I can't take it anymore! Router problems.

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Grand Master

»X«

Posted
Posted

Enough is enough.

Look up in the sky in approx 5 minutes and you might see an airborne Netgear router. Either that or smash the mother out of it. Both are hard choices for pleasure.

Can someone suggest a new router for me? Or perhaps solve the mystery of this one?

Its a Netgear WGR614 V6. Over the months I have had it, its been slow at best and no connection at worst. Here are the problems.

When I download any torrents my browsing abilities die completely. The torrents will still run, but neither firefox nor IE will display any pages. After numerous retries it will open a page, but it will take almost 10 minutes to open up google. Shutting down uTorrent doesnt fix the issue. Only after a random period of time the problem is gone.

Secondly, a new symptom. Everytime I run Team Fortress 2 and go into the server browser, more problems. Trying to connect to each server gives me a "No response" yet I can refresh the list. It doesn't matter which server, I can just click on 20/30 at random and it will all be the same. When I close TF2 to google the problem etc, I realise that running TF2 has caused the internet to die. 3 times ive tried and each time Ive had to reset the router from the mains to get my internet back.

If it is the router just being a ****, then can anyone suggest me a really decent router? Please, I'm being driven mad.

My router requirements are simple:

Must have a very good wireless range. Im talking really good.

Must be able to handle torrents, at least better than this piece of ****.

Be cheap as possible. I will have about ?100 to play with, but I don't want to spend all that if I have to.

Also, I recently bought a Linksys WRT160N. Load of crap. So my thoughts on Linksys arent the best.

Thanks in advance. Maybe you can save me from pummelling this router into the next world.

Mentor

winrez

Posted
Posted (edited)

Go down to get a D-Link wireless G one with a Intel VIIV logo on it (These seem to give me less problems than any other ones from other manufactures)

any of the Black D-Link boxes with the silver banding I have good luck with

Edited by winrez
Grand Master

+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted

The TF2 one sounds like you are not opening the right ports for it in the router, thus it cannot communicate, I am unsure of the ports used by the game though :(

Grand Master

»X«

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Linksys WRT54GL flashed with Tomato = Perfect

Tomato? Can you elaborate?

The TF2 one sounds like you are not opening the right ports for it in the router, thus it cannot communicate, I am unsure of the ports used by the game though :(

Its just odd its started to happen tonight. Been playing it fine earlier :(

Community Regular

buckaroo

Posted
Posted (edited)
Linksys WRT54GL flashed with Tomato = Perfect

+1

Tomato? Can you elaborate?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

Cheaper than the Linksys is this one:

http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products...outer-whr-g125/

~30€, works very well with Tomato.

More screenshots: http://feddern.org/tim/Bilder/Forum/tomato...ots/tomato.html

Edited by buckaroo
Collaborator

csmarshal

Posted
Posted

Try flashing it with http://www.dd-wrt.com.

Its an alternative firmware.

i used to have the same problems with uTorrent. Its opening too many connections. Limit those and your browsing problem should be solved. Dont quite know what to tell you about the TF problem. Try monitoring your connection and see whats consuming Bandwith. Perhaps something is running in the background that is killing your internet and you just haven't noticed it yet.

Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

tomato is a 3rd party firmware, the GL model of the wrt54 is made to allow for 3rd party firmware.. This would be a great choice, or you could take a look at dd-wrt or openwrt as other options for 3rd party firmware.

Unless you configure your p2p app to not use up all of your bandwidth, or your router supports QOS then yes trying to browse the internet is going to be like mud.. Correctly setup your p2p app to allow some bandwidth on your upload pipe for dns and queries to your webservers and you should be able to browse just fine.

I never even notice when download anything.

As to weirdness even after turning off a torrent -- You will be seeing traffic to your router for DAYS after you stop a torrent.. DAYS!! This will normally not cause you a problem, but depending on the ram and memory of a router -- torrent in general will push them to the limit.. most of them are not really up to the task. Even though you were not currently downloading a torrent -- its effects could still be affecting your routers performance.

wrt54GL running 3rd party firmware has made adjustments to the number of connections it remembers and how long they stay open, etc. to better allow for torrents.

The WRT160N you purchased supports dd-wrt.. I agree with you, the native firmware that comes with most every linksys products I have seen are crap!! So put something better on it!! This can be said for most every single native firmware out there.. Most of them are just so freaking limited it what they support, when the hardware can do so much more.

If you still have your wrt160N, put dd-wrt -- if not then a wrt54GL with 3rd party on it is a great choice.

Rising Star

LiqHead

Posted
Posted
tomato is a 3rd party firmware, the GL model of the wrt54 is made to allow for 3rd party firmware.. This would be a great choice, or you could take a look at dd-wrt or openwrt as other options for 3rd party firmware.

Unless you configure your p2p app to not use up all of your bandwidth, or your router supports QOS then yes trying to browse the internet is going to be like mud.. Correctly setup your p2p app to allow some bandwidth on your upload pipe for dns and queries to your webservers and you should be able to browse just fine.

I never even notice when download anything.

As to weirdness even after turning off a torrent -- You will be seeing traffic to your router for DAYS after you stop a torrent.. DAYS!! This will normally not cause you a problem, but depending on the ram and memory of a router -- torrent in general will push them to the limit.. most of them are not really up to the task. Even though you were not currently downloading a torrent -- its effects could still be affecting your routers performance.

wrt54GL running 3rd party firmware has made adjustments to the number of connections it remembers and how long they stay open, etc. to better allow for torrents.

