"Local access only"

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Elly Dalmaijer

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Posts
362
"Local access only" has become the dreaded term during our travels. We arrive at an RV park, log on to the network. No problem getting on the router but there it stops. We cannot get on the internet.
Sometimes Jack and I sit side by side, one of us gets on the net and the other does not.

We experienced this first in Mali where the hotel had to reset the router (LIvebox from Orange) each time a new guest logged on. Based on that and later experiences it seems that it occurs more often at places where the initial connection is ADSL. What a pain. But we are experiencing this now so frequently that we wonder A. what the cause is and B. what we can do to get on the internet.

Are there others with this experience? In a few weeks we will hit the road for 2+ months and I already dread that %?@)! message!

Elly
 
The "Local access only" means that the connection is established with the router but Windows can't access the internet through it.  The first thing to try is a Diagnose on the network connection.  That will often fix it.  Also, check the properties of the connection and see that only IPV4 is checked, everything else should be unchecked, especially IPV6.  If the above doesn't fix it, try a Google search on Local access only and you'll find lots of suggestions.
 
The best way to avoid the problem is to get a Verizon air card.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
Verizon has very poor coverage in Mali.  ???

Same in Canada.  :(

How here is something I did discover: when we come back from traveling and connect to our router at home, one of us will get the message "Local Access Only" while the other gets on the internet. I then take my trusted paperclip, push the little reset button on the router, and one minute later we're both on. Go figure.
That works fine in my own house, however I can hardly take a paperclip to the router of a hotel or RV park....

 
Elly Dalmaijer said:
Ned, I am really ignorant about this but why should IPV6 be unchecked?

Because there is practically no support for IPV6 anywhere, yet.  No need to include the support for it if it's not going to be used.  The other protocols should be unchecked for security reasons.  The only one needed is IPV4.
 
There's been some speculation that at least some of these issues could be tied to an incomplete or improper removal of various anti-virus programs, possibly trial versions included in the original setup. Norton and McAffee are two that I've seen mentioned. If you've had either of these and removed them, remnants of the programs may have been left behind causing issues.
 
Resetting routers to fix the problem makes me wonder if they have one or both computers set up with a fixed IP and they're having some IP conflict issues.
 
An explanation of Local Access Only.

When you connect to a park router.

In the old days (Say 2006) when a park established Wi-Fi for their members they had perhaps a dozen laptops hooking up at any one time. Hardly ever more than that.. But today.. Not only do you have laptops but game systems, PDA's. Tablets, Cell phones and more are all trying to grab an IP address.

Now: Imagine going to the post office to rent a post office box,, The office has 100 boxes for rent.  You are customers 101 and 102, or perhaps 100 and 101.

Clearly you will not get a box, or only one of you will.

The common and very popular Linksys WRT-54G defaults to 50 addresses it can assign, The recommended limit for this device is 100.  The park I spend much of my summer at they took one out of the box and plugged it in, no other changes.

I was able to up it from 50-100 one July 4 after I got tired of manually assigning IP numbers..  The new manager has since replaced it with an industrial strength.. Now what I don't know is if this unit is limited to just 253 addresses, more or less.. Throry has it they could assign up to 65533 give or take a few, but I've never seen a router do that.  Most I've seen is about 200.

How to fix it:

If one of you gets an address, look up your Wi-Fi status and find out your IP number,  Or open an command prompt and type IPCONFIG /ALL and press return.  (you may have to scroll for it)

Linksys, Netgar and many others will assign you an IP that starts with 192.168.x.y (Linksys and netgear x-1  D-link x-0)

The insustrial router I"m currently hooked to is 10.10.10.1 (That is the router's address)  the one at the other park is 10.1.10.1 (again the router's address)

Once you knwo the network address (the first 3 numbers)  You can assign your own IP

Go to properties, scroll down to TCP/IP, choose properties below the scroll window and enter (I will use a liksys or netgar example)

192.168.1.252

For the DNS use the router's address (192.168.1.1) or use the DNS off the other computer (Which can be most anything) and ok it.. This should work

NOTE: if the router uses different numbers than 192.168.1.x  Then you enter the same first 3 it uses, but stick with the range of 250-254 for your last number.

