Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 18:05:15

I have two PCs on my home network, they have sshd running and there are no errors.

When I try to reach them from my main PC, I get "host unreachable"

When I try to ping them, I get

[sam@sam-arch ~]$ ping 192.168.1.238
PING 192.168.1.238 (192.168.1.238) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.1.100 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.1.100 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.1.100 icmp_seq=3 Destination Host Unreachable

Note that 192.168.1.238 is the computer I am trying to reach. 192.168.1.100 is my main PC.

So I know that my main PC is telling me it cannot reach the destination, can anyone suggest a way to troubleshoot this so that I can find out where the error is?

Same issue with traceroute

[sam@sam-arch ~]$ traceroute 192.168.1.238
traceroute to 192.168.1.238 (192.168.1.238), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  sam-arch (192.168.1.100)  3071.842 ms !H  3071.810 ms !H  3071.804 ms !H

5hridhyan · 2026-07-26 18:29:13

from your main PC

ip neighbor show 192.168.1.238

dimich · 2026-07-26 18:40:46

samdavid6 wrote:

can anyone suggest a way to troubleshoot this so that I can find out where the error is?

From 192.168.1.238:

# ip addr
# ip route
# nft list ruleset

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 19:20:44

5hridhyan wrote:

from your main PC
ip neighbor show 192.168.1.238

When I try this I get

[sam@sam-arch ~]$ ip neighbor show 192.168.1.238
192.168.1.238 dev enp14s0 FAILED

Is this telling me that the destination network has failed? Both PCs are online and able to connect to the internet.

ewaller · 2026-07-26 19:26:53

5hridhyan wrote:

ip neighbor show 192.168.1.238

I learned something today. Thank you.

seth · 2026-07-26 19:30:17

Now learn to be lazy and try just "ip n"

dimich · 2026-07-26 19:59:03

samdavid6 wrote:

192.168.1.238 dev enp14s0 FAILED

It's talling you that the error is on data link layer: your main PC can't determine MAC address of 192.168.1.238 to send frames to.

samdavid6 wrote:

Both PCs are online and able to connect to the internet.

How 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.238 are physically connected to each other?

seth · 2026-07-26 20:25:51

You're also getting this if the IP is simply wrong (since there was a futile attempt to ping it) and eg. 192.168.1.138

dimich wrote:

samdavid6 wrote:
can anyone suggest a way to troubleshoot this so that I can find out where the error is?
From 192.168.1.238:
# ip addr
# ip route

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 21:20:49

seth wrote:

You're also getting this if the IP is simply wrong (since there was a futile attempt to ping it) and eg. 192.168.1.138
dimich wrote:
samdavid6 wrote:
can anyone suggest a way to troubleshoot this so that I can find out where the error is?
From 192.168.1.238:
# ip addr
# ip route

ip addr returns

sam@Chromebook-Linux ~]$ ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether c8:e2:65:e3:26:37 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

and

ip route says

[sam@Chromebook-Linux ~]$ ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether c8:e2:65:e3:26:37 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.238/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute wlan0
       valid_lft 86348sec preferred_lft 86348sec

My Main PC is connected to the router through ethernet, the other PCs are connected to the router through wifi

Last edited by samdavid6 (2026-07-26 21:32:43)

seth · 2026-07-26 21:28:56

Those are both "ip a", redact the line that starts w/ "inet6 2001:" (it's a globally routable IP in a Westminster)

Can you ping 192.168.1.100 from 192.168.1.238 ?

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 21:35:42

Woops. I didnt reallise that..

here is my ip route

[sam@Chromebook-Linux ~]$ ip route
default via 192.168.1.254 dev wlan0 proto dhcp src 192.168.1.238 metric 600 
127.0.0.0/8 dev lo proto kernel scope link src 127.0.0.1 metric 30 
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.238 metric 600

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 21:37:22

Ps: I can ping the 192.168.1.100 from the 192.168.1.238

Last edited by samdavid6 (2026-07-26 21:40:35)

seth · 2026-07-26 21:47:25

Can you ping 192.168.1.238 from 192.168.1.100 while the ping to 192.168.1.100 from 192.168.1.238 is running?
Might be some powersaving and the WLAN doesn't receive cold inbound traffic while idling?

ewaller · 2026-07-26 21:49:18

Is 192.168.1.238 a Linux box? Is it also a /24 address mask?
Is there a a router or switch involved? Are you using static or dynamic addresses?
Is there any other device on the network that might me using the same address as something else on the network?

