Router reboot
Posted on 14th Aug 2012 at 09:30 by Harry Butler with 76 comments
If you play any decent amount of online games, you’ll likely have shared my situation. Half way through a tense round, your connection suddenly freezes. You’re kicked from voice comms and dumped from the server. Yep, the router’s frozen again, so it’s off to dig it out from its hiding place behind the desk/bookcase/pile of old shoes to unplug it and re-start it.
Of course, routers provided by your ISP will usually be the lowest possible spec that the provider can get away with. When you’re giving out literally millions of devices to customers, saving £1 on a decent heatsink here or a cooling fan there quickly adds up. This then leads to a router that loves to fall over when thrashed with the high-bandwidth requirements of people doing more than just checking email or downloading the odd MP3. Add in multiple wi-fi devices, streaming 1080p video from a NAS box and playing online games at the same time and you soon find that, at least in my experience, ISP-provided routers just can’t keep up with the demands of a high-end users.
Even worse, there’s port forwarding. Forget player vs. player grudge matches, when it comes to online gaming, this is my greatest foe. Xbox Live or PSN require just a few ports opened, so ISPs configure routers as standard to accommodate them.
PC games can’t make up their minds though, so if you’re router isn’t clever enough to do it itself, you’ll need to dig into its settings and set port forwarding up. Doing this, you’ll also need to configure static IPs else the port-forward won’t work next time you have to, yep, reboot the router, and woe-betide you if you want to forward the ports for a game to two different PCs! I’ve spent literally hours over the last few years fiddling with router settings for games when putting together larger multiplayer games, particularly for older titles. Between Windows 7’s own port forwarding, the router’s port forwarding and the endless amount of tinkering, it’s no wonder many users opt for console games. After all, they just work.
It’s not over yet though. Despite a router being a product that can technically last 5+ years (after all, wi-fi standards and ADSL connection protocols haven’t changed), router manufacturers have a diabolical track record when it comes to product support. We reviewed this hateful product a few years back to a highly positive conclusion, only for us to find down the line that it had a bug which severed all active connections once every 24 hours while it updated its internal clock. The only fix was to log into the router’s debug menu and terminate the offending service, which of course you had to do, every time you rebooted the router. The last public firmware update for this device was made available October 21st 2008; what a kick in the teeth for those that shelled out £90 for a better online experience.
It’s not the only offender though. I’ve used routers which offered beta firmware that caused major instabilities and others that simply died on their arse after 12 months of use. In total, over the last four years, I’ve used a grand total of seven different modem routers; three provided by ISPs and an incredible four from after-market router manufacturers, none of which have met my expectations.
Having become more and more disgruntled though, there is a glimmer of hope, at least for me. It’s come in the unlikely form of Western Digital, who handed us a sample of its new N900 Router a few months back. With no recent comparative tests to judge it against, we were pessimistic about publishing a full review, but being tortured by a flaky D-Link router at home, I jumped at the chance of a possible replacement.
The difference has been light and day. The N900’s current uptime sits at 46 days whereas my past router did well to last a week. Setup was a breeze as well and even when playing older games, that in the past have proven to be port-forwarding nightmares, the router hasn’t required me to touch its settings beyond entering my wi-fi password of choice.
Of course, this isn’t a blog post saying you should all go out and buy a Western Digital router. I’ve not tested its network or wi-fi throughput, or VPN capabilities and at £180 it’s ferociously expensive so far as routers go. However, it’s done for me what no other router I’ve used before has; allowed me to just get on with using my Internet connection when and how I like, without me having to reach for the reset button once. Why can't this be the level of reliability and service offered by all our network gear?
Of course, routers provided by your ISP will usually be the lowest possible spec that the provider can get away with. When you’re giving out literally millions of devices to customers, saving £1 on a decent heatsink here or a cooling fan there quickly adds up. This then leads to a router that loves to fall over when thrashed with the high-bandwidth requirements of people doing more than just checking email or downloading the odd MP3. Add in multiple wi-fi devices, streaming 1080p video from a NAS box and playing online games at the same time and you soon find that, at least in my experience, ISP-provided routers just can’t keep up with the demands of a high-end users.
A Selection of my abandoned networking gear
Even worse, there’s port forwarding. Forget player vs. player grudge matches, when it comes to online gaming, this is my greatest foe. Xbox Live or PSN require just a few ports opened, so ISPs configure routers as standard to accommodate them.
