[gamefreak94]

All day yesterday, I was having internet problems. It turned out that the light on my router which indicates that a network cable is plugged into it kept going of for about 3-6 seconds before turning back on for a few seconds and so on. I found that slightly altering the position of the cable made it work correctly (i.e. very fast flashing, good connectivity), but then after a few minutes it would go bad again.

I initially thought this was a mere problem with the RJ-45 connector, so I had a service guy from the ISP come in and change it. But just 30 minutes later, same problem started happening again. I thought maybe the contacts inside the port had dirt on them so I cleaned them out with a cotton bud, but again, 30 minutes or so later, the problem started happening again.

To confirm that the router itself is to blame I then hooked up the network cable directly into the PC's ethernet slot, and viola! It worked perfectly. Today, I reconnected the cable to the router, the problem is sorta semi-fixed, but keeps happening every now and then (a lot less often then yesterday though), also, this time it auto-fixes itself in a few seconds. It's still pretty frustrating though, cuz any weak download connection with online servers breaks instantly due to this.

I'm pretty sure the router itself is somehow damaged (it's a Linksys WRT54GR). Other then RMAing it, is there anything else which can be done? I only bought this like 2 months ago and it's not like Linksys products to break down this soon

Thanks.

 

[makotech222]

Okay people say that linksys router is so good, but my family has bought 3 and ALL OF THEM ARE BROKEN. they are pieces of crap and i will never get anything from that company again. D-link and trendnet are the way to go.

 

[gamefreak94]

Well the 2-year warranty suffices I guess.

Anyway, the problem here is, it's either Linksys, or some other companies which few people ever know existed, like ZyXEL, Planet or TP-Link (I think the latter is a bit known) and their el cheapo $30 routers with not even a day's warranty.

Sorry, I'm gonna go for Linksys in the face of all these :/......well there were ASUS ones like this but I chose Linksys since everyone says they're the best.

 

[makotech222]

oh thats right you live out there. no access to newegg
well can't help you there then

 

[Master_DX]

Well, maybe u just had bad luck I guess, I've been using a Linksys WRT54GS for about 3-4 years now and it's working flawless, heck it is even faster now that I updated it's firmware. Just RMA that one and hope that the same doesn't happen again.

 

[gamefreak94]

I sure hope so, there was also a period of ~a week almost a month ago when the wireless signal would give problems. It was similar to this i.e. the wireless signal would cut itself, only unplugging/replugging the router several times fixed the issue, but then it went away all of a sudden, shoulda RMA'ed it back then.

 

[masta.g.86]

If you have problems with range or the signal randomly cuts out, you should try changing your routers broadcast channel.

One of your neighbors might be broadcasting on the same channel.

 

[gamefreak94]

The signal didn't cut out on the receiving end, but rather the router itself was unable to broadcast it (similar to the current issue, the little light indicating wireless transmission kept going off momentarily).

Anyhoo, I haven't faced that problem in a month, but this current problem is really annoying, gonna RMA this sucker tomorrow. Until it gets back, no internet on the laptop while in bed

 

[masta.g.86]

The fapping possibilities are no longer endless. Poor gamefreak94.

 

[gamefreak94]

:lol:

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

BAD CAPACITORS.

the original AG, WAG, and WRT models resulted in the Capacitor that controls power to the lan ports to boil dry and then end up having cold start issues.

 

[gamefreak94]

Hmm....the one I have is revision 1.1.

I'm really confused right now. Just a few hours ago my net started giving problems when hooked up directly to the PC as well (ping was inconsistent and speed was really sluggish), a guy from the ISP came over and changed the RJ-45 connector yet again, now I have it hooked up to the router again and have had zero problems since then.

I think it's these cheap connectors which are to blame, not the router. I'm guessing the router is somehow more vulnerable to faulty connectors then the ethernet port in the PC is, which would explain why, initially I didn't have problems while connecting the cable directly to the PC.

 

[IamWhatIam]

get a Netgear router

 

[Spyhop]

The WRT54G routers are awesome. It's the firmware that's ****.
I've been running DD-WRT on mine forever, and it's solid as a rock.

 

[gamefreak94]

I think I'll do a firmware upgrade on mine too, this one was manufactured way back in Nov 06, probably age old firmware.

get a Netgear router

Sure, and waste the $55 I spent on this just 2 months ago even though it's still miles within warranty period, and even though I'm having a hunch my ISP is to blame, nice idea......

 

[n_w95482]

The WRT54G routers are awesome. It's the firmware that's ****.
I've been running DD-WRT on mine forever, and it's solid as a rock.

Same here, I've been running a WRT54GL v1.1 with DD-WRT for three years and it's been great. It even handled ~3000 concurrent TCP/IP connections with BitTorrent without crashing and running at full bandwidth .

 

[cooliscool]

Okay people say that linksys router is so good, but my family has bought 3 and ALL OF THEM ARE BROKEN. they are pieces of crap and i will never get anything from that company again. D-link and trendnet are the way to go.

I've had bad experiences with Linksys as well, starting with a v1 wrt54g. Like others have said the wrt54g's firmware sucks, but DD-WRT fixes that.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

Same here, I've been running a WRT54GL v1.1 with DD-WRT for three years and it's been great. It even handled ~3000 concurrent TCP/IP connections with BitTorrent without crashing and running at full bandwidth .

now try that with a dlink. it'll die at 300!.

 

[n_w95482]

I SSH'ed into the router while I was doing that (running a few Ubuntu 9.04 torrents shortly after release) and ran top, it said it was using about 85% CPU. That was with the router at 200 MHz and downloading at a solid 8 Mbps. Now that I've upgraded to 16 Mbps cable (usually somewhat less, damn congestion) I cranked the router up to 233 MHz .

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

I hope you know how to replace capacitors -_-. the additional power load is gunna waste the pathetic jamicons linksys used to build with.