Belkin N1 Router is forgetful on power down :(

S

Syndacate

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
93
Hey,

I have a Belkin N1 Wireless router, model number: F5D8231-4. Whenever I shut the damn thing off for a couple of minutes it clears all the settings, just as if I had pressed the reset button.

As far as I know the ability to remember settings is pretty standard on every router, I've never seen one use RAM with a backup battery or something of the sort, though I suppose that's possible. Typically they're stored permanently and you can throw them in closets for years without the settings going out the window.

Is this just a thing with that series router? If not, does anything know about how it's stored?

The reason why it's kind of important to me is b/c my school net threatens to ban the UN's of rogue networks due to interference with their massive cisco N infrastrcuture. Wireless defaults to "on" - if I lose power my router will wake up broadcasting and its MAC is binded right to my UN...

Thanks in advance.
- Greg

PS: I can't recall if it ever remembered settings in the past, so I'm not sure if it's always done this and I never noticed it or this is something new - it generally has power.
 
Sounds like an issue with your router hardware.

I've never heard of a modern-day router that cannot store settings in some sort of non-volatile memory.

Example: http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.php?showtopic=139627 Here's a user with the same model router that was trying to default the device simply by removing power. He was corrected by a forum poster who informed him that he had to use the reset button to set the device back to factory defaults. Seems to indicate your situation is not normal for the device.
 
yes, that is not normal.

try a firmware upgrade? or if no newer firmwares are available, try re-flashing the existing firmware version?

otherwise, replace it.
 
Electrofreak said:
Sounds like an issue with your router hardware.

I've never heard of a modern-day router that cannot store settings in some sort of non-volatile memory.

Example: http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.php?showtopic=139627 Here's a user with the same model router that was trying to default the device simply by removing power. He was corrected by a forum poster who informed him that he had to use the reset button to set the device back to factory defaults. Seems to indicate your situation is not normal for the device.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured it wasn't normal, I just wasn't sure...I gotta figure out what the hell is wrong with it :(. I hope somebody has some ideas..

j-sta said:
yes, that is not normal.

try a firmware upgrade? or if no newer firmwares are available, try re-flashing the existing firmware version?

otherwise, replace it.
Click to expand...

I didn't think it was normal. I did try a firmware upgrade, no newer firmware versions were available. I didn't try re-flashing the existing version, though.
 
Kaiga said:
I'll stop you right there.
Click to expand...

This coming from the guy with a phenom :).

Actually this lineup was going head to head with their Linksys WRT series at the time I bought it, in specs, pricing, and reviews/failure rates. True, the name isn't as well known amongst the routing world, but let's be honest, they weren't exactly making the best quality products before Cisco bought them up, you were paying a pretty penny for the name in terms of quality.

Though anybody's help regarding this issue would be nice, I don't particularly want to buy another router because of a stupid problem like this. I'm still not sure if it's hardware, software, or a lack of implementation on Belkin's side (though that seems a bit far fetched). That's step one, IMO. I haven't looked at directly flashing the chip, as typically you need a different board/flasher, NIOS-II or something similar, etc., though I might manually dl the firmware and install it through the standard belkin firmware installer, even though it says there's no updates available for it.
 
Syndacate said:
This coming from the guy with a phenom :).

Actually this lineup was going head to head with their Linksys WRT series at the time I bought it, in specs, pricing, and reviews/failure rates. True, the name isn't as well known amongst the routing world, but let's be honest, they weren't exactly making the best quality products before Cisco bought them up, you were paying a pretty penny for the name in terms of quality.

Though anybody's help regarding this issue would be nice, I don't particularly want to buy another router because of a stupid problem like this. I'm still not sure if it's hardware, software, or a lack of implementation on Belkin's side (though that seems a bit far fetched). That's step one, IMO. I haven't looked at directly flashing the chip, as typically you need a different board/flasher, NIOS-II or something similar, etc., though I might manually dl the firmware and install it through the standard belkin firmware installer, even though it says there's no updates available for it.
Click to expand...

