TekSavvy → [DSL] Static Subnet Issues - packet loss

Hey fellow networkers... I have been running with teksavvy for about 6 months now and have nothing but praise on the 16Mb plan. I have been using a static IP just fine on a Windows server box.
Recently I added a 29 subnet which gets routed through that static IP (note it is a completely different subnet which is normal). I have a Linksys Tomato box that routes the subnet. When I plug a laptop into that Linksys and assign it an IP of that subnet, everything is rock solid and runs wonderful. I can ping continuously to yahoo.com or wherever.
The problem lies is I want to setup a seaparate router for my home network to be my LAN gateway. In the past I had used the windows machine and sharing the internet connection which worked fine on it's own, when hooked up through the Linksys, it would drop packets all over the place. So I went out and bought a DLINK DSR-250 services router (slightly better than home grade), and I get the same thing, pings dropping every 2-10 pings (usually only one missed ping) and obvious packet loss again. I dropped MTU all the way down to 1200 in case that was an issue, didn't make any difference. I am not an expert here, part of this was to be a learning process, but I really am stumped and not sure what else to try or adjust.
So for right now the way it is hooked up with all the packet loss is Speedstream modem in bridged mode, Linksys 54GL running tomoato logs in and grabs my /32 IP and the first USABLE IP from my subnet (a .97) is on the LAN port as the gateway (and like tha tit runs fine). When I add whatever other routing/sharing/NAT device to that LAN port and assign it say .98 with gateway of .97 and then use a 192. address on it's LAN side is when I get all this packet loss. I am not every worrying about setting up anything else with those other iPs until I resolve this problem... Any feedback would be great, I am not even turning on firewalls in that DLINK box or windows box or anything right now as I am trying to minimize what might be causing this...
Cheers.

My guess is you're having a routing issue, but that would normally result in ALL packets being dropped. Having a snapshot of your (tomato) configuration would help. What subnet(s) is your router setup to route?

It is difficult to read through this and figure out what you actually have. However with a /29 subnet you'd be wasting your IPs doing full routing.

I use a much different router (Mikrotik 750G) and since things are being NAT'd anyway I configure everything at the router, no IP assigning at the computers other than normal DHCP. So for example if machine x with an IP of y is exiting the WAN it gets assigned a specific IP from the subnet, all other machines leave with the main IP. Inbound connections to the various IPs get forwarded to the internal IPs I want. This way I get to use all of the assigned IPs and don't need anything special at the inside machines.

Your router might not be that flexible.

Thanks to those who responded correctly. The part that has me confused is the Tomato router works just fine if I was to assign 4 laptops as part of that public subnet with the first usable as the gateway. But obviously I don't want machines like that sitting on the public internet. SO to me that sounds like the Tomato router is functioning fine, dong it's job, and routing the subnet acorss the other static IP (I will try and post settings this evening).

It's only when I add a 2nd router from one of those static IP's to internal LAN that I have issues. On that note, opriginally I had repgrammed by Speedstream modem via the CLI to do all the routing itself and I had the same issue when adding the 2nd router/appliance/ to my LAN. At that point I had just assumed the Speedstream couldn't manage both the 16Mb connection and routing the subnet, obviously it wasn't the case since I have put it back in bridge mode.

I just don't know where to even start looking.
As mentioned i get anywhere from 2-10 successful pings, usually one dropped (occasionally two) and then all over, all random. BUt virtually unusable with that type of packet loss.

And everything runs fine if I just use my one static IP routed to the LAN now with only one router, so I know that additional router also works fine. It is something with communication between the two routers I think. But as I said I even tried many MTU's on the second units WAN port from 1500 to 1492 to 1480 to 1400 to 1200 in case that was an issue.

I know I lose usable IP's by doing it this way and so on. It should work fine as many others have done it... The other IPs will be routed to other stuff, just trying to get this basic one working before I venture any further into firewalling and configuring other servers, etc.

I may end up just scrapping this idea and forking out some cash for a SOnicwall

Well there is no reason why a 2nd router won't route if setup properly. I'm assuming it is internal on the LAN. You'd also need a static route back from the main router (Tomato?). There's no need for MTU settings since you're dealing with wired ethernet, only the main WAN port is a concern and that usually takes care of itself.

If you going to go with a proper router you can do it for a lot less money with a Mikrotik box. Tiny little thing that costs no more than a basic consumer router. There's more to the config than even Tomato albeit a bit more to learn at first. »routerboard.com/
I use the 750G at home and a 450G at work, two WAN connections and lots of routing going on, no problem. (I also have a /29 subnet and get to use them all)