Dlink Router hanging

[gjbxxx]

Since upgrading to VM 50MB I have had no real problem, other than with my xbox live service, especially MW2 online gaming. Everything starts out fine (open NAT) and decent connections to games. However after a few hours gaming the router just stops passing all traffic, incl web access from laptop etc and has to be rebooted. The Lan side is still functioning and I can access the admin interface to reboot but the WAN interface is dead.
Othe than buying my own router (would rather not) has anyine any settings/suggestions. ??

Thanks,

[thebluenose]

I have had the same problem with the router. Intially it was hanging every day but seemed to calm down and now only hangs every couple of weeks.

Not sure of a solution Im afraid.

[Peter_]

Have you tried a manual setup of the router instructions HERE (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/34916465-post3.html)

[Wad_2002]

I don't have much exp in Dlink routers, but I will say my old Linksys router a frew years back did the extact same thing.

In all honesty the router weighed the same as cardboard. I changed it to a NETGEAR and there is a big improvement. Linksys was shabby division of cisco and some of the worst reviews out there.

You might want to save yourself some bother and get a good router of the net. If I was getting the 50mb speeds at my home, I would definatly be using a different router as I can only imagine - depending on the router and setup/config of the router may affect your true speeds.

My 2 cents.

[zing_deleted]

Since upgrading to VM 50MB I have had no real problem, other than with my xbox live service, especially MW2 online gaming. Everything starts out fine (open NAT) and decent connections to games. However after a few hours gaming the router just stops passing all traffic, incl web access from laptop etc and has to be rebooted. The Lan side is still functioning and I can access the admin interface to reboot but the WAN interface is dead.
Othe than buying my own router (would rather not) has anyine any settings/suggestions. ??

Thanks,

IIRC good old iggy told me this is a modem issue and not a router

I have had similar issues to this periodically ever since I upgraded to 50 meg
On the WNR2000 all I needed to do was enter router browser and reset the wan on the DlinkI use now I have to power cycle it. Mind you it has seemed better since I changed the firmware to DD-WRT but its not cured the problem I do still have to reboot the router sometimes

[mjpartyboy]

I changed the firmware to DD-WRT but its not cured the problem I do still have to reboot the router sometimes

I've set DD-WRT to reboot the router early every morning to flush out any memory leaks, etc. and I'm having my most stable DD-WRT experience with build 14311.

[Ignitionnet]

Mind you it has seemed better since I changed the firmware to DD-WRT but its not cured the problem I do still have to reboot the router sometimes

Refreshing your DHCP lease will wake the connection up again. It's almost like the modem or the CMTS forgets what you've connected up and stops forwarding traffic to it.

[Chrysalis]

I have had no problems like this on my router and in fact it gets faster after a couple of days.

a generic tip is probably to.

(a) disable all services on the router you have no need for eg. snmp, upnp, ids firewall, wireless as some candidates.
(b) reduce timeout values, I set udp timeout to 30 (down from 120) and my tcp timeout is 1800 (double of my windows timeout of 900 so more than enough). It is also possible on these routers to reduce other timeout variables such as syn, finwait etc. using telnet or a special command in the gui which should further help if needed.

current uptime of mine

Firmware: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (04/23/10) std
Time: 12:35:43 up 6 days, 5:24, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

[Chrysalis]

well sods law I guess.

about 5 minutes ago I started a download, the first time I done a proper download on this firmware. Within 2 minutes the router stopped routing all net traffic and I had to reboot the router. By coincidence there is a new firmware version out so will try it but since I need a stable router I may end up buying that netgear that so many people reccomend.

---------- Post added at 07:32 ---------- Previous post was at 06:29 ----------

ok I think I may have found some info on what is the cause and seems it may be a dhcp issue between the router and modem.

So I had the hang when downloading, upgraded router firmware and reconfigured it.

Discovered the red light comes on (with dd-wrt) when wan is initialised.

Well the red light came on after I turned it off and sure enough I had another wan side drop but this time it didnt hang it just reinitaliased.

cable modem itself shows this interesting info.

Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.

and few boxes down

Time Not Established Warning (5) DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response

[mjpartyboy]

No matter what firmware I've used on my DIR-615 D2 I've never had it hang. I'm currently using DD-WRT build 14311 and last night for example I had a laptop, netbook and 360 connected to it at the same time, all wireless, and was browsing upstairs on the netbook whilst the laptop was downloading around 1.2 GB of data later in the evening.

Have you tried setting DD-WRT to reboot at a specified time everyday? This might help the router perform better overall. I've set mine to reboot early every morning, when I know I won't be using it.

[Chrysalis]

rebooting it daily defeats the purpose.

I would rather have it hang once a week then deliberatly give myself downtime every day.

I want long stretched out uptime without interruptions.

I am on the newer firmware now and have tuned more advanced values in telnet.

