Linksys router dropping connection constantly 1

[mlayng]

I have Comcast cable modem service which has always worked seemlessly (no dropped connection) until I installed a Linksys 4 port router. Since setting up the router I get dropped constantly. Sometimes I will turn on the machine and it will run fine with no connection loss other times it will drop the connection every 2 minutes (literally). I have to release and renew the IP to regain conectivity and sometimes this only lasts for a minute or two. I am set up for DHCP through the cable modem and I have configured the router settings for the same. Under advisement of Linksys tech support I have also set the MTU to 1500 but I am still loosing connectivity. I do run Zone Alarm but I have it set to allow IE full access. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jfwebber]

I am also a Comcast customer and I am also using a Linksys 4 port router and have not had any issues. In setting up the router, did you clone the MAC address that is registered with Comcast? Have you checked to see if there is a firmware update for the router? I have never updated my firmware, but upgrading yours may help.

Have you tried temporarily shutting down Zone Alarm and seeing it the issue persist?

Sorry I don't have the fix, but hopefully my suggestions may help.

Jim

Jim Webber
Network Administrator MCSE CNA

 

[bjdobs]

This is funny NOT! ... the ISP and Linksys are just pointing fingers and providing non solutions.

I have been running my BEFSR41 24/7 for over a year and up until 3 months ago it has been great ... now it intermittently has a linking problem with the Terayon Cable Modem ... Linksys claims the router must clone one of the Computer mac addresses and map its lan addresses to 192.168.2.xx with the router being address 1 ... I haven't tried this yet but find this as one of those go away don't bother me solutions ... I was cloning the mac up until a couple weeks ago and I don't use the default IP Lan addresses for my LAN so I find this a bit hoaky ... The only solution I have tried that works is putting a hub between the modem and the router which totally baffles me ... if this is a protocol issue then I would expect the issue would still be there ... if it is a hardware issue then I would expect it to still be there as well ... so if anyone can possibly shed some light on why the hub makes a difference maybe we can determine who to blame ... the modem or router?

This issue when it is really bad does not go away by;
-reseting the modem or router (power off 30 seconds)
-release and renew ISP lease (IP address)
-changing cables (another bright idea from Linksys)

Basically when Internet traffic gets really slow and or I stop lossing links to my VPN clients the first thing I do now is look at the WAN link led on the Router as well as the Cable Modem Leds ... the normal situation is the Cable Link led is stable (solid) and the Router WAN Link Led is Stable ... when these problems start to occur the only difference is the Router WAN link Led starts blinking in a random fashion ... as stated above the only cure seems to be to put a hub in between ... I ran with a hub for over a month with no problems ... took the hub off this week and back to the same old problems again.

Arrg!

 

[mlayng]

I have tried clonning the Mac address found under ipconfig /all but when I clone it I can't connect at all!! If I disable the MAC cloning then do a release and renew I connect, but with the MAC cloned a release and renew does nothing for me! The drops occur randomly? Last night I had virtually no connection drops at all tonight I am having all kinds of trouble! Both nights I have inly had 1 PC running through the router. I am really getting frustrated with this piece of crap!!!!

 

[EdPorts]

Hi.

I'm a technician with a very large cable company, nearly the size of Comcast if not larger.

Here's what I would check.

Go to

http://192.168.100.1

and that should bring up your cable modem's status page. Depending on what the manufacturer is (Sci Atlanta, Motorola, Amtic, Toshiba, etc.) it may or may not tell you what your signal level is. You said that you had no connection drops prior to adding the router. That should have no affect on your signal, but for the sake of argument -- let's see anyhow.

When you DO get a connection "drop", what happens? Are you able to ping your router? If you are getting responses from your router, let us know. That makes a difference.

Your cable modem should lock to your initial MAC address as someone stated below. Try cloning the mac address, and enabling it -- and then call comcast and see if they see your router's mac address, and have them re-provision your cable modem.

You might also verify the patch cables you're using. That could be the problem as well... and if all else fails. Find a friend with another router! see if you have the same results.

Routers are used far and wide -- without any problems, there must be some small glitch.