PC games can’t make up their minds though, so if you’re router isn’t clever enough to do it itself, you’ll need to dig into its settings and set port forwarding up. Doing this, you’ll also need to configure static IPs else the port-forward won’t work next time you have to, yep, reboot the router, and woe-betide you if you want to forward the ports for a game to two different PCs! I’ve spent literally hours over the last few years fiddling with router settings for games when putting together larger multiplayer games, particularly for older titles. Between Windows 7’s own port forwarding, the router’s port forwarding and the endless amount of tinkering, it’s no wonder many users opt for console games. After all, they just work.
It’s not over yet though. Despite a router being a product that can technically last 5+ years (after all, wi-fi standards and ADSL connection protocols haven’t changed), router manufacturers have a diabolical track record when it comes to product support. We reviewed this hateful product a few years back to a highly positive conclusion, only for us to find down the line that it had a bug which severed all active connections once every 24 hours while it updated its internal clock. The only fix was to log into the router’s debug menu and terminate the offending service, which of course you had to do, every time you rebooted the router. The last public firmware update for this device was made available October 21st 2008; what a kick in the teeth for those that shelled out £90 for a better online experience.
It’s not the only offender though. I’ve used routers which offered beta firmware that caused major instabilities and others that simply died on their arse after 12 months of use. In total, over the last four years, I’ve used a grand total of seven different modem routers; three provided by ISPs and an incredible four from after-market router manufacturers, none of which have met my expectations.
46 days uptime and a stress free internet experience, but these things shouldn't necessitate a £180 router
Having become more and more disgruntled though, there is a glimmer of hope, at least for me. It’s come in the unlikely form of Western Digital, who handed us a sample of its new N900 Router a few months back. With no recent comparative tests to judge it against, we were pessimistic about publishing a full review, but being tortured by a flaky D-Link router at home, I jumped at the chance of a possible replacement.
The difference has been light and day. The N900’s current uptime sits at 46 days whereas my past router did well to last a week. Setup was a breeze as well and even when playing older games, that in the past have proven to be port-forwarding nightmares, the router hasn’t required me to touch its settings beyond entering my wi-fi password of choice.
Of course, this isn’t a blog post saying you should all go out and buy a Western Digital router. I’ve not tested its network or wi-fi throughput, or VPN capabilities and at £180 it’s ferociously expensive so far as routers go. However, it’s done for me what no other router I’ve used before has; allowed me to just get on with using my Internet connection when and how I like, without me having to reach for the reset button once. Why can't this be the level of reliability and service offered by all our network gear?
76 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyMy cable modem on the other hand has taken to crashing at alarming intervals, I've had to dig it out of its nice hiding place and leave it some where more accessible so I can hit it with flint tools.
One Thomson router I had would freeze within a couple of hours if an iPhone was connected to it, but never needed power cycling again once the WiFi was turned off... (ADSL up time was always around a month)
With perfectly adequate APs available for under £20 it's not an expensive experiment to try if you're suffering reliability issues. :)
got myself a high end Linksys DSL router for DD-WRT, then using ISP provided router as modem. never had any problem or issues with configuration or freezing.
I've got another router (which I've not used) but as I don't have any of the settings (as the router was pre-configured) I can't use it.
As I said, it's hardly been perfect, but it's still been surprisingly good (I also have an old Home Hub, which decides that for the first week after being plugged in it'll drop the connection every minute. After that it's mostly fine, but annoying when that week happens to be half-term week, for which I was at home almost all the time).
like what BT do when they remotely connect to it you set the device to B/G mode (no N) and pick an channel like 1,6 or 11 as they are none overlapping channels and that fix's basic all its issues with devices randomly not working after 1 to 24hrs
DD-WRT on my edimax Gigabit N router been working fine for an years (the 40 N mode does not work but 20 N does)
Edit: The problem with DDWRT is that AFAIK they don't support ADSL modem routers.
I used IPcop up until 2005 with an ancient pentium with an ISA 56K modem and it was bulletproof. Automagically maintained my pitiful connection 24/7, relatives were trying to get through to the landline for months :D
Used smoothwall for a couple of years as well when broadband finally dawned here which was pretty good until the modem in the box died -- it was pretty solid apart from that.
At the moment I'm using a Netgear DG834G that's a few years old -- pretty basic feature set but does an adequate job, albeit I'm the only one that uses it generally.
I'd suggest you give a firewall distro a go if you've got an old mini itx board or old laptop kicking about, though depending on the hardware you might be talking excessive power usage for the end goal.
I've noticed a trend with recent combi router/switch/APs that limits the speed of the wireless connection and only allows higher/full speeds on the more expensive models -- I suspect this is artificially rate limited via firmware rather than a hardware limitation. I'd concur in suspecting that the vast majority of these cereal boxes the ISP supplies or you buy in PC world are crap.
