So today I start up my computer and once everything loads I get a recurring popup near the system tray that's going back & forth telling me my network cable is unplugged. I went down to look at the router and I saw that I had no lights for the port the cable was plugged into. Moved it to another port and now it's going fine. Could this be a sign that the router is on the way out?
No, that could be an indication that the port that your ethernet cable was plugged into is going bad and that does happen. If it works in another port and it's not your ethernet cable/NIC then it's the port on the router. Looks like you isolated the problem yourself. What type of router is this?!? Any warranty on it!?!?
My suggestions would be to find out if there is any type of warranty on the router. If there is, replace it. While having a bad port on the router will not make it lose it's functionality, it'll just prevent you from using that port if you're in need of an open port.
That or it could also be that the pressure clip on the top of the cable is losing tension. Just pull the the clip up a bit and plug it back in.
But if it is the router, check for warranty.
You might also want to update your firmware on the router, it may or may not help.
Daniel
Yeah, but he did say he plugged it into another port on the router without any fuss from the new port. I don't think it's the plug on the ethernet cable as it's rare to find them coming loose unless you yourself made the cables. You could try upgrading your firmware as xr7 said, but I don't think that'll solve much in the "hardware" side of the router.
Cable and the router are less than 6 months old. If the router gives me any more problems, I might check into the warranty thing. It's a cheap "Network Anywhere" brand 'Broadband Internet Gateway' thing I found at Wal-Mart.
Now I have to isolate the problem of what is drawing on my bandwidth constantly. I have Bandwidth Monitor running and even when I'm not using any internet apps or virus/spyware programs that might be accessing the internet, it's showing a constant download rate of about 20k/sec as well as, more disturbingly, an upload rate of about 50k!
That's usually caused from malware (viruses) or spyware. What programs do you run to refrain from these things?!?! Also how many other pcs are accessing the internet from your router?!!? Maybe 1 of your other pcs have malware/spyware bogging it down. This actually happens a lot...a friend of mine has about 4-5 pcs on his network and when his brother turns his pc on and accesses the internet he gets booted from AIM 1,000 times, his ping sky rockets when playing games and it's just total chaos from there out!! Lemme know what type of anti-virus/spyware programs you're running and I'll try to help you out from there!!!
Let that be a lesson to you; Don't buy cheap . ;)
You might try some electrical contact cleaner sprayed on a Q-tip to clean that port. Be VERY careful with it though, those contacts are just bare wires with the ends sticking up towards the back of the port. If you snag the Q-tip and pull too hards you'll screw them up.
I've fixed more than a few bad ports that way though.
Yep, try that before you think about sending it for replacement or buying a new 1. Like the say-you get what you pay for!
well pulling up the tine, will help with the port if the pins are pushed down any. If he has had the router for six months, and the cable in the same port, it could be just basic were-n-tear on the port.
That is were that is coming from,
also I had a d-link that would connect and disconnect my wired connection and it was firmware related.
Daniel
Router is ok for right now. As far as the network goes, it's just me and my brother (who clicks indiscriminantly on anythig he sees, ugh). On this PC I'm using, at least for now, PC-Cillin's Internet Security which combines a firewall, virus and spyware/malware scanner. I'm probably going to switch back to AVG Free Anti-Virus. In addition I regularly use Ad-Aware SE and Spybot Search & Destroy.
My router has a dead port three... been that way for four years.
I personally use AVG free, Adaware and Ewido...a company that Grifsoft bought over that also provides free Anti-spyware software.
do this and love it, OR ELSE!!!! :beatyoass:
you do get what you pay for for routers. my wife keeps picking on my for bitching about my 9 dollar belkin, but hey, it only cost 9 dollars, my d-link has 2 bad ports, I don't use it any more, just pull it out for work emergency's when I need a subnet mask.
Ok, I got home today to find it doing the back and forth thing again. It's wierd because this hasn't happened to my brother and he's online almost as much as I am. I'm down to two good ports and my brother wants to buy a patch cable to hook up his 360 as well (there goes my throughput).
So, any suggestions for a good, sort of affordable router/gateway?
