Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with linksys

Imac has lost its once strong wireless signal

ranunculus — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:25:41 -0800

My girlfriend's imac keeps losing its wireless signal, despite having functioned perfectly for over a year at its present location. How can I remedy this? The wireless router - a linksys wrt 54g - is located at my desk about 50 feet and one wall away, where it is hardwired to my pc. For the past year, her imac received the signal perfectly. And now it's extremely weak. Rebooting her computer, my computer, the router, or the cable modem does nothing to improve her signal. Yet my other computer - a pc laptop - receives a perfectly good signal next to her imac.

She is running osx 10.4.11
I'm on vista

Why won't my router route?

Dasein — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:15:22 -0800

Last week, I unplugged and plugged back in my Linksys WRT54GX4 wireless router. Since then, I haven't been able to connect to the internet through it, either wirelessly or through a wired connection through the router. The internet works fine if I plug the ethernet cable from the modem directly into my computer. I can also access the router's settings through my browser when I'm plugged into it. In the settings, it shows the internet as unavailable. But all the little status (including the internet one) on the front of router seem to indicate that everything is working fine. Firmware is up-to-date. Help! I called Linksys support, and the tech guy I spoke to seemed to think that all I needed to do was reset the router properly, but because I'm a month out of warranty, he wouldn't tell me how to do that. I've unplugged it, I've held the reset button for more than a minute, I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I swear, I don't know how I killed your internet

Decimask — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:03:40 -0800

Please help me unb0rk my cousin's router. Partly, I'm just trying to figure out what the hell happened.

I just landed at my cousin's place temporarily. I pulled out my laptop (running Windows Vista), pulled up the network connections to hook up to the wireless. Everything seemed to be going normally, when it asked me for the PIN number on the Router. I had the WEP key in front of me, so this was surprising.

Got the PIN, continued in what I thought was an otherwise normal connection set up, and clicked "OK". BAM! Cousin on another computer loses internet access, and the connection is now named after my computer. I spend a bit of fiddlig trying to undo it, then get pissed off and hold in the "RESET" button on the back

Now:

I can't connect to the generic "Linksys" connection

She can't connect to it either.

I can't access the router's settings using 192.168.0.1 (conection times out) from the computer that's directly connected to the router--yet I can access the modem's settings just fine.

What the hell happened?

Router's a WRT54G2, if it matters.

Out of the frying pan into the fire

mkb — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:19:47 -0800

I am in the process of switching from Comcast cable to Verizon DSL. I am trying to figure out the wireless situation in my house. So Verizon is offering a free netbook to new DSL subscribers, and I don't have any particular affinity for Comcast, so I decided to try it out.

With Comcast (which is actually still running), I have the following setup:
- Motorola cable modem
- Linksys WRT54g v 2.2 running Tomato and boosted output power

I have this unit set to forward BitTorrent, SSH, and icecast ports to one machine at home.

Verizon unexpectedly sent me a modem for my new service that also functions as a wireless access point and a router. It's a Westell 7500. It seems to be almost as configurable as my Linksys, and it looks like there is no need to boost the output power in order to get up to my office. The only missing feature appears to be DynDNS.com updating; the new router uses TSIG authentication which is only available on paid accounts, and I can just punt this to one of my computers.

So, is there anything I am missing that would be worth me keeping the Linksys around? Does this router have any hidden gotchas?

ssh, I'm not listening ...

scruss — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:32:58 -0800

How do I really - no, really - put my home server in my Linksys WRT350N router's DMZ? The router says it is, but it clearly isn't. I'm having great difficulty getting a server to pass through an SSH connection to the internet. This used to work fine with an older Netgear router, but the Linksys WRT350N is not so happy. Everything in the router and modem's configuration would appear to show that pass-through to the DMZ should happen, but it's clearly not. I can't ssh or ping the server from a remote location.

I've tried putting the Speedtouch 546 modem into bridge mode, but all that happens is I lose the ability to resolve IP addresses.

