BEFW11S4 Intermittant Failures

AP: BEFW11S4 ver 3 updated to the latest firmware (1.45.10).

I have my AP configured in Router mode because it's behind my linux
firewall. Once or twice a month my wife and I lose Internet
connectivity from our laptops. Prior troubleshooting has shown that
when this happens, I can still ping or manage the AP, but can't get to
my firewall from my laptop.

Today for the first time, I tried resetting the AP by removing its
power for a few seconds and did nothing else. Internet access was
restored after about a minute. While this does not absolutely PROVE
that the AP is faulty, it is certainly suggests that. Is this a known
problem with the model or firmware version, or do I just have a bad
unit?

--
Bob Simon
remove both "x"s from domain for private replies

Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> AP: BEFW11S4 ver 3 updated to the latest firmware (1.45.10).
>
> I have my AP configured in Router mode because it's behind my linux
> firewall. Once or twice a month my wife and I lose Internet
> connectivity from our laptops. Prior troubleshooting has shown that
> when this happens, I can still ping or manage the AP, but can't get to
> my firewall from my laptop.
>
> Today for the first time, I tried resetting the AP by removing its
> power for a few seconds and did nothing else. Internet access was
> restored after about a minute. While this does not absolutely PROVE
> that the AP is faulty, it is certainly suggests that. Is this a known
> problem with the model or firmware version, or do I just have a bad
> unit?
>
> --
> Bob Simon
> remove both "x"s from domain for private replies
>

If the unit was working before and you had no problems on an older firmware
version, then why did you update the firmware? One only updates the
firmware for security issues, new enhancement you must have, or something
was fixed that you needed. I ran my 11s4 V1 with a firmware that was last
issued in Dec 2002. The router finally died here recently but it was just
acting as a wire/wireless AP switch when it went. If it's not broke, then
don't fix it with an firmware upgrade. You may want to try flashing back to
a firmware version that didn't give you any problems and see what happens.

Duane

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 17:38:26 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>AP: BEFW11S4 ver 3 updated to the latest firmware (1.45.10).

I have the version 4 model.

>I have my AP configured in Router mode because it's behind my linux
>firewall.

Duh. Are you running IPMasq (NAT) on the Linux firewall? Does your
Linux box offer DHCP addresses to connected client computahs? If so,
you don't need to have the BEFW11S4 run in router mode. Running
double NAT is doable but a pain in the posterior with incoming
traffic.

>Once or twice a month my wife and I lose Internet
>connectivity from our laptops. Prior troubleshooting has shown that
>when this happens, I can still ping or manage the AP, but can't get to
>my firewall from my laptop.

The default route between the wireless router and the wired router may
have changed. Go into the configuration for the BEFW11S4 on the:
Setup -> Advance Routing
page, and set:
Transmit RIP version: Disabled
Receive RIP version: Disabled
My guess(tm) is that you also have RIP enabled on your Linux router or
some server and it's sending bogus route advertisements to the
BEFW11S4. When that happens, it's usually the default route that gets
mashed in the router, causing it to lose internet connectivity, but
nothing else.

>Today for the first time, I tried resetting the AP by removing its
>power for a few seconds and did nothing else. Internet access was
>restored after about a minute. While this does not absolutely PROVE
>that the AP is faulty, it is certainly suggests that. Is this a known
>problem with the model or firmware version, or do I just have a bad
>unit?

Since it's behind the Linux firewall, I'll assume it's protected from
attack from the internet. There are some known router exploits that
will hang a cheapo router. Well, they hang mine, so I guess it might
also be a problem on yours if it were exposed directly to the
internet. However, it's not.

The next time it goes insane, dive into the internal web server and
see if the status page looks normal, or if some of the IP's
(especially the gateway) are weird looking.



--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:56:10 GMT, Duane Arnold <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>news:(E-Mail Removed) :
>
>> AP: BEFW11S4 ver 3 updated to the latest firmware (1.45.10).
>>
>> I have my AP configured in Router mode because it's behind my linux
>> firewall. Once or twice a month my wife and I lose Internet
>> connectivity from our laptops. Prior troubleshooting has shown that
>> when this happens, I can still ping or manage the AP, but can't get to
>> my firewall from my laptop.
>>
>> Today for the first time, I tried resetting the AP by removing its
>> power for a few seconds and did nothing else. Internet access was
>> restored after about a minute. While this does not absolutely PROVE
>> that the AP is faulty, it is certainly suggests that. Is this a known
>> problem with the model or firmware version, or do I just have a bad
>> unit?
>>
>> --
>> Bob Simon
>> remove both "x"s from domain for private replies
>>
>
>If the unit was working before and you had no problems on an older firmware
>version, then why did you update the firmware?