Well, Belkin has a reputation of being on the low end, in general, of networking equipment, in cost and reliability. I've personally seen a lot of problems with Belkin products when compared with other brands. Now, usually it's just because IMO Belkin drivers suck, and products of theirs that don't use drivers aren't as bad, but I still would personally stay away from a Belkin product like a router, and stick with them for stuff like cheap USB hubs which are pretty hard to screw up.

That and the Phenom is a helluva bang for its buck. :p

As for your problem, it's either a firmware or hardware issue. I'm going to guess firmware since a hardware problem would likely have caused more extensive problems; rarely do they manifest as something so specific as settings getting lost on power-down.

Looks like DD-WRT isn't compatible (but I don't have your exact model # to be sure) otherwise I'd say use that and see if it works. Not sure what to advise you specifically to do in regards to the firmware. I'd say look around for a guide to re-flashing Belkin firmware since I'm not sure exactly what the necessary process is myself.

Aside from that, I'd say buy a new device or stick it on a UPS.
 
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I'll look into re-install firmware manually and see if I get anywhere with that. I'll see if I can find an old revision and roll back, too. aside from that not much else that I can do :(.

As for DD-WRT, according to their router db, it's not supported (8231-4 is the model #), but it doesn't say "not possible" - as some of the others.
 
I rolled back to .09 firmware (latest is .16) and played with the reset button (to make sure it wasn't stuck or anything), neither did anything. Recapped to the .16 firmware and the problem persists. I'm not sure if I'll try DD-WRT as it's not supported and a router that works poorly is better than a paper weight :(.

Anybody have any other last ditch efforts?
 
Yeah, I probably should, but shit, I spent ~150 on it when I got it (few years ago). It still works as a router (both wireless/wired) 100%, so I guess for the time being I'll keep it going. Maybe I can find out somewhere down the line if something is wrong with it, or if this is a hardware aspect, apparently it's not software.

I think my question of whether the implementation part of the router or not was answered by the simple fact that it has a reset button. I believe that if it wasn't meant to save during power off, it wouldn't have a reset button. Though for all I know that could just ground out the power and do the same thing *shrugs*. That's the least part I guess, but it's a pretty standard feature, so I guess it's probably a hardware issue :(.
 
Eh, just buy a decent wired-only router and put the Belkin to work as a Wireless Access Point. It'll save you a few bucks.

Just make sure the Belkin is on the same subnet as the wired router, make sure DHCP assignments don't conflict with those made by the wired router, plug the Belkin into the wired router LAN port to LAN port (don't use the WAN or "Internet" port) and you're golden. Some routers even have an Access Point mode you can enable that takes the work out of all of it.

That way you don't have to pitch it into a waste bin and you can still get some use out of it.
 
If you read my reasoning why this is a problem I can't really ignore..

My school's new super Cisco network (everywhere) can de-auth rogue networks (and does). Even if the AP in my room is unplugged i get booted from my own router by nearby apts. They say that it's to prevent rogue networks from creating interference - which is fine, ok. Though they threatened to ban my school username (the school usernames are binded to the MAC address on the WAN side of routers, any computers, etc., they need to be registered (binded to your UN) in order to work) because it was actively broadcasting and that it must be disabled.

My fear is that the power goes out, it wakes up, starts broadcasting, then boom, I gotta go talk to IS about getting my UN unbanned :(.

Right now it's plugged into a line conditioner which protects it from all flickers 'n the like - I've never seen more than a flicker here in the 4 years I've lived here, with the exception of course of (announced in advance) scheduled maintenance.

It just annoys me, this cost me like $140 when I bought it and was directly competing with the WRT.

I'm thinking I might delve in there and see if I can (without a knife/scissors, etc.) disable the broadcasting at a hardware level.

I'm thinking that's my last ditch effort...
 
Well the wireless (it's N) and wired speeds both work and run quite fast.

The wireless is useless here anyways as any network of this size (couple of AP's or routers) will get de-authed in only a few minutes (tops) by the school's network. As far as I see, it's routing capabilities and speed work fine, it's simply the memory. So I still think it's salvagable, at least a desktop wired router until I get out of college. As I said, all wireless AP's are pretty useless atm with their network installed anyways. I figure I can simply get a year and a half or so more out of it (until I graduate and need my own wireless again).
 
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