I have the MAC address of the Sheevaplug server set as being the DMZ in the WRT350N. The 546 is set to put the router as a public IP. I have a static IP.

I know I could connect the server to one of the ports on the Speedtouch, but I really need to be able to see it inside my network.

Say, did I just lose my internet?

Ash3000 — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:35:11 -0800

All of the websites I don't have explicitly bookmarked have stopped loading for me. On any wireless connection. Help. So, I'm on a wireless connection, using gmail...when all of a sudden it switches suddenly to gmail offline, implying that I've lost the connection. (For what it's worth, using airport on a black macbook, mozilla firefox - happy to offer any other details as needed.) I'm still, according to Airport, connected to the local linksys.

Check a site I've got bookmarked on the bar, Wikipedia (natch). Works fine. Go to TheSneeze.com, which I don't have bookmarked. I get a "Failed to Connect - Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at thesneeze.com."

I realize, and test, that all websites that I don't have explicitly bookmarked are getting this response.

I go to a local place with wireless. This continues to happen, with an entirely different wifi connection. I restart. It continues.

I can't access gmail, or, well, just about anything online except for a few things I have bookmarked here - I can only help this goes through. Any help is urgently needed and sincerely appreciated.

(If this is relevant, I recently downloaded the .prefpane on WiFi.com, reading a decent review of its predecessor, Whisher, on a site or two. I found no real use for it, and removed it.)

Need help extending a wireless network

terrapin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:56:45 -0800

I need help extending a wireless network either via an Airport Express or an ancient Linksys (BEFW11S4 ver. 2). I have limited experience setting these things up but do okay with my mac-only setup at home. Here's what's gong on:

The small cooperative market where I work has a Netgear FS108 router connected to a Linksys WRT54G2. This is set up in the office basement in the absolute furthest place it can be from where the customers use the service in the cafe upstairs and across the building. It is connected to a computer running XP, I believe. I am new at this place and have suggested we extend the network so that the wifi is useful. They love the idea and asked me to do it. errrrr.

So I brought an Airport Express I have at home and gave it a go. Immediately I ran into WDS issues and working at the cash register meant I had no time to really search, read, etc. When I got home I did some research and found a few OLD articles (1, 2) about how to accomplish what I want to do. But each article also has hundreds of comments with people either disputing the original author, others saying it worked perfectly, and still others saying it worked but they needed to do x,y and z.

I also have an old Linksys BEFW11S4 ver. 2 that I have had in the closet since 2003. I have not used it since I switched to Mac that year. I have no idea what firmware is being run on any of these items. I am happy to upgrade the firmware for the BEFW and/or the AE, but as a new employee I would rather not flash the WRT54G2 unless absolutely necessary. Or some reassurance as I don't really understand it. I *think* I read that the BEFW doesn't have the ability to flash the firmware, but I can't say for sure.

If it helps, there is CURRENTLY no security on the wireless network. For the time being that isn't going to change, and so I would appreciate that part of the equation be left out of this discussion.

Thanks for reading this far. I could really use some help and instructions in an easy-to-follow way.

Modem router combi device supported by dd-wrt

forwebsites — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:49:21 -0800

Which Linksys (or D-Link ) modem+router two-in-one device should I buy if I want to install DD-WRT or Tomato (or any similar linux firmware) ? I'd like to buy a new single modem+router combination device that can support DD-WRT or Tomato. I came across Linksys WAG54G2* that is such a device and available in local stores here, but it doesn't show up in DD-WRT supported devices list? I don't think WAG54G2 is same as WAG54GP2 listed in that list, which by the way is supported, but tell me if I am wrong.

So is there any such device or should I just go with my ISP's modem and WRT54GL?

Thanks.
*as an aside: I can't seem to find any tech specs for WAG54G2, like chipset brand, ram, flash memory size etc.

How do I hook up a USB external hard drive to my wireless network?

zooropa — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:51:37 -0800

What's the best and cheapest way to connect a USB external hard drive to my wireless network for use as an iTunes jukebox? Last week, I went out and bought a Black Armor 320 GB external hard drive. I just spent most of this last weekend emptying out the iTunes libraries from my work laptop and home laptop in order to create One Big Library to Rule Them All. *grin*

Here's my question -- what's the best and cheapest way to make this new huge library accessible to my laptops?