I've been living with this intermittant problem for several months and
updated the firmware in an earlier attempt to fix it. Since this is a
somewhat complex network setup, and since the problem is infrequent, I
was not sure that the problem was in the AP until the test I did
yesterday, To tell the truth, I really feel like I need to repeat the
reset test before I'm completely convinced that THIS is the problem.

Is there's any way to do a reset from the web-based management
interface rather than by removing power or pressing the button?


--
Bob Simon
remove both "x"s from domain for private replies

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 21:28:53 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 17:38:26 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>
>>AP: BEFW11S4 ver 3 updated to the latest firmware (1.45.10).
>
>I have the version 4 model.
>
>>I have my AP configured in Router mode because it's behind my linux
>>firewall.
>
>Duh. Are you running IPMasq (NAT) on the Linux firewall?

Yes. Everything in my network has a private address except for the
outside interface of the linux firewall and I'm masquerading outgoing
host source addresess to it.

>Does your
>Linux box offer DHCP addresses to connected client computahs?

No and DHCP is disabled on the AP too. Every host in my wired
(192.168.0.0) and wireless (192.168.1.0) networks is statically
addressed. I use these static addresses in iptables filtering rules.

However, the outside interface of my linux firewall uses DHCP to get
it's address from the cable modem. But even this address has been
static for at least a year.

>If so,
>you don't need to have the BEFW11S4 run in router mode. Running
>double NAT is doable but a pain in the posterior with incoming
>traffic.

There's no reason for me to do NAT on the AP. I presume that turning
off gateway mode disables NAT. Is this not correct?

>>Once or twice a month my wife and I lose Internet
>>connectivity from our laptops. Prior troubleshooting has shown that
>>when this happens, I can still ping or manage the AP, but can't get to
>>my firewall from my laptop.
>
>The default route between the wireless router and the wired router may
>have changed. Go into the configuration for the BEFW11S4 on the:
> Setup -> Advance Routing
>page, and set:
> Transmit RIP version: Disabled
> Receive RIP version: Disabled

Dynamic routing is already disabled on my AP.

>My guess(tm) is that you also have RIP enabled on your Linux router or
>some server and it's sending bogus route advertisements to the
>BEFW11S4.

No, I have no reason to run RIP because my static routing requirements
are so simple.

>When that happens, it's usually the default route that gets
>mashed in the router, causing it to lose internet connectivity, but
>nothing else.

I have not been able to determine exactly what gets broken in the AP
when I lose Internet connectivity. It's certainly possible that the
default route could have been lost. Next time the problem recurs,
I'll verify the default and other two static routes in the routing
table.

>>Today for the first time, I tried resetting the AP by removing its
>>power for a few seconds and did nothing else. Internet access was
>>restored after about a minute. While this does not absolutely PROVE
>>that the AP is faulty, it is certainly suggests that. Is this a known
>>problem with the model or firmware version, or do I just have a bad
>>unit?
>
>Since it's behind the Linux firewall, I'll assume it's protected from
>attack from the internet. There are some known router exploits that
>will hang a cheapo router. Well, they hang mine, so I guess it might
>also be a problem on yours if it were exposed directly to the
>internet. However, it's not.
>
>The next time it goes insane, dive into the internal web server and
>see if the status page looks normal, or if some of the IP's
>(especially the gateway) are weird looking.

Thanks.

--
Bob Simon
remove both "x"s from domain for private replies

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 10:27:59 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Is there's any way to do a reset from the web-based management
>interface rather than by removing power or pressing the button?

Yes. On my BEFW11S4v4, it's on the:
Administration -> Factory Defaults
page. You should always do a restore to factory defaults after a
firmware upgrade. Most upgrades do this automatically, but a few will
save garbage in the registers, much of which cannot be seen in the web
configuration pages. Best to reset and be sure. Good luck.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 09:35:53 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 10:27:59 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>
>>Is there's any way to do a reset from the web-based management
>>interface rather than by removing power or pressing the button?
>
>Yes. On my BEFW11S4v4, it's on the:
> Administration -> Factory Defaults
>page. You should always do a restore to factory defaults after a
>firmware upgrade. Most upgrades do this automatically, but a few will
>save garbage in the registers, much of which cannot be seen in the web
>configuration pages. Best to reset and be sure. Good luck.
>
Thanks but I meant a simple reset. Based on my experiment yesterday,
there was no need to reconfig anything to get the AP forwarding again.
I don't suppose this is supported in the GUI, but I thought I'd check
anyway.

