Calling all networking guru's: My Linksys router doesn't work any longer

[Duggo]

2 days ago, I called the cable company and they sent the signal to my modem, and that got it working again.

The next day, I was watching a YouTube video, and everything was going fine, and then all of a sudden it started buffering. Then, like before, in the lower right-hand corner of the taskbar over the networking symbol there was "a yellow caution triangle," which remain there for a significant period of time. And then I ran the Windows 10 troubleshooter said, that basically, I had an invalid IP address, and wasn't able to generate a new IP address upon connection.

It was during that call, he had me unplug the router and modem for 30 seconds and repower them. That did not help. We went through the whole gamut of primary technical support that he could but in the end, because I was able to bring up a webpage when the cable was directly from connected from the computer to the modem he doesn't think it's the network card.

I should mention this router is 13 years old.

So with that said what do you guys think a good router for me would be?

The only device that would be using the router would be my Roku and aside from this computer that's it. Both of the aforementioned devices are not connected to the router the same time.

I'm embarrassed to say that my Internet speed is so slow, I think I'm 1st. 3.56/download 1.16/upload

If any of the above is confusing, please click the reply button, and let me know.

Duggo

 

[Lightcs1776]

There is nothing wrong with your Internet speed if it does what you need it to do.

As far as wireless routers, I like the Linksys models. The ac3200 is a decent one. You could do fine with a Netgear or Asus as well. I have used both vendors in the past and haven't found any major issues.

Sent from my DROID Turbo using Tapatalk

 

[StillShaving]

I would first try to troubleshoot your problem. Attempting things like:

• If you are connecting your computer via wi-fi switch over to ethernet (or vice-versa)
• Try to login to the routers admin interface to see what it tell you. Usually at http://192.168.1.1
• Do a configuration-settings/factory reset on your router.
• Download manual to better understand how to troubleshoot or configure the router. To determine if it is really dead or not.

 

[Cphobes]

If the internet works on the PC directly connected to the router then the issue is likely the Linksys.

The old linksys routers are tanks. I'd do a factory reset on the router and set it back up again. If you can't get to it via IP and browser there's a red button on it somewhere that can be pressed for a few seconds and will do a reset. Use a sim card remover or bent paperclip.

I would restart the internet modem (providers device), do the hard factory reset on the linksys and then let both come up and wait a few minutes. Assuming you have the cables correct you should be able to follow the setup instructions. You may need to restart your PC just to make sure it gets an IP address properly from the linksys.

Internet speed is great if you don't pay for it, when you pay for it you buy what you can afford. Nothing wrong with that. I have a full house with 20+ devices and three power users. Yeah we need the 250mb from comcast.

 

[Duggo]

Well, Cpholes, I followed your advice: do the hard factory reset on the linksys... well, I finally got around to doing that, and changing the port, from no.1 to no.2. And lo and behold, the Cisco Systems/Linksys router is up and running, for now. Who knows what tomorrow will bring...

Thanks!

 

[StillShaving]

After a factory reset you should login into the administrative interface and see what is enabled by default. Paying special attention to changing the default password of the admin interface and seeing what the default wifi settings are and possibly changing them.

A few years ago a family member was using an older wifi router that I had previously configured for them. They moved and Time Warner Cable reconnected everything at their new place and got their internet working. I came for a visit but could not see/join the wireless network that had previously been setup, but fortunately there was an open wifi network that required no password join and access the internet. Lo and behold it was their home network which was wide open. The TWC tech had done a factory reset on the router and not explained that the router admin and wireless network had been left open.

 

[Raissermesser]

Left open by default? Shudder. That's as bad as the same default passwords.

FWIW, I set up a bookmark to my router administration page, and whitelist MAC addresses. That makes adding new devices a minor pain, but I like the extra security. I used to set it not to broadcast the SSID, but read that didn't really accomplish anything. Now I'm having second thoughts.

 

[ZJ68]

I should mention this router is 13 years old.

Unless you're paying for the cheapest slowest internet connection possible a newer DOCSIS 3 modem might help that connection speed.

 

[RayClem]

If your old router is 13 years old, I suggest you replace it. Networking standards have changed several timed over that period to improve speed of both the Ethernet and wireless connections.

Your 13 year old router predates the Wireless 802.11n standard that came out in 2009. Thus, you are likely to have a Wireless 802.11g router that tops out at 54Mbps. By today's standards, that is quite slow. It is also possible that the Ethernet LAN ports on the router may still be 100 Mbps ports. Those standards have long since been updated.

I do not know which cable Internet service you are using, but most cable companies should be able to supply a minimum of 10 MBps download speed. Your router may well be the speed limiting factor rather than your internet provider. Since you are paying your ISP each month for download speed, you do not want your personal equipment (one time purchase) to be the limiting factor. Although you may think that 54Mbps is a lot faster than 10Mbps, when you are using WEP encryption, the effective speed of the router is only 10Mbps.

