Wireless Router

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 23 Jun 2004 11:42 am

I have a NetGear Wireless Router. I've found that some sites won't come up using it, however. I wouldn't know this except a friend of mine uploaded some pictures to http://photobucket.com for me to download. But, I couldn't get the site to come up. I mailed him back and asked if the site was down. He said, no. I tried pasting the address directly into the browser, (IE6 and NS, too!) and got nothing. It made me wonder if it was the cable internet. I called Charter to see if there was a block on that address. They told me there wasn't. They walked me thru all my settings and found them all to be right. The tech asked if I was using a router. I said I was. He asked if I could take it out of the loop. I did, restarted the computer and VOILA, it worked! What the heck?

I upgraded the firmware for it, thinking that it might be that, with no effect.

Any of you tech guys out there that have an idea what's going on, please post here or drop me a line. It's very frustrating, to say the least...

BTW: This all started happening a few weeks ago. Before that it worked fine. It started getting weird a little at a time. It wasn't just suddenly. Actually, two days ago I got one of the pages to load, but not any others. Then when I went back to that page it wouldn't come up either.

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com[This message was edited by Ernie Renn on 23 June 2004 at 01:03 PM.]

Will Holtz · Post by **Will Holtz** » 23 Jun 2004 2:44 pm

I think the problem is very likely with the software on the wireless router. Have check to see if you have the latest firmware installed on the wireless router?

Some other people have reported similar problems with Netgear wireless routers (see this for some discussion of similar problems). If you have still have this problem with the most recent firmware installed, then I'd get Netgear on the phone and see what they have to say.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 23 Jun 2004 11:55 pm

I downloaded the most current firmware they provide. I don't know if I installed it correcty, but it says it's the current version. It just doesn't work right.

Thanks for the link! I browsed the messages there and am contacting one of the members for some assistance.

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com

Bill Bosler · Post by **Bill Bosler** » 25 Jun 2004 9:37 am

What might be going on, if you have cable or DSL service is the modem might have firewall software activated as well as the firewall software in your router. This can really screw up the works. I finally realized what was happening after several hours of the same sort of things you're reporting. Disable the firewall in the modem. Your ISP should be able to tell you how to do it. After I turned off the firewall in the DSL modem, everything was flat-out flyin'.[This message was edited by Bill Bosler on 25 June 2004 at 10:38 AM.][This message was edited by Bill Bosler on 25 June 2004 at 11:05 AM.]

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 25 Jun 2004 9:41 am

Yup, two firewalls in series leads to all kinds of fun & opportunities.

If you use an external hardware firewall turn off the firewall in WinXP/Win2K etc.[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 25 June 2004 at 10:42 AM.]

Bill Bosler · Post by **Bill Bosler** » 25 Jun 2004 9:51 am

Oh, Yea!!!! Forgot. Turn off the firewall in winXP! It's worthless.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 25 Jun 2004 9:54 am

I'm using Win98. I run Zone Alarm, but it's the same if I turn that off. I'll check with Charter to see about a modem firewall.

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com

Will Holtz · Post by **Will Holtz** » 25 Jun 2004 11:01 am

The WinXP firewall isn't great, but I wouldn't call it worthless. It will stop several of the common worms going around the Internet. But if you've got another firewall in series with it, then it can probably be disabled without much concern.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 27 Jun 2004 2:22 pm

The XP firewall has caused more problems than it has solved in my office. Maybe I just don't understand it.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 27 Jun 2004 8:33 pm

NetGear answered my mail and suggested a couple of things. First to turn off the firewall in the router, (which I did with no effect.) And some other adjustments that I couldn't find. So, I mailed them back and told them so. If I don't hear back in a day or two I'm going to get a different brand wireless router. This one has been both a breeze and pain-in-the-ash...

Anybody got any suggestions on a different brand? (This NetGear was the mid-priced one they had at BestBuy.)

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com

Hook Moore · Post by **Hook Moore** » 28 Jun 2004 4:08 am

Ernie, I have been using D-Link wireless for about 3 years and have had no problems. At the time www.tigerdirect.com had the best price.
Hook

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HookMoore.com

Will Holtz · Post by **Will Holtz** » 28 Jun 2004 9:34 am

Linksys makes some good wireless routers.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 28 Jun 2004 9:38 am

Thanks, Hook! (You, too, Will!) I'll browse Tiger Direct. Haven't been there in a while.

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com[This message was edited by Ernie Renn on 28 June 2004 at 10:39 AM.]

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 30 Jun 2004 2:05 am

I found message board for wireless routers and they said that this model NetGear router has been known to have problems over-heating. Since I had unplugged it the day before, yesterday I re-hooked it back up. It worked fine. (Go figure!) We'll see how long it takes this time. the last time it was off for more that a few hours was in November when I hooked it up the first time.

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com

Doug Ferguson · Post by **Doug Ferguson** » 1 Jul 2004 10:39 am

It sounds more like a dns issue to me you'all, and if the router was heating up that means there is something wrong with it, probably causing the dns and no telling what else to wack out. DNS is how it translates names (www.buddyemmons.com) to ip numbers which is how the internet talks. If that gets goofy, you won't be going to web pages. If some pages display, they're probably being displayed from your cache memory. I'd tell Netgear that it's heating up and they will probably replace it.
I've also had Norton Firewall and ZoneAlarm firewall just stop working for no apparent reason on customer computers before. Can cause the same problem when that happens. I prefer running NAT behind the router and forget the software firewalls. I've never been hit with any of the back door worms like Blaster or Welchia on any of my computers behind the router running NAT. Of course you want to keep those windows critical updates up to date, especially on NT, 2000 and XP! Good Luck!

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Fergy, MSA Classic D12