So, I upgraded my decade old linksys router to the newer WRT54G2 router. Setup was very straightforward and worked out of the box. I cloned my MAC address since I have TWCs RoadRunner. I set up WEP (I have trouble for some reason with WPA on my PS3.... have not been able to get that to work for some reason). Everything still going fine.....

I have my ps3 on a static ip, i set it to 192.168.1.150 (DHCP range on the router is .100 + 50, so 150 is not in that range). gateway, primary and secondary are all 192.168.1.1 (I think, going off memory... I know the prim/sec are for certain). I have all of the ports forwarded to .150 that are required for the PSN and COD4.

It worked fine, but it seems like every other time I get on the PS3 I need to power cycle the router - this sucks. Also, when streaming the Hurricanes games on my tv, the speed seems slower - not sure how this is possible since I have a g/b router and a better signal now.

THE WORST OF IT.....

I can be on my desktop and it works fine, the next minute Internet goes out, for no apparent reason. I have to power cycle to get it back on.... it has a wired connection so it's not wireless related. I'm really not sure what makes it get kicked off... i thought the mac clone resolved that.

Anyone have thoughts on what I need to do? The static IP address for the ps3 does not need to be entered into the router right?

O, this was not an option on my old linksys, does it need to be a gateway or access point? I have a basic setup with my RR cable modem... I really was not certain but its on gateway now, if that matters.

1/28/2009 10:56:42 AM

if anyone asks, I did search online and my problems still persist. I trust some of the tech guys on here a LOT more than some random internet site I dont know. Thanks for any and all help.

1/28/2009 10:57:27 AM

gateway is correct

not sure on the rest.

1/28/2009 11:00:46 AM

^ cool, thats PART of the problem (my ignorance).

I just want to not have to keep doing power cycles and maintain my Internet. Sooo annoying.

1/28/2009 11:03:34 AM

I'm not sure, but I do know someone with a similar problem. He has a linksys (not sure of the exact model), has the Wii and PS3 hooked to it, and a Wireless connection to his desktop in the other room. His issue is somewhat the opposite though, the computer is the one dropping connection, and the PS3 and Wii don't seem to have as much trouble (I think the PS3 lost connection once or twice). I've tried looking at it and I have no idea what the problem is but cycling seems to help him as well. Though he has it setup differently. No statics, just let dhcp on the router work it all out. I wonder if its not some weird thing with linksys since I use Dlink and haven't had any problems myself.

1/28/2009 11:08:28 AM

I had the same issue once on a linksys RV016 router that was resolved like two years later when they finally admitted there was a problem and released a firmware upgrade that fixed it.

I remember reading that lowering the MTU from the default of 1500 helped some people with that particular router. Worth a shot anyways

I should probably read your whole post though before I start giving advice

edit:
i don't think you need to clone the mac address btw. sure it won't hurt..but one less thing you really need to bother doing. personally i'd reset it completely, leave everything exactly how it is from the factory..no encryption or anything, plug it up, power cycle the modem so it will work with the new mac address of the router then plug in just your desktop via ethernet. use it and see if it continues to give problems. if it does, then something is probably wrong with the router and i'd go try to exchange it for another one. if it works fine then you know the router is fine and it's probably a setup issue and we'll help you more

[Edited on January 28, 2009 at 11:17 AM. Reason : edit]

1/28/2009 11:11:10 AM

^ MTU, interesting, I changed it from auto to 1500 (which is default), I did see one post where someone said to put it at 1350.

^^ In order to forward the ports I need to have a static IP... I was under the assumption this would allow for a better connection also. I had the static IP setup on my old router and it worked like a champ for near 2 years. I only upgraded to g in hopes my speed would be better due to better signal.

There are no firmware updates available. Anyone know of or would you recommend a 3rd party operating system for that router? I'm hesitant to do that... but whatever makes it work. I despise calling linksys so I appreciate all of the posts.

Do I need to do something with the DNS servers? I get those from ipconfig/all, but am not certain what those are needed for, if they are?

[Edited on January 28, 2009 at 11:19 AM. Reason : static]

1/28/2009 11:14:56 AM

Quote :

"Do I need to do something with the DNS servers? I get those from ipconfig/all, but am not certain what those are needed for, if they are?"

defaults are fine for now. after you get this resolved you can use NCSU's DNS servers and they're a LOT faster than the default ones. don't worry about that right now though

see my edit above

1/28/2009 11:19:22 AM

^ I can use NCSUs DNS servers even though I am a TWC customer in Cary? I know NOTHING about DNS, just how to obtain them.

I will try your suggestions when I get home. I would prefer to keep the brainstorming going in case this does not resolve my issue... as I will be setting up a static IP, port forwarding and WEP, as it is now.

1/28/2009 11:22:08 AM

Yes you can use any DNS servers you want. Basically a DNS server just translates names, like google.com to IP addresses that computers can actually find. TWC doesn't care who you use to do that and NCSU doesn't care who uses their DNS servers.

1/28/2009 11:37:27 AM

Quote :

"NCSU doesn't care who uses their DNS servers."

Not quite true.....use OpenDNS
https://www.opendns.com/homenetwork/start/device/linksys

Instead of cloning your MAC address, you should be able to reboot your cable modem to remove the cached address. Leave your MTU at 1500, that's an optimal setting, any lower and you'll get more fragmentation.

Cue somebody to come in and tell you to load up DD-WRT on your old router and return the new one.

