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Linksys WUSB11 adapter disabling WRT54G router?

I have a Linksys WUSB11 (version 2.8) wireless adapter, connected to a TiVo. My wireless router is a Linksys WRT54G, running version

1.30.7 firmware.

TiVo recently started distributing an upgraded software revision which supports a new TiVo-to-PC transfer function. A few people (myself included) have reported seeing a problem where the TiVo loses its wireless network connection every few days. Reestab- lishing the network connection requires either restarting the TiVo, or unplugging the USB cable to the wireless adapter and plugging it back in after a while. This is presumably due to some bug in the new TiVo code; the problem never happened prior to the recent software upgrade.

As best I can tell so far, it seems that the TiVo is putting the WUSB11 adapter into a state where it, in turn, is messing up the WRT54G router and preventing anything from seeing the router or making a connection to it. When the TiVo has lost its network connection, I've tried to connect wirelessly from my laptop, but the laptop doesn't see my home LAN and can't connect to it. The activity LED on the WRT54G, however, is =not= on at this time.

If I unplug the WUSB11 adapter from the TiVo (i.e., disconnect the USB cable), the WRT54G remains uncommunicative for about another three minutes -- after which time I can once again connect to it from my laptop. If I plug the WUSB11 back in to the TiVo, it also reconnects after a few seconds.

Can anyone think of anything the TiVo could be doing to the WUSB11 adapter that would disable the WRT54G router in this way?

I thought that perhaps the driver might be causing the WUSB11 to change its channel frequency. Perhaps that would cause enough RF interference in the house that no other device would be able to connect to the router. However, if that were what was going on, I would expect the problem to have cleared up immediately when I unplugged the WUSB11 -- not persist for several minutes. So, presumably, something else must be going on. Any ideas?

Rich Wales snipped-for-privacy@richw.org

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Reply to
Rich Wales
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I have almost the same, except I have a Toshiba DVR and the software won't work with it for a few more months :(, However... I was having problems with SP2 and disconnects, and the WRT54G has version 3.03.6 firmware now, so you may want to update it (free and easy)

For both the new firmware and installer for it, go to:

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Firmware Upgrade For

WRT54G - Wireless-G Broadband Router v2

Firmware Date : 1/3/2005 Firmware File Size : Varies Firmware Version : 3.03.6

Click here to download the firmware upgrade files.

Click here to download the Auto Upgrade Utility.

Click here to view the Version Information File. ==================================

I don't know if it will fix your problem, but if you are thinking of going to SP2, I would highly recommend it. So maybe it's worth doing just to be sure...

Reply to
Peter Pan

Not sure what that did or why you want to use it.. It has a built in clock, I use that for access restirctions based on time.. What does the external one give you?

From your time based access restrictions comment, Under access restrictions - (by policy) there is a section for times. If you have a named policy, (I have one named "work") you can set it to only work at certain times (same section as things like MAC addresses, called "internet Access", but it's really Wap/Router/etc access too (just named wrong, for one thing instead of many)

Reply to
Peter Pan

As I said, I have a toshiba DVR and it won't be added until later this year, but I have had all sorts of intermitent connectivity with desktops/notebooks/pda's atc, and all but one were fixed by updating the firmware.

Don't know if any of the changes apply to you, but if the time thing is all that is stopping you from pgrading, you may want to look at other option for the time server thing.

Here's the changes though since 1.30.7 .... Linksys, A division of Cisco Systems, Inc.

