WRT54G issues

[PhoneTechMan]

I've a WRT54G wireless router w/4-port switch. The setup and connecting to my provider all went well. What's been happening is that I'll lose connectivity to the router from time to time. All of my PC's (2 laptops w/wireless & 2 hardwired) don't lose their IP's, but I have no connectivity. I'll reboot the router and all is OK, but sometimes the PC's grab different IP's which is a pain as I have them networked and have to go and chage my firwall settings to allow the PC's to all see each other. Is anyone else experiencing this problem, and if so, have you found a fix? Thanks in advance.

 

[JOAMON]

Sounds like you need to do away with DHCP and satically assign the network settings on each device. What is the router conecting to...dsl modem..cable modem...?

 

[PhoneTechMan]

I have Sprint Broadband wireless. Do I just need to turn off DHCP in the router and setup my NIC's accordingly? And do I need to add the DNS info on the PC's?

 

[JOAMON]

With your connection working type ipconfig /all from command prompt from PC and this will tell you DNS settings. You will need IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS settings configured on each machine if you disable DHCP.

 

[TheRebelMind]

sounds like a problem Ive been having...lemme ask you a couple of questions...

1- Does this seem to happen most often when a large amount of traffic is passing through the r0outer...like while using a p2p program (shareaza, edonkey, gnutella), downloading via IRC, bittorrent, or similar situations like transferring files to/from the internet (vpn to your job, FTP)??

2- Do you also have to turn your cable modem or DSL modem on & off along with the router in order to regain connectivity?

if so...while you have no connectivity, do the cable modem or DSL modem's lights seem normal and connected despite you being unable to get out? and do your hard-wired and/or wireless PC's seem to be connected to the router just fine according to network status (icon in system tray if icon is set to appear) despite innability to communicate with router via ping or http??

3- While connectivity is lost, do you also find that you are unable to even bring up the router's management page via your web browser (which shouldnt happen regardless of ability to see the internet or whatever network you are uplinking to on the exterior of the router)??

----

if so, see if changing the settings on the p2p application or whatever application that generates the traffic to make it/them communicate with fewer remote computers at once, or Download/upload fewer files at once, even if the fewer files or fewer remote computers take up just as much bandwith as the greater amount did before...

also, call your ISP's tech support and describe the issue...even if they arent very knowledgable and their equiptment/service isnt responsible, its likely that theyve recieved other calls from people with similar issues, who were perhaps using a similar router supplied by the ISP (most ISP's now offer routers for a flat or monthly fee)...if theyve dealt with the issue before from other customers and have kept adequate notes in their helpdesk software archives, they can perhaps tell you whats causing the issue, even if they cannot tell you how to fix it.

Also, if you havent already tested various settings on the router, do so...first, start by resetting to factory defaults (Im sure youve already tried and are rolling your eyes while reading this, but hear me out)...test it at factory default settings (making only absolutely needed changes if you have to in order to get it working) with one wired client (to eliminate wireless variables from your testing)...

then, systematically turn off the router's features one at a time (firewall, DHCP, etc) testing thoroughly before and after every change.

Once you get down to the router's bare-bones features and functionality, and if the router is still working great after throrough testing, try loading on the traffic in and out...go to fast sites with huge downloads (downloading service packs that you dont need from microsoft works great...so does finding a bandwidth speed test site that works by having you download a 100MB or so junk file and measuring the speed...try to find one thats geographically and topographically close to you, preferable on your same ISP and within your city or county)...try to get as close to your ISP's peak bandwidth and hold it there for a good 15-30 minutes without a pause.

If it still works, try loading on heavy traffic to/from multiple sources...like by using a fast p2p client (bit torrent clients work great if you use popular & new torrents, Shareaza is good if you use it for Edonkey and download very popular files with hundreds of sources which are of a decent size)...for this type of testing, make sure that if you are running Windows XP Service Pack 2, you have the tweak installed that lets you have simultaneous IP traffic to/from much more than the 10 sources that SP2 limits you to...otherwise, you wont be able to run this type of multi-source traffic test. Sustain this type of heavy traffic to/from more than 50 simultaneous remote addresses for at least 20-30 minutes.