How about a roundup of quality routers at some point? Not the most glamorous tech but something a lot of us would appreciate, I think.
Routers often have too low performance as well for a demanding user. You can easily slow down the router to halt just by starting some application which opens lots of connections (torrents for example) where the usual cap of 500 max connections vanishes and you are left with unstable connectivity - simply because the router cannot open more connections.
My DG834GT was retired because it couldn't cope with our wireless printer, to be replaced with a TP-link which is even better. 75 days uptime at home now and still going strong.
Sorry, but no. My Buffalo AirStation Infiniti WZR-HP-G450H came factory configured with DD-WRT firmware, and it has stupidly low power output to antennas resulting in poor signal strenght and tends to freeze completely couple of times a day. Switching to Buffalo's own firmware makes it somewhat more useable, albeit only barely. Not a great showing from +100EUR wireless device.
I'm going to try running it with OpenWRT one of these days.
Power usage will be higher but even my p2 only draws 25w and the difference in cost between an epia and a good router buys a lot of electricity.
Just plugged in my settings and away it goes.
the fact it barely worked with stock Buffalo firmware shows there's something wrong with the router.
also, why would it come factory configured with DD-WRT yet there's a stock Buffalo firmware? shouldn't stock be same as factory configured?
i've been using multiple Linksys router with DD-WRT for over 4 years now, never had any problem. always used the ISP router as a modem.
Routers provided by ISPs today work fine and they are well tested and supported.
We now have the Virgin Superhub which is better but I can't seem to get myself and housemate onto Battlefield 3 at the same time without disconnecting myself or him. They also for some unknown bloody reason changed the menu system so that you have to individually go into each settings option and then back without a side bar for navigation! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!
:)
Had better experience with tomato.
Also one note on router if you have many connections and use the lan/wifi heavily at the same time i would advice you router with radiator on the chip rt-16n has it and is rock solid and stable for over 2 years now of extensive use without problems.
would you like the thompson one O2 gave me? srsly?
In my case i tasked with routing a PC, which runs 24/7 anyway. So when you have your server running the whole day, it has unused secondary NIC and you can buy a good n wifi card for 18 euros, why bother with routers ?
BT are supposed to have FtoC as I speak, but not sure I need it yet (?)
dunx
Or indeed anything with the "word" HomeHub in it? Hateful tech >:(
Night and Day, natch ;)
I've recently switched the wifi on my Sky DG934G router off and set up a seperate WAP - if only to have N speeds and WPA2. Never had any issues though and I've had the router for a good 5-6 years now.
IMO the main pain can come through customising the router settings, with port forwarding especially. Luckily I can telnet into the router which helps me get past the interface. But the reliability is something else for sure.
Because it's good network practice -- a perimeter firewall should be just that, a perimeter firewall, maybe VPN, and nothing else. Less services to be exploited and provides an additional hardened layer of abstraction if someone is trying to penetrate your network.
But first they would need something exposed to attack right ? Good luck attacking a computer with no publicly available services (yes, stuff like SMB, SSH, DNS, DHCP, whatever else is running there are all bound to the local interface). So, with no services to exploit from the internet side, what are the negatives then again ?
We have been stuck with absolute RUBBISH routers for years if not decades. And most tech site only cares about stupid wifi performance and other non essential things. With Companies making beta firmware or not providing support to older models at all.
And DD-WRT or any other 3rd Party firmware are not the solution, if it works it works really well, and if not then tough.
None of the big name companies has made any decent routers. The only i got which was good was actually from Apple. But it is expensive. The other one happens to be TP-Link which is a huge brand in Asia. And their firmware support is great with update coming even after the product is 3 - 4 years old.
But soon, with ARM and Android someone could built a cheap and reliable router.
Well theres your problem. I suppose that it was sitting right ontop the hot air vent (or rad) as well?
i strongly advice you get another decent router, put the "SuperHub" into modem mode, and enjoy being online the way it was meant to be.
Never had a problem since.
I was using a Netgear DG834v3 until a few weeks ago, also for about 6 years. Mine too was faultless for about 5+ years, but recently it got to the point where it started needing to be rebooted everyday. I guess it was literally just wearing out with age, I'd happily buy Netgear again.
I didn't replace it specifically, as I've just managed to upgrade from Virgin ADSL to BT's FTTC about three weeks ago, (2mb to 72mb!!!). I'm only using the gear they sent me, and it's only been three weeks, but so far (not wishing to jinx it) it's been absolutely faultless.
Saying that, I always switch the things off at night anyway - which I'm guessing puts me in a minority here. I just don't see the point in leaving it on if I know I'm not going to be using it for hours and hours...
