I got a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 router about 2.5 years ago without a single blip of trouble. I upgraded from an old linksys that would require a reboot every single day.

Right when I got it out of the box I uploaded Tomato to it, and haven't looked back.

About a week ago I noticed that it needed a reboot. I've probably rebooted it maybe twice in the life of the router up until then. Now it's once again become almost a daily occurrence of needing to reboot. If I don't reboot it sometimes works itself out, but other times the blinking wireless light will become solid, and I won't have any internet connection. Doesn't matter if it's wired or wireless, it's pretty much dead.

Is there anything to do to fix a router once it gets to this point? Or is it chunk it and drop another $50 on a router?

Nothing has changed on our end to cause this drop in performance. Location is the same, usage is the same, etc.

Also, is Tomato still the way to go? Or is there another newer firmware that is more stable?

[Edited on April 9, 2012 at 9:09 PM. Reason : .]

4/9/2012 9:07:36 PM

i've been using the same router with ddwrt continuously since 2008 with no issues

[Edited on April 9, 2012 at 9:29 PM. Reason : "same router" = Buffalo WHR-HP-G54]

4/9/2012 9:29:00 PM

If you are dropping connectivity, time for a new router.

You can try DDWRT...but eh...moot at this point.

4/9/2012 9:41:53 PM

So is there seriously nothing you can do? What is physically happening in the router?

4/10/2012 2:06:03 PM

Hardware failure sounds likely if it drops connections, both wired and wireless. You could try to reflash it with a new (or the same) version of firmware to see if something just got randomly corrupted, but I doubt it will fix it.

4/10/2012 4:14:24 PM

I had this router and ran into similar issues with reloading the original firmware, dd-wrt and tomato.

Although Tomato provided the most stability, I ultimately had to move onto another router. This was about 2 years ago, so they most likely have updated Tomato; however, it was most likely hardware based on the variety of firmware that I tried.

Give Tomato a shot, if you see no changes, I'd get something new(er).

4/10/2012 10:37:10 PM

my belkin N router of less than one year is already requiring reboot about every 3 days

4/11/2012 9:25:56 AM

Ok, so this thing has crapped out.

What's a decent router these days? Don't really game anymore, mostly just am dealing with wifi from laptops and iphones. I hit a newsgroup from time to time so it would be fantastic if it could handle a large download without needing a reboot.

6/25/2012 11:49:56 AM

I got a Linksys E4200, but it's overkill for most people. Something along those lines should do just fine for you though.

6/25/2012 12:00:45 PM

So you like any of the "E" series from linksys? I'll probably throw DD-WRT on there as well

6/25/2012 12:03:09 PM

Yeah, they should be fine. There's lots of different models, so just check to see which one does what you want (1G ports, dual-band radio, A/B/G/N, etc.). Also, of course, check compatibility with DD-WRT. I haven't tried to load it on mine yet, but probably will one day.

6/25/2012 12:07:45 PM

I'm still rockin' a WRT-54G from around 2004 I think.

6/25/2012 12:14:44 PM

tp-link mimo N routers are meant for dd-wrt and cost like $40 max

6/25/2012 2:53:17 PM

^^I'd still be doing the same but when I download torrents high bandwidth items, the router pukes. I still use it from time to time for random testing, but mostly borrow commercial gear from work when I do that now.

6/25/2012 3:30:35 PM

Just had a Rosewill (DD-WRT) router and D-Link dir-655 bite the dust at my parents.

They replaced them with a Linksys E2500 and E1200, stock firmware. It was easy setup and range is great on the E2500.

I think I may try a TP or stick with Linksys on the next upgrade/expansion.

6/25/2012 11:15:20 PM

i've used one of those digital outlet timers from loses and just set it to go off for one minute at 4 am. provides a reboot for devices that don't have reboot options in the firmware.

7/1/2012 2:23:16 PM

Quote :

"I'm still rockin' a WRT-54G from around 2004 I think."

mine's got DD-WRT, but certain torrents cause it to go out to lunch. i've never gotten around to getting a new one.

7/1/2012 3:00:53 PM