However this hang didnt seem resource related but dhcp related, for some reason the dhcp renewal failed I think.

[mjpartyboy]

rebooting it daily defeats the purpose.

I would rather have it hang once a week then deliberatly give myself downtime every day.

I want long stretched out uptime without interruptions.

Why is this? Just curious.

The reboot takes all of a couple of minutes and happens when I'm asleep, then when I next connect to it I'm safe in the knowledge that any possible memory leaks, etc, have been flushed.

[Chrysalis]

I just need/want that. Is it a lot to expect a router to be stable then?

[mjpartyboy]

I think it's poor that despite all the years routers have been in production and with the advancement of technology, plus the fundamentals of what they do hasn't really changed, we get products for simple home use that aren't up to the job.

[Chrysalis]

I think it's poor that despite all the years routers have been in production and with the advancement of technology, plus the fundamentals of what they do hasn't really changed, we get products for simple home use that aren't up to the job.

you say as if its a common problem.

none of my routers have this type of problem.

one of my adsl routers did self reboot every 2 to 3 days tho and I consider that unacceptable as well, but thats now been fixed.

[Peter_]

I personally use a Edimax BR650 N router which works without a glitch without any need to reboot it.

You can get the BR674 from Amazon for £52.99 inc P&P (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edimax-BR-6574N-Gigabit-Broadband-Router/dp/B001AIRPOA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275127112&sr=8-6)

[Chrysalis]

thanks, if it happens again I do plan to switch but I wont be buying from amazon. Since they were the source of recent visa fraud I had.

so they either accept paypal or I need to find another vendor.

not heard of edimax, but the price looks amazing, gigabit + N.

[pip08456]

You can always see if there is anything suitable here

http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer-Hardware/All/Wireless/CABLE-Broadband-Routers

[huyi]

I don't have much exp in Dlink routers, but I will say my old Linksys router a frew years back did the extact same thing.

In all honesty the router weighed the same as cardboard. I changed it to a NETGEAR and there is a big improvement. Linksys was shabby division of cisco and some of the worst reviews out there.

You might want to save yourself some bother and get a good router of the net. If I was getting the 50mb speeds at my home, I would definatly be using a different router as I can only imagine - depending on the router and setup/config of the router may affect your true speeds.

My 2 cents.


d link is a pile of trash, i had the D-link DSL-2640R and it kept on disconnecting every 3 hours or so, i got rid of it and brought a linksys, no more disconnects on my pc, no more signing out from my ps3, nothing, that says a lot doesn't it? you put in netgear DG834Gv5 into google and you tell me if it's a good router or not.

[Chrysalis]

not sure if this needs a new thread, but my problems are defenitly dhcp related.

it seems now on every dhcp renewal my router is breaking with the modem.

On the modem the cable light went out briefly, my pc could not talk to 192.168.100.1 until I rebooted the router. After the reboot both 192.168.100.1 and the net started working.

---------- Post added at 18:03 ---------- Previous post was at 18:00 ----------

d link is a pile of trash, i had the D-link DSL-2640R and it kept on disconnecting every 3 hours or so, i got rid of it and brought a linksys, no more disconnects on my pc, no more signing out from my ps3, nothing, that says a lot doesn't it? you put in netgear DG834Gv5 into google and you tell me if it's a good router or not.

yeah, I am not really a fan of netgear, the GT which everyone praises is so cheap it doesnt even have a power button. The v5 has numerous weird issues which also makes it feel cheap. I think now I might take the punt on the one listed on amazon, the brand name puts me off a bit and the fact I spend tons of money on networking equipment already but I want a stable setup, I can't have my internet disconnecting on every dhcp renewal.

"Remaining Lease Time
5 days 07:22:29 "

So next one just after midnight saturday morning.

also these dlink's are the first router I have ever used that have no form of error log at all.

--edit--

I remembered I am using the mac cloning feature of the router, and just now tried again to get it working without using that but it fails.

I tried the following.

dhcp release forcefully so unlinking the old mac on the modem so can unclone my pc mac.
rebooted modem.
rebooted router after disabling mac clone so it boots up without cloning.
Pressing the force dhcp renew button.

No matter what I do I cannot get a wan ip without cloning my pc mac, in addition I cannot even talk to the cable modem internal lan ip without cloning my pc mac, as if the router mac refuses to talk to the modem. So this router or my modem seems to have some a dhcp issue for sure. I suspect router.

[Peter_]

On the modem the cable light went out briefly,.
If you are using a Scientific Atlanta modem and the Cable light goes out it is not a fault with the router, it is either a faulty modem, a problem between your property and the green cabinet or a network issue.

Which model is the modem.

[Chrysalis]

If you are using a Scientific Atlanta modem and the Cable light goes out it is not a fault with the router, it is either a faulty modem, a problem between your property and the green cabinet or a network issue.