Looks like an excellent idea to me. The more mundane things are often overlooked, but as the number of comments on here shows, they can still be important.
Well, Linksys/Cisco is not very good at support either. I own a Linksys E2000, guess what, last firmware update is from 12/01/2010, and considering AFAIK it was released in 2010, it kinda stinks. No IPv6 update at all, and it looks there won't be any. For a 2 year old router. With IPv6 hitting us hard in next 1-2 years.
So enjoy your E4200 while it lasts, but i doubt you will see any firmware releases for it in 2013. And same applies for nearly all router manufacturers. I had a SMC gigabit router, it had maybe 3 or 4 firmware revisions and then it was cut.
I'm sure a more modern router (with modern firmware) could probably squeeze a bit more performance out of my broadband connection but this router will (hopefully) see me through until fibre comes to my area.
The people that have mentioned that after 4+ years that they are just starting to have an issue with their router I'd suggest trying a different power supply. In my experiance when you start to have issues with them, especially under load it tends to be the PSU voltage dropping under load rather the the router it's self.
BS, the signal BrightHouse's gives is garbage. My sister's D-Link router was more reliable. I bought NetGear N600 Router (WN3700? I think is the model) which has a way better signal-wise and very decently fast speed. I want an AC based router.. just not when they cost nearly $200.
I've rebooted due to freezes a grand total of maybe 6 times - I'm yay close to bailing on my ISP (I've been overpaying for 1.5Mbps the entire time, and it's still the fastest they offer in my neighborhood), but I've got to say my experience with DSL (and routers) has been apparently freakishly good.
I have to say that Eclipse really do appear to be a pretty solid outfit. Yes, I am very seriously saying something nice about someone. The TP-Link router gets uptimes in the months and their tech support is UK-based and non-patronising. They answer the phone quickly and the phone maze is shallow. They are pretty expensive, though, which I guess tells you something.
Two of my mates have BT and Sky respectively; both are having a horrible experience.
Edit: I thought Eclipse provided the router. They didn't; I bought it. Not sure what they would have supplied.
My parents had a Netgear DG834 which has also been fantastic. However the new Netgear DGN100 is supposed to be diabolical (check out the Amazon reviews!)
Its pathetic that companies can't get their gear together after so many years.
They are WTF how can this be so good for the price.
buy a RT-N16
it has the fastest CPU in a router ever
300,000 sessions for extensive P2P clients
im not sure whats faster the original firmware on it or DD-WRT
try it
i have one and its amazing
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157324
something like this good
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/index.htm
I've been through ISP-provided routers, D-Links, Belkins, Linksys and Netgears and all of them have eventually become unstable, except for the Thomson Gateway 585v7 (awfully slow interface) and the Billion BiPac 7800N (super super super router). The problem with reviewing routers is that:
- It is such a long process (how can you test the stability of a router without owning it for 5+ years?)
- Router requirements vary by user (a terrible router might give the casual web browser many years of stress-free internet, whereas a gamer/server host/ torrent freak/serial video "streamist" can make a router fall over in minutes
- ADSL connections are far more fragile than fibre connections (how can you be sure you're testing an ADSL router on the worst possible line? A router which is fine in one home might struggle in a less favourable environment). And don't tell me ADSL isn't relevant: most homes still have it.
- Router manufacturers aren't as affected by bad reviews. If a GPU manufacturer slips up in the release of a new architecture, their accountants are going to know about it . Why is this? I can think of many reasons.
-
Which is why I have resorted to reading customer reviews. If there are 270 five star reviews of a certain router on Amazon, there must be a reason.
The SHORT VERSION:
For those having problems with their internet connection: Xilo.net (seriously, all you Virgin users out there, for crying out loud, it's common knowledge that they are the worst UK ISP)
For those having troubles with their router: Billion BiPac 7800N (just get it, it's flawless)
I've been with Xilo for a while and they've been pretty solid.
Same here. My D-Link DIR655 has been up for over a year without a reboot. It just works. Wi-Fi is solid, with good range. Port forwarding has been simple, and the UI is great. Network speeds are great - I can transfer files and back up at around 100MB/sec.
[edit]
Same for my D-Link modem. It's been that long since I had to so much as look at that, I can't even remember how to configure it!
I've seen downloads as high as 365MB/sec... :)
This
my brand new D-Link kept disconnecting for no apparent reason. I installed DD-WRT two years ago and it has been up ever since. The only times I rebooted it was because I had to move it around in my room.
Rock stable
The BT hub3 is a solid piece of kit, so much so they now use it for business customers.
