Either my Router or my Cable modem is going

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Motorola SB 6120
D-Link 4500

Both are fairly new, maybe a yr at most. The last time my connection went down, re-installing the router's firmware fixed the issue after a half hour of rebooting things, turning things off, etc with no helpful solution from the ISP service desk. This was about 2 - 3 weeks ago. My situation has not improved much. I am thinking I will be back in the market for one or the other soon. Can I get some recommendations? I need access for more than one PC + a laptop, Wireless N, too. I consider myself a "hardcore" gamer so if one is better than the other and more money, i'd probably go for it.'

Thanks for your recommendations

 

[paperwastage]

remove your router, use only one computer with your modem...

then see if its your router or modem thats the issue.....

 

[postmortemIA]

you can turn off router, but you can't turn off cable box ... I'd try that.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

For some reason I can't connect to the net that way. I get the little network icon with an exclamation point over it. :\

 

[Zap]

When you switch MAC addresses (basically change devices) you need to power cycle the modem.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Hi again. Problems are coming around again. Very unfortunate I cannot find my backup/old CableModem/Router in-one. I am going to try n connect straight to the Motorola Modem but in the meantime I need opinions on this router. Or recommendations for a new one.

Thanks

 

[mfenn]

IMHO, there is only one important criteria in choosing a router. That is, can it run DD-WRT (or Tomato or whatever)? Most router crashes are not due to hardware problems but instead due to the shitty custom OS that is in running in firmware. DD-WRT is a real OS (Linux) and is rock-solid stable. DD-WRT maintains a database of compatible routers, so pick one that has the features that you want.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yeah. I did go with one that can run DD-WRT even though I have no idea what it does better. I came very close to going with the RT N56U because of the huge through-put from WAN to LAN & LAN to WAN but I caught a few things saying it wasn't able to do DD-WRT. Even though like I said I don't understand anything about it, I want the flexibility to use it if I chose. So the RT N66U is the one I went with.

Thanks for the help 🙂

Tomato (shibby) Youtube

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Back again. Had an interesting problem come up when installing the new router but no related to the router. When I first got it, plugged it in, connected it to the modem, the "Link" light that flashes on the Modem, was Orange - suppose to be blue. I swapped out the Cat6 cable with another new one, and the modem light turned back to Blue. :hmm: I then began thinking the short patch cable was "on the way out."

 

[mfenn]

It could just be that it is looking for the MAC address of your old router. Browse to 192.168.100.1 and you should get the cable modem's management interface. That should give you some clue as to what's going on.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'm still not sure what it was. To test my "on the way out" theory, I plugged the shorter cable back in and the connection light went Orange. I don't believe in full that it was the problem but I am not counting it out.

All in all, I'm glad I changed routers.

 

[piasabird]

Isnt this a network problem.

Try asking in networking.

Why dont you have a cable modem/router as one unit. Maybe they dont work well together due to incompatability.

I use to use an old Motorola SB modem with a linksys router. I think a lot of problems are caused by intermittent Cable Service. If you get an intermittent signal it can cause problems. I have also seen Wireless Routers causing problems with wired equipment. I have even heard that Some HD TV's can interfere with wireless routers. Wireless can be very tempermental and problematic.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I use to use a Cisco WCG 200. It was nice.

The problem seems to be fixed but I'm not sure exactly what fixed it because when I plugged in the new Router the data light turned Orange. I switched out the patch cable and it turned the normal color = blue. Tried the old one again and it went Orange so maybe there was a problem with the patch cord. But things are fine now, and I think I did post in the Networking section.

 

[mfenn]

Why dont you have a cable modem/router as one unit. Maybe they dont work well together due to incompatability.

What? Ethernet and DHCP are pretty standard protocols last I checked. Why would the OP want to be saddled with whatever crappy router his cable company tried to combo with the modem?