Netgear WGR614 Wireless Router: Intermittant loss of connectivity using 802.11g

I've been going crazy trying to figure this one out.

I have a Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router 54 Mbps/2.4 GHz that I
bought in early 2004. At the time, I only had 802.11b cards in our laptops,
and everything worked fine.

Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PC wireless card to my wife's new Dell
PC. From time to time, she would tell me "the Internet's been off all day".
When I looked, every other machine could connect except for hers. Looking at
her PC, the card is getting a strong signal, but no communication is taking
place.

I thought the problem might be related to the Windows XP SP2 upgrade that
I'd performed recently, but I've looked through the knowledge base articles,
and none of the reported problems seem to apply to me.

Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PCMCIA card to my wife's laptop. Now we
have two 'G' wireless devices in the house, and sure enough, she's getting
the same behavior with her laptop now.

When a communication problem occurs:

- The router seems to be operating fine (all wired and 802.11b wireless
clients are fine).
- One 802.11g client will typically be fine while the other can't
communicate
- The affected 802.11g client shows excellent signal strength, but "little
or no connectivity". Web requests, ping, DHCP (through release and renew)
all time out.
- Trying to "repair" the connection on the affected client generally doesn't
work (DHCP time out)
- Powering down the router and powering it back up doesn't seem to do
anything
- Unplugging every other wireless device in the house (cordless phone)
doesn't seem to make any difference
- The problem occurs intermittently. Things can work for days on end, then
one system will refuse to communicate. Once affected, the system doesn't
seem to recover by itself.

Here are some additional details:

- I was using 128-bit WEP. I've tried dropping to 64-bit WEP with no
apparent difference in behavior.
- I have an access list set up by Mac address.
- I updated the firmware in the wireless router to the latest version - no
difference.
- There appear to be many versions of this router (WGR614, WGR614v2 -
WGR614v5). I have the original version with the "v#" suffix.

Does anyone have experience with the WGR614, or just have some suggestions
as to how I can troubleshoot this?

Thanks very much in advance.

-Scott

If your running SP2 on XP disable the inbuilt firewall on the laptop, as a
suggestion to start with
"Scott Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:v30Ad.35545$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been going crazy trying to figure this one out.
>
> I have a Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router 54 Mbps/2.4 GHz that I
> bought in early 2004. At the time, I only had 802.11b cards in our
> laptops, and everything worked fine.
>
> Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PC wireless card to my wife's new Dell
> PC. From time to time, she would tell me "the Internet's been off all
> day". When I looked, every other machine could connect except for hers.
> Looking at her PC, the card is getting a strong signal, but no
> communication is taking place.
>
> I thought the problem might be related to the Windows XP SP2 upgrade that
> I'd performed recently, but I've looked through the knowledge base
> articles, and none of the reported problems seem to apply to me.
>
> Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PCMCIA card to my wife's laptop. Now we
> have two 'G' wireless devices in the house, and sure enough, she's getting
> the same behavior with her laptop now.
>
> When a communication problem occurs:
>
> - The router seems to be operating fine (all wired and 802.11b wireless
> clients are fine).
> - One 802.11g client will typically be fine while the other can't
> communicate
> - The affected 802.11g client shows excellent signal strength, but "little
> or no connectivity". Web requests, ping, DHCP (through release and renew)
> all time out.
> - Trying to "repair" the connection on the affected client generally
> doesn't work (DHCP time out)
> - Powering down the router and powering it back up doesn't seem to do
> anything
> - Unplugging every other wireless device in the house (cordless phone)
> doesn't seem to make any difference
> - The problem occurs intermittently. Things can work for days on end, then
> one system will refuse to communicate. Once affected, the system doesn't
> seem to recover by itself.
>
> Here are some additional details:
>
> - I was using 128-bit WEP. I've tried dropping to 64-bit WEP with no
> apparent difference in behavior.
> - I have an access list set up by Mac address.
> - I updated the firmware in the wireless router to the latest version - no
> difference.
> - There appear to be many versions of this router (WGR614, WGR614v2 -
> WGR614v5). I have the original version with the "v#" suffix.
>
> Does anyone have experience with the WGR614, or just have some suggestions
> as to how I can troubleshoot this?
>
> Thanks very much in advance.
>
> -Scott
>

Windows Firewall is turned OFF on both machines.