I don't want to schlep the hard drive with me every where I go. It's USB 2.0-based, so I was thinking of connecting it to the wireless network I run at home (simple basic Linksys WRT54G). The problem is that the router is all Ethernet, but I figured I could just go out and buy an Ethernet --> USB adapter and plug it into one of the unused Ethernet ports on the router.

Is this convoluted? Is there an easy (and cheap) way to do this?

Basically, my wife and I are going to share the one big Library and then connect each of our iPods to it. I'd like to make this as easy and painless as possible.

WiFi makes router halt <2 minutes after boot

Xoder — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 08:00:53 -0800

My Linksys WRT54G becomes unresponsive about 2 minutes after boot if the WiFi is on. This prevents Internet access even for wired clients. This does not happen if I quickly get into the router at boot and disable WiFi. Any ideas? Should I move to DD-WRT? I've got a WRT54G that is fairly new (says V8.0 on the bottom, and I'm running the latest V8.0 firmware [8.00.5, IIRC]). Previously we had some WiFi connectivity issues within the apartment building, but moving from the swamped channel 6 to the empty channel 1 helped. We're still on channel 1, and no one else is (a few people are on 2, but they're low power enough that it shouldn't be a problem).

We are using WEP 128 and not broadcasting the SSID (Yes, I know, false security, but it keeps out casual attempts at access, which is all I want to deal with. In addition, we have some Nintendo DSes in the apartment, and they cannot do WPA). When the router gets into its halted state, NetStumbler can still see someone broadcasting on channel 1 with our router's MAC, but no one can connect. And, as I said, this kills wired connections too.

Currently my apartment is doing fine without our WiFi, but I'd like to untether my laptop ASAP!

So, restated more clearly and succinctly:
1) Is there a way to get this to work better with the stock firmware?
or
2) Should I try moving to dd-wrt, or another one — are they more reliable? A lot of the alternative firmwares do not seem to work with my V8.0, but dd-wrt says it will.

Is my router (or Comcast) blocking i.dell.com?

Artw — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:29:49 -0800

Something odd is happening on my internet connection at home. I have two machines both of which connect to the intenet via a Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router (or Comcast variant on it) and a Comcast cable connection. Both of them do not display the Dell homepage properly. After viewing source I determined that they couldn’t find the supporting files at the subdomain i.dell.com (it’s possible other subdomains are missing as well, but that is the one causing the most dramatic effect). Viewing the site from another internet connection it appears fine. Is something up with the router, or with Comcast? Looking for steps to determine what is going on and (hopefully) rectify it. Also, as a data point, I think I had something similar happen a while back where I couldn’t get to downloads from Windows Live Messenger from either machine, but could when not using that connection. That problem seemed to resolve itself somehow though.

What is the best way to connect to two wireless networks simultaneously?

ilumos — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:57:37 -0800

What is the best way to connect to two wireless networks simultaneously? Best done with two seperate wireless cards with differently polarised aerials? Or can it be done with one card and clever software? I will be buying at least one Linksys WMP54G PCI and plan to connect to two seperate wireless networks from the same computer.

It's also worth concidering that these two networks may be on neighbouring wireless channels (9 and 10 for example) and may or may not use WEP/WPA.

It would also be good to load balance between the two networks as each will have its own seperate connection to the internet.

Many thanks,

ilumos

How can my wireless base station and extender play nice?

mkultra — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:03:31 -0800

How can my wireless router and extender make my entire network seamless? I've got a Linksys WRT54G (WPA2 password) as my base station and a Belkin F5D7132 Extender down the hall to extend the WAN to my office.

I've configured the Belkin to use the Linksys's credentials, and it's currently working using its own SSID. Under this method, I can machines connected to each SSID, and most of the data seems to flow OK. However, I've got two big hiccups (so far):

- I'm running AirTunes, attached to the Linksys. My desktop, which is attached to the Belkin, can't see it.