Which model is the modem.

it is indeed the model you said.

the modem logs show a dhcp issue at the time it happened, and from what I can see the ip doesnt get issued until a valid device is connected to the modem such as a pc or a router?

here is the stuff from the modem log.

Sun May 30 16:52:08 2010 Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Sun May 30 16:52:01 2010 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Sun May 30 16:52:00 2010 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Sun May 30 16:51:35 2010 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Sun May 30 16:51:02 2010 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.

you work for VM so I am accepting your diagnosis, I guess the dhcp stuff coming up would just be coincidence.

do you have a reason why tho I am unable to talk to the modem without cloning my pc mac? and if the modem lost connection to VM, does it make sense to you that the router stops been able to talk to the modem without a reboot?

On the edimax I looked into it, and seen a demo of their gui which looks very poor and cheap. However if its stable (not needing reboots) I can probably eventually end up living with it.

Regarding the dhcp when I last had this problem I remember seeing there was 3 days until renewal, this was on the 27th when I last posted, so the timing is the same as dhcp renewals, seems suspect.

[Peter_]

If that make of modems cable light goes off then it is an issue on the modem side as that light tells us you are online before we check with our tools.

If I set up a D Link over the phone I do as below.

======================
First power down the modem and leave it off.

Then we do is get you to pinhole reset the router while powered on for 15 seconds, once the lights are back on and the globe is orange power up the modem, if the globe stays orange reboot the router as this usually sorts it.

Now In the Connect to a Wireless Network section you should find a connection called D Link which will be an unsecured connection, click on it and connect, if it asks for the pin ignore it and connect anyway, say you will set up the router later, then open a web page.

In the address bar you put 192.168.0.1 and press enter/return you will asked for a username which is admin and password which you leave blank and then you login.

You will be presented with a D Link page for the router.

On the left chose wireless setup then go to manual setup at the bottom.

Ignore the Pin section and go to the box with the SSID which by default will be dlink and change it to one of your choice.

Then choose your security option which should be the bottom one from the drop down WPA/WPA2 and the Network key box will appear and in here you put a password with a minimum length of 8 characters.

Then click save settings and wait for it to finish remove the ethernet cable and look for your newly named network and connect using your password.

The save page may hang and you will find that the connection has dropped but when you check the new SSID is there.

You should be connected and it should have taken between 5 and 10 minutes to achieve.

=====================================
I very rarely have to reboot my Edimax unless I power everything down and I forget to power them up in sequence.

[Chrysalis]

ok thanks, will try this procedure tommorow maybe after some sleep.

[Chrysalis]

ok I didnt follow the exact procedure, I confess am not using VM original firmware. :)

but based on your post I had an idea of what to do with the order. It is now fixed, I had to accept an ip change but is now working using the router mac.

So turned off the modem, disabled mac cloning in router (and saved setting), rebooted the router to make sure it booted up fresh on that setting, turned on the modem, and router picked up wan ip no problem.

Thanks

there is only an hour on the ip lease time, so I can see very fast if it renews ok. If this renews ok I will leave it going and see if I have any issues for the next week or so, I want to rule out the dhcp renewal using a cloned mac been the issue.

is it now normal for the pc light to not be on the modem when connected using the router mac?

[Peter_]

ok I didnt follow the exact procedure, I confess am not using VM original firmware. :)

but based on your post I had an idea of what to do with the order. It is now fixed, I had to accept an ip change but is now working using the router mac.

So turned off the modem, disabled mac cloning in router (and saved setting), rebooted the router to make sure it booted up fresh on that setting, turned on the modem, and router picked up wan ip no problem.

Thanks

there is only an hour on the ip lease time, so I can see very fast if it renews ok. If this renews ok I will leave it going and see if I have any issues for the next week or so, I want to rule out the dhcp renewal using a cloned mac been the issue.

is it now normal for the pc light to not be on the modem when connected using the router mac?
The setup should work regardless of firmware.;)

The PC should flash so the maybe an issue there with the modem.

Often the first IP on a new connection is just for an hour.

[Chrysalis]

it renewed fine, and now 7 days till the next.

[Peter_]

it renewed fine, and now 7 days till the next.
If it now works ok it will save you some money.;)

[Chrysalis]

If it now works ok it will save you some money.;)

indeed.

I suspect (and hoping) that the problem was in relation to the pc mac cloning, I reckon it was possible that on normal dhcp renewals the router was not doing the renewal request properly (maybe sending its own mac instead).

The cable modem light going out as you said raises questions, but is possible that after the dhcp fails the modem deliberatly reinitialises the connection to the ubr in an attempt to recover.

Only time will tell now if this fixes my problem.

[Chrysalis]

If it now works ok it will save you some money.;)

looks like fixed now more sure, renewed the 7 day lease ok.