Router that keeps disconnecting?

[CodeguruX]

The single and solitary piece of evidence I can say for sure is that the router is fine in the dead of night when no one but me is using it with a wired connection. But when people start going at it with the wireless devices in the daytime, it starts cutting out over and over. Also recently added a wireless printer to the mix that is running off the router connection. Anyone know how to keep the disconnects from happening? I've heard everything from change the MTU amount to buy another router. I'd rather avoid buying a new one when it probably will do the same thing, since this one does work when not bombarded with wireless connections...

 

[Scarpozzi]

What brand is it? Years ago I bought a Netgear wireless router....I had the thing for about 2 months....worked great until one day it started overheating. I am assuming it was overheating because anytime it was on for more than 30 minutes, it'd start cutting out.

Most of those devices are running some ARM processor or similar with some flavor of linux handling the firewall/DHCP and management. Just like a PC if it has hardware flakiness, the OS will throw an error and may reboot or hang.

With my Netgear POS, I called India and got ZERO support so I abandoned the company that I had trusted for more than 4 years (1998-2002) and have not bought anything from them since.

For you, my recommendation is check the manufacturer website and see if they have any firmware updates. There could be a firmware patch to fix the issue or if you can throw Tomato or DD-WRT on there, you can likely tune it to use less power/resources and maybe not overheat if that's the issue.

 

[CodeguruX]

Mine is a Linksys router. I've had it for a while, and it occasionally disconnected at times, but now it's getting retarded during the day. I guess I'll check about the firmware idea. I don't think I've ever updated it.

 

[CodeguruX]

Holy crap. I looked up my model number, WRT54GS v6, and apparently you have to jump through hoops on fire just to update the firmware because there are no firmware updates the linksys site.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54G_v5.0_&_5.1_&_6.0

There's no telling if that firmware can even do anything for the problem. Guess I'll keep looking...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Holy crap. I looked up my model number, WRT54GS v6, and apparently you have to jump through hoops on fire just to update the firmware because there are no firmware updates the linksys site.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54G_v5.0_&_5.1_&_6.0

There's no telling if that firmware can even do anything for the problem. Guess I'll keep looking...

Let me guess, that's a version of the WRT running VxWorks firmware in 2MB of flash mem?

My advice: Junk it. Get a refurb E2500, and optionally put Shibby Tomato on it. That's what I'm currently running, and it works well.

 

[Mushkins]

WRT54GS v6

She's dead, Jim.

Seriously, wireless "overload" problems like this are very common in low quality and dying routers/APs. Connect too many wireless devices to it, or a newer device that has some slight variation in how they implemented wireless, or a wireless NIC that just doesnt want to play nice, and boom- the whole thing craps out. The WRT54G models past v2 or v3 are frustrating and flaky, and as far as I know have been out of support for quite a while. I don't think a firmware upgrade is going to save this one, sorry :/ Time to pick up a quality router.

 

[CodeguruX]

Any other suggestions for a quality router then? Probably going to be using 1-10 wireless devices on it at any given time of day. Don't really want to go overboard on the price...

 

[John Connor]

Kinda expensive, but should be a good one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

I have a WRT54GL flashed with DD-WRT and have had it for about 8 years now and is a boss!

 

[CodeguruX]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124190

That one?

 

[John Connor]

That's the one. Solid as a rock. I never had more than two WIFI devices on it at a time though, but I bet it will handle. Flash it with DD-WRT and you'll be set. Make sure you read about how to flash with DD-WRT and do the 30-30-30 rule. I think you have to flash with micro first. I haven't done it in years since I already flashed with micro 8 years ago.

http://compnetworking.about.com/b/2009/03/11/the-30-30-30-hard-reset-rule-for-routers.htm

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54GL

 

[CodeguruX]

I have a question, the E2500 vs the WRT54GL. Which one looks to be the more heavy duty one? I'm not quite up to speed as to what to look for in terms of a better router. Any of the ones I've used are practically identical in that they "work". Meaning I've never been limited by speeds or connections or anything. Basically, like a spoon just works. It all depended on the ISP, not the router. Are there any significant differences that justify the price gap?

