IBB & Linksys router really slow

mustang68

Right, I think that you are the people that can help me on this one

The setup: IBB breeze, connected to a linksys wrt54gs (think thats the number) router, and then wired to a laptop. Put the IBB static settings (IP, subnet DNSs etc) on the router, the PC can see the router fine.

The problem: Surfing is fine for about three mins, then it just slows down and dies, rebooting the router solves the problem. Surfing is fine if the router is taken out of the equation and static settings are put again on the laptop.

I'm going to do the firmware upgrade and also try another router. Does anyone know of anything that may be strange to ibb and this particular router?

Thanks

Rattlehead_ie

Do the firmware update if you want but I dont think that will help your problem.

Suggestion
1) Plug by ethernet into the linksys if possible and browse that way, see if its slow or not. (my guess is that it will work fine) This is because you are having interferance on the wireless network,download net stumbler, its free and see if there is any interferance from other neighbouring wireless network (also check what channels there on), your wireless network works on the 2.4 freq and inside there are channels, channel 1-12/13 find what one your on and pick the furthest away from that

OfflerCrocGod

He said he was wired to the laptop so I would presume he isn't using wireless at all?

deadl0ck

Sounds like a router issue.

I have Breeze and Linksys WRT54G and it's fine.

I reboot about once a week to keep everything fresh.

mustang68

Just to close this off:

It was a router issue, upgraded the firmware and we were up and running.

How non tech savvy people deal with this amazes me, well actually they get people like me to do it for them!

SoldierForce

A bit OT: Where did you get the firmware update for the WRT54GS!?? I've been looking so quite sometime and Linksys hasn't come up with any firmware update!

Frank Grimes

SoldierForce wrote:

A bit OT: Where did you get the firmware update for the WRT54GS!?? I've been looking so quite sometime and Linksys hasn't come up with any firmware update!

You can get it off the UK Linksys site, the last version was released in September last year.

mustang68

It took me a while to get the firmware, if you go to linksys and download the firmware there the updater will tell you that you already have the latest firmware. You have to make sure you are on the irish/uk liknsys site and then you'll get the correct firmware.

vibe666

there's 2 things every Linksys owner needs to know about them.

1. they make some of the BEST wireless routers in the world.
2. they make some of the WORST firmware in the world.

what everyone also needs to know is that there ARE alternative 3rd party firmwares written by some very talented individuals (and groups) that can release the full potential of the hardware.

STOP! before anyone starts re-flashing their routers left right & centre you need to be aware that there are lots of hardware revisions to the WRT54G/GS and not all of them are compatible with 3rd party firmwares.

there are a couple of resources you will need to find out your options.

first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrt54g

then: http://www.linksysinfo.org

I've spent months and months finding out everything needed to ensure my set up works as best it can, so feel free to learn from my experience.

if anyone wants to delve into the world of third party firmwares feel free to PM me and I'll do everything I can to help.

the firmware I use myself is 'thibor15c' from www.thibor.co.uk which keeps close to the original Linksys firmware as possible and irons out all the bugs in the official firmware as well as adding popular and useful features like:

Adjustment of transmit power of wireless LAN
Antenna selection
14 wireless channels
'Boot wait' protection (increase the time slot for uploading firmware via the boot loader)
Increased Port Forwarding & Triggering fields
Increased QoS Device & Application fields
Increased Access Restrictions Policies & Blocked Services fields
Command Shell
TELNET Daemon (access to shell)
Startup & Firewall scripts
Uptime and load average
Reboot button at 'Management' page
Additional filters to proxy, Java applet, ActiveX, cookies, port scans and P2P (blocks BitTorrent, Kazaa, WinMX, eDonkey, DC and Gnucleus)
WDS and Wireless Bridge (WET) capabilities
Static DHCP leases
Local domain names
Programmable SES button (wireless on/off button or run a custom script)
UPnP page to view and delete UPnP mappings
Site survey page to view other networks in your neighborhood
Secure Shell server (SSHD)
Wake-on-LAN from GUI (from qwerty)
Port redirection
P2P-specific QoS
Additional DDNS services
Raw print server for USB printers (HyperWRT Thibor SL only)
Bugs from the stock firmware fixed
Plus other improvements

of course, thibor15c isn't the only 3rd party firmware, there's plenty out there, all with their own feature and pros & cons, but www.linksysinfo.org will allow you to make the best choice for your set up. like i said tho, if anyone is interested and wants any help, just let me know and I'll do what I can for you.

dathiultaigh

Great post vibe666 ... thanks for the info

vibe666

dathiultaigh wrote:

Great post vibe666 ... thanks for the info

no bother mate, like I said I'm happy to help out.

its something i've learnt a lot about since i got my first linksys router.

its easy to think that it's dodgy hardware, but hardware wise the linksys routers are top notch it's just the firmware.

a good example of this is the tcp connection tracking 'feature' of the router which keeps a log of all your outgoing connections to allow you to reconnect to the same internet ip a little bit quicker. linksys have this set so that these timeout after 1 week by default and in the stock firmware you can't change it. the downside of this is that if you use the internet a lot such as in a small office or torrenting this can get full up in less than 2 hours and as this info is kept in memory your router will jam up until you power cycle it.

i spent ages trying different firmwares and emailing linksys about it before giving up and then spending even longer chasing the problem all over the internet. eventually i happened across linksysinfo.org and there were a bunch of threads with people having the same problems. eventually someone mentioned the tcp_conntrack setting which could be applied via a boot script if you used a 3rd party firmware. i was hesitent at first, but eventually frustration made me take the risk and it paid off. the longest my router had been up and online for was about 48 hours at this point, but from that day on I had very little problems at all, but any problems i did have could be traced back to the zyxel modem BT had given me. I have had zero problems since i got a linksys modem (adsl2mue) to go with my router.

actually, i did have one problem but that was from my girlfriend plugging flashy xmas lights into the same power strip as my router and killing something on it. it still works apart from the wifi, but I'll have to get another one now.