Netgear Router keeps dropping connection

[MiniMarc]

I have a Netgear WGR614v2 with an ntl modem plugged into it. There are 3 PCs and 1 laptop in the house all connecting wirelessly. The connection is perfectly stable until I load up a torrent program, at which point the outer is living on borrowed time. It may last 4 hours before the router just drops all connections or it may be a matter of minutes, but eventually it always happens.

I originally thought that it was a throughput issue and the router couldn't handle sustained downloads wirelessly, but if I connect to an ftp and download anything for a long period, the connection is rock solid.

I have tried a number of programs to maake sure it wasn't a conflict between the program and the router and they all behave the same. I also rolled back the firmware to the last stable release and it made absolutely no difference.

The problem is also not comfined to any one PC, it occurs if any of the PCs/laptop try to use a torrent program.

has anyone experienced something similar to this and do you have any suggestions?

Cheers

[bindo]

I got something similar with a DG834GT wireless router, I installed the latest firware, which helped..but the wireless connection would drop randomly, the only way to get it back was to reboot the router. In the end i took it back to the shop iI got it from, they gave me a new one, which works perfectly, no connection dropping and it seems to have a further wireless range!

[MiniMarc]

I am going to go back to a wired connection for my PC just to reduce the frequency of the disconnections, and I'm coming to the conclusion that a new router might be on the cards.

[joeka]

I had a similar problem with one of my Netgear routers, although it seemed a bit more random than the problem you are having... What I discovered was that one my PCs (connected wirelessly) was actually causing the router to randomly crash. When the PC was switched off the router stopped crashing. I have since formatted and reinstalled Windows on to that particular PC and it all seems to be working ok now... Why.. I don't know!?

This might not be the route of your problem, but could be worth considering..?

Good luck.

[MiniMarc]

Thanks for the suggestion. The problem is that it has been happening for about a year on and off and in that time about 7 PCs have been through the network and they all cause the problem when running a torrent program. I did a search for this problem on google and found a website that lists routers which should be avoided if you use torrents. My router was on the list.

I might just not bother with torrents in the future. I only load the program once in a blue moon anyway, but I'd still like a solution. I'll just convince the old man to go and buy a new router

[EtheAv8r]

I had a similar problem with a DG834G - would regularly drop the ASDL connection and re-connect, and also drop the Ethernet connection(s) and then re connect them a few seconds to a minute later, which dropped connection to my server from clients... I tried the latest firmware etc and no good.

Then I heard a whisper that they can overheat - and my problem seemed totally random (and looking in the event log on the server would see LAN disconnect events even when no one was on) - when placed in their 'normal' stance flat on their tiny little feet. I mounted it vertically on the narrow end so the flat top and bottom were now the right and left sides – and that fixed the problem. (NetGear now provide little clip-on stands to achieve this….. I wonder why!) I have a friend with one who also had similar problems, and after I suggested it was possibly overheating, he now switches it off when not in use, and again has had no problems since.

I now have a DG834PN, rock solid, a constant adsl connection from the time I first connected it up 5 weeks ago, and no LAN or wireless dropouts, and it is mounted on it’s narrow side using the nifty little clip-on stands provided.

[sazdee]

Hi guys,

Can I ask what Operating system you are using when you are having these problems?

I have been having intermittent issues with my boyfriends set up, i.e. his Shuttle PC and his mates (Alan) laptop both of which are installed from the shop with XP Home edition.

At my house, my two PC's and my laptop use Windows XP Pro and I have no problems with my Netgear WNR854T, except when Alan comes over and uses his Windows XP Home laptop!

I seem to have isolated the issues to these two PC's as when they are not connected and just the XP Pro PC's are connected there is no problem at all. As soon as one or more XP Home PC's are connected the connection resets itself randomly.

Try using only XP Pro PC's with your Routers and see if the problem is still there - if it isn't then I would suspect that this is more than likely a XP Home issue, in which case the ideal fix ( but possibly costly) would be to install XP Pro on the offending PC's! Failing that just learn to live with it!!!

Hope this helps

SazDee

[Zak33]

saz..thats weird but interesting.

thanks for signing up to join in the debate

[Splash]

I'd look at what software Alan has installed on his laptop - maybe a bittorrent program or something that could be monopolising bandwidth and causing the router to reset?

EDIT - only read the last post by Saz... time to read the thread now!

EDIT 2 - ok, this is an age old problem with Bittorrent, limiting connections and bandwidth both up AND downstream can help

[sazdee]

Nice idea but... Alan doesn't have any bit torrent programs running! Similarly with my bloke's (David) Shuttle, it doesn't matter if running u torrent or not or just FireFox, it will cause the router to reboot and thus loose the connection for everyone.

If I have u torrent running on my PC and David is using my other PC, either of us on the internet or playing WoW or whatever really it is absolutely fine, the only time we've ever had a problem has been on the inclusion of XP Home to the Network.

SazDee

[Splash]

There's no logical reason that an OS alone would make a difference - I still think it points more towards some other software installed Sazdee, or possibly even the hardware itself. You could try running Ethereal to check what traffic the laptop is putting out...

[sazdee]

Yes but we're talking about MS XP Home!!! Known for its Networking issues!
That in itself is as logical a reason as any.

I will try running Ethereal across the network as suggested, although I'm not sure what it'll acheive!

SazDee

[Splash]

XP Home uses the same TCP/IP stack as XP Professional, so I see no reason it would cause these issues. The networking issues I assume you're referring to stem more from the simple file sharing that is implemented. Ethereal should at least give you some idea as to what the traffic is that's causing the router to drop the connection.

[funnelhead]

I'm a mobile techie and i get a lot of problems with Netgears.

recently i noticed that on some of the misbehaving ones the transformers were giving out 17 volts instead of the rated (and expected) 12 volts.

In 2 of the cases replacing the transformer with a universal generic @ actually 12v fixed the problem. The other one was already too knackered it seemed.

It seems pretty wierd to me... always exactly 17v.... but what can i say, replacing the charger fixed the problem.... Perhaps this is why people say netgears overheat.. beccause they're getting 40%
too much voltage!


f

[[Grevane]]

Yeah, I believe Netgears have "issues" with the stabillity of Wireless connections underload amongst things.

And I've even had a Netgear engineer remote desktop onto a clients PC and he wasn't able to get an ADSL connection stable... This was just merely setting up the connection so it would remain up even when there was no load (i.e. not just dial on demand).

I've also read on certain models of Netgear routers that they have "known" issues with their primary/secondary DNS entries... hmm... sorry, can't remember the model numbers right now, but anyway, on a couple of netgear devices where I've read the change log of the firmware, they have "known" issues such as this... (if you think about it, is totally laughable for an ADSL router)

"if the Primary DNS is unavailable, the Router will be unable to switch to the secondary DNS"...

... so what's the point of the secondary?

My point being, yes, I have seen many problems with them and the only way around it is to get it replaced. No amount of flashing or reflashing will fix them. Just get it swapped out and "hope" the new one is better... I'm not saying they are no good, but yeah they do have problems... but then they all do really... even Cisco equipment.

[sazdee]

I tried updating my firmware and seem to be having no luck with doing that, it just wont upload the new firmware version... gonna see if I can get a generic plug and see if that helps...

Saz