Reset your router too while you're at it by pressing the reset button on the back. DISABLE zone alarm. Disable anything extra, just get it going on the bare minimum.

Nick

 

[nightowlpeter]

I am using a linksys befsr41 ver 2.0 and installed the new flash version 1.45.6. of June 24, 2003. From the moment i installed this router i am having connections losses: ICQ , MSN Messenger, Warcraft, Emule and Kazaa, they all suffer. I have only one port used and behind that two cascaded ethernet switches (8 ports) are there and in some moments a third cascade (a hub) too. I do not use the three other free ports on the Linksys, because it replaces now an old PC router with Freesco, which worked fine. I am now wondering why did i ever bought this linksys!! I am having 6 to 10 users spreaded over my network of who one is using e-mule and kazaa donwloaders regularly. I have a cable connection with 360 KBytes/s download and 48 KByte upload speed. We noticed that when using emule and kazaa zosftwar more intens, the connection losses occured much more frequently, in peaks at once every few minutes, all over the network, but without using the heavy traffic downloaders, losses were there maybe once in an hour. Does the amount of traffic makes sense to someone, what is wrong in this router? I get my IP adress automtically from the WAN side and have ranges of 10 times 100 ports (above 20.000) forwarded, 100 to each pc in the network, the whole ip forwarding table is filled. Plz Help me! We are getting more and more frustrated by this linksys router!!

 

[chiefgeargrinder]

i have just bought and tried to use the befsr41 ver 3 router and i have to say it is worthless junk,just a waste of money.i host multiplayer games and had nothing but problems with dropped connections,another terrible problem it posts youre ip address all over the net,so what good is that?i went back to using the links nr041 which has no connection problem,the only down fall with the nr041 is when dmz host is enabled download speeds are cut in half but uploads speeds are the same.

 

[Ranger12]

This is a very frustrating topic and obviously I am having the same problems because I am writing here. I switcvhed to cable modem service about two weeks ago because DSL in my area instituted a new policy of charging $10.00 extra for each computer that shares the connection. But I have to say that I never had any problems with DSL like I am having with the cable internet service. If anyone can figure out how to stop the cable from dropping the connection to the router every hour or so please post it here because as other users have stated the cable company and the router manufactureres are pointing fingers at each other saying it is an issue with the others equipment or settings and no one has come up with an answer. I have tried every combination of settings that is possible on my router and the only thing that fixes this issue is to "power cycle" the stupid modem when it loses the connection.

 

[syberdamon]

A few words of advice. I have been dealing with the same issues as described with Comcast and a linksys 4-port router. For reference, try using a different brand of router. Comcast does not drop the signal (at least in my area) anywhere near as much as I was getting disconected. Everything was great for just about a year, then stopped working. Comcast also does not block routers. It is the router, I can almost guarantee it. Linksys is horribly known for having such problems for no apparent reason. After fighting with both Linksys and Comcast for over a month, I installed a new router and everything is perfect. Even (just for kicks) installed a newer Linksys router (same model, BEFSR41) and it worked fine. Almost feels like Linksys units have a timer to go off just after the one year mark (coincidentally the one year mark is the cutoff time for replacement units). Just my thoughts on the topic.

So to sum up, get a different router, and not a Linksys.

Jason Shipley
Network Admin

 

[diveguy]

I had the same problem with a Linksys BEFSR41v3 that started suddenly after 3 months of flawless use. Drops would occur after 5 to 45 minutes of connection - varible an rhyme or reason to what or when. Cable compnay is Charter Pipeline. The fix, once found, was easy. Going to the router setup page (192.168.1.1), then at the top click to MAC cloning, select Enable Cloning, then click clone. Then go back to the Basic Setup page, and in the Internet Setup section near the top of the page Enable MTU and set size to 1400. This fixed everything.

 

[ANFPS26]

I have Comcast and use a Siemens Speedstream router with Netgear ethernet cards and never have a dropped connection.
Everything is set to automatic--never have to clone the MAC address. I am very pleased with this setup.