Also, a typo below. It should read: I have the original version WITHOUT the
"v#" suffix.


"Scott Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:v30Ad.35545$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been going crazy trying to figure this one out.
>
> I have a Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router 54 Mbps/2.4 GHz that I

(snip)

> -Scott

Then if you've tried all these as a final test you could try hard connecting
the dell laptop rather than wirelessly, if thats fine then contact Dell
under warranty explain all the tersts you have done and they should swap out
the systemboard and or the wireless card
"Scott Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:v30Ad.35545$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been going crazy trying to figure this one out.
>
> I have a Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router 54 Mbps/2.4 GHz that I
> bought in early 2004. At the time, I only had 802.11b cards in our
> laptops, and everything worked fine.
>
> Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PC wireless card to my wife's new Dell
> PC. From time to time, she would tell me "the Internet's been off all
> day". When I looked, every other machine could connect except for hers.
> Looking at her PC, the card is getting a strong signal, but no
> communication is taking place.
>
> I thought the problem might be related to the Windows XP SP2 upgrade that
> I'd performed recently, but I've looked through the knowledge base
> articles, and none of the reported problems seem to apply to me.
>
> Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PCMCIA card to my wife's laptop. Now we
> have two 'G' wireless devices in the house, and sure enough, she's getting
> the same behavior with her laptop now.
>
> When a communication problem occurs:
>
> - The router seems to be operating fine (all wired and 802.11b wireless
> clients are fine).
> - One 802.11g client will typically be fine while the other can't
> communicate
> - The affected 802.11g client shows excellent signal strength, but "little
> or no connectivity". Web requests, ping, DHCP (through release and renew)
> all time out.
> - Trying to "repair" the connection on the affected client generally
> doesn't work (DHCP time out)
> - Powering down the router and powering it back up doesn't seem to do
> anything
> - Unplugging every other wireless device in the house (cordless phone)
> doesn't seem to make any difference
> - The problem occurs intermittently. Things can work for days on end, then
> one system will refuse to communicate. Once affected, the system doesn't
> seem to recover by itself.
>
> Here are some additional details:
>
> - I was using 128-bit WEP. I've tried dropping to 64-bit WEP with no
> apparent difference in behavior.
> - I have an access list set up by Mac address.
> - I updated the firmware in the wireless router to the latest version - no
> difference.
> - There appear to be many versions of this router (WGR614, WGR614v2 -
> WGR614v5). I have the original version with the "v#" suffix.
>
> Does anyone have experience with the WGR614, or just have some suggestions
> as to how I can troubleshoot this?
>
> Thanks very much in advance.
>
> -Scott
>

