Wireless router wearing out?

[Parmenides]

I have a wireless Lynksis wrt54g. It has served me well for a long while. But within the past year the wireless connection will randomly disconnect when streaming video. Not all the time, but it happens. When it happens I have to restart it to re-establish wireless. Is that normal for streaming video or is the router going bad?

 

[keenan]

When you say the wireless disconnects, what exactly happens? Do you lose your association and have to reassociate? Traffic stops flowing? Are wired clients also affected?

 

[Parmenides]

Wired clients are not affected. But for wireless clients, the network ceases to become visible to any wireless clients at all. It's as if the wireless portion shuts off.

After I unplug, and replug, things work normal. Wired clients (even with high activity) have no noticeable effect upon the wireless dropouts.

 

[keenan]

Probably more likely wireless interference. Have you tried changing channels?

 

[gimp]

any new 2.4GHz phones in the place?

edit: durrr, 2.4GHz.

 

[Ocellaris]

check to see if you have a model of wrt54g that can be flashed with dd-wrt. the dd-wrt firmware typically holds up much better from a reliablity standpoint and should function near indefinitely without needing a reboot.

also, try another ac adapter if you have one that has the same plug and voltage. aged ac adapters can have inconsistent volt that screws up the wireless.

if the wireless just drops out for good until a reboot, its not usually caused by interference.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

 

[stormy1]

blow the dust out

 

[Parmenides]

Thanks, I'll have to try those possibilities. I think it might be the older kind that allows the firmware. I'll check when I get home. I don't think we have any phones that interfere. Normally it runs great always with strong connection bars. I've never seen a yellow bar. Streaming just seems to shut it down at random times. It will shut down an average of 1.5 times during a netflix movie. Other non-netflix stuff like movie trailers will do the same.

 

[CpuMan]

Post what version wrt54g it is. Versions 2 thru 4 were very good as well as the gl.

The early gs and TM versions were even a bit better because they had twice the flash and system ram.

Versions 5 thu 8 were not so good because Linksys neutered these versions by cutting the ram to half of what was originally in the versions 2 tru 4. It is common for these versions of the wrt54g to need frequent reboots to restore internet connectivity. Bit torrenting will also kill these neutered routers.

 

[gimp]

Post what version wrt54g it is. Versions 2 thru 4 were very good as well as the gl.

The early gs and TM versions were even a bit better because they had twice the flash and system ram.

Versions 5 thu 8 were not so good because Linksys neutered these versions by cutting the ram to half of what was originally in the versions 2 tru 4. It is common for these versions of the wrt54g to need frequent reboots to restore internet connectivity. Bit torrenting will also kill these neutered routers.

except that if you read the whole post, only the wireless is affected, the wired clients are not, and continue to work.

do you live in an apartment? maybe some folks around got new phones, different phones, what have you. Or they setup a wireless which happens to be on the same channel as yours.
go find what used to be called NetStumbler, can't think of the new name off the top of my head (SSIDer? or something similar?), and see what other wireless clients are floating around and what channels they are on.

 

[Parmenides]

Version 2

Thanks for the idea, ran the scan. No apartments. A couple places used the same channel, but with a weak signal, fluctuating between 0-8% strength. My router gives out 95%ish. I'll definitely try another channel. But probably won't find out if that helped before I try new firmware.

Well, on second thought, maybe I'll wait things out on the new channel and see if anything helps before putting on the firmware. I'm not going to take DD-WRT's "not originally designed for WAP...use at your own risk" warning lightly.