Belkin Routers Unable To Connect To The Internet?

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I haven't owned a Belkin product in years so I can't verify this issue personally. Are any of you having this problem? Thanks to ehren8879 for the heads up.

Users of routers of American consumer electronics manufacturer Belkin have severe issues connecting to the internet. The affect users around the globe. On Twitter many people complain to Belkin’s customer care that they are unable to connect to the internet. Users also complain that the Belkin customer service by phone hangs up customers, likely because they can’t handle the load of complaints.
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Willing to bet DD-WRT or Open-WRT would fix it. If not then bad capacitors like so many cheap crap routers.
 
They probably can't get on line to see.

Anyhow, a coworker was affected by this this morning. His troubleshooting skills aren't the best so he probably still cant follow the directions to fix.
 
Oddly enough I've had this problem with every belkin router I've ever owned.

Ba-dum-dum-tish!

Only half joking. I won't touch them with a ten foot pole they have been so unreliable out of the box in the past.
 
Belkin, IMO, produces some the the worst shit ever.

-USB car charger...lasted 2 days.
-Power strip...lasted a month
-UPS....died after 3 months of use. Replacement died soon after.
-Belkin router....never could get it to properly do DHCP.
-Belkin micro-USB cable...The internal part of the USB connector was stuck inside my laptop after unplugging the cable. yeah...that little black piece with the gold contacts.

I'm never using Belkin again.
 
I ran into this today actually. I was a bit baffled. I just ended up putting in a new router because it was pro bono work for one of my company's old retired owners and I had some other things to take care of.

I got it up and one with the amber light but in testing other things to make sure I wasn't going to have to come back it cut out again. It kept telling me to reboot the modem or that it got all of the necessary information from the ISP but couldn't access anything and thus it was an ISP issue. Knowing Comcast, I wasn't even going to bother calling them since this was clearly a router issue
 
I have a really old Belkin wireless router setup as a access point only. it was fine today when I left for work.

This is an interesting issue though.
 
Exavior said:
I have a really old Belkin wireless router setup as a access point only. it was fine today when I left for work.

This is an interesting issue though.
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This truly is interesting.
What would cause so many routers to go down?
A Phone Home problem?

Reminds me of when Sonicwall messed up their licensing servers and invalidated our licenses.
 
I've had a bunch of Belkin routers and have never had a failure issue with them. Some of their firmware is kind of crap, but if you know how to use the thing.... *shrugs*
 
I bought a Belkin router once, several years ago. It was their top of the line Wireless N, dual band, with gigabit ethernet ports, for $89. It went bad in less than 8 months, hanging repeatedly per day. I requested a replacement through advance replacement. They never sent it, and then charged me $175 for the replacement that was never delivered. ($175 to replace a $89 router. In other words, I would have been better off buying a new one.) I had to dispute the charge through my bank to get my money back.

I haven't bought anything Belkin, either for myself or for my company, since then, and I won't. I specifically avoid all their products now. I won't even buy a cable or power cord from them.
 
I said I'd never buy another Belkin product back in 2009, when they were regularly going around and leaving false reviews everywhere. My thought was, if they have to lie to sell their product, it must be shit.

Some days I like being proven right.
 
I loved my belkin with TomatoUSB on it. Very stable and was a tank. The issue belkin has here sounds like a software issue in regards to the router "beaconing home"

This is just another example of cloud services need to be robust and OPTIONAL. I am shocked that the router didn't have a fall back DNS that was not on belkin's network.

Switched it to an Almond+ (from kickstarter) and love it too.
 
I didn't realize Belkin was an american company.

Always thought they were Chinese...

Anyway, they have a well deserved reputation for making absolute turds, so this news doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
 
The only Belkin product I ever had that was any good was an fm transmitter for listening to external devices in a vehicle or on some other radio that didn't have a line in.

I completely avoid them for pretty much everything.

All of their products are complete trash. The only Belkin routers I have ever dealt with always had issues with losing connection, the wireless not working, having to be rebooted every couple hours, etc.

I won't even use a Belkin router if it is given to me.

Their cables are ok, but the prices for them are about 10x too high for what they are.
 