Jim

 

[netmanrick]

For what it's worth: Check ALL your cable connections.That includes the coax connector to the cable box and ALL the patch cords.These are not hermetically sealed connections,so
you can get intermittent connections.Buy some QUALITY patch cables.
I have Time Warner Road Runner with a Toshiba modem and a
Linksys BEFSR41 unit.
Running great for 16 months;only a firmware upgrade.
Maybe I'm wrong,but seems like a lot of griping about the box when it may be other problems.I've spent 20+ years working with routers,switches,hubs,etc.Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees.

Rick Harris
SC Dept of Motor Vehicles
Network Operations

 

[ExistToResist]

I'm located in Ontario and my ISP is Cogeco, I have had the connection running flawlessly for about a year and a half, about a week and a half ago it started cutting out, i have been reasearching, changing the firmware to a newer and older version, setting the isp ip to a static connection, nothing.
Heres what i have found out about the Linksys router, and what the problems could be once the connection cuts out, it could be some of the following, either the dhcp craps out after a while of owning the router, the router log file gets to big and is unable to clear therefore clogging up the router, or in 1 instance the voltage from the source is not large enough. Those could be potential problems.
I have a few freinds that own the BEFSR41 V.2 as well, and all of our connections started to cut out about the same time, we're on the same ISP. One of my friends switched to a D-Link router and that solved the problem for him, so i do not believe its the ISP. This leads me to conclude one of the following two things my ISP changed something with our @Home service, which is the broadband provider for many ISP's, which inturn prevents the router from operating properly. So inturn the Log file in the linksys logs all its internet traffic to is incapable of handling the information properly and cloggs up the router.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[ExistToResist]

I solved my problem with the router it seems that, my modem was fried, i exchanged it for a working one.

Basically my modem dropped the internet connection at random.

 

[ANFPS26]

Thanks for the update!

Jim

 

[DaFantom]

Hi Guys, had identical problem, this is my scenario and resolution.

Usually dropped connection every 45m-1hr after i had added network card to pc..or added new device to network Or updated firmware.

All i do/did was release DHCP on the router from ISP and Then renew and it never disconnected after this point. I also noticed that DHCP server (router) would not hold its settings etc. Releasing and renewing DHCP assigned by ISP on the router would resolve both issues.

This is done in the status screen of the router HTML config.

Hope this helps someone.

Thanks

 

[Goldmadw]

Just a quick thought. I'm not technically saavy just a casual user. I also have Comcast and Linksys with a terayon modem. I noticed my drop problem about 4 months ago. I don't know how to reconfigure crap, don't understand mac addresses or none of that stuff, but what I noticed is that I'd gone on vacation for about a month and did'nt use my puter. I also noticed that my connection sort of drops near the end of the pay cycle. Once I came back from vacation and I started downloading large files, movies, music etc. I started losing connection again. Kinda made me think that i'd used up or close to my allotted band width. Am I far off the feasible mark or is it possible? thanx.

 

[liliggy]

If you go to linksys website and type your problem in they have a fix for this problem. You have to go inside the router and click the clone mac address, Enable it and save changes. We had the same problem at a college with 30 modems and 30 linksys routers.

 

[dondoucette]

HEllo All.
I had a similar problem a few months ago and this is what I found...

http://www.dondoucette.com/befsr41/

Hope this help someone.

 

[salbashi]

Well i m having the same problem.
Running: WinXP SP2 Pro.
Cable modem: motorola surfboard 5100
Router: Linksys BEFSR41 ver 2
ISP: Rogers Cable.....in ontario canada

Every few days my or soemtimes every few hours i would loose my internet conenction.
I called both my ISP and linksys they tried
evrything form putting the mac address cloning to resetting both the modem and the router. It seems they r playing the blaming game at my expence.
After resetting it works fine for a day or 2 then it seems like one of them is dropping the IP and i m loosing connection.
To get my connection i have to reset my modem or reset my router or sometimes even just a shutdown and start of the computer also works.
Also i recently upgraded my firmware verison of the router to newest one provided by linksys.
also when i loose my internet it seems i cant go to 192.168.1.1 site the site that provides the routers web based settings.
I cant pinpoint which one is the culprit.
any help would be awesome
Thanx
Shams