Re: Linksys BEFSX41 v1 router locking up?

May be you have power outlet electric noises.
I think i got a similar problem one month ago, my modem/router have done
a factory reset by itself.


Ant wrote:
> Crap, it happened again a few minutes ago (was watching Flash videos ten
> minutes before it too) and it's Monday (don't have time to reset and
> reconfigure from scratch). So that uptime was about 13 days.
>
>
> Ant <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Weird. I haven't had any new lockup incidents so far since my original
>> post on 9/22/2009. I wonder what happened that day. I haven't touched
>> the router settings (e.g., reset to factory settings and reconfigure
>> from scratch) either!
>
>> On 9/22/2009 11:38 PM PT, Ant typed:
>
>>> Hello!
>>>
>>> So far today, my old Linksys BEFSX41 v1 router locked/freeze up twice.
>>> When that happened, I could no longer surf the Web and lost connection
>>> to the Internet. Basically, pinging and connecting to router
>>> (192.168.0.1 -- wanted to see its logs; same for Ambit cable modem's
>>> 192.168.100.1) no longer responded. HOWEVER, LAN still worked (can
>>> access my other computers). The only way to fix this problem was to pull
>>> its power plug from the rear and replug it.
>>>
>>> It started and happened this early morning and just a few minutes ago. I
>>> was surfing the Web and streaming YouTube videos. I upgraded to the
>>> latest firmware (1.52.16) about nine days ago (9/13/2009). I did not
>>> have this problem before today with older and the latest firmwares.
>>>
>>> Has anyone seen/heard/experienced this problem? I wonder if my router is
>>> dying? Or maybe a bad latest firmware (if it was bad, wouldn't I had
>>> experienced this problem way earlier after the upgrade?)? I don't think
>>> it is temperature related since it was not during peak heat temperatures
>>> (can go up to almost 90F degrees).
>>>
>>> Thank you in advance.

Ant wrote:
> Hmmm noises? Wouldn't other things plugged devices be affected too?
>
>
> On 10/6/2009 12:20 AM PT, Rambo typed:
>
>> May be you have power outlet electric noises.
>> I think i got a similar problem one month ago, my modem/router have
>> done a factory reset by itself.

Not necessarily, it all depends on the type of noise and if the device is
sensitive to it.
Think of it like interference on your AM radio around 650 but does not
bother stations around 1500, the FM band or the TV.

Just about anything electrical in the home can cause some kind of
interference if it has a problem, and still function. Be it a portable
phone, refrigerator, microwave, and even an electric water heater. One time
my dad had static on his cable TV so bad it would wipe out half the
channels, but at random intervals. We finally tracked the problem down with
a portable AM radio and found the noise inbound at the fuse panel from the
power company's wires. More troubleshooting traced the problem to a
neighbors house on the same power company transformer as my dad's place.
They had an defective thermostat in their water heater that was generating
all the noise. With the thermostat replaced the cable TV problems at my
dad's place and everyone else on the same transformer were gone.

On Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:31:21 -0700, Ant <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I had another lock up at around 8:12 AM PDT. Oh well, still need to find
>time to reset and reconfigure the settings (tedious to do from
>scratch!).

Does your router allow you to save your settings to a config file, do
the full reset, then reload your saved settings? Or in your case,
would that just bring one or more problematic settings back in?

Personally, I've never considered NAT router setup to be tedious. It
normally only takes a minute or two, if that.

Ant <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed) m:

> Interesting. I haven't added/changed/removed anything for power
> stuff recently. I still think it is the firmware upgrade.
>
> I had another lock up at around 8:12 AM PDT. Oh well, still need
> to find time to reset and reconfigure the settings (tedious to do
> from scratch!). I know it's not related to Flash videos and my new
> port forwarding.
>
> I did see a lag a few minutes before it locked up. Something is
> odd before this lockup happens. I should check the logs right
> between them.
>
>
<<<<snip>>>>

I have been following this thread for a few weeks now and it seems to
me that you are spending a lot of time on this problem. This leads
me to make the following recommendation: You should purchase a new
router. Many are less tahn $100 and most are in the $50 to $80
range. I say this not to duck the problem, intriguig as it is, but
considering the value of your time, itseems that you have used that
much already.

In my business, if I have an infrastructure device causing me this
kind of problem, it is chaeper to buy a new one and use my time
working on billable projects. Spending billable time on problems
such as these causes me basically a double hit on income/revenue.

I am not trying to be snarky here, but one thing a lot of people
don't factor into these decisions is the cost of their time, and
whether it is billable hours or just leisure time spent after your
work day, it still needs to be considered.

Thanks for listening, and I hope I have provided some food for
thought.

"John Carter" wrote

> I have been following this thread for a few weeks now and it seems to
> me that you are spending a lot of time on this problem. This leads
> me to make the following recommendation: You should purchase a new
> router. Many are less tahn $100 and most are in the $50 to $80
> range. I say this not to duck the problem, intriguig as it is, but
> considering the value of your time, itseems that you have used that
> much already.