- I back up my laptop wirelessly to my desktop using Time Machine. Yes, I know, this is not a recommended use of Time Machine, but it's worked fine for ages. Now, I get a kernel panic (gray screen) whenever it tries to back up.

Is there a setting for making the entire network completely seamless? The documentation for the Belkin blows.

WEP troubleshooting

KokuRyu — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:53:07 -0800

Do you have any ideas why I cannot add machines to my el cheapo Linksys WRT150N wireless router once I have enabled WEP? I bought the wireless router about eight months ago. I have a tower I use as a workstation (it's connected directly to the router), and I enabled WEP and provided credentials (keys) to a laptop.

About a week ago, a laptop (the main one we use) was left on and unplugged while we were out (or something), the battery drained, and the laptop shut down. When I restarted it, the laptop could no longer connect to the Linksys router. For some reason I hadn't saved the access key (don't ask me why), so I had to reset the router in order to disable the security. The laptop can connect to the wireless router when there is no security enabled.

We live in an apartment building, and I'd rather not have an open network. However, for some reason our laptop will not connect when security is enabled.

To enable security, I either log into the web interface using the tower connected to the router, enable WEP, jot down the security key, and type it by hand on the laptop when trying to connect to the WEP-enabled router, OR I have inserted the Linksys startup CD into the tower, generated the security key, and then walked over to the laptop and typed in the key.

However, the laptop, although it can "see" the WEP-enabled router (SSID is being broadcast), cannot connect.

Or do I connect the laptop directly to the router, and set up WEP *that* way?

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

How do I make my wireless router play nice with my VOIP adaptor?

chinston — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:43:06 -0800

What's the best way to get my wireless router (Linksys WRT54G2) to play nice with my Vonage VOIP adaptor (Motorola VT 1005)? Frequently when I'm trying to upload somewhat sizeable files (e.g., like a minute-long movie to youtube), I lose my connection and have to reboot. I don't know much about networking, so please bear with me. My current set-up is cable modem --> Linksys wireless router --> VOIP adaptor --> PC running Windows XP. If I remove the wireless router from the equation, things seem to work fine. But otherwise, usually if I'm trying to upload some pictures to flickr or a short movie to youtube (or even sometimes when checking yahoo e-mail), my connection will disappear.

Weirdly, if I have a remote connection to my work network up at the time via Citrix, that connection will not be affected. And I still have phone service through Vonage. But I will not be able to access the web via Firefox or Internet Explorer. If I reset the wireless adaptor, that fixes the problem for a time until the next upload. I don't torrent or do any really huge data transfers.

I had this problem with a previous router - the Belkin Wireless pre-N router. I recently switched to the older Linksys model, hoping that would fix things. But it hasn't. This is frustrating since I rely on my wireless connection to stream music over to my Roku soundbridge, among other things.

I've googled and checked the manufacturers' web pages, but haven't been able to find help. Oh, and I have the most recent firmware version. My question is similar to this question about how visiting flickr and netflix kills an internet connection; I've just tried reinstalling flash and flashblock. It's also very similar to this question about a combination Vonage/Linksys router having to be reset, but there was no conclusive answer there.

I'm happy to provide more details if needed.

Help with wirelessly backing up laptop?

Phire — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:55:35 -0800

Help, Backup-Filter: "Access Denied" error when using Memeo's AutoBackup Software to wirelessly backup a laptop HD to a password protected external hard drive that is directy connected to the wireless router via USB. Asking for a friend:

I'm currently trying to use Memeo's Auto Backup program (v2.50.2785) to backup my laptop's Hard Drive to my external hard drive wirelessly.

The program is the Seagate branded version, and it came with the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB external HD. The external HD is currently attached via USB to my Linksys WRT600N wireless router. I have mapped the network drive and can access it normally through windows explorer.

