Linksys Router problems


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A few days ago, my connection to the internet through my router started to shut off every couple minutes and instantly turn itself back on. I called my ISP, and they told me that my connection was fine, and that it was probably something wrong with my router (bef-sr41) which they won't offer support for, because it's not their product. They did, however, give me an 800 number for Linksys that I could call to recieve support.

When I called their support line, basically the guy on the other end told me to do a "power cycle" as he called it, and turn off all the computers in the house, then the router, then the modem, and turn them all back on in reverse order. This worked for about 10 minutes.

I then called back, and was greeted by a woman whose voice resembled that of Antonia, from MadTV. She told me that MTU should be enabled in the setup, and that this would fix the problem. When I asked what MTU was, she replied "I don't know, but turn it on." (Maybe someone could shed some light on what MTU is short for, and what it does?) This worked for about a day.

I called back last night when the problem resurfaced, and told the tech support representative what the issue was, and she told me to reflash the firmware. I did this, and still nothing.

I'm at the end of my rope here, guys. I can either find out what the problem is, or I can buy a new router.

Has anyone got experience with Linksys Routers (primarily the BEF-SR41) and might be able to tell me what my problem is?

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MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit. The Internet's Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) uses the MTU to determine the maximum size of each packet in any transmission. Too large an MTU size may mean retransmissions if the packet encounters a router that can't handle that large a packet. Too small an MTU size means relatively more header overhead and more acknowledgements that have to be sent and handled.

http://www.supersurf.net/supportpages.html...?bvIkeqvfDEk%3D

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You really do not give enough detail to help. Are you just surfing neowin when it happens? ARe you doing anything else, ie FTP, IRC, games, chatting, checking email?

Can you ping the router, normally 192.168.1.1 when it happens, can you ping your ISP's gateway? (can be found on the status page in the router web interface). Maybe its just a name resolution issue?

Does the router reboot, ie do you see the lights flash - does the Wan/Diag (red light) come on and stay on for a bit?

Are there multiple machines connecting when it happens, or just one? Are you forwarding any ports, are you running any UPnP applications - is it enabled on the router?

Exactly what version of the firmware are you running? You said you reflashed it - but to what exact version. What version of the router do you have? There have been many 1, 2 3 and now 4?

Are you logging traffic? I would turn that off for testing.

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I've experienced similar problems with this router (at home and work)....but each time it returned to normal after a maximum of 1 week of slow speeds...and each time I became sure that it was my ISP....

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You really do not give enough detail to help.  Are you just surfing neowin when it happens?  ARe you doing anything else, ie FTP, IRC, games, chatting, checking email?

Can you ping the router, normally 192.168.1.1 when it happens, can you ping your ISP's gateway? (can be found on the status page in the router web interface).  Maybe its just a name resolution issue?

Does the router reboot, ie do you see the lights flash - does the Wan/Diag (red light) come on and stay on for a bit?

Are there multiple machines connecting when it happens, or just one?  Are you forwarding any ports, are you running any UPnP applications - is it enabled on the router?

Exactly what version of the firmware are you running?  You said you reflashed it - but to what exact version.  What version of the router do you have?  There have been many 1, 2 3 and now 4?

Are you logging traffic?  I would turn that off for testing.

I'm sorry for the lack of detail, let me answer your questions.

1) It's while doing anything. FTP, MSN, AIM, etc will shut off at the same time.

2) It doesn't happen for long enough to ping the router. It's literally off and on like a flash.

3) Last I checked, the lights stayed the same.

4) It seems to happen to every computer in the house when it happens. No forwarded ports, uPnP is enabled, but no apps seem to be using it.

5) The firmware version is "1.45.7, Jul 31 2003", and the router is v1 I assume, because it just says BEFSR41 on the bottom of the router.

6) Traffic logging is off, and has been throughout the process.

I appreciate your help, BudMan. Please keep it coming. :D :D

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Try the latest firmware, 1.45.7, if that fails, go back a few, I have to run at 1.44.2 because of my VPN server. You can get older firmwares from the Linksys FTP site.

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Okay, yeah. I've gone back to 1.45.6 and set the MTU down to 1390 because the Linksys tech said that I should toy with the settings there and see if it makes a difference.. But, it hasn't.

edit: I've just set it down to 576 because that was another suggestion that the tech suggested.

edit2: @BudMan: Just went down again, tried to ping the server.. nothing. Can't get a connection.

I'm amazed how confusing this is. :cry: :cry: :unsure:

Edited by monofonik
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you tried to ping what server? Do you mean your gateway, or the router itself? Also - are you on a PPOE connection - do you have to log in? I highly doubt your router is a V1 - those are quite old, but ok

I would not mess with the MTU if I were you - and sure and the hell would not turn it down to 576.

As to a problem between your router and your modem - you would have to know what the IP address of your modem is. What model is it? I know the Motorola SB4220 surfboard is at 192.168.100.1 and can be pinged. Even has an web interface with logging, etc.. If your model has this - maybe a log on them modem could shed some light.

Since your not seeing any change of the lights on the router, I do not believe it is resetting - which would cause a momentary disconnect. It could just be a problem with your ISP. When the connection goes off - how long is it off? Seconds or Minutes? 1 minute, 5-10?

When it happens again - do you lose connection to the router itself, or the gateway of your ISP - and if possible check to see if you can still talk to your modem IP.

