Hi, so this just happened a couple mins ago and is an example of what happens fairly frequently to me...
- browsing web using FireFox (Windows XP, latest SP)
- suddenly online music stops playing and current (& future) web page loads no longer work (ie. wireless connection seems broken/dropped)
- I use FF to access my Linksys router home page (which works fine)
- go to Administration->Diagnostics, click on Traceroute button
- window takes several long seconds to come up but as soon as it does, music starts again and web page loading works fine again
Other things *sometimes* work (like ipconfig /release & /renew) but clicking Traceroute or Ping on the router page almost always fixes the issue.
Is this definitely a router issue or could some other component be contributing (Windows, wireless adapter, ISP)? If router, how to fix/ minimize? (settings? firmware?) Thanks!
ps. I've written about this previously a while ago here:
Thanks for the quick reply! That's probably causing some of my lost connection issues so I'll definitely do that. I think the situation earlier may have been different though since I could access the router (wirelessly) no problem - it's just that sites/nodes beyond that weren't accessible until bringing up the Traceroute dialog/window somehow reset something.
What is a Linksys "54G" router? Do you have a real model number? If yes, look on the serial number tag and include the hardware revision number. (v1 thru v8). What firmware version are you using? Look on the setup status page.
Check the WAN "idle timeout" settings. Set it to zero. You might be disconnecting from the ISP.
Old version of the firmware. The current version for the v2.2 router is 4.21.1. See:
Download and install please.
You're right. No WAN "timeout" or "idle timeout" setting for DHCP or Static connections:
However, I made a guess(tm) that you have a PPPoE setup, which does have a "Connect on Demand: Max Idle Time". See:
It's common to have the DSL modem do the PPPoE login, where the DSL modem does the PPPoE login. It will also have an "idle timeout" type of setting.
I looked at your previously referenced article yesterday, but forgot the details of your setup. Today, Google complains that it can't display the article:
"An error occurred while processing your request..." I'm not even sure you have DSL, cable, satellite, etc. Could you please describe your setup again? Makers, models, versions, and such?
Also, simply complaining that you are effectively disconnected doesn't tell anyone at which point you are getting disconnected. It could be between your computah and the WRT54G v2.2. It could be the router timing out. It could be the DSL modem timing out. It could be your ISP "rotating" IP addresses or rebooting their routers. It could be between your ISP and their connection to the interknot.
When it happens again, get ready to use ping to see where it's broken. I'll assume that your WRT54g v2.2 is at 192.168.1.1. Go to the "status" page in the WRT54G and write down the gateway IP address of your ISP. Then, try this with a working system to see how the results look. Then, unplug something and watch it fail.
For Windoze: Start -> run -> cmd ping 192.168.1.1 (ping the router) If that works, try: ping gateway_ip_address_of_ISP (ping the ISP) If that works, try: ping
formatting link
(check if DNS is working) and ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (IP address of anything on the internet)
The point where pings fail will give you a clue as to WHERE you are being disconnected (and possibly why). If this is a common problem, you might wanna do the above continuously. For that, I use "FreePing" at:
I setup the various IP addresses as previously itemized and let it run. However, pinging too often is impolite, so I set the ping interval for 5 minutes for each system. This also acts as a keep alive and prevents idle out timers from disconnecting.
Also, if the updated firmware doesn't fix the problem, you might want to try one of the alternative firmware releases, such as DD-WRT.
I'm running v24 RC6.2 on literally all my similar routers, without good success. However, it is a much more complex setup and configuration.
Groan. Yes, DD-WRT works for me. One of my friends ended up with a WRT54G v5 router. Using the stock firmware, it was hanging and doing strange things every few hours. Uptime was maybe a day, at best. I've had no luck with DD-WRT fixing v5 and v6 routers in the past, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to try again. I just checked his splash page, which shows 22 days uptime. Nice.
Looks like we came to about the same conclusions on the router problem. It's amazing what supplying a few numbers can do.
Anyways, it's 6:30AM here. I've had about 3 hours of snooze. Brain is only semi-functional, at best. I just wrote a long reply to another question, and fortunately didn't post it. It was all wrong. Sun is starting to come up. Maybe I should go back to sleep.....
Jeff, thanks again for your reply and the troubleshooting tips. I don't know a lot about all this stuff but I did try to find out where the connection was failing but it seems to switch around (either I can't get to the router, or I can't get past it - maybe diff probs/ reasons) but mostly almost nothing works, or everything works - and what makes things work changes each time (but usually bringing up the traceroute/ping panel is one of the more likely things to fix it - note that it never fails somewhere along the trace - either I can't trace/ping at all, or trace works all the way to the destination - somewhere just before the trace starts or part way during the trace, everything else starts working again). Sometimes ipconfig /release & / renew works (either to get to the router if I couldn't before; or to get to the rest of the 'net).
Here's what happened earlier tonight (this time with my newer notebook which has never previously had these types of issues)...
- notebook was on, (wireless) net connection working fine
- left for a while, came back (only screen was in powersave mode)
- 'net not working, nothing would fix it (couldn't get to router)
- unplugged router and modem; plugged both back in
- now could access router (192.168.1.1) but nothing past that
- went to Status page; tried DHCP release & renew (still broken)
- went to diagnostic page; clicked traceroute button -> as window comes up, everything starts working again
Here are the details you requested...
- DSL (AT&T/Yahoo) [I live near you, btw - our cities have the same first word :)]
- older notebook (Dell Insp 8200, XP, AirLink+ usb adapter)
I've been hesitant to do a firmware upgrade because I've heard some people have had more problems after doing that (and it can't be backed out?) so only do it if you KNOW that the upgrade fixes a problem you have. But since I AM having issues w/ the router, I'll go ahead and do it.
You have described instances when connections to Internet resources were interrupted.
You have also described instances when you were unable to access the web admin interface on the router.
Is the LAN IP address of your default gateway "unique"?
If it was not unique, and another host shared that address, the ARP table on your system would map the gateway's IP address to the MAC address of the gateway "some of the time", and map it to the MAC address of the host sharing the IP address at "other times". This would result in exactly the two symptoms described at the top of this post.
One scenario:
If you connected the LAN interface of your gateway router to the LAN interface of another device which used the same default IP address for its admin interface, this would happen. I resolved this very issue at a mid-sized corporation. They connected the LAN interface of a Linksys router (with integrated switch) to the network to give them local expansion of their switched network under an employees desk.
Another scenario: A host configured with the same IP address address as the gateway router.
If on a Windows system, you entered "arp -a" at the command prompt, you would see the current ARP table. There will typically be an entry for the default gateway's IP address. Take note of the MAC address associated with it (write it down).
If there is no entry, ping the address. An ARP lookup will be performed to resolve the IP into a MAC address, the result of which will be entered into the ARP table. Return to the ARP table to view the the MAC address (write it down).
You can clear the ARP table with "arp -d *".
View the ARP table, record the MAC, delete the table, ping the gateway to initiate a new lookup, return to the table, record the MAC, delete the table, ping the gateway to initiate a new lookup, return to the table, record the MAC.....
You want to see that the MAC address associated with the default gateway IP address is consistent (always the same). If you see any variation, you have a second system sharing the IP address.
Take a look at any labels on the gateway that convey what the MAC address of the LAN interface is (for comparison).
If your network is small you could also visit the configuration of each and every device to confirm the assigned IP addresses.
It is best to maintain a list of all MAC addresses, and all static IP addresses used on your network.
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