Product: WRT54G

Classification: Firmware Release History

Firmware Date: 1/3/2005

Release Date: 1/28/2005

Last Firmware Version: 3.03.6 __________________________________________________________________________ Firmware 3.03.6

- Supports hardware version 3

- Updated help file

Firmware 3.03.1

- Wi-Fi certified

Firmware 3.01.3

- Updated wireless driver

- Supports hardware version 2.2 (cannot downgrade to previous versions)

- Resolves issue with VoIP adapters

- Resolves issue with long domain names

Firmware 2.04.4

- Updated wireless driver

- Updated certificate generation for https access

Firmware 2.04.3

- Resolves issue with disabling firewall

- Added QoS function

- Added Port Triggering function

- Added L2TP option for WAN connection type

- Added ability to back up and restore configuration files

- Added Wireless isolation function

- Added ability to filter internal NAT redirection

- Added ability to restrict access to web GUI from wireless clients

- Added ability to filter IDENT port 113

- Resolves issue with HeartBeat WAN connection

- Added support for 40/56bit cipher to support old browsers to use https

- Resolves issue with PPTP passthrough

- Changed WPA Group Key renewal time range to 600~7200 seconds

- Added IGMP proxy support

- Added ability to allow web GUI access only through https or http

Firmware 2.02.2

- Updated wireless driver to support all versions of WRT54G hardware

- Adds support to allow WAP54G connect as a repeater

- CTS protection mode set to disable by default to improve wireless performance in normal environments

- Resolved issue where the WLAN LED stays on even when wireless is disabled

- Resolved security vulnerability causing the web server in the router to crash

Firmware 2.00.8 (WRT54G v.2 only)

- Updated wireless driver

Firmware Version 1.42.2

- Updated wireless driver to 3.31.15

- Added URL and contents filters

- Added L2TP passthrough

- Added HeartBeat Signal support

- Resolved issue with Connect on Demand

Firmware Version 1.41.2

- Updated GUI format and layout

Reply to
Peter Pan

Does this version of the WRT54G firmware include support (in the setup web screens) for specifying an NTP (time) server address?

Linksys dropped the ability to specify the time server in firmware version 1.41.2. I have absolutely no idea why they took this out. After much effort, I managed to get someone in Linksys tech support to understand what I was talking about when I reported this issue, but I couldn't get any assurance at all that it would ever be fixed.

It's important for the wireless router to have an accurate sense of time; otherwise, features such as time-based access restrictions become useless.

The time server issue, BTW, wasn't (and still isn't) mentioned at all in the revision notes for the WRT54G's firmware on the Linksys web site.

Unless Linksys has added the ability to specify the time server address in their newer WRT54G firmware, I'm sticking with 1.30.7.

Getting back to my original question, though: Is there a strong reason to think that the WRT54G's firmware would have anything at all to do with my TiVo / WUSB11 connectivity problem? Remember, again, that everything was working just fine -- and completely solidly -- until shortly after my TiVo got the software upgrade. I'm still inclined to think that the new TiVo code is somehow mishandling the WUSB11 in such a way as to shut down the WRT54G, but is there any plausible way for this to be happening?

Rich Wales snipped-for-privacy@richw.org

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Reply to
Rich Wales

An external time server allows the clock in the router to remain accurate by periodically synchronizing the router's internal clock with a reliable, reachable external source.

Without an NTP server, the router's internal clock will inevitably drift and show something very different from the actual time.

NTP is an Internet standard protocol for clock synchronization. If you're not familiar with what NTP is or why people should care about it, the web page

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may be helpful.

It's important for the user to have the ability to choose the NTP server for a device to synchronize to. If a router is being used as part of a local network, the sysadmin should set up a local NTP server for the LAN and have the router sync to the local server rather than go off to some external NTP server.

The last time I checked, Linksys' current firmware for the WRT54G was using four hard-coded NTP server IP addresses -- two of which were in Taiwan, and one of which was no longer on the Internet at all. And there was no way for the user to pick a server (including supplying a host name or IP address for a different server of his own choice) -- this ability was in 1.30.7 but was removed later.

If Peter's router's clock is keeping reliable time, then I would assume it's picking on one of these hard-coded NTP servers. More discussion on why this is (or isn't) a Bad Thing would properly belong in the "comp.protocols.time.ntp" newsgroup.

Rich Wales snipped-for-privacy@richw.org

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Reply to
Rich Wales

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