This will work on most anything save Snafu.Net (My router) which uses 192.168.5.x  The 250's are all assigned here in the house.
 
Local Access Only means the router did not assign an IP address, so the computer cannot access the internet via the router. One reason this can happen is that the router has simply run out of addresses to assign - there is a finite range of IP numbers available to it and they have to be re-used. I've got a router at home that never seems to re-use addresses (no matter what I do to its internal settings), so I have to reset it periodically. Had one like that at an RV park where we worked too.

There are other reasons an IP address may not be assigned, e.g. conflicts in the channel in use, use of MAC address filtering or fixed IP address assignments and other internal options in the router set-up. There isn't much you can do about that if accessing someone else's router, but if it's your own you may want to review its setting and study up  on the options a bit.
 
Local access only means the computer has access only to the local network, but not the internet.  It does get an IP address from the DHCP server, but Windows, in its tests for internet connectivity, has been unable to reach any of its test internet IP addresses (I believe it uses a DNS server to test).  So if anything blocks that request, or it times out, Windows shows the "local access only" for the connection.  Running a Diagnose on the connection will usually let it succeed and full internet access is available. 
 
We have gone the route of the diagnostics many times with rarely a result. We have also asked for a new IP address, again without result. We always concluded that the router had reached its maximum capacity. Often we would get on  early in the  morning but later we would again be back at LAO.

John, thanks so much for your informative answer. The things I can learn here!  I have saved your message and it will be something I will definitely try in the future!

Bill:  I have now removed the trial version of Norton, then downloaded the software to remove the leftover bits and pieces of that program.

Tomorrow we are leaving for a week. I'm almost hoping that I get the Local Access Message to see if anything helps. Of course if i don't get the message it may mean that Norton was indeed the culprit but I'll never know....

Thanks to all!
Elly
 
Frankly Elly, I hope it was as simple as that. But cleaning out the remnants of an old program doesn't hurt in any event. Good luck, drive carefully, and enjoy.
 
Bill, we always enjoy being in our motorhome!! But because of our work as Disaster Relief Managers we need constant access to email in order to know what is happening in the world of disasters and to be accessible in case we are needed immediately. This has happened quite a few times already, last to go to Pakistan November 2010. So these little tech hassles can be a problem for us.

Elly
 
Elly Dalmaijer said:
We have gone the route of the diagnostics many times with rarely a result. We have also asked for a new IP address, again without result. We always concluded that the router had reached its maximum capacity. Often we would get on  early in the  morning but later we would again be back at LAO.
Don't allow your laptops to go to hibernate or standby then.  Keep them running at all times.  This way they will keep the IP address allocated to your device.

Consumes more electricity of course.
 
Good point on the hibernate or standby.  I've seen a lot of laptops that don't reinitialize the network adapter when they wake up.  Sometimes it takes a reboot to restore the network connection.

Elly, next time this happens, try rebooting the computer and not the router.
 
I keep coming back to a possible fixed IP.  Elly said it happens on their network at home and she reboots the router.  I'm pretty sure it didn't run out of available IP's.  She may have two problems - one in her computer(s), the other when public wifi's get overloaded.
 
Go to programs, accessories, command prompt and type in < ipconfig>  You will be able to see an address, netmask, and default gateway. If not type in
<ipconfig /renew> The router will then try to assign an ip adress.
 
I am copy-and-pasting quite a few of your answers in a Word doc so that I can access the info when we run into the Local-Access-Only problem again.

I also like your suggestion of leaving the laptop on at all times (once I have internet access). This surely will be possible whenever we have shore power.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Once we hit the rad in September and we run into this problem I will try all your suggested solutions. And I will let you know. Thanks again!

Elly

 
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