Fixer wrote:
> Then if you've tried all these as a final test you could try hard connecting
> the dell laptop rather than wirelessly, if thats fine then contact Dell
> under warranty explain all the tersts you have done and they should swap out
> the systemboard and or the wireless card
> "Scott Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:v30Ad.35545$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>I've been going crazy trying to figure this one out.
>>
>>I have a Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router 54 Mbps/2.4 GHz that I
>>bought in early 2004. At the time, I only had 802.11b cards in our
>>laptops, and everything worked fine.
>>
>>Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PC wireless card to my wife's new Dell
>>PC. From time to time, she would tell me "the Internet's been off all
>>day". When I looked, every other machine could connect except for hers.
>>Looking at her PC, the card is getting a strong signal, but no
>>communication is taking place.
>>
>>I thought the problem might be related to the Windows XP SP2 upgrade that
>>I'd performed recently, but I've looked through the knowledge base
>>articles, and none of the reported problems seem to apply to me.
>>
>>Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PCMCIA card to my wife's laptop. Now we
>>have two 'G' wireless devices in the house, and sure enough, she's getting
>>the same behavior with her laptop now.
>>
>>When a communication problem occurs:
>>
>>- The router seems to be operating fine (all wired and 802.11b wireless
>>clients are fine).
>>- One 802.11g client will typically be fine while the other can't
>>communicate
>>- The affected 802.11g client shows excellent signal strength, but "little
>>or no connectivity". Web requests, ping, DHCP (through release and renew)
>>all time out.
>>- Trying to "repair" the connection on the affected client generally
>>doesn't work (DHCP time out)
>>- Powering down the router and powering it back up doesn't seem to do
>>anything
>>- Unplugging every other wireless device in the house (cordless phone)
>>doesn't seem to make any difference
>>- The problem occurs intermittently. Things can work for days on end, then
>>one system will refuse to communicate. Once affected, the system doesn't
>>seem to recover by itself.
>>
>>Here are some additional details:
>>
>>- I was using 128-bit WEP. I've tried dropping to 64-bit WEP with no
>>apparent difference in behavior.
>>- I have an access list set up by Mac address.
>>- I updated the firmware in the wireless router to the latest version - no
>>difference.
>>- There appear to be many versions of this router (WGR614, WGR614v2 -
>>WGR614v5). I have the original version with the "v#" suffix.
>>
>>Does anyone have experience with the WGR614, or just have some suggestions
>>as to how I can troubleshoot this?
>>
>>Thanks very much in advance.
>>
>>-Scott
>>
>
>
>
By any chance are you using Zone Alarm? If so, make sure it recognizes
new networks when the computer boots up. I may be looking for the name
you hve entered, and the computer is loging into "new network".

Fixer,

Thanks for the response. I did finally hard connect her desktop PC, and the
problem went away, as expected. I doubt the client machine is the problem,
since it's happening on both her laptop and her desktop.


"Fixer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cqrkoj$h1f$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Then if you've tried all these as a final test you could try hard
> connecting the dell laptop rather than wirelessly, if thats fine then
> contact Dell under warranty explain all the tersts you have done and they
> should swap out the systemboard and or the wireless card

> "Scott Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:v30Ad.35545$(E-Mail Removed)...
(snip)

John,

Thanks for the response. Nope, the only thing common to both systems (that
isn't standard Windows XP Pro stuff) is McAfee Antivirus. However, I also
have McAfee AV installed on the 802.11b laptop that doesn't experience any
problems communicating.

The problem seems to be specific to 802.11g clients.

-Scott

"jOHN W. BARRON" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:74hAd.1311$(E-Mail Removed) m...
> Fixer wrote:
>> Then if you've tried all these as a final test you could try hard
>> connecting the dell laptop rather than wirelessly, if thats fine then
>> contact Dell under warranty explain all the tersts you have done and they
>> should swap out the systemboard and or the wireless card

>> "Scott Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>> message news:v30Ad.35545$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>

(snip)

> By any chance are you using Zone Alarm? If so, make sure it recognizes
> new networks when the computer boots up. I may be looking for the name
> you hve entered, and the computer is loging into "new network".

Here's something: I've disabled WEP encryption on the router, and it appears
that the problem has gone away (since it's intermittent, I'll need more time
before I'm 99% sure).

It appears that the 802.11g clients are "losing sync" with the router when
WEP is enabled (64 or 128-bit). I don't know what "losing sync" actually
means here, it's just a filler phrase like "reconfigure the plasma
conduits"...

Anyway, since one poster said that he'd upgraded to the next (beta) version
of the firmware (which supports WPA-PSK) with no problems, I'm thinking I'll
just replace the remaining 802.11b PCMCIA card in use with an 802.11g card,
then upgrade the router's firmware. Does that seem reasonable?