1/28/2009 12:20:22 PM

^ i was actually questioning doing that... but I was under the assumption that this new router would be faster than my old one... I need to research dd-wrt. Is this something you have used, what is the process, will it make my wireless any faster or stable?

My old connection was near flawless, once every 2-3 weeks I needed to power cycle, but that seems nice compared to what I am currently doing.

1/28/2009 12:31:30 PM

I'm here to tell you to load up DD-WRT on your old router and return the new one.

I'm running DD-WRT at my apartment and have been for years. I feel like it's a lot more stable than the Linksys firmware. It's been 137 days since the last reboot, and that was because the power blinked.

[Edited on January 28, 2009 at 12:33 PM. Reason : dd]

1/28/2009 12:31:44 PM

^ I do not see my old router on the supported routers page on dd-wrt. I can't recall off hand the model #, I think it was: BEFW11S4

so, if thats the case... not sure thats going to remedy my situation.

How can I fix the issues with the current router? It should be able to do what I need... right?

1/28/2009 1:09:14 PM

Yeah the BEFW11S4 won't work.
But you shouldn't be having so much trouble with the new router. Do you have the most current firmware?

1/28/2009 1:14:06 PM

^ I do... yeah, it should work and I should not have to consider 3rd party.

Anyone have any thoughts on what would make the Internet cut out like this on the wired computer?

1/28/2009 2:33:30 PM

its not really 3rd party

its the broadcom source with different pictures

1/28/2009 2:35:36 PM

lets ignore my old router, 3rd party or non-3rd party.

HOW DO I MAKE THIS NEW ROUTER WORK CORRECTLY WITHOUT HAVING TO CONSTANTLY POWER CYCLE?

1/28/2009 3:21:31 PM

At one point, I was having problems getting my computers to get the right DNS server addresses, and therefore it would seem like my connection was broken. I added OpenDNS addresses to the routers config page so that it would always use them. One computer was still being hard to deal with, so I just manually set the DNS servers to it and haven't had problems since.

1/28/2009 3:27:56 PM

^ interesting, yesterday I dont recall where in the setup pages to set the DNS servers. Are you familiar enough with linksys to know where that would be done?

If not, I'll check goog real quick.. Thanks for the suggestions

[Edited on January 28, 2009 at 3:39 PM. Reason : aerg]

1/28/2009 3:39:27 PM

first page, towards the bottom. somewhere under the DHCP settings

Quote :

"Not quite true.....use OpenDNS"

if they do give a shit about people using them then they've certainly never stopped me or half the people on this site


[Edited on January 28, 2009 at 4:10 PM. Reason : asdf]

1/28/2009 3:53:31 PM

Does one need to key in the DNS servers? Could that really be the cause of my problems?

1/28/2009 4:38:05 PM

It's worth a shot.

1/28/2009 6:23:09 PM

I would probably have a couple of command windows open on my desktop to start out. Doing so might give you some sort of idea if the problems coincide with each other and should determine if you're losing packets from the router to each device, from the router to the world, or if it's simply a DNS issue.

ping -t 192.168.1.150

ping -t 192.168.1.1

ping -t 4.2.2.2 or google.com

This is most likely completely unrelated, but the MAC address clone reminded me of an issue I had with Suddenlink. For some reason, the public IP that was tied to the MAC address of my router had really weird issues that I could not explain. Some sites worked, speeds were wonky, ping times erratic. I would tracert certain areas of the country and drop out halfway there and others were perfect. I could never find a technician that would help me out and they couldn't explain it either. Also since the first scripted suggestion worked flawless (hook your modem directly to your PC) they weren't bending over backwards to fix. Anyway, long story short even longer, I just ended up cloning my PC's MAC address, getting an IP from a pool that wasn't fucked up and haven't looked back since. Honestly I don't even know if it's cloned anymore.

Maybe one of the more knowledgeable users will speak up soon and give a quick rundown on wireshark or other forms of packet sniffing.

[Edited on January 29, 2009 at 4:20 AM. Reason : .]

1/29/2009 4:17:43 AM

^ sadly, that is over my head.... but I will try and do all of this tonight when I get home. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll report back with any findings.

Any other thoughts on why it would just drop and have to need constant power cycles?

1/29/2009 9:40:35 AM

it isn't over your head

you just go to start, run, type cmd, hit enter

then type all the ping, blah blah blah shit he said up there and see what it says.

[Edited on January 29, 2009 at 10:08 AM. Reason : also, you haven't given any feedback of what you tried last night if anything]

1/29/2009 10:07:14 AM

^ haha, sorry... I changed 5 diapers and cleaned spit-up. My daughter thinks she is more important than my Internet saga, pssh.

1/29/2009 10:17:53 AM

alright, hooked up just the TWC modem to the computer, no flaws, works perfectly (of course). I plan to hook up the wrt54g2 and leave it open, no security, no port forwarding... nothing.

If that works I suppose I will just keep making adjustments (the settings I want) till it fucks up... when it does, reset it and go back to where I was?

2/3/2009 11:49:08 PM

IMO, if it's dropping the wired connection and you know it's not the modem I'd exchange it for a another router. Did you get it locally?

2/4/2009 8:55:22 AM

yeah..try a freshly reset router. reset modem, turn it all on together.. if it STILL gives you problems, even over the wired connections, exchange the router for another one.

2/4/2009 8:57:21 AM