D-Link Router Issue

jArgHA

Hello

I wonder if anyone can shed some light on this issue which I have been experiencing consistently for the past 5 days or so:

I have Chorus BB Signal -> Motorola Cable Modem -> Dlink DI-624+ Router -> 2 x PC's (via cables, not wireless connections).

Internet browsing has been fine until a few days ago when I noticed that when visiting a webpage, it is now often necessary to Refresh the page once or twice before it is displayed (the standard "cannot find www.google.com" etc. page is displayed in Firefox). The same issue is occurring on the other PC which is connected to the Dlink router - page often needs to be refreshed before it is displayed).

I discovered that the issue is solved if I run a CAT5 cable directly from the modem to my PC's network card - there is no longer any problems where pages need to be refreshed often. This means the issue is related to the router.

I first thought that the router was dropping the connection to the PC's but this is not the case - doing a continuous ping from a command prompt (ping 192.168.0.1 -t) seems fine, all the ping requests are replied to. Could the problem somehow be DNS related - maybe not enough time is allowed for web addresses to be resolved or sumtin?

I have checked and re-checked all my router settings and they seem fine. The router is running the most up-to-date firmware available from the manufacturer (my model is DI-624+, Rev. B2, running Firmware v2.09).

Has anyone experienced similar issues (needing to refresh webpages before they are displayed) and if so have any insights on what is causing problem/how to resolve? Any help appreciated.

Cheers
jAH

dingding

Check the IP configuration.

ipconfig /all

Is the default gateway correct i.e. the routers ip address. what happens if you hard code in the IP address in the PC.

Cheers

jArgHA

looking at the ip configuration shows that the default gateway and DNS server is the same IP as the router, ie. 192.168.0.1 - see below

[PHP]Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : sunshine-c6txbx
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-5B-85-BA-0A
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.103
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 19 September 2006 09:34:22
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 26 September 2006 09:34:22[/PHP]

I have tried disabling DHCP on the router and assigning static ip addresses on the PC's but this made no difference, web pages still needed to be refreshed.

I should also mention that other internet services are not affected - I can play online games without any interruption. Only web browsing is causing an issue.

jAH

Foxwood

jArgHA wrote:

Only web browsing is causing an issue.

Are you getting the same behaviour in IE and Firefox?

fatherdougalmag

Might also be worth checking DNS as this has been an issue with NTL recently. Also check for modem reboots (another recent NTL behaviour). Instead of pinging your router, try ping -t'ing your Chorus gateway (should be able to get that info from the router's status page). Whilst you're at it, set up another one to the DNS's that are mentioned on that page too.

jArgHA

Foxwood wrote:

Are you getting the same behaviour in IE and Firefox?

Yes, the issue is happening across browsers.

fatherdougalmag wrote:

Might also be worth checking DNS as this has been an issue with NTL recently. Also check for modem reboots (another recent NTL behaviour). Instead of pinging your router, try ping -t'ing your Chorus gateway (should be able to get that info from the router's status page). Whilst you're at it, set up another one to the DNS's that are mentioned on that page too.

OK, trying a ping -t on the Chorus gateway (89.101.216.1) seems absolutely fine, a reply was returned to every single ping over a period of about 3-4 minutes. Continuous ping on DNS servers (83.167.224.60 & 195.162.196.5) also gives replies to every single ping over a test period of a few minutes ....

Ping statistics for 83.167.224.60:
    Packets: Sent = 223, Received = 223, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 59ms, Average = 20ms

Ping statistics for 195.162.196.5:
    Packets: Sent = 193, Received = 193, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 38ms, Maximum = 131ms, Average = 56ms

Regarding possible modem reboots, I don't think this is the case as when I connect the modem via ethernet directly to the PC (bypassing the router), the issue no longer appears. At this stage I am considering packing in the router and buying a new one... The problem is definitely DNS related - the resolving of hostnames is not consistent.

thanks for the tips, any other suggestions will be most welcome!

jAH

jArgHA

well I have decided to purchase a new router, and would appreciate any advice on a pretty solid and reliable wireless router. I think I will probably steer clear of Dlink after my experience with the current router mentioned above, I have also heard that Belkin and Netgear can be problematic, what does this leave?

any tips on a suitable router? (requirements: wireless AP, router, 3-4 network ports)

cheers
jAH

Foxwood

jArgHA wrote:

well I have decided to purchase a new router, and would appreciate any advice on a pretty solid and reliable wireless router. I think I will probably steer clear of Dlink after my experience with the current router mentioned above, I have also heard that Belkin and Netgear can be problematic, what does this leave?

any tips on a suitable router? (requirements: wireless AP, router, 3-4 network ports)

While I'm happily using a DI-624 right now to post this, probably the most widely recommended router is the Linksys WRT54GL
.

You might want to have a look at your MTU before spending any money, though it isn't usually a problem.