LinkSys WRT54G Router Setup - Can't Access Internet - Flakey

[Jasper 0]

I am curious if anybody else has had problems trying to setup the LinkSys WRT54G router?

 

I have worked with two of these during the past week and have experienced a lot of grief.

 

The main issue it that I can’t seem to access the internet through it.

 

I have pinged the hell out of the thing, router, external IP. I am able to ping the router, but can’t seem to get the internet.

 

What I have ended up doing is pressing the membrane â€

[rory 0]

ive had a couple linksys routers come bad from the factory .. mine included, i cant even use DHCP on mine i have here ..i have to set the PC's Ip for it to work ..

 

Rory

[C7Installer 0]

Generally speaking, I would avoid Linksys products. They do have a couple of devices on their "top end" that have worked well for me, but generally I have not had good experience with them.

 

Can you ping an IP address on the Internet? Try pinging 4.2.2.2 at a command prompt. If this works, then you have a DNS problem (which seems to be a common issue).

 

Are you using DHCP? If so, make sure you have the correct settings on your PC and router. Try assiging a static IP on your computer and see if you can get on the Internet.

[rory 0]

i forgot to say, are you plugged in direct to it, or trying to access it wirelessly?

 

either way, i take it you are using the CD that came with it?

 

Rory

[C7Installer 0]

That's a good question Rory.

 

Jasper, do all of your testing with a wire. Then move on to the wireless...

[rory 0]

personally i dont like the wireless routers, though they have worked they arent the same as the wired ones ... better to use a wireless access point with a wired router .. i mean i take it the DVR is connecting directly to the router with a cable ?

 

If this is a home network (no DVR) though it should just work .. but you will need to run the setup CD on the PC that you are accessing it wirelessly from. hardwired cable to access it to do basic set up. IP range should be 192.168.0.1.

[Jasper 0]

I have a Linksys WRT54GS and it has worked great. Installed easy and has worked without a hitch for about a year and a half.

 

This WRT54G, nothing but problems.

 

The setup is CAT5 from cable modem to internet port on router. Then CAT5 from network card on computer to a port on the router.

 

I have been able to ping the router; 192.168.1.1, but have not been able to ping the Internet IP address 67.xxx.xx.xx. I have tried removing power to the modem and router many times with no success.

 

The text that follows is some stuff I was typing up before you guys posted some additional posts:

 

I’ve had tried everything trying to get these two routers to work, but I am lucking to get them to access the internet for even a short period of time. I mean I have to really work at

I bought them at two different times, from two different places though. That’s why I was thinking maybe there is just some trick or something to getting these things to work.

 

I see that 34Ford bought one of these models not to long ago and he didn’t have any issue other than connecting the cables backwards, which I did a few times myself. I need to color code everything.

 

I hate having to call tech support regarding this stuff though because I don’t know what country I will be talking too and will have to spend time doing everything I have already tried with them on the phone. They make you do that just to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

 

Last time I had a problem like this with a NetGear router I spent over 3 hours phone time with people in India and got nowhere. I ended up just eating the router and stuffing it away somewhere.

[Jasper 0]

I have used the CD that came with it and It shows the local area connection becoming active and acts like the install was successful, but it isn’t.

 

I can see the DNS servers listed when I look at the detail, but still can’t connect to the internet.

 

The weird part is how by pressing the membrane button it creates a device listing of WRT54G under My Network places, then I can invoke it and then I am able to use the browser admin?

 

Unfortunately I am testing it on my connection, so I lose the internet every time I mess around with the thing trying to get it working.

[rory 0]

whats your PCs IP address using DHCP enabled by default on the router?

 

Command Prompt - IP Config

 

If you are certain the router's IP is 192.168.1.1 then can you access that via the browser - http://192.168.1.1:8080

 

Id look at make sure the DHCP on the router is functioning, set up a static IP on your PC then try to access the router again.

 

Also, check your Cat5 cable is good, try another one.

Try another port on the router if still no go.

 

if your online with it then its working? Set admin mode and lemmee see

 

Rory

[Jasper 0]

The default from LinkSys is for DHCP client PC to start with 192.168.1.100, but I always change it to 192.168.1.2. The router is always 192.168.1.1,

 

DHCP is turned on and functioning as the PC is assigned 192.168.1.2.

 

Tried replacing the CAT5 cable, but no difference. Besides I can slap my WRT54GS router on there and no problem. I just remove power to the modem and router, then power the modem back up, then the router and it acquires my ISP IP address. Which doesn’t happen with this WRT54G.

 

This router will assigned the private address 192.168.1.2, but it never acquires my ISP IP address. What’s weird it that it will show the two DNS servers like it has a path to the outside world, but I can’t ping my ISP IP address.

 

No problems with the WRT54GS that is on here now.

[Jasper 0]

I Have everything port forwarded to the DVR on the WRT54G, including VNC.

 

Do you just want to take a look at the router settings? Do you want me to remove the VNC port forward so you can see my PC?

 

Oh, I tried the other ports already also.