The software is able to select the HD as a backup location but it cannot actually write any files to it, due to an "access denied" error. I think this is due to the fact that the router has a mandatory password on the HD, which seems impossible to remove. I haven't been able to "give" the password to the backup program, either.

Additional potentially useful info: Even though no backup files are written, the file structure and location linker files for the back are still written to the HD... How did it gain access for that?

This only happens when the external hard drive is connected to the router. If the hard drive is connected directly to the laptop, it works fine.

Any thoughts on how to get this to work properly would be appreciated.

Slow wireless

pravit — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:09:31 -0800

I'm getting slow wireless speeds with the Intel 4965AGN and a Linksys Wireless-b router (BEFW11S4). Do I need to buy a new router? Just got my new laptop today (Fujitsu S6510) and I'm getting relatively slow wireless speeds. There's nothing wrong with the router, because my old laptop connects at the same speed that it did before (downloading at approximately 150KB/s). However, I only get speeds of 35KB/s - 80KB/s max with the new laptop. I already disabled 802.11n on the new laptop, which brought speeds up from 12KB/s to 35KB/s, but haven't found a way to get it any faster.

I installed the latest drivers for the Intel card, downloaded the latest PROSet software, and flashed my router the latest firmware. Google searches seem to turn up other people with this problem, and the only advice that I haven't tried is to buy a new router (this router is about 3-4 years old and only supports 802.11b).

I noticed that Intel PROSet has a "g" next to my wireless connection even though it only supports 802.11b. Could this be the problem? I've tried to force it to connect on b but can't find anything to do this. Or should I just save myself the hassle and buy a new router?

Routers not working properly

CliffDiving44 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:53:19 -0800

The last two routers I've owned, they needed to be reset every couple days to get my connection back. Now it happens with my new router, after months of it working perfectly. Any ideas? My first two routers were both standard Linksys routers, but this latest one is a Linksys WRTP54G Vonage router. Like I said, it worked perfectly and I didn't have to reset it until about a month ago, and now it happens once or twice a week. It's not the biggest problem in the world, but it's annoying and an inconvenience. Are all of these routers going bad because they're constantly on? Is there some setting that I'm not putting on?

Wireless timeout

underwater — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:46:00 -0800

Wireless networking problem...help? I'm using a Linksys WRT54GS wireless router with a Charter cable modem. My computer is using a USB Buffalo AirStation Wireless-G wireless connector. Win XP sp2. Using WPA-PSK TKIP encryption, but the problem is the same with WEP, and with or without firewall.

The connection times out about every 5 minutes or less. I looked up the previous questions about this. The weird thing is that when it reconnects (automatically), it shows 'connected' in Network Connections, and there is an IP address assigned, but there is no default gateway assigned--it's blank when I look at ipconfig. This is strange because I have 192.168.1.1 entered as the default gateway in Windows for tcp/ip, rather than letting it assign a default gateway. So how could it be blank?

And even stranger, this happens sometimes, but sometimes it reconnects with the right default gateway, and a correct IP address, but in both of these states I can't access the net or the router configuration page. It will act properly after I reboot, for a time. If I 'repair' the connection, it will often work for a time. But if it re-connects automatically, it won't. I can't ping when it's not accessing the net.

This timeout also happens with my roommate's laptop (Thinkpad), but when he automatically re-connects, it does actually work and he can access the net.

Any suggestions? It's driving me batty.

Help me get my new Airport to play nice with my old Linksys router

DandyRandy — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:10:24 -0800

I just picked up an Apple Airport Extreme and am attempting to integrate it into my home network, and my old router is jealous. My intent is to use the Airport to serve IP addresses to all my devices via DHCP, and use its wireless capabilities for my 802.11g computers (looking forward to 802.11n). I've pressed my old Linksys WRT54G into use providing wireless access to my 802.11b devices (2 wifi Internet radios), to isolate them from dragging down the .g devices' wireless access speeds. I've got the Linksys plugged into one of the LAN ports on the Airport, and the Linksys is getting its IP address (10.0.1.200) from the Airport's DHCP server. I've still got the DHCP server on the Linksys on, serving IP addresses in the 192.168.1.x range to my .b devices on the same subnet as the Airport. All that is working fine: all devices have internet access on their respective wireless networks.

