The router works well, use it for streaming NetFlix as well as the normal I= nternet activity. There is one problem that periodically rears its head, it= locks up requiring a hard reset at the router itself. I have tried to cont= act Belkin several times to ask if there is a reset solution using some com= bination of keys on the keyboard. Cannot get to anyone at the company who m= ay know something about keyboard reset, therefore is there someone on this = site who can answer this question one way or another?
Oh, the router is in the basement connected to the main computer, the wife'= s computer and a laptop are used primarily upstairs where, when the problem= arises, it is necessary to go downstairs to do the reset.
Internet activity. There is one problem that periodically rears its head, it locks up requiring a hard reset at the router itself. I have tried to contact Belkin several times to ask if there is a reset solution using some combination of keys on the keyboard. Cannot get to anyone at the company who may know something about keyboard reset, therefore is there someone on this site who can answer this question one way or another?
computer and a laptop are used primarily upstairs where, when the problem arises, it is necessary to go downstairs to do the reset.
Get a two-station intercom, placing one station near the router and the other station near your office. Place a "clap on, clap off" controller near the router, and plug the router into it. When you need to do a power reset, hit the intercom button and clap twice to turn the router off. Clap another two times to turn it on again.
No, I'm not serious. :-)
Does the router have a firmware upgrade available? If so, even if the release notes don't mention a fix for this particular problem, it might be worth it to upgrade to see if the situation gets better.
The problem is the vendor made their money. Support is an expense.
Watchdog timer chips have been with us for over two decades. It's about time these vendors learn to use them. Or set up a scheme with multiple uPs to watch dog each other. This isn't rocket science. In the mid 80s, we were rolling our own watchdog scheme in modem chips just to insure the logic doesn't lock. People will accept a device that burps once in a while, but lockup is just a pain in the ass.
There are routers in freakin' mountaintop shacks these days. Lots of remote measurement is done via wifi. Nothing like having to drive a hour to hit the reset button.
Enough of the ranting...has anyone used a router with Broadcom chips? Maybe we need a break from Cisco. I noticed Apple went with broadcom, not that Apple is known for making good routers.
Just today I had to reset my netgear. New laptop comes with problems. Seems to have locked on that particular ip. Printer and iPad worked fine. I was looking at router, and ip and name were blanks. I originally had to install printer 64 bit driver. Last time I was on laptop installed infinity nortons. Hope it keeps working.
Netgear has it's fans, but I have had nothing but problems with the two Netgear routers I've own. I bitch about Cisco/Linksys, but probably they are the least amount of trouble.
I had a SMC once. Really crappy service. Thus far my Dlink switches have been trouble free.
And of course somebody will post Netgear is great, Dlink is junk.
I have a remote switch that I bought from Radio Shack. I use it to turn my entertainment center "off" when through for the day.
That was some time back, and not all Radio Shack personnel know what you are talking about, when you say an AC remote switch(inline). You might check Amazon, I have seen them there.
But but but ... This shouldn't be necessary. The freakin' routers should not lock up. Argh!
I see Cisco mentions watchdog timer here, so some of their routers must have one:
formatting link
I just hate the mentality of computer people. This "boot it" or "patch the program" crap drives me crazy. Think of the landfill requirement if hardware designers were as sloppy as programmers. I caused a recall one for a design error not caught. It isn't pretty.
In a perfect world, that's true. However, reality sucks, and cheap routers are far from perfect. Some of the traffic might cause router hangs, such as huge number of bittorrent streams, and various expoits.
Try the router exp1oits test.
More often, it's not a firmware problem. It's corrupted RAM caused by a power glitch, cosmic rays, radioactivity, a magnetic field from a nearby switching power supply. A few bits get toggled in RAM. Days later, the router finally needs to use that area of RAM, and the router crashes. Parity or error-correcting RAM would solve the problem, but that costs real money.
Error correction and such would be for non-stop functionality. A watchdog timer would simply reboot them system should the program get goofy. You might get a hiccup, but wouldn't have to boot the system. I've put watchdog timers in chips strictly so they don't lock. Nobody notices the burp. They notice the thing dead in the water. It causes phone calls.
Software watchdogs are simple. The real time programming is generally setup in modules that execute in no more than a set number of cycles. The modules are called by a master control program. This program resets the watchdog as part of the process of calling the modules. If the software gets hung, the watchdog barks, the system boots.
Hardware watchdogs are similar except you use a timer circuit. Take a SMPS for example. You set the watchdog timer period so that the slowest expected switching will kick the watchdog before it goes off. People expect to do completely stupid things like short out traces on a PCB or short a pin on a chip and not have the thing lockup. In fact, a lockup on a SMPS could smoke. Besides a thermal safety scheme and over current, you put in the watchdog. Failure is not an option, occasional farting is acceptable.
In reality, no actual operation should be shorting out pins and such. But in the evaluation phase of a product, some scope probe slip could ground a pin. You lock up in eval mode, you don't get the follow on business.
The wifi locked up today on my router. The router wired ports themselves kept going. Hooking up a WAP sounds better all the time.
I survived the PC Flank test. Maybe I'll try a snail mail letter to Cisco first.
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