Is my wireless router dying and replacement recommendation?

[cambournepete]

I know I should know the answer, being of an IT background, but I'd like a second opinion or three...

We regularly lose internet browsing capability, email and ping work fine but browsing or streaming stop.
It seems to happen when streaming video or audio - more often on my wife's windows 7 laptop than our XP machines, but not exclusively.
The only fix is to reboot the router - sometimes more than once a day.
As you can imagine this is getting tedious so we're pondering buying a new one.

Before we do, any suggestions as to any setting I could try changing on the router?
It's a Belkin F5D7230-4 wireless G router. When it's not working then any wired connection into it fails as well.
It's connected to a newish Virgin cable modem but that shouldn't make any difference as I don't need to touch that when I reboot the router.

Any recommendations for a replacement?
I guess Linksys or netgear are the obvious ones, but any advice gratefully received...

 

[jpt]

Does sound like the router my son had the same problem about 6 months ago he brought a new Belkin router and that solved it.

I dont know what package you have from Virgin but if you are on their 20mb it is worth upgrading to 30mb as it costs you nothing extra a month except for a one of payment of £30 and you get this router http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/b ... uters.html

I changed about a month ago and it all works better than my old router ever did.

john

 

[RogerS]

I'd second that. I had a problem with a Netgear when FTP'ing. I could FTP a small test file without problem but if I wanted to FTP anything above a few k then the router got constipated. Took me ages to pinpoint the router as the culprit and I replaced it. Applying my sledge hammer to it later was a very cathartic experience.

The only thing that you might want to play with is altering the MTU.

 

[9fingers]

I had a netgear router that used to suffer similarly and I could lock it up to order by accessing specific posts in this forum all of which featured pictures from FlickR. I searched high and low for help in various forums to no avail. I checked for firmware updates etc and none were available. I reset to factory state and set it all up from scratch - no better.
Eventually I scrounged an older model Netgear FP114 from a mate and it has been perfect ever since.

I've always been a fan of Netgear and have several of their products . It is sort of encouraging to read of other brands suffering similarly but I cannot understand why this can happen to something that should just work - or not!

Thankfully router are cheap especially manufacturer recon units from the bay.

Bob

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

Linksys WRT series.

Check it is compatible with the firmware http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index and flash as soon as you get it.

EDIT: Personally I wouldnt touch anyother router, and would avoid belkin & netgear.

dd-wrt will add IPv6 support as well as a ton of other "missing" features essentially turning your consumer £150 router into a Comerical £400 one. (I joke not).

 

[Jamesc]

I had a similar problem with a Belkin Router when using different operating systems. I use Windows 7 and she was on XP. The problem got dramatically worse when my son came home with his Mac. I solved the problem completely by changing the security settings. I cant rememer the specifics now but it was taking it down a notch.

Don't know if this helps

James

 

[doorframe]

+1 for Lynksys... although I'm on my 3rd!! Also been through 3 Belkins and a Netgear. All were 'wired', not wireless. If there's an internet-based-game-crazy-teenager in the house using up all your bandwidth to wipe out the terrorists (Counter-Strike), that will shorten the life of your router quite drastically.

Roy

 

[RogerS]

+1 for Lynksys... although I'm on my 3rd!! Also been through 3 Belkins and a Netgear. All were 'wired', not wireless. If there's an internet-based-game-crazy-teenager in the house using up all your bandwidth to wipe out the terrorists (Counter-Strike), that will shorten the life of your router quite drastically.

Roy

That's easily sorted. Go into your router control panel, look for the Block Sites option and add the website for Counter Strike. Simples!

 

[llangatwgnedd]

My linksys started to die this year, and purchased this cable wireless router for £20 month back.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/201376

Cant get over how small it is compared to the ugly blue box it replaced, and far superior signal strenght.

 

[cambournepete]

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions.
That Buffalo router looks interesting at £20ish, but it doesn't seem to have much firewall capability.
I saw an IT manager friend today who recommended a Draytek router which I'd not previously heard of. More expensive at around £100 but it has all the firewall settings I would expect.