BTW, I did do a reset to factory defaults right after I upgraded the
firmware. I didn't mention it earlier, but I did this upgrade several
months ago when I first encountered the intermittant problem.

--
Bob Simon
remove both "x"s from domain for private replies

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 12:51:55 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 09:35:53 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 10:27:59 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>Is there's any way to do a reset from the web-based management
>>>interface rather than by removing power or pressing the button?

>>Yes. On my BEFW11S4v4, it's on the:
>> Administration -> Factory Defaults
>>page. You should always do a restore to factory defaults after a
>>firmware upgrade. Most upgrades do this automatically, but a few will
>>save garbage in the registers, much of which cannot be seen in the web
>>configuration pages. Best to reset and be sure. Good luck.

>Thanks but I meant a simple reset. Based on my experiment yesterday,
>there was no need to reconfig anything to get the AP forwarding again.
>I don't suppose this is supported in the GUI, but I thought I'd check
>anyway.

I couldn't find a reboot in the web configuration. However, all you
have to do is change some trivial setting, and the router appears to
reboot. I suspect this is sufficient.

>BTW, I did do a reset to factory defaults right after I upgraded the
>firmware. I didn't mention it earlier, but I did this upgrade several
>months ago when I first encountered the intermittant problem.

So much for that theory. One experiment you might wanna try is to
wait until it hangs again, and then just connect a CAT5 cable between
the laptop and the LAN switch on the back of the router. That takes
the wireless out of the picture. It won't prove much, but it would be
interesting to know if it really is the wireless part of the puzzle
that's hanging.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 11:05:58 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>There's no reason for me to do NAT on the AP. I presume that turning
>off gateway mode disables NAT. Is this not correct?

Your version 1.45.10 firmware for your BEFW11S4v3 router is a bit
different than my BEFW11S4v4 router with 1.50.14. I have an "NAT
on/off" selection, but no "gateway mode on/off" selection. My
guess(tm) is that you're correct, and that these both are the same
function. Turning off the gateway mode probably (not 100% sure) turns
off NAT.

From the online docs:
"Gateway Mode should be used if your Linksys router is hosting your
network's connection to the Internet. Router Mode should be selected
if the router exists on a network with other routers."

Yep. Gateway off is same as NAT off.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 11:39:17 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 12:51:55 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 09:35:53 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
>><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>>On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 10:27:59 -0600, Bob Simon <(E-Mail Removed)>
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>>Is there's any way to do a reset from the web-based management
>>>>interface rather than by removing power or pressing the button?
>
>>>Yes. On my BEFW11S4v4, it's on the:
>>> Administration -> Factory Defaults
>>>page. You should always do a restore to factory defaults after a
>>>firmware upgrade. Most upgrades do this automatically, but a few will
>>>save garbage in the registers, much of which cannot be seen in the web
>>>configuration pages. Best to reset and be sure. Good luck.
>
>>Thanks but I meant a simple reset. Based on my experiment yesterday,
>>there was no need to reconfig anything to get the AP forwarding again.
>>I don't suppose this is supported in the GUI, but I thought I'd check
>>anyway.
>
>I couldn't find a reboot in the web configuration. However, all you
>have to do is change some trivial setting, and the router appears to
>reboot. I suspect this is sufficient.

That's interesting. I did not know that.

>>BTW, I did do a reset to factory defaults right after I upgraded the
>>firmware. I didn't mention it earlier, but I did this upgrade several
>>months ago when I first encountered the intermittant problem.
>
>So much for that theory. One experiment you might wanna try is to
>wait until it hangs again, and then just connect a CAT5 cable between
>the laptop and the LAN switch on the back of the router. That takes
>the wireless out of the picture. It won't prove much, but it would be
>interesting to know if it really is the wireless part of the puzzle
>that's hanging.

Thanks! You're right, that would be an interesting experiment.

--
Bob Simon
remove both "x"s from domain for private replies