• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Questions About Routers

My very limited experience says not, DJ.
I used a Zoom 4X ethernet router modemfor about 18 months, now being used by a friend- after a total of ~30 months it's still functioning well.
I replaced the Zoom with a Linksys Wieless G router modem about a year ago and it too is running fine.
 
Hmm, any suggestions as to why my router keeps "crashing" or doing whatever it is that forces me to unplug it and plug it back in every now and then?
 
What actually do you mean by "resetting"?

Once you set the specs to connect to your dsl line and choose your security settings, you should not need to reset anything.

You say you've "gone through" several. Did the hardware actually fail? Is this maybe a power problem? Do they fail when you unplug and replug them?
Could it be a faulty power socket or something?
 
I have had a similar experience. I have a D-Link wireless router and every so often (months or weeks) I lose my WLAN on all three computers. I just unplug it and plug it back in, but it is a little irritating. I haven't tried connecting to it by cable, don't think I have any cable.
 
Sometimes these firewall/routers have a built in logging system active for various things. Check what happens if and when the logging (file? area? memory?) fills up. There will probably be a number of options to manage it - look into that too.

Incidentally, I have a LinkSys wired firewall/router to cable, and it is relatively easy to manage and works quite well.
 
Yup, me too. Occassionaly, the router either stops talking to my computer completely, or appears as a wirless network, but I can't connect, or lets me connect to the network, but not the internet, or...

I just unplug, replug and it works again, but yeah, it's a bit annoying.

I'm using a Dlink DSL-G604T wireless router.
 
DJ:

It could actually be a problem with the condition of your lines. Are you far from the junction box, in say the last 10% of the allowed distance? How old is your house, and are the phone lines inside the house properly connected and in good shape? Is there a possibility of interference? Do you have an electric fan (or anything with an electric motor) or flourescent lights plugged into the same circuit as the router, or located nearby?

We had a similar problem with our DSL line for a while. After replacing the modem, network cards, reviewing settings, and replacing all the in-house phone wiring, I finally went outside and found that we had a loose connection screw where the phone companies line entered the house (inside the junction box). Do you get any static on your phone line that's intermittant (or constant)? That could be an indication of a phone line problem.
 
Huntsman said:
DJ:

It could actually be a problem with the condition of your lines. Are you far from the junction box, in say the last 10% of the allowed distance? How old is your house, and are the phone lines inside the house properly connected and in good shape? Is there a possibility of interference? Do you have an electric fan (or anything with an electric motor) or flourescent lights plugged into the same circuit as the router, or located nearby?

We had a similar problem with our DSL line for a while. After replacing the modem, network cards, reviewing settings, and replacing all the in-house phone wiring, I finally went outside and found that we had a loose connection screw where the phone companies line entered the house (inside the junction box). Do you get any static on your phone line that's intermittant (or constant)? That could be an indication of a phone line problem.
Click to expand...

Whoops, didn't clarify!

I'm using cable, not DSL.

Further, my router is directly hooked up to my cable modem with an ethernet cable that's about a meter in length. I doubt the signal has travelled far enough between the two to degrade. The house was built only about 6 years ago, it is fairly new in a fairly new neighborhood at that, and the electrical connection is in good condition. There isn't a flourecent light to be found. The condition of the phone lines are not "currently glowing with EM that is visible from space", and so I'm pretty sure it is irrelevent since I'm not using that for my connection. The cable connection is also solid. My cable modem almost never loses a connection, and when it does the problem usually lies with the cable company. It's the router that drops the connection and only the router.

To explain further, for those of you who have apparently never had this problem, the router is still "on", it is still powered, but the connection just... drops. Oddly enough, my computer doesn't report a dropped conncection, nor does the cable modem. However, every single query to the router, which is still powered on, fails, including the router configuration web page that's located on the router itself. When I say I "reset" the router, I'm not talking about it's default configuration, I am talking about physically unpluggin the power and plugging it back in, as others have described having to do. After a small time for it to connect to the computers and the modem again, it works fine, until the next failure. I almost never actually have to reboot the cable modem too. I will also add that I've updated the firmware to the latest version already.

The router's settings are, for the most part, at factory default. I once attempted to activate the UPnP feature, as it made playing online games easier, but the router seems to crash a LOT more often with that feature on, so I disabled it again.

I will also clarify what I mean by saying I have "gone through" a few routers. What I mean is, for some odd reason, in the past a lot of my routers have "died". They start crashing repeatedly, some of them needing total settings wipes before they work again, until eventually they simply are physically unable to connect to anything. They blink like they are connected, but they seem pretty much dead. Further, port by port seems to die on them until only one or two are even usable. I really have no idea why this is. Routers are just infamously instable around here... Yes, I have tried replacing my ethernet card and the cable modem, but those didn't solve the problem. And, from what I'm hearing, others seem to be experiencing the same thing.

I honestly have no idea what the problem is.
 
That does sound odd, and my apologies for the miscommunication. I just assumed you were using DSL :)

Of course, you've clarified quite a bit, and it seems fairly clear that the issue is in the router somehow.

Are you using a wireless router? We had a wireless one for a bit that issues with heat. Had to make sure it was well ventilated, in an open area, or it would overheat and drop connections.

Had you tried contacting the router manufacturer? They may have some points to help you out, or give youa direction to look for.

Finally, are there any common threads when your connection drops? Any particular software that's running (perhaps something in the background), or a particular household appliance that starts up, or whatever. Any correclation to time of day? All of this info can be used to identify or exclude various failure modes.

