast: 192.168.1.255
      wpad-server: "
"
      dns-server: 192.168.1.2
      router: 192.168.1.1
      --- end of options ---

[BritishCounterpart]

When the connection goes down, it begins losing packets and sometimes it goes down to no packets

[BritishCounterpart]

Sorry i was mistaken i've only got the router set to use the PiHoles DNS, DHCP is done by the router.

[BritishCounterpart]

Would it be worth using one of the the default DNS servers rather than the custom cloudflared (DoH)

[jfb]

Your problem is not related to DNS, or to Pi-hole. When you directly ping an IP (without using any DNS resolution to convert a domain name to an IP), Pi-hole has no involvement with the transaction.

If a client can't connect directly to an IP, that is a network problem, not a Pi-hole problem. Dropped packets with this ping are unrelated to anything that Pi-hole provides on your network. The traffic between the client and the final ping location does not go through, or have any involvement with, Pi-hole.

[BritishCounterpart]

Thank you for your help, yeah seems to be a network issue, with one of the ASUS Mesh nodes, it's resolved with that node disconnected.