 

[John Connor]

I don't have experience with the E2500, but with the amount of star ratings given on Newegg it doesn't look too promising. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124414

It does support 5Ghz and N, but that's about it. If you look at the WRT54GL it has more than 3,000 reviews and 5 stars. It's been a solid unit from my experience.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The WRT54GL is an ancient hardware design, which limits your speeds to a little over 20Mbit/sec, both wired and wireless.

If you have 30Mbit/sec or above broadband, it is worthless.

The E2500 (with tomato) maxes out my 58/33 FIOS connection on the 2.4Ghz band. However, according to new info posted in another thread here, it appears that the 5Ghz radio is attached via an internal USB bus, and thus limits connection speed over the 5Ghz to approx 40Mbit/sec. About double the WRT, but still not that great.

 

[CodeguruX]

Well, I get roughly 2.1 MB/s on download speeds. So I guess that's a little under 20 Mbps. I never understood why they can't do the math and stop using bit numbers, heh. Yeah, the WRT54GL looks like a good one in the eyes of the consumer, I'm just worried about it being at least 8 years old, given that this WRT54GS was such a piece of crap, compared to others, apparently. Is Linksys WRT just the most popular brand for the average consumer?

 

[John Connor]

The WRT54GL is an ancient hardware design, which limits your speeds to a little over 20Mbit/sec, both wired and wireless.

If you have 30Mbit/sec or above broadband, it is worthless.

The E2500 (with tomato) maxes out my 58/33 FIOS connection on the 2.4Ghz band. However, according to new info posted in another thread here, it appears that the 5Ghz radio is attached via an internal USB bus, and thus limits connection speed over the 5Ghz to approx 40Mbit/sec. About double the WRT, but still not that great.

What??? I was getting 28 Mbps - 30 Mbps on my WRT54GL.

 

[John Connor]

Well, I get roughly 2.1 MB/s on download speeds. So I guess that's a little under 20 Mbps. I never understood why they can't do the math and stop using bit numbers, heh. Yeah, the WRT54GL looks like a good one in the eyes of the consumer, I'm just worried about it being at least 8 years old, given that this WRT54GS was such a piece of crap, compared to others, apparently. Is Linksys WRT just the most popular brand for the average consumer?

20 Mbps is 2.5 MBps.

 

[CodeguruX]

What??? I was getting 28 Mbps - 30 Mbps on my WRT54GL.

Yeah, the specs say "Wireless Data Rates: Up to 54Mbps". But no idea...

 

[John Connor]

I've since downgraded my Internet, but I'll do a speed test on the desktop that is wired and do a screen shot.

 

[John Connor]

Since you are more concerned with WIFI you may see about 20 Mbps.

 

[CodeguruX]

I'm more concerned with the wifi cutting out than the speed. Hopefully that won't be the case with this one...

 

[CodeguruX]

Well, got the E2500 and it's still disconnecting. Whether or not the WRT was faulty, it's pretty safe to assume the disconnect problem is not because of a faulty router. I guess all I can do is try to flash a better firmware than default?

 

[John Connor]

Try one WIFI device at a time until you nail down the one that is crapping all over the network. You should have got the WRT54GL.

You wouldn't happen to have any Apple devices on the WIFI would you?

 

[CodeguruX]

Yup, my sister decided to get a mac, but it's been going off the router for years without this much of a horrible problem. I could be persuaded to smash in the middle of the street if it's screwing things up, heh...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, got the E2500 and it's still disconnecting. Whether or not the WRT was faulty, it's pretty safe to assume the disconnect problem is not because of a faulty router. I guess all I can do is try to flash a better firmware than default?

I've never used the E2500 stock firmware, I've only used Tomato.