Router losing its IP lease?

[xtknight]

I have Comcast High Speed Internet (cable) at 6.0Mbps/384Kbps. My router is a Linksys BEFSX41 (firmware 1.52.3, Jan 18 2005).

It used to be quite stable. Recently, every 2 or 3 hours, the WAN connection will just die completely. Each time this happens, I can go into the router config (192.168.1.1). It continues to list a WAN IP under the DHCP status, as if everything were normal. If I press release/renew, the Internet proceeds to work just fine and I don't need to restart any of my NIC interfaces. I tried using a static IP, and the same thing happened, except since I was using static I couldn't release/renew, so I decided to go back to DHCP.

Also, what is my subnet mask supposed to be?
Here are the choices in my router config (bold is the selected one): 255.255.255.0, 255.255.255.128, 255.255.255.192, 255.255.255.224, 255.255.255.240, 255.255.255.248, 255.255.255.252. In my router status page it lists 255.255.254.0 but I think that refers to WAN?

So, why is my Internet connection dying after a couple hours? I haven't seen anywhere in the router config to view the DHCP lease time.

Here is my cable modem signal strength data (Motorola SurfBoard SB5120) via 192.168.100.1 http config:

Downstream Value
Frequency 597000000 Hz
Signal to Noise Ratio 36 dB
QAM QAM256
Network Access Control Object ON
Power Level 0 dBmV
The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading

Upstream Value
Channel ID 1
Frequency 27000000 Hz
Ranging Service ID 195
Symbol Rate 2.560 Msym/s
Power Level 45 dBmV

Cable modem log:

2006-07-15 17:56:32 7-Information B601.0 SA Map State Machine Started
2006-07-15 10:06:11 7-Information SNMP: Working in SNMP V1/2c Only NmAccess mode
2006-07-15 10:06:10 7-Information INITIALIZATION COMPLETE - MODEM IS OPERATIONAL
2006-07-15 10:06:09 7-Information B401.0 Authorized
2006-07-15 10:06:09 7-Information SEC: Co-Signer CVC from configuration file was verified
2006-07-15 10:06:08 7-Information REGISTRATION COMPLETE - Waiting for Operational status
2006-07-15 10:06:08 7-Information REG: Capability type <16> incorrectly negotiated by CMTS
2006-07-15 10:06:08 7-Information Registration file - downloaded
2006-07-15 10:06:07 7-Information Trying to download Configuration file ...
2006-07-15 10:06:07 7-Information Time of day - retrieved
1970-01-01 00:00:16 7-Information DHCP - parameters acquired
1970-01-01 00:00:16 7-Information DHCP: ACK: Setting (*) CM TFTP Boot file: d11_m_sb5120_silver_c01.cm
1970-01-01 00:00:16 7-Information DHCP: Setting CM IP address to: 73.x.x.x
1970-01-01 00:00:15 7-Information DHCP: Setting (*) CM Syslog Server address to: 0.0.0.0
1970-01-01 00:00:15 7-Information DHCP: Setting (*) CM Time Server address to: 68.x.x.x
1970-01-01 00:00:15 7-Information DHCP: Setting (*) CM Subnet mask to: 255.255.254.0
1970-01-01 00:00:15 7-Information DHCP: Setting (*) CM Gateway address to: 73.x.x.x
1970-01-01 00:00:15 7-Information DHCP: OFFER: Setting (*) CM TFTP Boot file: d11_m_sb5120_silver_c01.cm
1970-01-01 00:00:15 7-Information DHCP select: Setting (*) CM TFTP Server address to: 68.x.x.x
1970-01-01 00:00:15 7-Information DHCP: Offered (*) CM IP address to: 73.x.x.x

 

[xtknight]

I updated the firmware on the router and it has not disconnected since. I'll be sure to post if it starts again.