Thanks

-S


"Scott Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:v30Ad.35545$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been going crazy trying to figure this one out.
>
> I have a Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router 54 Mbps/2.4 GHz that I
> bought in early 2004. At the time, I only had 802.11b cards in our
> laptops, and everything worked fine.
>
> Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PC wireless card to my wife's new Dell
> PC. From time to time, she would tell me "the Internet's been off all
> day". When I looked, every other machine could connect except for hers.
> Looking at her PC, the card is getting a strong signal, but no
> communication is taking place.
>
> I thought the problem might be related to the Windows XP SP2 upgrade that
> I'd performed recently, but I've looked through the knowledge base
> articles, and none of the reported problems seem to apply to me.
>
> Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PCMCIA card to my wife's laptop. Now we
> have two 'G' wireless devices in the house, and sure enough, she's getting
> the same behavior with her laptop now.
>
> When a communication problem occurs:
>
> - The router seems to be operating fine (all wired and 802.11b wireless
> clients are fine).
> - One 802.11g client will typically be fine while the other can't
> communicate
> - The affected 802.11g client shows excellent signal strength, but "little
> or no connectivity". Web requests, ping, DHCP (through release and renew)
> all time out.
> - Trying to "repair" the connection on the affected client generally
> doesn't work (DHCP time out)
> - Powering down the router and powering it back up doesn't seem to do
> anything
> - Unplugging every other wireless device in the house (cordless phone)
> doesn't seem to make any difference
> - The problem occurs intermittently. Things can work for days on end, then
> one system will refuse to communicate. Once affected, the system doesn't
> seem to recover by itself.
>
> Here are some additional details:
>
> - I was using 128-bit WEP. I've tried dropping to 64-bit WEP with no
> apparent difference in behavior.
> - I have an access list set up by Mac address.
> - I updated the firmware in the wireless router to the latest version - no
> difference.
> - There appear to be many versions of this router (WGR614, WGR614v2 -
> WGR614v5). I have the original version with the "v#" suffix.
>
> Does anyone have experience with the WGR614, or just have some suggestions
> as to how I can troubleshoot this?
>
> Thanks very much in advance.
>
> -Scott
>

Scott Smith wrote:
>
> I've been going crazy trying to figure this one out.
>
> I have a Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router 54 Mbps/2.4 GHz that I
> bought in early 2004. At the time, I only had 802.11b cards in our laptops,
> and everything worked fine.
>
> Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PC wireless card to my wife's new Dell
> PC. From time to time, she would tell me "the Internet's been off all day".
> When I looked, every other machine could connect except for hers. Looking at
> her PC, the card is getting a strong signal, but no communication is taking
> place.
>
> I thought the problem might be related to the Windows XP SP2 upgrade that
> I'd performed recently, but I've looked through the knowledge base articles,
> and none of the reported problems seem to apply to me.
>
> Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PCMCIA card to my wife's laptop. Now we
> have two 'G' wireless devices in the house, and sure enough, she's getting
> the same behavior with her laptop now.
>
> When a communication problem occurs:
>
> - The router seems to be operating fine (all wired and 802.11b wireless
> clients are fine).
> - One 802.11g client will typically be fine while the other can't
> communicate
> - The affected 802.11g client shows excellent signal strength, but "little
> or no connectivity". Web requests, ping, DHCP (through release and renew)
> all time out.
> - Trying to "repair" the connection on the affected client generally doesn't
> work (DHCP time out)
> - Powering down the router and powering it back up doesn't seem to do
> anything
> - Unplugging every other wireless device in the house (cordless phone)
> doesn't seem to make any difference
> - The problem occurs intermittently. Things can work for days on end, then
> one system will refuse to communicate. Once affected, the system doesn't
> seem to recover by itself.
>
> Here are some additional details:
>
> - I was using 128-bit WEP. I've tried dropping to 64-bit WEP with no
> apparent difference in behavior.
> - I have an access list set up by Mac address.
> - I updated the firmware in the wireless router to the latest version - no
> difference.
> - There appear to be many versions of this router (WGR614, WGR614v2 -
> WGR614v5). I have the original version with the "v#" suffix.
>
> Does anyone have experience with the WGR614, or just have some suggestions
> as to how I can troubleshoot this?
>
> Thanks very much in advance.
>
> -Scott



For whatever its worth, I have a similar issue with this router. It's
supporting a mixed bag of adapters: 1 PCMCIA, 1 PCI, 2 USB. The three
hooked to computers are various Netgear 802.11g devices, and there's a
Tivo machine running an Linksys 802.11b USB adapter.