Also - as suggested you could try downgrading your firmware. I ran on the 1.45.6 with no problems, and before that it was the 1.44.3 I think. I no longer use that sr41 model, I am on the sx41 - wanted the snmp - which they broke in the sx41 1.45.3 firmware - had to downgrade myself ;)

You are running a CA model are you not - there are different firmwares if you have a Canadian version of the router.

edit: Also how long of a dhcp lease are you getting? Maybe has something to do with renewing your IP address?

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Try removing the Linksys from the picture here--plug your PC right into your cable/dsl modem and reboot (ie, get a new IP address). Can you do everything you want then? If so, than keep toying with your router.

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you tried to ping what server? Do you mean your gateway, or the router itself? Also - are you on a PPOE connection - do you have to log in? I highly doubt your router is a V1 - those are quite old, but ok

I would not mess with the MTU if I were you - and sure and the hell would not turn it down to 576.

As to a problem between your router and your modem - you would have to know what the IP address of your modem is. What model is it? I know the Motorola SB4220 surfboard is at 192.168.100.1 and can be pinged. Even has an web interface with logging, etc.. If your model has this - maybe a log on them modem could shed some light.

Since your not seeing any change of the lights on the router, I do not believe it is resetting - which would cause a momentary disconnect. It could just be a problem with your ISP. When the connection goes off - how long is it off? Seconds or Minutes? 1 minute, 5-10?

When it happens again - do you lose connection to the router itself, or the gateway of your ISP - and if possible check to see if you can still talk to your modem IP.

Also - as suggested you could try downgrading your firmware. I ran on the 1.45.6 with no problems, and before that it was the 1.44.3 I think. I no longer use that sr41 model, I am on the sx41 - wanted the snmp - which they broke in the sx41 1.45.3 firmware - had to downgrade myself ;)

You are running a CA model are you not - there are different firmwares if you have a Canadian version of the router.

edit: Also how long of a dhcp lease are you getting? Maybe has something to do with renewing your IP address?

I tried to ping 192.168.1.1, is what I meant. I am not on PPoE.

The bottom of the router doesn't say V2 or 3 so it must be V1.

When the connection goes off, it's literally off for half a second. Off and on like nothing happened, except something did happen, because it drops my msn connection.

I'd imagine I'm running the Canadian model. How would I differentiate on the website the difference? There doesn't seem to be an option.

The DHCP lease is 1 day.

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Try removing the Linksys from the picture here--plug your PC right into your cable/dsl modem and reboot (ie, get a new IP address). Can you do everything you want then? If so, than keep toying with your router.

I did that, which is why I know it's the router messing up, and not my ISP.

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Ah. Well, at worst, if you can't get it to work properly, file an RMA with Linksys and send it back. They're real good about getting your replacement out to you (mine took less than 2 weeks and I did not have my original receipt as they require--i just put a note in saying I'd lost it).

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Okay, from the techs I've talked to at Linksys, they just pull people off the street and give them a quick cheat sheet. Why would they want you to set an MTU based on a 56K connection :blink:

Try going down to 1.44.2 w/o the zonealarm crap.

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Okay, from the techs I've talked to at Linksys, they just pull people off the street and give them a quick cheat sheet. Why would they want you to set an MTU based on a 56K connection :blink:

Try going down to 1.44.2 w/o the zonealarm crap.

Yeah, I figured as much about the pulling people off the street thing. No offence to any Linksys techs on this board, but I haven't spoken to a smart one yet. The girl said she wasn't reading off of anything and that the help she was giving me was based on real life experience she had.

Fools. All fools.

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uPnP is enabled, but no apps seem to be using it.

You have stated that your connection is only off for a second or so - and the only reason you know your loosing your connection is that your MSN disconnects - or something like that?

I would suggest you disable uPnP for testing. A guess at would could cause a momentary disconnected would be the opening or closing of port forwards, which is really what uPnP does.

You can duplicate the same symptoms by changing a port forward on your interface, ie open a connection to msn - go to your router interface, and make a change to your port forwards - but it something minor, that in noway would effect the ports your using. Ie turn snmp or something - and I bet you see the same thing.

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Let us know how it turns out - I am fairly sure that uPnP is the problem. I personally would never turn this feature on, since I do not like the fact that a piece of software could open a port on my router - without me knowing. But to each his own ;)

Glad I could be of help - more than happy to help people willing to help themselves, ie you took the time to give the details needed for us to fully understand your setup.

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Well, as it stands I'm running firmware 1.44.2 from Dec 13, 2002. The problems seem to be gone, as I'm not getting signed off and neither is my sister, or any other computer on our network.

Thanks again for your help, if any more problems come up, I'll be sure to bump this thread, or even send you a PM.

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Anytime - I would suggest once you feel that the problem is gone (pretty sure it was the uPnP) you upgrade your firmware to the latest 1.45.7 And please feel free to PM me if you have further problems, but please post them too - since any problem with a solution is posting - for select few that use the search features of neowin :)

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Okay. My next question.. I'd rather have everyone on the network use their own firewall than have the router handle all of that.. Is there a way that I can disable the hardware firewall in the router?

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Anytime - I would suggest once you feel that the problem is gone (pretty sure it was the uPnP) you upgrade your firmware to the latest 1.45.7 And please feel free to PM me if you have further problems, but please post them too - since any problem with a solution is posting - for select few that use the search features of neowin :)

i was about to say that. my router as well was doing some weird ish, so i dled the latest firware now im back in business

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Well, I just updated to 1.45.7 and the problems came back. At least once, but that could have been because I updated.

edit: We've had it happen twice since I updated, all within a ten minute interval, and nothing but peace since. I guess time is the answer to this issue.

Edited by monofonik
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