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 21:57:50

seth wrote:

Can you ping 192.168.1.238 from 192.168.1.100 while the ping to 192.168.1.100 from 192.168.1.238 is running?
Might be some powersaving and the WLAN doesn't receive cold inbound traffic while idling?

I can. While I am pinging 100 from 238, I can also ping 238 from 100 and even ssh to it.

Now I have to find out why my kaptop (plugged in always on) is not respondig to traffic if the wifi is not actively being used

Last edited by samdavid6 (2026-07-26 22:00:57)

ewaller · 2026-07-26 22:03:15

ewaller wrote:

Is 192.168.1.238 a Linux box? Is it also a /24 address mask?
Is there a a router or switch involved? Are you using static or dynamic addresses?
Is there any other device on the network that might me using the same address as something else on the network?

Disregard. This is a red herring.

Edit: Except, possibly, an IP address conflict.

Last edited by ewaller (2026-07-26 22:03:56)

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 22:05:30

ewaller wrote:

Is 192.168.1.238 a Linux box? Is it also a /24 address mask?
Is there a a router or switch involved? Are you using static or dynamic addresses?
Is there any other device on the network that might me using the same address as something else on the network?

Both are linux boxes. 100 is Arch, 238 is a Chromebook repurposed running EndeavourOS - It;s my kids laptop, and he likes the pretty pictures.

Both are connected through a my router. The main (100) is connected through ethernet, and the other devices are connected through wifi

dimich · 2026-07-26 22:06:23

samdavid6 wrote:

My Main PC is connected to the router through ethernet, the other PCs are connected to the router through wifi

Isn't something like "AP Isolation" or other restrictions for wireless clients enabled on the router?

samdavid6 wrote:

Ps: I can ping the 192.168.1.100 from the 192.168.1.238

Can other PCs ping each other?

Also check for firewall on both main PC and other PC. Do you have any of nftables / iptables / iptables-legacy installed?

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 22:08:22

I thoight it could be an IP address conflict, but if all my other pcs are hving a problem (we have a chromebook, and an imac that both run linux), I think it might be a network / config issue. Both run Endeavour

samdavid6 · 2026-07-26 22:25:23

Ok, I seem to have fixed it by disabling the 5Ghz wifi and forcing all clients to connect to 2.4Ghz. I will try re enable 5Ghz and see if it still persists.

seth · Yesterday 06:29:01

Both run Endeavour

https://bbs.archlinux.org/misc.php?action=rules

I can. While I am pinging 100 from 238, I can also ping 238 from 100 and even ssh to it.

Fwwi, I severely doubt that this is related to the used band - see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_ … interfaces
The rtw modules have similar-ish options or it's general ASPM
A kludgy workaround would be to simply ping the _gateway at a low-enough frequency

samdavid6 · Yesterday 09:19:22

seth wrote:

Both run Endeavour
https://bbs.archlinux.org/misc.php?action=rules
I can. While I am pinging 100 from 238, I can also ping 238 from 100 and even ssh to it.
Fwwi, I severely doubt that this is related to the used band - see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_ … interfaces
The rtw modules have similar-ish options or it's general ASPM
A kludgy workaround would be to simply ping the _gateway at a low-enough frequency

I am aware of the rule, my main pc is just Arch, the hosts I am trying to connect to are Eos. Not sure if that counts..

seth · Yesterday 14:33:04

Main question is whether the "kaptop" is running archlinux.

So what kind of wifi chip is it?

lspci -knnd ::2xx

Arch Linux

#1 2026-07-26 18:05:15

Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#2 2026-07-26 18:29:13

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#3 2026-07-26 18:40:46

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#4 2026-07-26 19:20:44

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#5 2026-07-26 19:26:53

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#6 2026-07-26 19:30:17

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#7 2026-07-26 19:59:03

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#8 2026-07-26 20:25:51

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#9 2026-07-26 21:20:49

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#10 2026-07-26 21:28:56

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#11 2026-07-26 21:35:42

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#12 2026-07-26 21:37:22

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#13 2026-07-26 21:47:25

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#14 2026-07-26 21:49:18

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#15 2026-07-26 21:57:50

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#16 2026-07-26 22:03:15

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#17 2026-07-26 22:05:30

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#18 2026-07-26 22:06:23

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#19 2026-07-26 22:08:22

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#20 2026-07-26 22:25:23

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#21 Yesterday 06:29:01

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#22 Yesterday 09:19:22

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

#23 Yesterday 14:33:04

Re: Unable to ssh to local network devices. Ping returns my own IP addres

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