Metaluna
09-26-2003, 07:53 PM
I have been experiencing periodic router hangups with 2 different routers on my home network, and I can't figure out what is causing it.
My network consists of 4 PC's wired to the router, plus a wireless connection to a laptop. Two of the PC's are behind a Linksys 5-port 10/100 switch which connects to the router. The router's WAN port is connected to a Motorola Surfboard 4100 cable modem. My ISP is Comcast.
I first started noticing the problem on my Linksys WRT54G router. I bought this unit earlier this year and used it without too many problems for a couple of months, then boxed it up and went back to my old Linksys BEFSR41 router for a while (was planning to sell the 54G). Then a few weeks ago I had need of the wireless capability again so I set up the WRT54G again and flashed it with the latest firmware. About a week or so after that I started noticing the problem. My internet access would suddenly halt. The router would look like it was working (lights flashing normally, no red diag lights coming on, etc.) but I could not get to the internet or even the router's setup page. The router was so thoroughly hung that even pressing the reset button for a few seconds did not seem to fix it. Only a power cycle would restore things to normal. Then the problem would recur 2-3 days later, sometimes sooner.
At this point I was not blaming the cable modem because just resetting the router was usually enough to fix it. So, I figured, I must have a bad router. So I replaced it with an SMC 2804WBR 54g router, after reading several positive reviews of it (and finding it on sale). It ran for nearly a week without a hitch, and I thought my problems were over. Then, last night, as I was in the process of setting up some MAC address filters for the WLAN, the SMC hung in the same way my Linksys router had. No internet access, and no response when trying to access the admin setup pages (at 192.168.2.1). This time, not only was poking the reset button ineffective, but even a power cycle didn't seem to help.
I was able to confirm that the cable modem was still working by plugging a PC directly in and power cycling the modem (I think you have to do this to provision the new MAC address). The only way I could recover the router was to completely reset the firmware by holding the reset button down for 30+ seconds, and then spend another 5 minutes putting all my settings back in. So now, not only does the SMC not fix my problem, it's even more of a pain to reboot than the Linksys was!
So now I'm at a loss...how could two different routers exhibit almost identical behavior? If the problem is the cable modem or the ISP, how could a problem in that area manage to so completely hang up two different brands of hardware? Shouldn't the router remain accessible if the internet connection goes down?
My network consists of 4 PC's wired to the router, plus a wireless connection to a laptop. Two of the PC's are behind a Linksys 5-port 10/100 switch which connects to the router. The router's WAN port is connected to a Motorola Surfboard 4100 cable modem. My ISP is Comcast.
I first started noticing the problem on my Linksys WRT54G router. I bought this unit earlier this year and used it without too many problems for a couple of months, then boxed it up and went back to my old Linksys BEFSR41 router for a while (was planning to sell the 54G). Then a few weeks ago I had need of the wireless capability again so I set up the WRT54G again and flashed it with the latest firmware. About a week or so after that I started noticing the problem. My internet access would suddenly halt. The router would look like it was working (lights flashing normally, no red diag lights coming on, etc.) but I could not get to the internet or even the router's setup page. The router was so thoroughly hung that even pressing the reset button for a few seconds did not seem to fix it. Only a power cycle would restore things to normal. Then the problem would recur 2-3 days later, sometimes sooner.
At this point I was not blaming the cable modem because just resetting the router was usually enough to fix it. So, I figured, I must have a bad router. So I replaced it with an SMC 2804WBR 54g router, after reading several positive reviews of it (and finding it on sale). It ran for nearly a week without a hitch, and I thought my problems were over. Then, last night, as I was in the process of setting up some MAC address filters for the WLAN, the SMC hung in the same way my Linksys router had. No internet access, and no response when trying to access the admin setup pages (at 192.168.2.1). This time, not only was poking the reset button ineffective, but even a power cycle didn't seem to help.
I was able to confirm that the cable modem was still working by plugging a PC directly in and power cycling the modem (I think you have to do this to provision the new MAC address). The only way I could recover the router was to completely reset the firmware by holding the reset button down for 30+ seconds, and then spend another 5 minutes putting all my settings back in. So now, not only does the SMC not fix my problem, it's even more of a pain to reboot than the Linksys was!
So now I'm at a loss...how could two different routers exhibit almost identical behavior? If the problem is the cable modem or the ISP, how could a problem in that area manage to so completely hang up two different brands of hardware? Shouldn't the router remain accessible if the internet connection goes down?