Two final suggestions:
Have you tried swapping out the physical cable between router and modem? It sounds like you have, but that's an area I always forget to check until I've wasted a few hours :)

Second, have you checked the configuration and settings on the cable modem? Not sure if it works like DSL, but our DSL modem also has the capability of acting like a router (including NAT). You can set it up to NAT (modem is the router), shared IP (the IP of the modem is given to the device behind the modem, but the modem maintains the connection), or pass-through (the connection is initiated and maintained by the device behind the modem). We had a bit of problem with disagreement between the mode of the modem and the mode of the router. We initially had the modem using NAT, which ran into my firewall, and the firewall serviced the network. We had some connection problems with this. We ended up having the modem to a passthrough, giving it's IP to our firewall, and that's worked much better.
 
kevin said:
If you have a DSL or Cable Modem provided by your ISP, you do NOT need to get a router that integrates a DSL or Cable Modem. You'll plug your existing broadband modem into your router.
Click to expand...

Untrue. A lot of DSL or cable modems are USB-only (almost all the "free" ones shipped out by ISPs in the UK are, for starters), and the routers expect their upstream connection to be ethernet.
 
moopet said:
Untrue. A lot of DSL or cable modems are USB-only (almost all the "free" ones shipped out by ISPs in the UK are, for starters), and the routers expect their upstream connection to be ethernet.
Click to expand...

I've never seen one in actual use, but I've only setup a few people's broadband other than my own, but I've heard of them. I think I've seen a few routers that support USB connections but can't dig up a link at the moment.

If you are going to buy your own DSL or Cable Modem, check your terms of service. Some ISP's specifically require you to use their modem and will kick you off if you use a different one (typically these ISP's implement bandwidth throttling or a firewall to block "business" services like VPN in the modem). Cable providers are ususally more strict about this.

If you have a USB router, you might check with your ISP if they'll exchange it for an ethernet one. If they'll do it for free it might save some bucks over buying an integrated router/modem (and you can take the router with you if you switch from cable to DSL or visa versa).
 
Huntsman said:
I think we're agreeing with each other, just using different wordings, so I'll leave it at that. NO offense intended, but too often technical discussions fall into a "I know more than you" mode, and I would like to think we won't get into that.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I think we may have different preferences for the fiddely bits of setting up a home network, but the general principles and tools are the same.
 
Huntsman said:
That does sound odd, and my apologies for the miscommunication. I just assumed you were using DSL :)

Of course, you've clarified quite a bit, and it seems fairly clear that the issue is in the router somehow.

Are you using a wireless router? We had a wireless one for a bit that issues with heat. Had to make sure it was well ventilated, in an open area, or it would overheat and drop connections.

Had you tried contacting the router manufacturer? They may have some points to help you out, or give youa direction to look for.

Finally, are there any common threads when your connection drops? Any particular software that's running (perhaps something in the background), or a particular household appliance that starts up, or whatever. Any correclation to time of day? All of this info can be used to identify or exclude various failure modes.

Two final suggestions:
Have you tried swapping out the physical cable between router and modem? It sounds like you have, but that's an area I always forget to check until I've wasted a few hours :)

Second, have you checked the configuration and settings on the cable modem? Not sure if it works like DSL, but our DSL modem also has the capability of acting like a router (including NAT). You can set it up to NAT (modem is the router), shared IP (the IP of the modem is given to the device behind the modem, but the modem maintains the connection), or pass-through (the connection is initiated and maintained by the device behind the modem). We had a bit of problem with disagreement between the mode of the modem and the mode of the router. We initially had the modem using NAT, which ran into my firewall, and the firewall serviced the network. We had some connection problems with this. We ended up having the modem to a passthrough, giving it's IP to our firewall, and that's worked much better.
Click to expand...

Let's see... Yeah I've tried shifting cables around many a time. The thing is, when the connection drops, I can't even call up the router's internal page, which I can if it's an issue with the modem, so it can't be that particular interconnection.

I doubt my cable modem has any internal settings to set, but I'll look into that later. (On a side note, my service provider has their own cable modems they provide, but they allow the user to buy their own (to save money in the long run) and call in to tell them the make,model, and serial number of the one you bought so they can allow it on the network. By the way, I like nested parentheses.)

I have attempted to check Linksys' FAQs, but the only solutions they provide have to do with the standard idiot proofing (make sure it's plugged in, basic settings, and so on). I am always wary of actually calling these places... My sort of computer issues tend not to be solvable by the folks at the support desk.

Actually, yes the router in question is wireless. The wireless portion is, oddly (but helpfully) "seperate" from the standard wired network in the router, so people on the wireless connection can't "see" the wired computers.

And now for the thing you said "finally" about (but which wasn't the final thing you had to say :D), I've tried corrolating this to a lot of events, but so far have found no common threads (a skeptical attitude was most helpful in this regard). Actually, there is one common thread. I've found that certain odd sites seem to cause the connection to drop. I've tried and retried, but each and every time those particular sites (site types) are loaded, the connection instantly drops. Odd thing is, if I reset the router while my computer is still at that link, I can suddenly use it no problem. In particular, it's one of those "streamed" videos that use windows media player.
 
Dark Jaguar said:
I've found that certain odd sites seem to cause the connection to drop. I've tried and retried, but each and every time those particular sites (site types) are loaded, the connection instantly drops. Odd thing is, if I reset the router while my computer is still at that link, I can suddenly use it no problem. In particular, it's one of those "streamed" videos that use windows media player.
Click to expand...
If it's not too embarrasing, could you post links to these sites so that others (myself included) can test them too?
 
Linksys BEFSR41 wired router.

That's the one I use. Very nice. I'd like more port forwards though, since I run a lot of games through it that need to be forwarded past the firewall part.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom