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aaakknice 03-13-2006 04:31 PM

Linksys router keeps disconnecting the computers...
 
Greetings and thank you for your compassionate help!
We have a broadband cable internet connection where I have been able to download at speeds as high as about 800kbs. My router is a Linksys CABLE/DSL and the model number is BEFSR-41. The router is connected to the cable modem via an RJ-45 conncection. I have the RJ-45 cable going from the modem to the WAN connection on the router. From the router's four ports, port #1 goes to a desktop computer that connects to the internet, port #2 goes to a Sony PlayStation II that connects to the internet and plays online with other players who are using the Final Fantasy software, port #3 goes to a laptop computer that connects to the internet and port #4 goes to another laptop that connects to the internet. I have arranged these four port connections in different arrays to see if this would correct the problem but it did not correct the problem. The Sony PlayStation II will consistently disconnect from the internet if any of the other three computers boot up after the Sony Playstation II is already online.(at this point, we have to shut off all computers and pull the power plug out of the router and cable modem for about 30 seconds and then plug the power cords back into the router and cable modem to be able to sign back onto the internet with the Sony PlayStation II signing on first and then the computers signing on afterward) If any of the other three computers are online and the Sony Playstation II attemps to boot up, the Sony Playstation II will not be able to connect to the internet. We have also discovered that the Sony PlayStation II will not be able to sign on to the interent at various times when there is nobody else using the network. We have to pull the power plug out of the router and then reconnect the power plug to the router before the Sony PlayStation II can connect to the internet. In addition, there will be times when all three computers are signed on to the internet and the Sony PlayStation II will also be signed on to the internet and all will work ok for awhile(maybe an hour or two) and then the Sony PlayStation II will just disconnect for no apparent reason. If you have any idea what this reason is, Please reply !!!
AAAKKNICE

jschiwal 03-13-2006 05:29 PM

When the Playstation stops working, look at the status pages for the Linksys router. Look at the DHCP client table.

If the Playstation is a readonly device, you might try setting that port in the DMZ.

aaakknice 03-13-2006 11:13 PM

Would you tell me where I may find the "status pages" for the Linksys router when the Playstation stops working? Also, when I look at the DHCP client table that is located in the router's software, what items do I attempt to see in there that will help me with this problem? I am not very experienced with routers but I believe I know how to find the DHCP client table when in the router's software after I type "192.168.1.1" in a browser's address field and click the "Enter" key on my keyboard and the router's software configuration opens after I type in the password (default password is "admin" (without the quotation marks)). I have previously set the Playstation's port into the DMZ and the Playstation continued to disconnect, regardless of this setting in the DMZ.

Thank you, "jschiwal", for your reply and any additonal help that you can provide with this matter!
AAAKKNICE

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal
When the Playstation stops working, look at the status pages for the Linksys router. Look at the DHCP client table.

If the Playstation is a readonly device, you might try setting that port in the DMZ.


jschiwal 03-14-2006 04:32 AM

Point a web browser on one of the computers to the address of the router. By default it is http://192.168.1.1
A dialog box will come up asking for a username and password. By default, the username is blank, and the password is "admin". Look for a link on the word "status". The interface is different for different models of the Linksys router.
You want to click on a button for "DHCP Client Status". Look to see if there is a line for the playstation.

Also, if the playstation responds to pings, you can try pinging it from one of the computers.

One thing to check is that you have uPnP disabled on the router. However you may need to find out which ports are used by the playstation first. uPNP allows computers to automatically open ports on the router. If one of the computers is using this function to grab a port used by the playstation, then this could be what is causing the problem.

asimba 03-14-2006 04:27 PM

Dont know - linksys routers -as usual have linux kernel and all its doing is routing all the while.

Usually BEFSR41 has a version number as well.
Check out what version you got there and check if you can update your router software (usually you download somefile from there website and use either tftp/their utility to upgrade software) After upgrading flash you need to do all router settings again if its DSL(PPPoE) - usually it works ok with cable providers earlier you needed mac cloning in order for cable isp's to work with it.

Checkout if you need to define a DMZ. or try specifying static ip(s) and disabling DHCP on router (Some flash versions had bugs - you can do google for that). Thirdly try disabling firewall(If router has any)

Dont know if it is possible - try a replacement/alternate router.

If you are interested you might find some websites which might guide you to hack router kernel and alter it - if you really have sometime for that.

Darin 03-14-2006 05:35 PM

I would find out what IP addresses the router assigns to all the systems, including the Playstation (probably in the DHCP client table that was referred to previously.) The next time you get a "disconnect from the internet" verify what you can "see" with pings from one of the PCs: all systems on the local network including the PS2, the linksys router, the ISP's DNS server(s), some site on The Internet that you know doesn't block ICPM (ping) such as google.com. Knowing what stops working may help you figure out what is going wrong, if not then post the results and it should help everyone here determine the problem. Don't forget to get a baseline by pinging everything while it works, so you know things like whether the PS2 even responds to pings.

I would also recommend, as asimba mentioned, seeing if Linksys has a firmware update for that model, although I wouldn't go so far as suggesting you hack into it just yet.

asimba 03-14-2006 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darin
I would find out what IP addresses the router assigns to all the systems, including the Playstation (probably in the DHCP client table that was referred to previously.) The next time you get a "disconnect from the internet" verify what you can "see" with pings from one of the PCs: all systems on the local network including the PS2, the linksys router, the ISP's DNS server(s), some site on The Internet that you know doesn't block ICPM (ping) such as google.com. Knowing what stops working may help you figure out what is going wrong, if not then post the results and it should help everyone here determine the problem. Don't forget to get a baseline by pinging everything while it works, so you know things like whether the PS2 even responds to pings.

I would also recommend, as asimba mentioned, seeing if Linksys has a firmware update for that model, although I wouldn't go so far as suggesting you hack into it just yet.

DNS could be a issue but again - it is common to all computers at time of failure. It is unlikely that isp has any issues or dns. And moreover we have fixed pattern when he looses connectivity. And yes we could have tried pinging a few websites but I specifically avoided for the reason - we have a pattern here and this pattern is common for rest of the computers. say I am playing game - usually it is UDP hmmm - could be TCP n UDP packet routing/forwaring issue.

And I do not think DHCP has got to do anything unless there is some configuration bug/setting/option where lease expires too quickly.

And if for some wierd reason if he could ping by IP and not by Name - I would dump Linksys for any other cheap box.

And typically with linksys - they did keep this old firmware for quite sometime in market (When Cisco bought linksys)- the best part about linksys was that they did acknowldge these bugs - if anybody cared about errata/bugs/readme files bundled with firmware upgrades.

Darin 03-15-2006 02:18 PM

asimba-
You could speculate all day, all I was suggesting was that knowing what breaks would help in fixing it, pinging everything tests more than just DNS. You could also trash any company's soho router solution, personally I've had a WRT54G for about a year and it's worked flawlessly. Granted I've rebooted it a few times (once because of inability to connect after a brownout followed by a power failure that also created an fsck nightmare on my Linux box) but as they say, YMMV.

aaakknice-
Any luck? Has it failed again? Have you updated to the latest firmware (Firmware Date: 7/22/2005, Version: 1.04.05 appears to be the newest on their site)

morgolis 03-15-2006 02:37 PM

How old of a Linksys is that router? Do you have to power-cycle the linksys to get things to work again? If so, i'm willing to bet that you have an older linksys and need to update the kernel from Linksys. I remember hearing of similar problems a long time ago, but when linksys shut off their external management port access and updated the kernel the problems went away. Also, i seem to remember the older linksys routers had issues w/ DHCP so if you are getting your IP addresses via DHCP and it's a older linksys, try setting your IP addresses statically on your local network.

asimba 03-16-2006 03:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darin
asimba-
You could speculate all day, all I was suggesting was that knowing what breaks would help in fixing it, pinging everything tests more than just DNS. You could also trash any company's soho router solution, personally I've had a WRT54G for about a year and it's worked flawlessly. Granted I've rebooted it a few times (once because of inability to connect after a brownout followed by a power failure that also created an fsck nightmare on my Linux box) but as they say, YMMV.

I agree - Even with their WRT54G - I do not know if you have newer version. Try downgrading it some old firmware and then try conecting your VPN - you will know what I am talking about - It will not let you connect to VPN (Check out on their web site).
Even wireless connectivity was a issue and if you played around with channels and beacon/heartbeat signals you could eventually get it working.

With older WRT54G - even wireless encryption/security was a major issue.

And then again with BEFR41 there were some major DHCP related security issues which were acknowldged by company. These issues were fixed later.

But again when we are talking about SOHO routers - We need to acknowlegde - they are SOHO.

asimba 03-16-2006 03:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asimba
And then again with BEFR41 there were some major DHCP related security issues which were acknowldged by company. These issues were fixed later.

But again when we are talking about SOHO routers - We need to acknowlegde - they are SOHO.

that was BEFSR41

aaakknice 03-20-2006 01:39 AM

when I go to the "Status" page, there are two buttons....one is named "DHCP Release" and the other one is "DHCP Renew" ....there is no "DHCP Client Status" button .....i have not tried to ping the playstation yet, but i will see if it will accept pings....if it DOES accept pings, what is the significance?....uPNP is disabled.....i'm slow responding but that's because i'm so busy "geeking" with one or another of the 500,000+ files that are included in the various Linux distributions<smiles>....thank you, jschiwal, for your help with this matter....i'll look for your additional replies....
AAAKKNICE

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal
Point a web browser on one of the computers to the address of the router.

