Will a new router fix my problem?

[zhwu]

I am still using a Linksys BEFW11S4 router purchased more than 4 years ago. Recently, I started downloading files with bit torrent clients and noticed internet connections on my home network are getting dropped like crazy when BT is on. For example, my wife keep getting kicked off her msn messenger every one or two minutes when I am running BT on my PC. (Her PC is connect to the router with a cable, not wireless.) So, I thought this old router may not be able to handle such intense traffic and borrowed my friend's Netgear WGT624 SuperG router while he is on vacation. I ended up with the same issue with that router.



Now I am confused, I need some help determining whether the problem is caused by the router or my network setup.



I have 1.5M DSL at home, I am letting the DSL modem do the login and then use DMZ to forward all the internet traffic from the modem to the router. DHCP server are turned on for both the DSL modem & Linkssy router: the DSL modem is on 192.168.1.X network and the linksys router is on the 192.168.0.X network. I am letting the DSL modem DMZ forwarding all the traffic to IP 192.168.1.10 and set that IP as the WAN IP for the router. Therefore, all the PCs connected to the router are on the 192.168.0.X network. (I set this up a year ago and only remember that my old Linksys couldn't do handle the login part for my DSL provider so I had to let the DSL modem handling the login. I spent like a half day trying to get this setup and finally found this working setup from DSLReports forums.)



As far as BT downloading goes: I only download one BT task at a time and always limit the download & upload speed to 40K/ 30K (normally BT clients keep around 60~70 peers connected with that limit in place ) I have tried 2 different BT clients and they all caused the same problem on my home network.



Well, what do you guys think? Is there something wrong with my network setup? ( Although this setup has been working fine with light internet traffic, I am just not that comfortable with two active DHCP server on the same network) Also, I don't want to replace something that aren't broken. Since my friend's new Netgear router does not seem to be any better (with the same DMZ forwarding network setup at least) Do you think my old Linksys BEFW11S4 router may still be capable of handling the kind of BT traffic I have?

 

[marulee]

Don't DMZ unless it is a test.
Flush the firmware on router after bring it to default settings by reset.
Check the cables...make sure they are not faulty.

 

[zhwu]

I am still having this issue after playing around with different settings in my DSL modem & router for the last few days; I even purchased a new Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 router and flashed it with the DD WRT firmware (seems to be a highly recommended router in this forum ) Still, I am experiencing a lot of timeouts & dropped connections with just one P2P client active...

I am just looking for a simple configuration so my wife won't be kicked off her messenger client (on her own PC with a wired connection to the router) when I am doing torrents or emule on my pc. I already limit the speed in my P2P client to 40K down and 30K up, but it does not seem to help. Right now, she will be disconnected from her MSN Messenger every 3~4 minutes while any P2P is active on my PC. (and we will get a lot of timeouts in IE & firefox as well; have to refresh the web browser a few times to get a page to load correctly) As soon as I turned off my torrent or emule client, all those problems will go away.

Here is my current configurations: I put the Actiontec DSL modem in Transparent Bridging Mode and use the Buffalo router to handle the PPPoE login. Everything other setting for the router are the DD WRT defaults expect I enabled the uPnP and added the portforward setting for one port (used by my P2P clients) from the router to my PC. I am using the 1.5M/896K DSL package from Qwest at home.

I am fairly new with P2P software and not sure if this is one of this 'consequence' I have to live with? Are there any other tweaks I can try?

 

[Thyme]

This shouldn't happen just because you're using light P2P.

As I understand it, you have Internet->DSL Modem->Router->Multiple computers ?

Is the DSL Modem acting as a NAT?

As far as DHCP, if both devices are setup correctly, the LAN computers will broadcast DHCP requests and the router will pick them up and not forward them to the DSL Modem. That shouldn't be an issue.

When you use P2P, does the computer you're using P2P on have network problems or just the other ones? If so, try plugging that computer in directly (bypassing the router) and see if you still get problems. Make sure you have the latest security updates before doing this as it will leave your computer exposed for the brief time you are testing.

 

[Zap]

Besides limiting upload and download speeds, you may want to limit the number of connections. Speaking of limiting upload speeds, what's your advertised upload? You may need to drop that upload speed even more.

 

[zhwu]

Thyme,

Yes, my current setup is Internet -> DSL Modem -> Router -> Multiple computers.

I don't understand what NAT really means but I have set my Actiontec DSL modem to the 'Transparent Bridging (RFC1483 Bridged)" according to this article: http://www.spiritone.com/support/dsl_actiontecgt.html
My Buffalo router is the DHCP server and handles the PPPoE login into the Qwest network.

When P2P is active on one computer, all computers (even the ones with wired connection) connected to the router will experiencing this time out & disconnect issue. In fact, msn messenger is the only internet client my wife uses on her PC and she still get disconnected every 3 ~ 5 minutes. We have tired this on different PCs to rule out the possibility there is a problem with her computer. Also, messenger clients is not the only client with that issue, even IE & firefox will experience timeout issues connect to a website.
I will try your suggestion by connecting the PC directly to the modem see if it will still timeout IE & firefox on that PC when P2P is active.

Zap,

The advertised speed for my DSL is 1.5M down & 896K up. I tried to limit the upload speed to 20K instead of 30K once and that did not help my issue at all. Also, I have checked the connected peers in my P2P client: with my speed limit, these P2P clients only keep around 60 ~ 70 peers connected. Is that too much? I know the other computers will still try to connect to my client remotely from outside even after I have reach my limit (thus generates a lot of traffic from the internet to the router then to my PC) but I believe there is nothing we can do with that, right?

 

[zhwu]

Here is another update: I connected my PC directly into the DSL modem and this problem seems to go away. For the past 60 minutes, my torrent client has been downloading some files at 100K/35K with more than 80 connected peers. I have MSN messenger turned on and http downloading a 900MB file in the background. There is no timeout/disconnect so far and everything is running great. (If I do the same thing in my home network with the router, that http download connection most likely will be disconnected within 5 minutes and there is no way it can last 40 minutes.)

I guess there must a problem somewhere with my DSL modem or router settings. For the life of me, I just can?t figure out what can go wrong with my home network setup. Right now, my DSL modem has been set to ?transparent bridged? mode, which turns off all the functions of that DSL modem (DHCP, firewall?) and forces it to become a ?dumb? modem. All it does now is transferring all the signals to my router and let the router handle everything. I have tried three different routers within the last week, the most recent one is a Buffalo router flashed with DD WRT firmware. That router is handling the PPPoE authentication with my DSL provider and act as the DHCP server for my home network. What can go wrong with this setup and cause tons of disconnects & timeouts with some light ~ medium P2P traffic on the home network?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The problem is your router and the fact you're using Torrents.

A router can only handle so many simultaneous TCP/IP connections made to your computers through it. I think a typical router can handle something like 500. If you're running a torrent program, that program can open over 250 simultaneous TCP/IP connections. Firefox with a lot of tabs open can open up 20 or so. If you've got multiple computers on that same router, each opening up hundreds of TCP/IP connections between IE, Firefox, IM, Torrents, etc, your router will be overwhelmed and crash.

Unfortunately, there really is no way out of this except:

1. Limit your torrent software to use a smaller number of TCP/IP connections, at the possible cost of download/upload speed.
2. Buy a new enterprise level router. Consumer routers don't really cut it.
3. Make your own router using a Linux box.

I experienced the same problems as you with just two computers on my Linksys WRT54G using Linksys, and since I've switched to a Linux box router, the problem has gone away.

 

[InlineFive]

As fuzzybabybunny pointed out your best, cheapest option is probably putting an old computer back into service as a Linux firewall and router.