Author Topic: Router maintenance  (Read 12184 times)

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Offline mackbig

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Router maintenance
« on: March 24, 2009, 02:55:17 PM »
Does anyone perform regular reboot of their router and or cable modem?

I got to work and noticed that my site was stuck at 3:38am.  At first I assumed a bad windows update boot, caused VWS to not start properly.  Then I noticed my strikelink was not working.  So I assumed very bad things like dead pc/drive.  My wife was out so I could not confirm if the Mac was working....  Then I noticed my web cam images were stuck, since they are both netcams that dont require my pc to even be turned on.... lead me to think router. (cable modem, or cable would have been next culprits)

Had my wife pull the power on the router, put it back in, and a few seconds later, ftp's started working, and my lightning stuff started updating again.

Anyway, this router has been on for 15 months straight, and this was my first issue ever, so I guess I should not jump to change anything... but does anyone periodically reset/reboot power off their network stuff.   I guess there is just as much of a chance that booting your stuff unecessarily might lead to an outage...

Andrew

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Offline racenet

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2009, 03:11:44 PM »
Andrew,

Not usually. Only when something like you had happen, which is very uncommon as far I'm concerned. Haven't had an issue like that for years.




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Offline lddaly

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2009, 03:18:49 PM »
Never here either.

Offline mackbig

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2009, 04:05:51 PM »
Thanks, I will just chalk it up to an anomoly....

I know someone that setup a timer on both the router and cable modem at my inlaws house.  The idea was to "clear" the connection each night.  But they used a cheap manual dial timer and a one hour off block.... over time and after a few black outs, the "off" period moved into mid morning.   My wife called my a said the internet never worked from 9 to 10am, it was happening for weeks.  Repeated calls to ISP said nothing was wrong.  I went downstairs that night and found the culprit.  The installer (their son) claimed this was a best practice to keep a clean internet connection...

Anyway, was not going to do that, at least I would have used a digital timer with a one minute on/off if I was....

I will just leave it alone, and hope it goes another 15 months, or longer till next issue.

Andrew

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Offline Garth Bock

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2009, 05:03:13 PM »
I am on Comcast and have had to reset my wireless n router about once a year at the most when there has been an outage and the modem won't pick up an IP from the modem. Now the modem is a different story. There has been 3 strange outages over the past 4 months where I had to repower the modem to get back online. Comcast said they could see nothing wrong (yeah right). Anyway the connection seems stable so far.

Offline SlowModem

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2009, 09:09:02 PM »
Thanks, I will just chalk it up to an anomoly....

I know someone that setup a timer on both the router and cable modem at my inlaws house.  The idea was to "clear" the connection each night.  But they used a cheap manual dial timer and a one hour off block.... over time and after a few black outs, the "off" period moved into mid morning.   My wife called my a said the internet never worked from 9 to 10am, it was happening for weeks.  Repeated calls to ISP said nothing was wrong.  I went downstairs that night and found the culprit.  The installer (their son) claimed this was a best practice to keep a clean internet connection...

Anyway, was not going to do that, at least I would have used a digital timer with a one minute on/off if I was....

I will just leave it alone, and hope it goes another 15 months, or longer till next issue.

Andrew


What a great story!  Thanks for sharing it.   =D>

That's something I could picture myself doing. :oops:
Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN USA

Offline SlowModem

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2009, 09:20:13 PM »
Home Wireless Networks for Dummies (me)

This is kind of off-topic, but I'd really like to know the answer.  I have a Netgear wireless router I got at Staples.  It worked well when we had a cable modem.  After we moved and got stuck with dialup, the router wouldn't work anymore.

Why does it have to be hooked up to a cable modem to provide a wireless network in the house?  It would be nice to just have the laptops and printer connected wirelessly.  I don't understand why it has to be connected to the internet.

Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN USA

Offline W Thomas

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2009, 12:50:31 AM »
Router/modem resets are one thing that gets done around here almost hourly!  Continual PM !!Our DSL connection is so bad if I got through a day without an outage of some duration I would mark that in red on the calendar!
The phone co must have adopted CID because I called them again tonight and was on hold for bout an hour and finally gave that up :) Don't think they wanted to talk to  me  :evil:

Our connection is a total drop out when temps are above 50 degrees! I have still yet to find a valid reason for DSL and temperature related failures being akin except in the case of a bad splice or loose binding post somewhere that is expanding/contracting with the swings in temperature.


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Offline ncpilot

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2009, 12:14:51 PM »
Home Wireless Networks for Dummies (me)

This is kind of off-topic, but I'd really like to know the answer.  I have a Netgear wireless router I got at Staples.  It worked well when we had a cable modem.  After we moved and got stuck with dialup, the router wouldn't work anymore.

Why does it have to be hooked up to a cable modem to provide a wireless network in the house?  It would be nice to just have the laptops and printer connected wirelessly.  I don't understand why it has to be connected to the internet.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_access_point under "ad-hoc network"

I think you'll have to reconfigure your router for ad-hoc networking rather than a true access point.

And unless your printer is network enabled (i.e., you plug the printer into the router), it'll have to be attached to a running computer in order to have it available to other computers in your house. (and set to "share"?)
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Offline Garth Bock

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2009, 01:38:20 PM »
Home Wireless Networks for Dummies (me)

This is kind of off-topic, but I'd really like to know the answer.  I have a Netgear wireless router I got at Staples.  It worked well when we had a cable modem.  After we moved and got stuck with dialup, the router wouldn't work anymore.