 

[oddsocks]

Pete, I've got similar problems as you (but not quite so bad, need to repower once a week) and they seem to co-incide with me having windows 7 and the work PC upgrading to win xp with SP2 (yes only now!). My router is a netgear rangemax DG834PN protected via UPS. I won't use belkin anymore -had loads of issue with their routes, pcmcia cards and print servers in the past.
Let us know if a change of router fixes it .....i am on Pipex and since their move to talktalk via tiscali etc gut feeling is the service has got worse......even thinking of going back to BT so have started moving my email address etc to googlemail to remove the ISP dependency

 

[devonwoody]

I installed a TP link router on to my xp and that played up on xp (and still does, I have to boot up without the router connected at start up) the local supplier swears the router when tested on his PC W7 works normally.

I did have to get a new modem as well from virgin.

 

[misterfish]

I've come across this type of problem all to often over the years when asked for assistance by family, friends and acquaintences and it seemed to include a wide range of kit - Belkin, Linksys, Netgear, BT. It always seemed to be intermittent and occasionally solved by updating firmware, but usually the only fix was to get replacement kit. I also used to have intermittent problems with some network cards in PCs, The problem is that it is usually difficult to actually get a definitive problem analysis. If you've tried all the obvious possible solutions then if I was in your position I'd get a replacement.

Misterfish

 

[9fingers]

Quite agree with your observations and conclusion Misterfish but....
It seems counter intuitive that these items seem to 'wear out' after too many bits get sent through them?

It is almost like there are time/data bombs left in the software to slowly degrade over time.

Bob

 

[cambournepete]

Quite agree with your observations and conclusion Misterfish but....
It seems counter intuitive that these items seem to 'wear out' after too many bits get sent through them?

It is almost like there are time/data boms left in the software to slowly degrade over time.

Bob

Yeah - I agree it does seem odd, but it really does seem as if it's "wearing out"!
Maybe it's because the firmware, or even hardware (which are both quite old) cannot cope with the demands of the latest versions of streaming audio/video software?
I have no evidence to support this theory though...

 

[devonwoody]

How about interference from a neighbours router or have you decorated with something tinfoil in your house :!:

 

[9fingers]

How about interference from a neighbours router or have you decorated with something tinfoil in your house :!:

Don't think so in my case John - or Pete. The wireless side has stayed fine but the routing has suffered and there is very little video streaming done in our house. There is only one other wireless network in range and I can only see low signal levels for that. There is a wireless network in the workshop at the bottom of the garden but that is inaccessible from the hose by radio

A relatively new Netgear wpn824 will now lock up almost daily but a much older Netgear FM114P is now doing sterling service as its replacement.

Bob

 

[newt]

I have no evidence to prove it, but it is interesting how routers and mobile phones just start failing. Could there be obsolescence built into the firmware/software, surely not. :shock:

 

[mbartlett99]

Hey Pete

I've had that a couple of times, not sure how a router can wear out but they seem to achieve it. I've got a couple of Cisco units in the loft - brand new not been used. If you want one give me a shout and I'll stick it in the post, you would need a power supply as they come from the states, surplus on a job. TTFN

 

[newt]

Quite agree with your observations and conclusion Misterfish but....
It seems counter intuitive that these items seem to 'wear out' after too many bits get sent through them?

It is almost like there are time/data bombs left in the software to slowly degrade over time.

Bob

Hi Bob, Sometime ago I was involved in assessing the effects of transients on semiconductor devices used in military aircraft flight safety critical systems. Without revealing too much info the devices/systems were subjected to transients produced when certain systems were switched on/off and there were failures, some permanent some temporary. The failed devices were replaced with different types or changes were made to the input configuration to suppress the transient. However, and this is the interesting bit of the story, (sorry if this is a bore) as a parallel exercise certain devices were subjected to continuous low level transients in lab conditions (well below the outright failure level) and to our surprise devices started to fail as a function of time. There was repeatable correlation between failure, the energy in the transient and the number of transients, eg lower energy greater number of transients required for failure. This did explain some of the medium/long term failures we were getting. The junctions in the devices basically got punctured. There just maybe some relationship with some of our domestic equipment failures, with time, of course there was a good reason for fixing the problem in military aircraft, but perhaps not in domestic stuff. As I am sure you are aware, there are many transients produced in a domestic environment.