Of course, the connection speed of your cable modem and your router are not the only factors. It also depends upon the capability of each of the devices on your network (computers, tablets, streaming devices, cell phones, etc.). In the past few years, most devices have come with either Wireless 802.11n or Wireless 802.11ac and most Ethernet connections are now rated at 1 Gbps (1000MBps). However, older devices may still have 100 Mbps connections. It still is best to have a router capable of handling 1Gpbs so you can connect multiple devices without the router itself being the limiting factor. Thus, if any of your current devices have capability of using either 801.11n or 801.11ac wireless or 1Gbps Ethernet, replacing your old modem with a more recent model may dramatically improve your Internet speed, as long as your ISP supplies it. With a faster modem, you can connect multiple devices to your network without a loss of speed.

Since I have no idea how you use your Internet and networking connections, I cannot recommend a specific router that will be ideal for your needs. However, I would suggest that you look for a Wireless AC router with a minimum of four 1 Gbps LAN ports. That will provide capability for future expansion in case you keep it for the next 13 years.

You can test your true Internet speed by connecting your computer directly to the cable modem using an Ethernet Cable, bypassing your router. Make sure that the speed you are getting is at least as high as the minimum speed guaranteed by your cable supplier. If the direct connection speed is significantly higher than you get with the router, that will tell you that the router is a bottleneck and should be replaced.

 

[Duggo]

Thanks for posting.

@ZJ68 I do have the slowest internet speed available. It's so slow, it thinks it's first Last time I checked, it was in the neighborhood of 3.56 down, and 1.1x up. (Mbps) i.e. Megabits per second. Which translates out to about .444 Megabytes per second.

@RayClem This is a "Wireless-G" (54 Mbps) which is good enough for me, as I'm only using 3 -7 Mbps depending which service you believe. Fast.com (powered by Netflix,) says I have a total speed of around 7 Mbps. by my "Internet Speed," is around 3. and Fast.com said my upload was around 4.xx To be honest, I don't know what the 7/4 represent, Because Speedtest, perhaps the better known service, said I'm around 3.56 down, and 1.1x up. (Mbps)

With those kind of numbers, is there really any benefit to buying a new modem, when, a/ Netgear comes with a 90 day warranty, on a new router, after that, (according to the post I read) you are left without any support from them. b/ Then what do I do?

What do you guys think the build quality will be compared to this one I have?

 

[RayClem]

I am currently using an ASUS router as my primary router and A Netgear router as a wireless access point. They both work quite well. The only router I ever had fail was a Linksys Wireless G router that I had many years ago. Go figure! I still have others that were taken out of service when I upgraded to a newer, faster one. I have used routers from Linksys, D-Link, Asus, and Netgear with no issue, but I have not kept them in service for 13 years, either.

If your current modem is working and you are satisfied with the performance, then there is no need to replace it.

While Netflix will work with a minimal bandwidth of 0.5Mbps, they recommend a minimum of 1.5 Mbps for good performance. However, if you have higher bandwidth, the quality of the image you receive will be improved. For 720P HD quality, you will need 5 Mbps. If you want full HD 1080P quality, you need 7 Mbps or higher.

YouTube videos top out at 720P resolution, so if that is what you watch, then you may be OK with your current bandwidth. Many older YouTube videos are not even that high and YouTube and Netflix both reduce the resolution if your bandwidth can't keep up.

 

[ZJ68]

@ZJ68 I do have the slowest internet speed available. It's so slow, it thinks it's first Last time I checked, it was in the neighborhood of 3.56 down, and 1.1x up. (Mbps) i.e. Megabits per second. Which translates out to about .444 Megabytes per second.

I mean, where's the bottleneck? Is your plan limited to that or is it the modem holding things back. If you just have a bottom tier plan, I'd just use the modem until it dies. But if you're paying for a plan that should be going faster and the modem is strangling it, I'd replace it immediately.

 

[Duggo]

The "bottleneck" as you say is coming from our our plan with the ISP, which generally works for everything that I use it for except, Youtube at 1080 or above, which I can use, for a "screenshot." i.e. If I'm having difficulty having difficulty seeing objects at lower resolutions, I can pause the video, and in the Settings, change the reso to the highest available. So, at least in that frame, I can read the text, or whatever the case may be.

Here's my questions:

Let's say (for the sake of the discussion,) I get a new router thereby upgrading to the newest standard:
How would I benefit from upgrading from this router to T.N.S.? While I'm chugging along at 3.56 Mbps.

Fortunately, my router has been up and running for the last few days, with only that one "hiccup" I previously noted. So...If I bought a new router would the previous issue of not being able to configure an ip address go away?

Does anyone know why Fast.com was recognizing / registering some 7 Mbps, but my Inet speed was less than that?