I have a 60Mb virgin connection and they gave me their SuperHub which is based on a netgear router. It has 4gig ethernet ports, support for the 5Ghz wireless N.. The new R36 firmware has made it even more up to date with the addition of OBSS and Greenfield options for wireless. The router has never faltered. It also supports PPTP,IPSec and multicast passthrough for VPN setups.
For an off the shelf netgear router with the same spec I would probably be expected to pay between £80-100.
Seems like more of a plug for the WD router to be honest.
I honestly don't know why you would say that. What do you base this on?
I've had Virgin since BB was available to me back in 2001 or 2002 (so long ago!). I've never once had to have an engineer out for BB trouble. Sure for TV issue mainly related to the old style TV boxes, but never for BB. I can also count on one had the amount of times my BB has went down. And it's never for any longer than a few hours.
They've given free speed upgrades to customers every couple of years. I was on a 30Mb connection. My upload was then tripled for no reason, then virgin rolled our their double speed for free, giving me 60Mb. And it's rock solid. I get 7.2Mb speeds when downloading movies or installing games from steam.
I'm a BT employee and can get BB for free. I tried it, was terrible and went right back to Virgin. All of my friends would rather have virgin over any other ISP too.
I personally get around it by Using a Draytek 2800, with a Linksys WRT54GS running DD-WRT Micro for Wireless duties. Solid as a rock.
I appreciate that your experiences may be different, but the majority think otherwise.
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/virgin-broadband-c14742.html
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/reviews/10/reviews.html?sortReviews=mostUseful
http://newsrelief.co.uk/virgin-media-are-crap-rubbish-hopeless-pathetic/
The truth is, it all depends on what type of internet user you are. But if you're looking for a virtually 100% stable connection, no fluctuation, no throttling, no traffic shaping, no packet monitoring, no port blocking, good customer service and you don't want your personal details being sold on to third parties, then you should probably be looking elsewhere. Perhaps saying Virgin is the worst ISP is an exaggeration, but it isn't far off.
Everyone's standards are different.
Anyhoo, If you mess about with these horrible cheap Dlink's, Netgears, Linksys and B*lkin routers you're going to have a bad time.
Draytek here, and 100% no issues.
Seems this calls in for some clarification. Buffalo ships the router with two different firmware, Europe & America gets the DD-WRT one (they call it Professional Firmware in their documentation), while Asia gets their dumbed down User-Friendly firmware. The router is delivered with both on a disc in case user wants to switch, and they can both be downloaded from Buffalo's site.
Also, naturally I fiddled with the settings (so not factory configured) but antenna power output seems hardcapped for some reason in DD-WRT. I get better wifi signal strenght from most of my immediate neighbours than 1 meter away from my router, no matter how high I set the antenna gain.
User-friendly firmware solves the signal strength issue somewhat, I get adequate signal strenght everywhere on my house, but introduces occasional freezing of the router. Also, it lacks several of the DD-WRT's features I'd like to have.
I beg to differ
533mhz down clocked to 480mhz
Router station Pro 680mhz
And I have no doubt that some of the higher end Cisco, etc stuff has even faster CPU's
Swapped it out for my trusty Billion and never looked back, not had to reset it for over a year
Had it 3 years, but never liked it - as you say, webadmin screens were tortuously slow. I kept with it as it sync'd with the exchange faster than my original Draytek.
I've now bounced back to Zen (FTTC) and back on a Draytek (2920 with the HG612 hacked to see line stats) - was very surprised when BE asked for their router back! (so don't bin it, or you'll get knocked for £35)
We handed out Open networks modems and routers (625/625w's). The company went under and we swapped to dlinks/ Linksys/ Belkin but nothing would last respectible more than 12 to 24 months. Not only that they would always need to be power cycled. So a few years went by roughly 8 years of being in circulation with no dramas and never been heard of before we saw mass failures across the board of the Open's they had hit there life span.
After owning one myself i can say they where the very best and more reliable modem Ive seen to date.
Currently i am using an Techinocolour gateway (its been flashed and locked with an ISP's firmware) that modem is holding up good. I havent had an issues within 3months, How ever It has really bad QoS configured and Torrents take priority over HTTP. There is no option in the GUI to change this due to the ISP firmware. Telnet into it to find out that i cannot change the QoS settings because the administrator account has been locked down and i need root access.
ISP wont give me root access because they like to flash the firmware of a night time when there is a new release.. Work up on morning and all my DHCP didnt work? Why because it hands out 192.168.1.X addresses but uses a 10.0.0.138 gateway. Apart from static IP this modem is pretty much cactus and if i currently had a working replacement id replace it.
My point being knowing what i know now, I wish i had of stock piled batches of band new open modems.