Linksys router freezing / suggestions?
 

I've got a Linksys router model BEFSR11 and a freezing problem. I can be on-line and download all the bits I want, however the router seems to freeze when I'm uploading a lot of data.

Yesterday I froze up 5 times in 60 minutes as I was uploading data via a BitTorrent client. It will also freeze during large uploads with FTP. Occasionally it will freeze if I've been listening to streaming audio all day long.

I can tell when it's frozen - web browsing stops and the router's LAN port won't respond to a ping. I have to power the thing off and on.

I have firmware 1.44.2z, Dec 13 2002. I have tried updating to current firmware but then my Mac can no longer communicate on the 'net. Linksys tech support told me the MTU size must be changed for Mac compatibility but they didn't know what value would work. They said to play around with it until it worked. Kind of a bullshit answer.

Any thoughts why the router freezes under these conditions? Suggestions for another router? I'm considering a higher end unit from Sonicwall but parting with $500 isn't easy.

I'm having similar issues and would welcome a solution...

You're not the only ones having problems with Linksys gear and BT:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rema...lehw~mode=flat

That's the best info I can find right now...I've been reading about similar problems for a while now and I remember seeing this a ton of times, apparently it's a Linksys chipset thing that balks when BT opens tons and tons of high-bandwidth TCP connections like it always does.

I think the firmware update may fix it though. If it were me, I would troubleshoot the Mac connection problem rather than try to troubleshoot an issue that may be fixed in firmware.

Finally, did you set your router up for port-forwarding? If nothing else works for you, I have a gut feeling that forwarding ports 6881-6889 *might* fix or reduce this problem, plus your upload/download speeds would go faster...

Thanks for the information.

I am forwarding those ports.

You may be right about t-shooting the Mac issue after updating firmware. This sort of things end up taking a few hours and I dread (wasting) time on it.

Hey, it's cool to know this. I thought Comcast was taking me down. That makes me happy. Now I hope to be able to use eMule again someday.

After trying for an nearly an hour to work a firmware upgrade I officially hate Linksys. I got exactly nowhere. When I used the utility it told me "Failed to update the data in flash ROM, please retry" and trying to do the same thing through the web interface (Help tab, update firmware) generates a "File pattern error!" response. Boo-urns!

I had a similar problem. I've got my Linksys set to 192.168.1.2. When the firmware updates, it resets the router to 192.168.1.1. You've got to re-run (I think) the update if that happens.

I never changed mine from 192.168.1.1, so it probably isn't that. I even tried changing the admin password back to default, in the offchance they were super-lazy in coding, but nothing.

fyi, ports 6881-6889 aren't being used my most trackers now, because ISP's caught on and are slowing down traffic on those ports. using a client like bitcomet or amerus can help to get around those ports, instead of the regular BT client.

my befsr41 freezes up sometimes, even with the latest firmware from linksys, when I have a torrent running for a while. to fix it, i pull the plug for a second, then plug it back in. it's a pain in the ass, but it does work.

I had 2 differnt linksys routers do this, I called them with both and they said its not an issue and that it is my setup, I told them they were full of it b/c my d-link does not do it....

I currently work with a couple guys that have had the same problem too...

My suggestion is buy anything but linksys

Just an update; I wasn't using P2P for a while because I thought Comcast was responsible for the lockup. Last night I was feeling bold, so I opened the ports that eMule suggests(it ran without my opening them, but I figured I'd do what they ask) and it just ran all night with no locking. I pulled down more than half a gig and put up 3/4s of a gig. And I was unable to update the firmware, as I mentioned. Odd. I have my fingers crossed.

Oh, the one thing I did change was drop my max upload from 25K to 15K.