Linksys BEFW11S4 hangs with streaming audio

Plan9 hath wroth:

I have exactly the same wireless router. It hangs erratically a few times per week. Type of traffic doesn't seem to make much difference. I have it because it drove one of my customers nuts so I traded him for one that works.

If you search alt.internet.wireless for "BEFW11S4 hangs", you'll get quite a few hits on the topic.

current consensus is that there's no fix. It's not affected by the firmware version. That bad news is that you'll probably have to fix the problem by replacing the wireless router with a model that doesn't hang, or has a heartbeat timer.

To preserve your investments in antennas, other routers with Rev-TNC connectors are available such as the Linksys WRT54G or WRT54GS. If you decide to buy one of these, be sure to *NOT* buy a WRT54G v5. It has problems.

One of the many

I also run XP w/SP2 and had the same problem with the Linksys router. It made no difference about the traffic. Hang could only be fixed by power down cycle for the router. The good news: The problem has just gone away. All I can attribute to fixing the problem is recent updates I have installed for both XP and my laptop.

Anyway, good luck.

I've raised this issue with Linksys product management.

There is also a known problem with firmware 1.52.02 where the BEFW11S4 V4 may hang when using Macintosh clients with Airport cards. This one is seen to clear up if downgrading to 1.50.10 firmware - it would be interesting to see whether the streaming audio issue is also cleared up by a downgrade.

If someone (Plan9?) can readily replicate this streaming audio problem, then please email me with your contact information.

Regards,

Aaron (@cisco.com)

I am now the proud owner/user of a WRT54G V4 (last one on the shelf at a local WalMart). But I'll continue to play with the BEFW11S4 over the next few weeks for fun and giggles.

Aaron I have contacted you via PM about testing the BEFW11S4.

Jeff Liebermann hath wroth:

Ok, I lied. I just ran the tests again. My BEFW11S4 v4 1.52.02 firmware. It hangs the router on the TARGA3 test repeatedly and passes on the other exploits.

Targa3 is a denial-of-service attack aimed at systems with IP stack vulnerabilities. Targa3 sends random malformed IP packets that cause some IP stacks to crash or act unexpectedly. Malformed IP packets consist of invalid fragmentation, protocol, packet size, header values, options, offsets, tcp segments, and routing flags. Once the TCP stack received the invalid packet, the kernel had to allocate resources to handle the packet. If enough malformed packets were received, the system would crash because of exhausted resources. Targa3 can be used to test firewalls and routers for stability and reactions to unexpected packets. Affected systems: Win 95,98,Me,NT,2000

Jeff Liebermann hath wroth:

Well, there's something else going on. When I check all the test boxes, except TARGA3, the final web page says the router passed the tests. However, within 5-10 minutes, the router is hung. I did this

3 times and it's repeatable. The problem is that I can't find which one or more of the tests is causing the delayed hangs. I tried to find it systematically but only the entire list, except TARG3 will do it. Weird(tm).

Aaron Leonard cried out

more than just steaming audio/video kills mine. Sometimes it will jsut die because it doesnt like the website I visited. Sometimes it just get's "sleepy" I guess and decideds to die for no reason at all!!

Raise it again. Go to:

the router exploits test. My BEFW11S4v4 hangs on two of the test (I forgot which ones). It's been hanging since the initial firmware release. 4 other BEFW11S4v4 routers also hang on this test.

Jeff Liebermann cried out

Mine passes all tests but still hangs whenever it wants

OK, thanks Jeff and Plan9 ... this should give us enough to go on for now.

Btw, in case anyone out there in TV Land wants to try out fw 1.50.10 (or some other version) on their BEFW11S4 V4 to see whether the results are better/worse, you can find the fw at:

ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/befsr41/ and ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/ (look for fw names starting with "befw11s4")

Aaron

I just put the BEFW11S4 V4 with 1.52.02 firmware back into service and ran some more tests. clicking on music links at amazon.com hung the router randomly, but with no pattern that I could determine and required a power reboot each time. I then tried the Radio function of Windows media Player 9.0.3250; accessing Classic Rock - Vinyl 107 (48K) hung the router repeatedly and never started playing.

So I decided to try Aaron's suggestion of flashing 1.50.10. I screwed up the first attempt to reflash using tftp because I forgot to disable the firewall. Kerio kept getting in the way and the router was hosed before I could stop Kerio. The power light kept flashing frantically in what has been called "GFLOD" (Green Flashing Light of Death).

I was able to recover the BEFW11S4-v4 by holding down the reset button for 60 seconds, then removing power while still holding down the reset, then releasing reset, and then repowering the router. My pc is setup with a static IP so I turned off the firewall (Kerio) and flashed the 1.50.10 firmware with the tftp tool.

No hangs at amazon.com and I've been listening to Internet radio Vinyl

107 from Sweden via Window Media Player for the last hour.

I'll continue to play with the BEFW11S4 over the weekend, but this may have solved the problem or lessened it. At least I may have a spare router in case the WRT54G ever goes belly up. :-)