Router issues

[finlay666]

My current router (netgear WGR614 or whatever...cable one) is seriously dodgy

websites I normally open are fine (such as hexus) but ones I rarely use (bbc) wont open at all
steam loads & can download updates BUT the store homepage (or any others) cant load

messenger rarely loads

Anyone got any ideas? got WPA encryption on, firmware 2.3

[SiM]

Does it work normally wired? Do you get good Speedtest results?

[finlay666]

wired is the same, speedtest with a direct modem connection is fine....via router it wont load

strangely if I'm downloading it works for browsing, which is how i can post now

[Jay]

is this on all systems or just one?

try ipconfig /flushdns

[finlay666]

on all the systems jay

and no luck trying that

[SiM]

You could try to hard reset the router (but you will have to put in all your settings again)

[Jay]

can you ping the sites?

[finlay666]

You could try to hard reset the router (but you will have to put in all your settings again)

done that and the modem, no luck

and using cmd.exe with ping Google does not work, neither does hexus

[Jay]

hmmm

could be a DNS issue with you ISP. Who are you with?

ps

I am guessing VM....


There are no issues reported in the NE.

Plug direct into your modem and see if that sorts it, then we know 100% its your router.

[peterb]

Have you tried entering the direct IP address of the sites you are looking at? (Bypassing DNS) For example Hexus.net is 195.78.94.240 so enter in the browser.

google.co.uk is 216.239.59.104 - try the same thing.

[finlay666]

Well direct still works, pinging hexus now but most sites dont load still

Must be a router issue I think

messenger says hosts file/DNS/ports issue so I'm thinking router, my hard reset it tonight and have a go after I finish my assignment

[peterb]

Your router should be acting as a DNS relay, so either it is either not picking up the DNS server of IWSP (or other DNS server) correctly, or it is not configured to relay properly, or the PC is not picking up the DNS server IP address from the router because it is mis-configured.

Unless I missed it, you didn't say what OS you are using. OOn a windows syste,, typing ipconfig at a command line prompt will give you some useful information - otherwise try clearing the TCP/IP configuartion for the lan connection to the router and re-entering it (with a reboot in between)

Pinging is not always a reliable test as some routers (network) are configured not to reply to ICMP packets. Traceroute (windows command line tracert) is more reliable and useful as it will resolve a host name to an IP address - provided it can access a DNS server.

One other option to try is to enter the DNS server IP address in the Windows TCP/IP configuration, so the computer is not relying on the DNS relay function of the router when it resolves host names.

[finlay666]

Well apparently it IS a Virgin issue, 4 seperate people I know with it with routers all different make/firmware have the same problem

And Virgin aren't going to do anything untill they receive more complaints apparently, guy in the call centre told my housemate to try deleting his cookies....

[Jay]

Typal VM to be honest. Call up and say you have no internet and you don't use a router.

[finlay666]

Typal VM to be honest. Call up and say you have no internet and you don't use a router.

3rd replacement modem already mate, already complained to them about it, but 6 people in different areas of 1 city all with the same problem.....seem a bit iffy

[MeCoconuts]

I finally got my Netgear WGR614 working again with the Webstar 2100 modem !!
It turns out i cannot connect through Virgin's DNS Servers using my Netgear Router !

All i did was went to OPENDNS.com which is here :

and followed the steps for 'COMPUTER' and 'ROUTER' to change two DNS Server addresses and bingo .....all is working again !!!

Strangely my 20mb connection also appears to be faster !!!

UPDATE :
I have been on the phone to Virgin Tech Support this morning and identified how i solved the problem by using the OPENDNS.com DNS Servers addresses.

Virgin have now confirmed that they have a known problem with a couple of their DNS Servers which are down at the moment.

Virgin Tech Support have given me two temporary Virgin DNS Servers addresses to use to replace the OPENDNS.com addresses. (just to keep things going via Virgin)

These are :

193.38.113.3
194.117.157.4

(will try these tonight as i'm at work)

Virgin Tech Support also said 'every couple of days set your Lan card & Router DNS Servers back to 'Request default' in case they resolve the issue'

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR GAMERS : The way OPENDNS.com works is by keeping cached pages that other users have went to. If you are generally surfing the web this won't make much difference to you and may even find surfing faster.

But if your a gamer like myself then this is a problem as I play Battlefield 2 all the time and could not connect to most servers as the cached Server List being extracted through OPENDNS.com was most likely out of date.