Comments and Suggestions are always welcome.

Thanks,
Duggo

 

[Duggo]

Thanks for posting.

a/ Netgear comes with a 90 day warranty, [I]on a new [/I]router[I], [/I]after that, (according to the post I read) you are left without any support from them.

[B]Correction to above information:[/B]

It turns out that, [I]new [/I]Netgear routers come with 1 year warranty, and 90 days of complimentary tech support.

Also, you can purchase additional additional support - look [URL='https://prosupport.netgear.com/index.html'][B]here[/B] [/URL]for details.

Apologies for the inaccurate post before.

Why the text in red, is linking to another user, who's name escapes me, I don't know. Apologies...

The only link is the the word "here," which is in red, bold.

 

[StillShaving]

..
Let's say (for the sake of the discussion,) I get a new router thereby upgrading to the newest standard:
How would I benefit from upgrading from this router to T.N.S.? While I'm chugging along at 3.56 Mbps.

Fortunately, my router has been up and running for the last few days, with only that one "hiccup" I previously noted. So...If I bought a new router would the previous issue of not being able to configure an ip address go away?

Does anyone know why Fast.com was recognizing / registering some 7 Mbps, but my Inet speed was less than that?

Comments and Suggestions are always welcome.

Thanks,
Duggo

What do you mean by "my Internet speed was less than that (7 Mbps)?" Was it slower in the past? or less than what is seen at a different speed test website? or you bought a slower level of service from your provider?
Typically the cable internet provider is advertising a rate that they are capable of providing to your home, even during peak periods of the day. But since the HFC (hybrid fiber-coaxial) network used by most cable providers is a shared medium it can sometimes deliver faster speeds if there is idle bandwidth in your neighborhood (I think may depend on the age of the equipment installed in the field and its capabilities).

You may or may not see much speed increase with a new router. It is unclear if you are using a wireless connection or not. But as others have noted to better test you should plug your computer's ethernet cable directly into the cable modem and bypass your wifi router and run the speed test to see what are you down/up speeds. To get the fast.com results with and without the router in place.

 

[StillShaving]

This means little to your situation but I went to fast.com to check a few connections and here is what I saw:
1) checked windows 10 computer over wired ethernet and saw 49 Mbps down.
2) checked from different/older windows 10 over wifi and saw 43 Mbps down.
3) checked from Android phone over wifi and saw 38 Mbps down.
About 15 minutes later (after replying above) repeated test for computer #1 and saw 53 Mbps down. So an increase of 4Mbps just by running the test at a different time. I believe my internet service is rated at 50 Mbps.

 

[Duggo]

This computer is hardwired to the router and then the Modem.

The reference to 7Mbps, means, that Fast.com was seeing 7Mbps on the line to report it back to me. Since you've used Fast.com, perhaps the better question to ask is: "What do those higher numbers at the bottom of the screen mean?" In my case, it was 7 for a download speed, and 4.xx for an upload speed.

I asked the CSR if it was worth upgrading the wireless G router with my 3 Mbps speed. Not really, because, the performance gain it would be negligible . However, if I had the 100 Mbps service, he would have recommended it without a doubt.

 

[StillShaving]

I see three numbers reported:

1. download latency over unloaded network
2. download latency over loaded network
3. upload speed.​

While #3 (upload speed) and #1 ("idle" network latency) are relatively straightforward to understand, I suspect #2 ("nearing congested" network latency) is when they are driving traffic on multiple TCP connections from their Netflix appliances, to help show the maximum latency you might experience if streaming some context while other network connections are active on your network. It is a way to measure the bufferbloat contributed by your home network (wifi router + cable modem) as well as any other router hops in between you home network and the Netflix server. While buffering within the network can seemingly help to minimize dropped packets, if there is too much buffering capability it can interfere with the feedback mechanism built into TCP that it uses to determine transmission rates. If you are just watching a single Netflix stream without much else going on in your home network then I don't think that this number should be a concern.....But I do not know what protocols Netflix/Roku are actually using to deliver content, or how flexible they are, or the minimum download speed required before things fall apart.

Below those numbers I see Settings and MB down + MB up. Where settings will show the number of connections and test duration (ranges for both, in case you want to change them and experiment). I am guessing that MB is the size of files in megabytes that it uses to drive the download and upload testing. (content given in Bytes while speeds in bits).

You may also want to try an alternate test site such as speedtest.net

 

[Duggo]

Interestingly enough, or not, both sites agree on my internet speed. 3.5 Mbps. Download. Fast.com and Speedtest.net; that is.

 

[John Rose]

If the ISP provided the router, then they should replace it. Probably no questions asked since it may not be worth it to troubleshoot, especially if it's 13 years old.
If the router was added by the customer, well, they're pretty cheap to replace.