Problem with Netgear Rangemax Wireless Router

[LateNightLurker]

Hi all,

Please bare with me as I'm pretty new to the wireless world.

I have a Netgear Rangemax Router set up and it usually works great. I connect to it via my laptop (firefox) and it is encrypted with WPA.

The problem I have is sometimes when I connect to certain websites (mainly the notorious myspace.com) my router locks up and I can no longer access the internet. The strange thing is my router still shows that I'm connected via my Intel wireless radio and all my cable lights are still on (doesn't appear to be a reset with the cable modem). When I attempt to reconnect my laptop says 'unable to connect.' When I reset the modem and router my laptop connects fine.

Does anyone know what is going on here? Does it have something to do with the firewall in the router? Is there a method I can use to see if there are any error messages on the router? My intel wireless even viewer shows no strange events. This has been happening more frequently since I changed cable providers. I did go through the setup once again once I changed cable providers.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[phishphreek]

Have you verified that you're running the latest firmware?
You'll be able to find it @ http://kbserver.netgear.com/downloads_support.asp
You'll have to know which router model you have.

If not, be sure to do that. If there is a bug, the only way to fix it (normally) is to update the firmware. There is not much a user can do to the SOHO routers to fix them. You'll probably have to speak with someone in their support and after there are enough bug reports... they'll fix the issue. The first thing they're going to have you do if you call them is to check to make sure you have the latest firmware.

Note: Be sure to apply the latest firmware using a WIRED connection to the router. DO NOT update it while using the wireless connection. If the upgrade gets interrupted... you've just paid a lot of money for a door stop.

[TheX1le]

Not that this will help but your router is doing you a favor. My Space rots your brain. This is a FEATURE rather then a problem. That being said have you tried removing the router and reproducing the problem. Update all your drivers and try another computer.. Could be the crap Myspace runs is overloading the router? I had a netgear 108 router that would freeze up about once every 3 days and had to be restarted. Hope this helps.

[LateNightLurker]

Thanks for the input. I will update the firmware when I get home. If that doesn't work I will try it without the router. I do have a sinking suspicion that some sites are overloading my router as stated above (mainly myspace.com). I wouldn't use myspace at all except it's good advertising for my band.

[thehorse13]

Is this happening on myspace.com everywhere or on certain pages? Some poeple paste so much crap on those stupid sites of theirs that it may look like a lock up (false freeze) but in reality all the crap linked to the site isn't populating the screen. I have an old POS Linksys wireless B router at home and I've never had an issue with the myspace.com profiles I visit. Then again, I don't know many folks who link half the net to their sites but I've seen it done regularly.

Anyway, start with phisy's suggestion and dump the new firmware on there.

--TH13

[brokencrow]

You might also try bringing up a command prompt when this happens and see if you can ping, say, Google or Yahoo. I've seen PC's lock up on an app level (locked out browser) but still be connected to the web (pinging worked).

In fact, just talked a user thru something similar tonite. Both IE and FF failed to load webpages, but pinging Google worked fine. Ran thru the network setup wizard and she was fine. This one had to do with Norton's Internet Security Scheiss and MySpace. You might check any software firewall you're running. Some (Norton's!) are pretty convoluted.

C:\>ping www.google.com

[LateNightLurker]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the suggestions. Here's my update:

There were no firmware updates available. When connecting directly to my cable modem no problems persist leading me to believe the router is locking up with certain websites.

I took Brokencrow's suggestion and tried pinging goggle and sure enough I received a response. As stated before, it also shows I'm still connected via my IntelProset wireless radio, and all the cable/router lights are on and show no sign that it's not working. The IntelProset wireless radio shows no problems in the event viewer. When I disconnect and try to reconnect I cannot reconnect.

I'm not running anyway software firewall or antivirus. Windows firewall is enabled. At this point I'm not sure what to do as this just started happening in the past month or so. I've tried multiple web browsers as well. If an application is hanging or something of that nature where should I take a look to find this info? Should I still go through the network wizard although I'm connecting via IntelProset wireless (maybe a dumb question but I'm clueless)?

The only other thing I can think of is I reinstalled XP a while back. It was a custom install in which I removed unwanted components (ie. accessibility options, calculator, etc.) I did not remove anything I thought would effect wireless/internet connectivity.

Anyway, I just wrote a novel, and thanks to all that have read this and offered advice. If all else fails I may try a reinstall and see if that works. If not, perhaps a new router someone could suggest?

[morganlefay]

try lowering the MTU setting on the router....
default is 1492...I have solved issues with routers freezing up or not connecting to certain sites....and dropping connections by doing this.

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/695

do the ping test and see if the packets are fragmenting...then lower you setting by 10 til the packets stop fragmenting...that will be the optiiomal setting for MTU


Not sure why this happens.. but I think it is some incompatablity between modem and router....

In the PPPOE settings window on your router there maybe a area to lower this setting..

I dont change it on the machines...just the router.

Worth a try.

MLF

Edit> could be the router is flucked....you may want to try a newone.

Keep the box intact and buy it from a big box store...so if it acts the same...you can take it back...then call your ISP and start complaining.