The final step is for the .b devices to get their IP addresses from the Airport. That's what's not working. When I turn off the Linksys's DHCP server, the devices connected to its wireless network are getting IPs in the 169.254.x.y automatic private IP space. I've set the Linksys's config to both 'Gateway' (which is what it was when it was the only router on my network), and I've tried setting it to 'Router', with no further success.

Again, the Linksys' WAN address is getting 10.0.1.200 from the Airport's DHCP server, and I'm setting the Linksys LAN address to 10.0.1.201 (outside the Airport's DHCP range of addresses).

What am I missing here?

Small business networking hardware

prggr — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:32:44 -0800

Supporting about 35 computers and have had two switches (Netgear, Linksys) die in the last year. Looking for suggestions of brands we can stick with that are cheaper than Cisco. Our network is a mix of Linksys, Netgear, and I think maybe a d-link switch floating around somewhere. Our network has a single 8 port gigabit switch plugged into which we have a 16 port switch, several 8 port switches, Linksys wireless AP, our router/firewall, and the servers. About 8 months ago one of the 8 port switches died, and yesterday (yes, on a Sunday of course -- luckily I keep spare switches around), the 8 port gigabit switch died. I'm going to be chasing Netgear since they seem to have a decent warranty, but I'm now wondering if there is a decently reliable brand of switches that doesn't cost several arms and legs.

I'm just looking at unmanaged switches. We're going to be moving locations early 2008 and I figure it is a good time to get all the hardware setup with the same brand and same models so I can keep the correct spares in stock. Now, we haven't even had this entire setup for more than 2 years and most of the equipment is under a year old. With about 6-7 switches, having 2 go out so soon is really annoying and not good for business.

So, I'm quite willing to listen to any suggestions. I have poked around a bit this morning and noticed Cisco hardware is still way expensive, Netgear now offers a lifetime warranty (which only helps after the fact.. warranties sure don't keep hardware from failing), and that there are a bunch of various brands I don't know anything about.

Thanks again!

Wireless router doesnt work well.

milestogo — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:23:00 -0800

WirelessFilter: My router has issues. A network cable gives me internet just fine, but if I am using wireless, the network often disconnects and will not connect. A little This happens on all the laptops in my apartment at about the same time, so I am reasonably confident it is a problem with the router. When I am connected via wireless, my network will often choose to randomly dissapear, refusing to be found. That, or it will be found, but will not be able to be connected to. This happens often and for long periods of time, and is very frustrating.
Plugging in a cable connecting my computer and the router always works. My usual solution is unplug/replug but that doesnt ever work here. I have tried reseting a couple times. Nothing. Diagnosis?

Who's hacked the Linksys NAS200?

TrueVox — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:56:43 -0800

Anyone have any experience with the Hackability of the Linksys NAS200? I realize that there's a lot out there on the Linksys NSLU2, but I'm looking into the NAS200 (it just looks beefier, for only a little more). It runs Linux just like the NSLU2, but a quick googling turned up nada. Are any of you Linksys Hackers? And if so, have any of you updated your NAS200? Or is the stock firmware SO SUPER GOOD that you don't need/want/arn't able to (I find the last one hard to buy, but who knows)?

Thanks!

How can I get my server to authenticate with my domain controller (which is located behind a linksys router)?

zzztimbo — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:53:16 -0800

I have a Windows 2000 server that is sitting in a public IP network. I can not figure out how I can get it to talk to my domain controller that is sitting in a private IP network with a linksys WRT54G sitting in between. Will port mapping solve this? I have already tried putting the domain controller in the WRT54G's DMZ. That did not seem to work.

Best router for a small company?

Macboy — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:27:02 -0800

What's the best router for a small business? I'm looking for a new router. My current router (linksys) is connected to two switches (60-70 users) for my DSL connection. My Linksys constantly needs to be rebooted.