Router capping speed @ half periodically?

Hey guys,

I just got a free upgrade from my cable provider to 50mbps (woot).

However, it has shined light on a problem that I think predates this upgrade.

My Linksys WRT160Nv3 (firmware is 3.0.0.2) will run at full speed (wired, cat5) for a while, and then after some arbitrary time, it limits the available speed to half (25mbps, measured by speedtest)

A restart of the router corrects this temporarily. It's happened 3x today as I've been testing it.

Does anyone know what might be causing this or how to fix it? My googlefu didn't turn up anything specific to this issue or how to correct it.

Linksys product page doesn't have an updated FW, though I've seen mentions of a 3.0.0.3 version.

First thing I'd do is flash that with a modern firmware and see if you get better more consistent results.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database

Linksys routers have a history of being unpredictable and unreliable, and I say that as an owner of several Linksys routers since ~1999.

I had quite a few problems with my latest Linksys until I put DD-WRT on it, as Liger88 suggests. Linksys firmware has always been hit or miss.

is it getting too hot?

if you remove the router and go direct to the modem just to make sure the same isn't happening..

Yeah it's specific to the router, but after much fear of bricking, I installed a version of dd-wrt on it, and thus far, speeds are staying where they should, so many thanks for the suggestion. I'll report back after a few more days of uptime.

Cheers.