The WRT160N you purchased supports dd-wrt.. I agree with you, the native firmware that comes with most every linksys products I have seen are crap!! So put something better on it!! This can be said for most every single native firmware out there.. Most of them are just so freaking limited it what they support, when the hardware can do so much more.

If you still have your wrt160N, put dd-wrt -- if not then a wrt54GL with 3rd party on it is a great choice.

Oh BS. I have the same router running the latest firmware. Sounds like an ISP problem.

Grand Master

»X«

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Thanks people. Very interesting about Tomato.

So If I get this, I can then use tomato to make things even better?

What is the realistic wireless range on that router?

Below is the current settings I have in uTorrent. I lowered the connections by about 25% but the problem still remains.?

post-139232-1219528778_thumb.jpg

Edited by _X_
Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

Posted
  • MVC
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You have a 20KB/sec upload rate set -- how big is your upload pipe? At max you should be set to 80% of your upload rate.. So your saying you have a 200kbit upload pipe?

Also what are you using for dns? If your trying to access your routers dns forwarder while its busy handling your torrent traffic -- it might be a bit sluggish.. Use an a different dns server, say opendns, or your isps directly or 4.2.2.2, etc.

Rising Star

pyther

Posted
Posted

No matter what you do not by a dlink, dlink makes the worst networking products out there!

@OP Your billing statment should tell you, if you can't find it mabye you can tell us your isp and how much you pay each month and we might be able to found out for you.

Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

where did you come up with the 20KB/sec limit??? You just pull it out of your ass?

What is the connection speed you get from your ISP? You could go to http://www.speedtest.net/ when your internet is working decent, and your not doing torrents and do a test.

post-14624-1219580101.png

So from this test my upload speed is 1352 kb/s, so lets say its 1200 to be on the safe side. This is reported in bits, so to convert to bytes divide by 8 = 1200/8 = 150KBytes/sec.

Now lets make sure we only use at max 80% of that.. so my upload limit should at MAX be 150 * .80 = 120KBytes/sec if you still having issues lower it some more.

When you fill up your upload side.. you can not query dns to find out where to go, you can not query the webserver to send you pages, etc.. so even if your not using all of your download bandwidth.. If your upload side is full -- your internet browsing will be utter crap.

Since you do not know who your using for dns, its pretty much a given your pointing to your router.. From a command prompt do a ipconfig /all

It will show you what IP your machine is using for dns.

C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : p4-24g

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : local.lan

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : local.lan

Ethernet adapter Gig:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-09-5B-E0-FB-AD

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.253

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.4

If that is the same IP address as your Default gateway -- then your bouncing your dns off your router, who then asks another server.. Be it your ISP dns by default, or could of changed it. But that sounds like a big no.

Change your machine to use opendns, or your isp directly (should be able to see where your router is pointing in a status page on it) Or use 4.2.2.2, 4.2.2.3 or 4.2.2.4 which are dns that answer to the public and are quite fast.

The opendns site has all kinds of help on change your machines dns, or change your router to use it, or have it hand different dns to your clients, etc.

When your router is quite busy handling all the connections for p2p, its possible that dns is not on the top of its priority lists ;) And can become quite sluggish or not respond at all if the router is too busy. Most soho routers dns forwarders blow chunks anyway.. Expecting them to be responsive while your router is busy handling 1,000 of connections is quite often asking too much ;)

Grand Master

»X«

Posted
  • Author
Posted

^ Thank you for the information, even the ass bit :p

I followed it and changed my dns. So lets see how that works. One final thing, I worked out the upload rate, according to the maths it should be 70 instead of my 20. But isnt that too high? Won't that effect other programmes? Online gaming etc?

313102974.png

Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

Posted
  • MVC
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Well if your upload pipe is 733kbps, lets call it 700/8 = 87.5 * .8 = yup 70KB/sec would be about 80% of your current upload speed.

So 20 is well below your upload pipe -- and your torrents should not be causing you an issue because of a full upload pipe. It could be that dns is your problem?? Or it could be that router just blows and can not really handle torrents.

These soho routers have 2 or 4MB of ram and storage, and when you think about it pretty slow proccessors.. Most of them by default will leave open every tcp connection for 5 days -- this really eats up their available memory.

The 3rd party firmware has made adjustments for this.

post-14624-1219582704.png

I have never heard of anyone saying that the performance of their router was better under native firmware, or that native firmware handled p2p better, etc.

Grand Master

»X«

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  • Author
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Since I changed the DNS, I fired up uTorrent and left it running while I carried on. I seem to be browsing so much better. No lag and every page loads quick and as it should. Before, a couple of minutes of utorrent and my internet browsing was a right off. :D

Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

Posted
  • MVC
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Well your router is busy handling connections.. So yeah asking it to also go ask your isp for dns could be asking a bit much ;)

Also -- opendns is much better than many ISPs dns anyway.. Quite often the ISPs dns are undersized for how many users are hitting it, you will normally see much better response from opendns. They also provide many other features that your ISP does not.

Let it run for a while, and let us know.. Also a move from 20 to 70 on your upload pipe should give you way better download speeds on your torrents as well.

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