Why does it have to be hooked up to a cable modem to provide a wireless network in the house?  It would be nice to just have the laptops and printer connected wirelessly.  I don't understand why it has to be connected to the internet.


You don't need for the Netgear to be connected to the internet to make your laptops communicate with each other or the printer. You can get wireless print servers or buy a wireless printer (HP, Brother, Epson, Kodak) so that you can have just the Netgear as a stand alone router that will help connect your laptop to the printer or other computers in the house. The Netgear does not have to be connected to the internet to allow local sharing of data.

Dial up and Broadband are two different technologies. You can get a dial up wireless router but the one you have will not work on dial-up. Check this out.... http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/516571

You can not plug your dial up modem into the Netgear you have and share its connection.



Offline Anole

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2009, 04:28:20 PM »
Home Wireless Networks for Dummies (me)

This is kind of off-topic, but I'd really like to know the answer.  I have a Netgear wireless router I got at Staples.  It worked well when we had a cable modem.  After we moved and got stuck with dialup, the router wouldn't work anymore.

Why does it have to be hooked up to a cable modem to provide a wireless network in the house?  It would be nice to just have the laptops and printer connected wirelessly.  I don't understand why it has to be connected to the internet.



It shouldn't have to be. The LAN side of the router should work just fine without a WAN connection unless it has some uncommon setup changes such as disabling the DHCP server or the routing functions. I do this kind of thing all the time to set wireless routers up as access points. It's cheaper to buy a router and configure it that way than it is to by an access point.

The first question to ask is are the devices getting IP addresses?  If the devices are getting IP addresses can you ping them?

Offline SlowModem

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2009, 09:23:53 PM »
It shouldn't have to be. The LAN side of the router should work just fine without a WAN connection unless it has some uncommon setup changes such as disabling the DHCP server or the routing functions. I do this kind of thing all the time to set wireless routers up as access points. It's cheaper to buy a router and configure it that way than it is to by an access point.

The first question to ask is are the devices getting IP addresses?  If the devices are getting IP addresses can you ping them?

I got frustrated with it and put it away a couple of years ago.  It just seemed to me that home network and internet could be separate things or they could go together.  It's probably possible.  I'll dabble with it this weekend maybe.  Probable problem is a cheap router.

Thanks for your answers!   =D>
Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN USA

Offline JOE

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2009, 11:12:34 AM »
Router maintenance?

I just unplug it, remove the bit, brush off the sawdust and put it away.

 8-)
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Offline Anthony

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2009, 01:34:25 PM »
The only time I ever have to reboot my router is when it renews the lease for the computers and fails to had out any IP addresses.



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Offline racenet

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #14 on: March 26, 2009, 04:00:08 PM »
Router maintenance?

I just unplug it, remove the bit, brush off the sawdust and put it away.

 8-)

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Offline Sigdigit

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #15 on: March 27, 2009, 08:09:34 AM »
I encountered a weird router problem with my Linksys recently.  Up until recently, I had an unsecured WiFi network (really nobody nearby to steal my signal).  My nephew came over with his laptop and and every morning he was here, I noticed the internet was not working on his laptop or my desktop, forcing me to reboot the router (it was working fine each of the previous evenings).  After reboot, it would work fine again until the following morning.  After he left, the problem stopped.  I then finally added encryption and established a formal network, haven't had a problem since.

Offline SLOweather

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #16 on: March 27, 2009, 10:45:31 AM »
Was it an Apple laptop? We had a similar problem at work with a coworkers laptop screwing up the network via wireless.

Offline Sigdigit

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #17 on: March 27, 2009, 09:06:29 PM »
No, I believe it was PC, just sucking up the WiFi signal, but not formally assigned to the network.  It only happened when he stayed logged on all night (you know teenagers).  I don't know what he was running when he stayed on all night, but it sure crashed the router.

Offline Mark / Ohio

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #18 on: March 27, 2009, 11:37:34 PM »
.... I don't know what he was running when he stayed on all night, but it sure crashed the router.

Might be a good thing that you don't know.  It will make the conversation easier if a rep from the RIAA, FBI, or CIA knocks on the door.   ;)


In over two years now I've only rebooted my DSL modem/router twice for connection issues.  Both times though it turned out to be phone line problems instead.  It seems to do a good job of rebooting itself if it detects a problem which is not all that often.  I have it plugged into my battery backup along with the weather PC so maybe that helps.
Mark 
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Offline Cienega32

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Re: Router maintenance
« Reply #19 on: March 29, 2009, 05:05:12 AM »
I am on Comcast and have had to reset my wireless n router about once a year at the most when there has been an outage and the modem won't pick up an IP from the modem. Now the modem is a different story. There has been 3 strange outages over the past 4 months where I had to repower the modem to get back online. Comcast said they could see nothing wrong (yeah right). Anyway the connection seems stable so far.
Comcast here as well and I'm constantly (2 or 3 times a month) resetting my cable modem. They send something over the line as the 2 DVRs will flash an error code at the same time (modem is on a different jack). They claim no knowledge and can't explain it but I'm sure it's to zap any pirate accounts. It's still not as bad as Cox was in Vegas 4 or 5 years ago.

Sometimes the modem will seek a signal - other times it shows a steady sync but always needs a reset.

As far as the router, whenever I lost power, the WiFi N router needed to be reset or it wouldn't align with the modem. That's only begun since I moved. I've since put them on those CyberPower UPSs from Staples. The last time, PoCo had cut power for a xformer change and I ended up doing some brain salad surgery on the router as it scrambled the firmware.

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