linksys wrt54g problem

[jinp6301]

So I finally got my internet "working" a little while back and now my router is being a PITA. When I connect from the cable modem to the router, and either connect wirelessly or wired to the router there is no internet, but I can still access the router page (192.168.1.1) and if I connect the cable modem straight to the computer using ethernet, the internet works fine. I tried resetting the router and doing everything I found online (that doesnt void the warranty) such as changing the router ip address, changing the router to static ip address, trying different security options, beating it up etc etc

So does anyone have any suggestions?

[JBLoudG20]

Crossover cable?

[aardvark baguette]

We have an old linksys p.o.s. and sometimes doing all the reboots/etc only work if I restart the actual computer after the troubleshooting.

[tkam]

Is the router getting an IP from the cable modem? Should be listed somewhere on the WAN status page.

[laxx]

What version of the wrt54g do you have? I've had 3 break on me in the past.

[jinp6301]

I have the regular one, wrt54g

Hmm, it seems to be working after doing basically nothing for the last 2 hours. Stupid fracking router.

Before, the router wasnt getting an IP address from the cable modem, which is probably the problem and I have no idea how to fix that

[tkam]

Before, the router wasnt getting an IP address from the cable modem, which is probably the problem and I have no idea how to fix that

Restarting the cable modem will usually fix that. When you change what device is hooked up to the modem is always a good idea to restart the modem.

[jinp6301]

Well, I hope it still works at the end of the day. Usually it drops off after a couple of hours

[deepak]

What version of the wrt54g do you have? I've had 3 break on me in the past.

My bloody WRT54g died on me a couple of weeks ago. I only had it for about six months.

Consumer routers are a scam.

[jinp6301]

ahh, so I realized the problem is 30% router and 70% modem

a cable guy is coming on friday so I'll see what happens

and do people recommend the 3rd party firmwares for the linksys routers?

[tkam]

ahh, so I realized the problem is 30% router and 70% modem

a cable guy is coming on friday so I'll see what happens

and do people recommend the 3rd party firmwares for the linksys routers?

yes but check very carefully which version of the wrt54g you have. linksys has really neutered the hardware on the more recent versions, so much so that most of the 3rd party firmware can't run on them.

it'll show the version # on the bottom of the router right by the serial #.

[jinp6301]

yea, I was looking at ddwrt micro since I have a version 6 here and a version 8 at home.

[KenW]

Forget Linksys. Grab an Airport Extreme or Express. Much better to work with. Had both and there's no comparison. Btw, tkam is correct. When you restart/reset your network, you need to power the modem up before the router. Also, be aware of your configuration as to which of the units is assigning the IP. Is your router going to fill that role or are you going to let it act as a bridge? Just something to think about.

[tkam]

The fact that the Airport's require software to be installed to configure instead of having a web interface makes them worse to work with IMO.

[grawk]

Todd, you think just because there's a white apple on the box it makes it worse to work with

[tkam]

Not really, if any other routers require software to be installed to setup and configure them then they also are more difficult to work with.

[guzziguy]

I bought a LinkSys wireless router/switch years ago. I had to update the firmware to get a feature I wanted, configured it and it has been running solidly ever since. It's shown exactly the kind of behavior I like from a product like this. You just "set it and forget it".

[grawk]

Having to install a utility to manage the airport was barely a blip for me. The airport works better than other routers I've used, so I keep using them.

[Fungi]

I use Tomato on a WRT54GL, leaps and bounds better than the Linksys firmware.

[guzziguy]

I use Tomato on a WRT54GL, leaps and bounds better than the Linksys firmware.

I'm curious, what's better about it? Is is more reliable, more performance, more features? What?

[Fungi]

I assume it has more features, but the overall UI is so much easier to use. You just have to remember to hit the Save button after making changes.

[guzziguy]

OK. I have an ancient BEFW11S4. As I said, it took me about 15 minutes total to update and configure it when I first bought it and I haven't had to touch it since then. For me, that's hard to beat.

[Icarium]

ive tried tomato and dd-wrt and I like dd-wrt infinitely more. It has an infinitely richer feature set than either tomato or stock firmware.

I'm sticking with dd-wrt for now. I had an issue where it ate hard shit but after a day it started working again. I talked to my network engineer buddy and he says at the consumer level no matter the brand routers are pretty much shit and not made to last.

He advocates setting up a box for routing duties, but eh...

I think the two big features I use with dd-wrt is allowing computers to connect wirelessly by adding their mac address to a list and boosting the wireless signal. The latter is especially badass.

[lostonetr]

I remember reading the 3rd party firmwares were also more stable/reliable. Less cut outs. And they also fixed an issue with certain linksys routers not timing out correctly to some connections. (more a big problem when one uses P2P apps, cause the # of connections do build up considerably over time)

[mjb]

make sure your cable modem isn't also doing nat in the same ip range... my modem does nat out to my router (instead of just handing out the isp assigned ip directly), and it uses 192.168.1.1-254/255.255.255.0... i just make my wifi router use 10.0.0.1-254/255.0.0.0, works great...

mjb