I work for an isp and we were getting slammed with calls about this today. Had to put it in the phone systems so customers were aware it was a router issue.
 
So looking for into the router I brought back with me, there's a feature in the dashboard for "Self healing" by default, its set to re-initialize the router every Tuesday at 3:30a.m. This falls exactly in line with when the computer I was called about stopped communicating.

So perhaps this feature updates the basic software of the device and this weeks update borked how DNS works. When I ping something like www.google.com I get a reply back, but from the router's IP.
 
mi7chy said:
Was just going to say it's something stupid like hard coded DNS.
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Just saw this on the page too...


Seriously? Why would ANY router do anything other than by default pull the DNS from the ISP's DHCP???

I can understand giving users the option to change it, but defaulting it to a single DNS? That is just plain moronic. What kind of boneheaded clowns do they have working there anyway?

And how could they possibly benefit from doing this? Now they have to have their own DNS which gets a shitload of traffic incurring costs...

Unless...

a) (best case) they think ISP DNSes are unreliable, and wanted to force another to solve th eproblem (unlikely); or
b) They harvest data somehow from the DNS server
 
had a belkin wireless router once years ago. the wireless would drop for anything. Microwave running, dead...gte more than 20 feet from the thing, no signal.

I was resetting the router like 10 times per day just to get the wireless back. Yea, that got returned quickly.
 
Also from Belkin/Linksys webpage:

“We are aware of reports of an interruption to internet service when using some Belkin and Linksys routers with several internet service providers. Our team is diligently working to root cause the issue. Our call centers are also experiencing a higher than normal call rate so hold times are longer than normal. Our call centers have no solution to this problem at this time. Please check this status page for further updates.”
 
Ashbringer said:
Willing to bet DD-WRT or Open-WRT would fix it. If not then bad capacitors like so many cheap crap routers.
Click to expand...

Seems reasonable that people across the globe had their capacitors go bad on the same day.
 
Sgraffite said:
Seems reasonable that people across the globe had their capacitors go bad on the same day.
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I suppose it could be like that nvidia driver update a while back that cooked a bunch of vid cards. Doubt it, it doesn't really sound like that, but you never know.
 
Sacrilego said:
This truly is interesting.
What would cause so many routers to go down?
A Phone Home problem?

Reminds me of when Sonicwall messed up their licensing servers and invalidated our licenses.
Click to expand...
Yep

"The problem seems to be that the routers "occasionally ping heartbeat.belkin.com to detect network connectivity," but are suddenly unable to get a response. "
 
I would say 90% of the Belkin routers iv'e come across over the years had some kind of connectivity issues.
 
lol wtf major fail ... if the router can't ping Belkin, then it refuses you the internet. I would throw that junk in the trash asap.
 
Good enough reason for me not to ever buy a Belkin. Of course, I haven't EVER bought one anyway....but just sayin. ;)
 
pcjunkie said:
Also from Belkin/Linksys webpage:

“We are aware of reports of an interruption to internet service when using some Belkin and Linksys routers with several internet service providers. Our team is diligently working to root cause the issue. Our call centers are also experiencing a higher than normal call rate so hold times are longer than normal. Our call centers have no solution to this problem at this time. Please check this status page for further updates.”
Click to expand...

Wow, I had no idea Belkin bought the Linksys name from Cisco.
 
Ranulfo said:
Wow, I had no idea Belkin bought the Linksys name from Cisco.
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Ditto.

Never buying another Linksys, that is for sure. :p

That being said, I don't buy consumer networking stuff anymore at all. Just not worth it.
 
Everything I've ever had that was Belkin, including their cables, stopped working for me after awhile.

Their cat5/6 cables don't even work out of the box. At my old job we'd get a box or two in, and we'd end up sending it right back out over the week.

Their micro-USB cable is a joke. The plug always ends up deforming over time somehow, as if they found the shoddiest quality metal they could possibly find to make it.

Belkin is the FRAM oil filter of the tech world, if not the Bose/Monster equivalent.
 
Well this is going to suck for me, i just helped people setup a bunch of Belkins. So far nothing, i will see how it goes.
 
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