Is there some kind of setting on my router preventing certain web pages from loading?

[cebalrai]

I just picked up an ASUS RT-N56U Ultra Slim True Dual-N Gigabit Wireless Router to replace an aging Belkin model. But certain pages (ie Newegg, Tigerdirect, thewoombie.com, and others) will not load. It just hangs infinitely on a white screen in the browser both in Firefox and IE. I can do a yahoo search for something, but about 50% of the results I get will not load.

- World of Tanks, Steam, and a couple other games all work fine with normal pings. But when I try to load the Secunia PSI application it hangs on the "detecting internet connection" step.

- The problem is the same on the 2.4 and 5 ghz bands. Changing the channel does not help. There are no other wireless networks in range (I live in a rural area) and there are no microwaves, baby monitors, etc.

- I have excellent connectivity, full bars.

- Yahoo.com and other sites that work hang on a white screen for 5 seconds or so before loading. But clicking on mail does not work at all. Amazon.com works, but clicking on "sign-in" does not work.

- The problem is identical across all three of my laptops.

- I have tried turning the router firewall off but it doesn't help. I have no filtering going on.

- The old Belkin, which I returned to temporarily, works just fine on all sites.

- I am using the latest firmware.

- This is a PPPoE connection where I entered the user name, password, and DNS numbers from my ISP. When I set the DNS to auto detect it doesn't change anything.


Am I missing something obvious? Is there some sort of "feature" on routers that's getting me stuck? Thanks in advance!

 

[Rubycon]

Does it allow you set the MTU manually?
Perhaps it's not being detected properly in automatic mode.
Your ISP should be able to tell you what the proper value is to set manually.

 

[cebalrai]

Does it allow you set the MTU manually?
Perhaps it's not being detected properly in automatic mode.
Your ISP should be able to tell you what the proper value is to set manually.

Thanks for the reply. Yes it can be set manually; it defaults to 1492 which is what my ISP says it should be. My old router that work is also set to 1492.

 

[Rubycon]

If you connect a PC to it with an ethernet cable does it still hang?
Also since this is a PPOE connection you may want to set MTN manually anyway.

 

[cebalrai]

If you connect a PC to it with an ethernet cable does it still hang?
Also since this is a PPOE connection you may want to set MTN manually anyway.

Okay well now that I'm sitting down and trying to use the ASUS again for the first time this morning, all its lights are off except the 5 ghz radio light which is blinking rapidly. It's not working at all. Maybe I just got a defective model?

 

[Rubycon]

Yes it sounds like it may have crashed!

 

[cebalrai]

Yes it sounds like it may have crashed!

Not even the power light is coming on (though it's getting power since it's plugged in and another light is flashing).

This is my second defective router purchase in a row. The last one was a Netgear whose radios periodically switched off until the whole thing died...

 

[Rubycon]

I've seen this before with equipment that's powered by a wall wart that's gone bad. I had one DI box (for audio) that was acting weird, decided to meter its power cube and found this +12V PSU was putting out nearly 25V!

It does happen.

 

[PlastikSpork]

Have you tried a 30/30/30 hard reset?

 

[cebalrai]

Have you tried a 30/30/30 hard reset?

Yeah, didn't change anything. Like I said, right now the power light wont even come on. The only light is the 5 ghz band radio light, and its blinking rapidly . I think this sucker is dead.

 

[donfm]

Yeah, didn't change anything. Like I said, right now the power light wont even come on. The only light is the 5 ghz band radio light, and its blinking rapidly . I think this sucker is dead.

It's toast send it back.

 

[cebalrai]

Okay so I got the replacement router in the mail today. And the SAME issue is happening. Some pages just don't ever load, some load slowly and require occasional reloading attempts to get them there, and others load just fine.

I'm absolutely baffled at this point and don't know what to do.

Here are some examples of pages that simply never load (just says waiting for [website]):
- www.thewoombie.com
- newegg.com
- amazon.com when I click the sign-in link (the rest of the site seems to work)
- Tigerdirect.com
- usaa.com
- americanexpress.com


Pages that load slowly
- yahoo.com
- anandtech.com


Pages that load fine:
- amc.edu
- youtube.com
- www.msi.com
- ebay.com
- gap.com
- resumwriters.com
- interfacelift.com


I'm at wit's end here, and the fact that it's done this across two routers must mean it's an issue with settings somewhere. Any help would be so greatly appreciated. :'(

 

[cebalrai]

When I ping newegg, thewoombie, tiger, etc, it says request timed out and 100% packet loss.

When I ping a site that works it's always 0% packet loss...

And again, my old Belkin router here works just fine. :'(

If you connect a PC to it with an ethernet cable does it still hang?

Getting back to this question, with a wired-only connection it still hangs just the same.

 

[VirtualLarry]

clearly an MTU error. Especially true since you're using PPPoE. Can you find somewhere to enter a fixed MTU? Try setting it to 1460.

 

[cebalrai]

clearly an MTU error. Especially true since you're using PPPoE. Can you find somewhere to enter a fixed MTU? Try setting it to 1460.

After pinging www.newegg.com several times, once or twice I got back a packet saying destination net unreachable. (75% packet loss).

Yeah I can enter any MTU I want. The info I have from my ISP say to suse 1492 though and that's what works on my old router. Let me try 1460.... (I also have an MRU which is set at 1492 and I have no info for what it should be from my ISP)

 

[cebalrai]

Okay so upon changing MTU to 1460...

- Newegg seems to work now! When I do a ping it still says request timed out though. (???)

- Tigerdirect and the Woombie site give me a white screen with Fatal Error: Unknown: Failed opening required, and then a long path of numbers/letters.

- Amazon's sign-in page, USAA,and American Express in still don't work, no change.

 

[cebalrai]

Okay so upon changing MTU to 1460...

- Newegg seems to work now! When I do a ping it still says request timed out though. (???)

- Tigerdirect and the Woombie site give me a white screen with Fatal Error: Unknown: Failed opening required, and then a long path of numbers/letters.

- Amazon's sign-in page, USAA,and American Express in still don't work, no change.

Okay when I take it all the way down to 1432 I get 0% packet loss on all these sites. I used a MTU ping test from this site to some to the 1432 number. I get 75%-100% packet loss at 1433 or higher.

So now my question is why did I have to do this? And why was my old, slow router able to run 1492 just fine? And is my connection now unnecessarily slow now because of the lowered MTU?

 

[pete1229]

Just for the hell of it, try replacing the cat5 cable that connects your router to the modem, not sure if it will solve the problem but might as well eliminate it as a possible cause. Or possibly the modem itself, is there any packet loss if you ping your ISP?

 

[cebalrai]

Just for the hell of it, try replacing the cat5 cable that connects your router to the modem, not sure if it will solve the problem but might as well eliminate it as a possible cause. Or possibly the modem itself, is there any packet loss if you ping your ISP?

I've tried replacing the cable and no luck. Like I said, it works fine with my old Belkin router. No packet loss from my isp.