[rory 0]

yeah but if it wont go online then I cant see it .. unless you had 2 network cards ..

[Jasper 0]

I went to The Linksys website and followed the recommendation of trying to update the firmware in the router with the hopes that this might solve my internet connectivity problem, but now the router is not responding at all. I am done with this router for tonight.

 

Will let you know what Linksys tells me about this router. I don’t want anybody else to go through what I have with this router. From what I have read on the internet, many people are having problems with this router. Maybe best to steer clear of this model.

[Jasper 0]

I didn’t call LinkSys and I got the router working.

 

After much trial and error it came down to these steps to get it working.

 

Here is what I did:

 

Repeatedly reset the router by pressing the little recessed button on the back of the router for 5 seconds, this would allow me to communicate with the router through the browser admin screen.

 

After several failed attempts to update the firmware I was finally able to do so. You need to just keep trying if it doesn’t work at first.

 

The firmware version that came with this router was 1.0.0.0, first release.

 

The current version is 1.0.0.4 released December 9, 2005. The router has been working fine since I was able to perform the firmware upgrade.

 

Hope this helps anyone here that might end up with this router.

[jisaac 0]

I have had alot of problems with the new version 5. It sucks. Try to find any version 4 left over. Even linksys says 5 has alot of problems.

[Jasper 0]

I am having problems with this router again. It was working fine for a while. At least I thought it was until I started trying to use CenterV2 on the Geo, then realized I could not make outbound connections, only inbound. CenterV2 is running on Port 80. I don’t have IIs running. I disabled Skype from running, no difference.

 

The remote viewer works and I can VNC in, but I keep resetting the router only to find it gets messed up and again will not let outbound communications to occur.

 

Anybody have a clue what might be going on? What I should check next?

[jisaac 0]

in january after an install I was helping this guy get his 2 computers up and running on the network and we went thru a total of 2 bad routers. With my nature of trying to fix things that dont work I wasted alot of time when it was a bad router. The 3rd one worked like a charm the first time I configured it and have not had any problems since.

[Jasper 0]

Hmmm. That is not good to hear. I have always thought highly of Linksys knowing it is a division of Cisco, but after what I have been reading and hearing it sound like the consumer end my not be as good as I thought it was.

 

Reset the router, modem and hard rebooted the DVR today and lost outside communication and inbound traffic as well. Left it alone and it started working a little later in the day. Maybe a flakey DSL modem, although the lights on the modem seemed in order at the time of testing.

 

I will remove the router if it keeps up and just open all the necessary ports through windows firewall and see if I have any further problems. If I don't then most likely it is the router.

 

Thanks for the tip on version 5. I won't be trying to update the firmware to that version since you told me that.

[rory 0]

its cheap, trow in in the garbage and buy a new one ... anyway, thats what we do here .. and it costs double ...

[Jasper 0]

its cheap, trow in in the garbage and buy a new one ... anyway, thats what we do here .. and it costs double ...

 

Throw it in the trash. No way. I can give it to someone for christmas as a foot warmer.

[Thomas 0]

Linksys is like a better COPS. They don't make a thing, they just buy OEM and tweak the housing and slap a label on it. They will write the firmware but generally it's a vanilla Linux install with a firewall and a web front end.

[Billyk 0]

I have had similar troubles... Sometimes though it was the ISP connection. I had to deal with about 500 connections all over the country and there were definitely some bad areas. Just a suggestion but try pinging an outside connection, like the place you are trying to get out to using this:

ping /l 1047 /n 100 IPADDRESS where IPADDRESS is the site you want to get to. the l (that's L) switch is packet length as the default length for ping is too small and the n switch is how many times to repeat it. What you want to see is how many dropped packets. This would raise hell with the credit card service connections as the places I was dealing with were McDonald's, Wendy's etc. Alythough I do have to admit I did replace a few LinkSys routers! Good luck,

Bill

[Jasper 0]

It is real easy to tell when I don't have outbound communication because I can launch the web browser and my default page, Google, does not come up. Also my little Skype Icon is grey, meaning it wasn't able to log onto the internet.

 

I know how to ping, but I have never changed the packet length, so you learn something new everyday. Thanks.

 

I think it probably is an ISP issue as it worked perfectly when I tested it on a local LAN before putting it out.

[CollinR 0]

Have you modified the MTU setting in router?

 

 

Broadbandreports.com suggests it but it can often cause flakely troubles if set too high.

[Jasper 0]

Have you modified the MTU setting in router?

 

 

Broadbandreports.com suggests it but it can often cause flakely troubles if set too high.

 

No I haven't tried that yet. I just found where that value is displayed, now I have to find where I can change it. Ever since I upgraded the firmware I am lost. The menu structure changed or did.

 

The current value is 1500. Some people appear to have fixed their problem with values of either 1300 or 1400. Now I just have to find where I can change it. I know it is probably hinding in plain sight.

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

Oh, I have a filter multicast box checked. Does anyone know if that could cause any kind of problem with the ISP?

 

EDIT - MTU was right on the very first screen.