(i had to take out the URL that you posted here because when I try to reply to your message here, I get an error message telling me that I cannot post any URL until I have posted at least five previous times...but if anyone needs to see what the URL is that you posted in your first letter to me, they only have to look back to your first letter to me)

A dialog box will come up asking for a username and password. By default, the username is blank, and the password is "admin". Look for a link on the word "status". The interface is different for different models of the Linksys router.
You want to click on a button for "DHCP Client Status". Look to see if there is a line for the playstation.

Also, if the playstation responds to pings, you can try pinging it from one of the computers.

One thing to check is that you have uPnP disabled on the router. However you may need to find out which ports are used by the playstation first. uPNP allows computers to automatically open ports on the router. If one of the computers is using this function to grab a port used by the playstation, then this could be what is causing the problem.


aaakknice 03-20-2006 02:21 AM

....i would like to add the following statement to my letter below..."When I choose "Static IP address" option, then I do see a button on the "status" page that shows the "DHCP Table" but when i have the Dynamic IP address" option chosen, i only see the two buttons "DHCP (release)+(renew)"....

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaakknice
when I go to the "Status" page, there are two buttons....one is named "DHCP Release" and the other one is "DHCP Renew" ....there is no "DHCP Client Status" button .....i have not tried to ping the playstation yet, but i will see if it will accept pings....if it DOES accept pings, what is the significance?....uPNP is disabled.....i'm slow responding but that's because i'm so busy "geeking" with one or another of the 500,000+ files that are included in the various Linux distributions<smiles>....thank you, jschiwal, for your help with this matter....i'll look for your additional replies....
AAAKKNICE


aaakknice 03-20-2006 03:00 AM

thanks, "asimba"...the version number is 3.1 and i have the latest firmware version
dated April 1, 2004 #1.05.00<<<(i updated this when it came out in 2004)(no help whatsoever after updating the firmware)....i've tried putting the playstation's ip address into the DMZ and i found no improvement to the playstation's performance and the disconnects continued as they did previously....i have not tried setting the id addresses to "dynamic" as opposed to "static" because when i select the "dynamic" option, i see no page that allows me to designate which computers are to get which ip addresses so i have no option but to select the "dynamic ip address" option and to enable DHCP....maybe someone will write in and explain how I can set the ip address to each individual computer on my network by chosing the "static ip address" option in my router's software...(i'll probably geek around and discover how to do it sooner or later but if someone will write in and give me some clues, i'll certainly be grateful!....i have never seen any options in the router's software that mentioned any firewalls(but it sounds like a good idea to have one on one's router)....if i hack the router's kernel, is it simple to put the original kernel back into the router's software if i happen to ruin the original kernel with my experiments of hacking into the original kernel?! (not saying that i will try this but just getting information about how to restore the original kernel into the router's software if it become necessary(and, with my experience, it would most probably be necessary,
very quickly, upon the beginning of my journey of manipulating the kernel!)
AAAKKNICE

Quote:

Originally Posted by asimba
Dont know - linksys routers -as usual have linux kernel and all its doing is routing all the while.

Usually BEFSR41 has a version number as well.
Check out what version you got there and check if you can update your router software (usually you download somefile from there website and use either tftp/their utility to upgrade software) After upgrading flash you need to do all router settings again if its DSL(PPPoE) - usually it works ok with cable providers earlier you needed mac cloning in order for cable isp's to work with it.

Checkout if you need to define a DMZ. or try specifying static ip(s) and disabling DHCP on router (Some flash versions had bugs - you can do google for that). Thirdly try disabling firewall(If router has any)

Dont know if it is possible - try a replacement/alternate router.

If you are interested you might find some websites which might guide you to hack router kernel and alter it - if you really have sometime for that.


aaakknice 03-22-2006 02:02 AM

yes it has failed again and yes i have pinged the playstation...it receives pings....the latest firmware for my BEFSR41(version 3.1)is April 1, 2004 and I have that firmware loaded onto the router....thank you, Darin, for your interest and reply with this very annoying problem<smiles>

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darin
asimba-
You could speculate all day, all I was suggesting was that knowing what breaks would help in fixing it, pinging everything tests more than just DNS. You could also trash any company's soho router solution, personally I've had a WRT54G for about a year and it's worked flawlessly. Granted I've rebooted it a few times (once because of inability to connect after a brownout followed by a power failure that also created an fsck nightmare on my Linux box) but as they say, YMMV.

aaakknice-
Any luck? Has it failed again? Have you updated to the latest firmware (Firmware Date: 7/22/2005, Version: 1.04.05 appears to be the newest on their site)



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