Each of the three "g" adapters will occasionally simply refuse to
connect with the router. Going to the routers "Wireless Settings and
selecting the "Apply" button (without changing any settings) always gets
the errant adapter to connect. A PITA for sure, but not more than mildly
annoying. I'm hoping for a firmware update soon!

The "b" USB adapter never has this problem, and the balks seem to occur
at the same interval whether encryption is running or not...


Good lucl

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Scott Smith wrote:
>
>>I've been going crazy trying to figure this one out.
>>
>>I have a Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router 54 Mbps/2.4 GHz that I
>>bought in early 2004. At the time, I only had 802.11b cards in our laptops,
>>and everything worked fine.
>>
>>Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PC wireless card to my wife's new Dell
>>PC. From time to time, she would tell me "the Internet's been off all day".
>>When I looked, every other machine could connect except for hers. Looking at
>>her PC, the card is getting a strong signal, but no communication is taking
>>place.
>>
>>I thought the problem might be related to the Windows XP SP2 upgrade that
>>I'd performed recently, but I've looked through the knowledge base articles,
>>and none of the reported problems seem to apply to me.
>>
>>Recently I added a Netgear 802.11g PCMCIA card to my wife's laptop. Now we
>>have two 'G' wireless devices in the house, and sure enough, she's getting
>>the same behavior with her laptop now.
>>
>>When a communication problem occurs:
>>
>>- The router seems to be operating fine (all wired and 802.11b wireless
>>clients are fine).
>>- One 802.11g client will typically be fine while the other can't
>>communicate
>>- The affected 802.11g client shows excellent signal strength, but "little
>>or no connectivity". Web requests, ping, DHCP (through release and renew)
>>all time out.
>>- Trying to "repair" the connection on the affected client generally doesn't
>>work (DHCP time out)
>>- Powering down the router and powering it back up doesn't seem to do
>>anything
>>- Unplugging every other wireless device in the house (cordless phone)
>>doesn't seem to make any difference
>>- The problem occurs intermittently. Things can work for days on end, then
>>one system will refuse to communicate. Once affected, the system doesn't
>>seem to recover by itself.
>>
>>Here are some additional details:
>>
>>- I was using 128-bit WEP. I've tried dropping to 64-bit WEP with no
>>apparent difference in behavior.
>>- I have an access list set up by Mac address.
>>- I updated the firmware in the wireless router to the latest version - no
>>difference.
>>- There appear to be many versions of this router (WGR614, WGR614v2 -
>>WGR614v5). I have the original version with the "v#" suffix.
>>
>>Does anyone have experience with the WGR614, or just have some suggestions
>>as to how I can troubleshoot this?
>>
>>Thanks very much in advance.
>>
>>-Scott
>
>
>
>
> For whatever its worth, I have a similar issue with this router. It's
> supporting a mixed bag of adapters: 1 PCMCIA, 1 PCI, 2 USB. The three
> hooked to computers are various Netgear 802.11g devices, and there's a
> Tivo machine running an Linksys 802.11b USB adapter.
>
> Each of the three "g" adapters will occasionally simply refuse to
> connect with the router. Going to the routers "Wireless Settings and
> selecting the "Apply" button (without changing any settings) always gets
> the errant adapter to connect. A PITA for sure, but not more than mildly
> annoying. I'm hoping for a firmware update soon!
>
> The "b" USB adapter never has this problem, and the balks seem to occur
> at the same interval whether encryption is running or not...
>
>
> Good lucl
Are you by any chance using ZoneAlarm? If so, I would work with the
fact that ZoneAlarm issues a "new network" name when you log on, and
that is at times not recognizing your wireless network. I have had the
same problem, off and on, and Zone Alarm seems to be involved with this
logon profile.