Remember to do some light web browsing while running the two tests.

if the router still works great, try disconnecting the router from the cable modem/DSL modem and using it simply as a local switch for your home network. Attach another PC via wire and test by transfering huge files back n forth (100MB at least)...then try the same test but transfer a thousand small files (like a huge directory structure full of photos or you mp3 collection)...always COPY and not MOVE incase the router or PC's crash so you dont lose/corrupt your files. Keep this up for a while.

If the router still doesnt drop, disconnect that 2nd PC, and reconnect the router to your ISP. start enabling services and features on the router (DHSP, Firewall, etc) one at a time, testing before & after each

if it still doesnt drop, try putting the computer in a DMZ on the router and testing like that...etc

you get the idea

----------------------------

all this testing sounds like it would take a weekend to do, but its actually alot quicker...and thats assuming that you dont isolate the problem on the 1st or 2nd or 3rd test.

Best case scenario, you find and isolate the problem and find a fix for it or discover what went wrong to cause it...problem solved

Worst case scenario, you run through the gamut of testing and cannot recreate the issue no matter what you do (highly unlikely)...and even then, the idea here is to at least eliminate the router and those type of online activities as the culprit...so if you cannot recreate the problem after all of the above, you can eliminate all of those things as the cause. That will narrow your search for an answer a great great deal.

good luck and keep us informed

 

[noz1380]

This sound like problems I'm having, I run a WRT54G & D-Link300T bridged.

When using tottent, downloading is 3/4 my 1mb connection, also whe d/l my upload only peaks at 15kB/s max being 25. The connection drops also.
I have tried many a configuration, It seems like windows is dropping the connection and not the router/modem. Have you have any success?

 

[PhoneTechMan]

I wound up just giving all my PC static IP's. Haven't had any trouble since then.

 

[noz1380]

all that i have connected have static IP's but when i turn DHCP off the router wont connect to the modem
Router 192.168.0.1
modem 192.168.1.1
How can i get around this to turn off DHCP?? ( I read that this is the problem of DHCP trying to give the NIC a IP)

Thanks for your quick response

 

[bcastner]

Let the router obtain its connection to the modem through DHCP, if that is what you had before.

In another section of the web-based setup you will find a setup for the DHCP server of the router. It allows you to specify the number of addresses to be used, and the starting range of DHCP addresses to hand out to clients. It also allows you to disable the DHCP server. That is what you want to disable, not the router connection type to the modem.

 

[noz1380]

I use the router PPPoE settings, and the modem as a bridge, if i disable the DHCP sever then i cant connect to the modem for the internet connection.

I'm gonna try it again and power cycle them up in order, maybe it will work......

 

[noz1380]

I was advised to put the modem & router on different levels
IE: 192.168.1.1 modem
192.168.0.1 Router

I have pput them both on the same level and now i can turn off DHCP, hopefully i wont get any conflicts.

Do you know why i was advise to have them on seperate levels??

Cheers

Mark

 

[bcastner]

It would make sense only if the modem had an active DHCP server and was responding to DHCP requests from clients.

In that situation the router is set to make the PPoE connection using DHCP, and a non-conflicting subnet is used for the router DHCP assignments on the internal LAN.

This is sometimes called double NAT. It is necessary when a prure bridge mode cannot be set from the modem.

 

[noz1380]

Well the modem and router are on the same network level and sub-net, with no DHCP server running at all and router PPPoE settings with modem bridged. All seems fine confiliction wise, but I'm still getting a disconection. It still seems like XP is cutting the connection but not terminating the connection in the router.
Or maybe the modem and router simply dont like each other. Can anyone advise a simple modem that is proved to work well with a WRT54G?