I prefer Linksys. I think I paid $60 for mine on http://www.newegg.com with a $10 mail-in rebate! Remember..you get what you pay for!
Ifixyawata have you tried pinging your loopback address?!?! If you're not sure how to do this, refer here:Start>run>type CMD>press OK>type ping 127.0.0.1
If you're getting replies from 127.0.0.1 then you're NIC is in working order, but if you're getting request timed out then that means that the TCP/IP protocol isn't setup properly and/or not in working order! 1 more suggestion...have you tried testing your ethernet cable?!!? Sometimes the wires inside the sheath get pinched and get cut slightly! You can pickup a simple ethernet cable tester for like $10!
I was looking over my router and interestingly enough, this 'Network Anywhere' is Linksys's 'basic' solution line.
I remember when I first got this motherboard, I coulda sworn it had a program packaged with it that actually used the onboard NIC to test the cable and it could tell you, within a foot where the break in the wire was. Not that it really matters because I'd likely replace the whole thing. If I get anymore problems with it, I'll likely replace this router, because those other two ports seem to be permanantly dead.
Just did a loopback test and all is well. 0ms and 0% loss.
I'm ready to toss every piece of network equipent out the ****ing window.
I went out and bought a new Linksys router and as I was reading through the manual for it and interestingly enough I discovered that this router, as well as my previous one, only allows a static IP address between 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.99 and then 192.168.1.150 up to soemthing else.
Anyway... I realized that I'd had it setup for internal addresses like 192.168.1.105 etc for my brother's and my computer. So I'm wondering if that isn't why I'd had problems before. So, I tried re-configuring both PCs so the IP addresses weren't within the range that's reserved for DHCP (assuming x.x.x.100 - x.x.x.150). I tried a new, lower IP address on my brother's computer and it worked awesome. Speed test revealed 1.8MBits. Cool!
SO, I go upstairs to try it on this PC and nope. Does the off-on-off thing with the connection.
So now I'm running on the new Linksys router. PS - I HATE the interface for the router configuration. I can't figure out if I have the god thing configured for static IP or not. It seems like if I set it for static IP, it's assuming I have a static IP with the ISP, which I don't. I just want a static internal IP, you know, within the router.
Any ideas here? I'm really at a loss. Along with the router, I bought a new Cat5e cable and if I feel up to it, I'll try running that new cable tommorow. Is there any way (without buying a test device) that I can test this cable?
I thought my problems were over when I switched from Wi-Fi to hardwired, but I was wrong.
Finally, one other question. I remember hearing something in a netowrking class about using a crossover cable in between the router and the cable modem. Any truth to that?
AHHHHHHHHHH!
I'm killing someone very soon.
Everything works great for maybe 5 minutes and then it does the "Disconnected.... COnnected" thing again.
NEW Router, NEW Cable, NEW everything. Brother's computer won't even ****ing connect. I'm pretty angry.
Not as angry as you were in the garage today. 100 disk changer!!!
Yeah, you can assign each PC within your LAN a static IP, but why would you want to do this unless you're running servers or want to read up on Logs constantly?!!? You can see if there are any firmware upgrades for your model router, which I'm sure there are and that will usually give you a new, pretty interface....As far as using a crossover cable, I thought that was to connect switches/hubs together, but not a modem to a router, but I may be wrong...IFixyawata, as funny as this sounds, but sometimes an ISP has problems with certain routers...see if you can do a google search including your model router and your ISP..see it anyone else has posted about connection issues with the same ISP you have and the same model router you've got...Have you tried calling your ISP to see if there are some cabling problems at the pole or in your house?! BTW...what type of connection are you on-dsl, fios, cable, satellite?!
I should've posted an update. It turns out I had the DNS servers set all wrong. I checked the settings on the router (which is configured for DHCP to obtain its own IP address) and I just copy/pasted the DNS servers from there. Works like a charm.
As for why the static IP's it's because when I use torrent clients, I like to be able to forward ports so I can get a stable, steady download rate.
If you insist...
Meh, it supposedly helps my download rates. Torrents are usually so big that I only download 'em when I'm not on here, so I don't sit and monitor them. It's not really hurting anything, so I leave it the way it is.