You are 110% right ;-), but .....
- some people love to solve problems even if it makes you crazy
I love this kind of problems; thanks to the M$ sofware so much people
has a job getting PC's working.
- a new router could give other problems
- what other router? This one works so why buy a new one?
It's sometimes difficult to find a router with the same specs.

> In my business, if I have an infrastructure device causing me this
> kind of problem, it is chaeper to buy a new one and use my time
> working on billable projects. Spending billable time on problems
> such as these causes me basically a double hit on income/revenue.

I would do the same in a business situation, but this is a private
situation.

> Thanks for listening, and I hope I have provided some food for
> thought.

an open door?
If it don't cost family time it's worth every penny to solve this kind of
problems. It's a kind of relexation; maybe difficult to understand for a lot
of people. If you have a regular job it only cost your own free time.

On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:10:42 -0700, Ant <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On 10/7/2009 1:38 PM PT, Char Jackson typed:
>
>> Personally, I've never considered NAT router setup to be tedious. It
>> normally only takes a minute or two, if that.
>
>Even with the port forwarding, disabling uPnP, enabling identd (need
>this for IRC ), etc.? :P This router has tons of options and stuff.

For most people, the router defaults normally work fine, but you seem
to have some specific requirements, so in your case there's a bit of
extra setup involved.

I have to concur with the others who suggested replacing your antique
router. Wasn't that model current around 2003-2004 or so? The Linksys
WRT54GL (with dd-wrt firmware, of course) makes a fine platform.

I wrote

> - a new router could give other problems
> - what other router? This one works so why buy a new one?

it looks that I found the solution for my problem ( not getting an IP
Address ).
A new router should have the same trouble and also doesn't get online.
My cable modem seems to know what router I use and stored
somewhere the MAC Address and I'm not allowed? to use another
MAC Address?
The BEFSX41 router has a MAC Address clone page and after
I set it to enable and used the MAC adress from my current router
I got my internet IP.
Maybe another MAC Adress is allowed after a cold start from the
cable modem, but using the cloned MAC Address is easier.
But I have to know so I will try it someday.
So far, so good and I didn't had to buy another ( and most likely also
a not working ) router.
Time to go play with the security settings ( next week ) and to get
or not to get a lock up and blame the latest firmware.

On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 23:22:25 +0200, "chris" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I wrote
>
>> - a new router could give other problems
>> - what other router? This one works so why buy a new one?
>
>it looks that I found the solution for my problem ( not getting an IP
>Address ).
>A new router should have the same trouble and also doesn't get online.
>My cable modem seems to know what router I use and stored
>somewhere the MAC Address and I'm not allowed? to use another
>MAC Address?
>The BEFSX41 router has a MAC Address clone page and after
>I set it to enable and used the MAC adress from my current router
>I got my internet IP.
>Maybe another MAC Adress is allowed after a cold start from the
>cable modem, but using the cloned MAC Address is easier.
>But I have to know so I will try it someday.
>So far, so good and I didn't had to buy another ( and most likely also
>a not working ) router.
>Time to go play with the security settings ( next week ) and to get
>or not to get a lock up and blame the latest firmware.

I don't know which country you live in, but in the US the residential
default is for the cable modem to store a single MAC address with
which it will communicate. If you want the modem to talk to a device
with a different MAC address, you need to cycle the power on the cable
modem, allowing it to learn the new MAC that it will then talk to.

So your assumption is correct.

In some places, residential customers are allowed to purchase (at
extra cost) the capability to connect multiple devices to the cable
modem, but in nearly every case it's better to simply attach a NAT
router and then connect the multiple devices to the router.

Ant wrote:
> Interesting. I haven't added/changed/removed anything for power stuff
> recently. I still think it is the firmware upgrade.
>

My power noise was not created by me having "added/changed/removed
anything for power stuff" ... but came from my power provider.

Ant wrote:
> On 10/8/2009 1:25 PM PT, Char Jackson typed:
>
>>>> Personally, I've never considered NAT router setup to be tedious. It
>>>> normally only takes a minute or two, if that.
>>> Even with the port forwarding, disabling uPnP, enabling identd (need
>>> this for IRC ), etc.? :P This router has tons of options and stuff.
>>
>> For most people, the router defaults normally work fine, but you seem
>> to have some specific requirements, so in your case there's a bit of
>> extra setup involved.
>>
>> I have to concur with the others who suggested replacing your antique
>> router. Wasn't that model current around 2003-2004 or so? The Linksys
>> WRT54GL (with dd-wrt firmware, of course) makes a fine platform.
>
> I will get a new one once I know it is the router hardware. Still need
> to fiddle with the settings and firmwares. Funny thing, I just retired
> my Netgear RT311 router last summer because it kept losing connection
> every 12-15 hours or so. Oy.

Hello Phil:

Perhaps now we will appoint you our semi-professional long-term router
tester in residence. :-)

This may be a bit premature but have you given thought to what your
next router might be if you replace your BEFSX41?

I wish you well.

--
1PW