# networking issue



## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

I just wanted to know if you could give me some advice. The router I have is a Linksys 802.11g 2.4GHz router with speed booster. The wireless card I have in my desktop is a wireless G 802.11b/g card. My router is using wep encryption and its only allowing g devices. I am losing connection a lot while playing my game but the signal is at 100%. I have tried so many things. Its only my computer running and I have a 7 meg cable modem. If you got anything let me know thanks guys.


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## beyond_amusia (Feb 16, 2008)

Disable the WEP and use MAC Filtering instead. WEP causes all sorts of issues.


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## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

really?? wow thanks so much Ill try that..


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## beyond_amusia (Feb 16, 2008)

np.  MAC filtering is not "secure" but it keeps people off your network.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 16, 2008)

Wep shouldn't be causing you to get kicked, and MAC filtering is useless.  If you are going to disable WEP, you might as well just put up a big sign asking people to steal your wireless.  It is amazingly easy to pick a MAC address out of the air and clone it.

What model exactly is your router, and what version?  Are you using one of those cheap wireless cards?


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## beyond_amusia (Feb 16, 2008)

Well, the WEP here causes havoc on my gaming. I drop a cable to the router at night so my roomies cannot bitch, hehe


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## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

wrt54gs vers 5 with latest firmware. My wireless card is a 802.11 g wireless card I just went to best buy and bought a 40 dollar one


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## LiveOrDie (Feb 16, 2008)

wireless suck for gaming sounds like its lag if you have a slow wireless card go out and get a faster one like 108 Mbps


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## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

my router only supports 54 mbps though so it would be a waste.. And I don't understand how it would lag its 100 % connectivity no one else on the router


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## LiveOrDie (Feb 16, 2008)

even with 100 % connectivity thats not the speed of the wireless link are you getting the full 54mbps? sound line your link cant handle stress


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## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

it jumps between 54 and 48 what do you mean can't handle stress


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## LiveOrDie (Feb 16, 2008)

well when i was using wireless i would have 100 % connectivity but i would get lag and get kick of low ping severs because my line keep jumping speeds with to much stress , but sounds like you mite have your network set up wrong or your using a old wireless card


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## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

I just bought the wireless card yesterday. Plus when I play games my ping is only about 40 to 90 never over 90 just I seem to lose connection a lot


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## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

is there any configuration the would cause this? I really don't understand what I would have set up wrong..


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## LiveOrDie (Feb 16, 2008)

what os are you using? maybe try setting up the configuration again still use wep do you use it with a password? im guess that the router is new to


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## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

yes router new windows xp and yes a password


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## newtekie1 (Feb 16, 2008)

Wireless shouldn't be causing these issues.  I game on wireless all the time.  My PS3 is using wireless G(54Mb/s) and games just fine and my Athlon X2 4400+ machine is on wireless B(11Mb/s) and neither lag at all in online games.  Internet connections are a lot slower than even wireless B.

However, it could be several things.  Something could be interferring with your wireless connection.  Cordless phones, microwaves, and any number of other devices that put out interferrence could be causing your connection to drop.

Try going into your router and changing what channel it runs on under wireless settings.  Try different channels until you find one that works.

If that doesn't solve the problem, it might be your router.  The WRT54GS v4 and higher have reduce RAM, which means they aren't able to handle a large number of connections, which can hinder online gaming.  However, if that was the case, it would affect wired gaming also.


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## syphorous523 (Feb 16, 2008)

hmmm I tried that.. I dont have any cordless phones in my apartment and when I changed to a different channel the one I am on now is pretty good. But it still drops connection a lot more than it should.. any other ideas. There are many other routers in my complex could that be interfering?


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## mrhuggles (Feb 16, 2008)

its probably the router crashing, i suggest since you are running a WRT54GS v5.0 that you install DD-WRT Micro [i would suggest openWRT but you dont have enough room to run it with X-wrt just the micro version which is oldschool style not user friendly] ddwrt is not anywhere near as awesome as openWRT and its not quite as stable, but its like 100x more stable than VXWorks ftlog.


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## syphorous523 (Feb 17, 2008)

do you mean install that on the router or my pc? Cause I tried everything else and still losing packets like crazy. When I stay connected it is super fast but I guess I drop packets and get disconnected. I am so mad right now I just want to get this working so some one please help


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## Mussels (Feb 17, 2008)

its entirely possible something is jamming it. all 2.4GHz devices (microwaves, bluetooth, other wifi equip (some cordless phones) all fight for the same bandwidth.

Try changing the channel in the router (1 through 11 is normally available).

The less likely possibility is that someone is hacking it, forcing a disconnection is a popular way to speed up the breaking of an encryption key - go to WPA/WPA2 if possible, rather than WEP.

MAC address filtering is useless as already stated, as you can fake those with ease if you know how.


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## syphorous523 (Feb 17, 2008)

I have try all the channels my best one seems to be nine still not as close to as good as wired. I am using wpa psk now also.


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## syphorous523 (Feb 17, 2008)

there will also be times when my wireless on windows will say i am connected when i cannot get out and when i ping something it comes back after 10 seconds


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## newtekie1 (Feb 17, 2008)

That could be a software issue with your wireless card, what wireless card do you have?

I know a lot of wireless cards have very dodgy software.  The software can cause the connection to drop or reset, or if the software crashes it will cause you to lose the connection, even if Windows says you are connected.


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## Mussels (Feb 17, 2008)

syphorous523 said:


> there will also be times when my wireless on windows will say i am connected when i cannot get out and when i ping something it comes back after 10 seconds



if you dont get the same issues over wired, i'd merely tell you to ditch wireless entirely. For all we know you are in a very wireless heavy area (neighbours have 10 bluetooth phone headsets, etc etc) - if you cant run a cable, look into homeplug technology (its wired, but over the houses power wiring. sounds freaky, but it works fine and its safe)


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## Ehstii (Feb 20, 2008)

newtekie1 said:


> Wep shouldn't be causing you to get kicked, and MAC filtering is useless.  If you are going to disable WEP, you might as well just put up a big sign asking people to steal your wireless.  It is amazingly easy to pick a MAC address out of the air and clone it.
> 
> What model exactly is your router, and what version?  Are you using one of those cheap wireless cards?



its just as easy to hack a WEP

litterally one button click.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 20, 2008)

Ehstii said:


> its just as easy to hack a WEP
> 
> litterally one button click.



No, WEP isn't nearly as easy to hack as simple MAC filtering.  Two totally different setups processes are needed, one is far more complicated than the other.  Though the effectiveness of wireless security isn't the topic of this thread so lets just drop it.


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## mrhuggles (Feb 20, 2008)

since it is while you are playing your game, maybe it is the router crashing? consumer routers crash constantly, WRT54GS v5.0 is compatible with dd-wrt micro [and openWRT micro but thats not for someone who doiwsnt know what they are doing yet] if it is your router crashing or many different wifi problems thatd prolly fix it. i used to have a WRT54GS v6.0 running dd-wrt micro, it was pretty good, especialy coming up from the good old VXWorks oh yeah! if thats not something you feel comfortable doing lets see, wifi problems hmm, well setting it to B+G mode is good, turn off all your extra features, limit it to 1mbit or so, these things will probably help. b+g mode is very important, g only is extremely incompatible. [sorry, im not really sure why, but i know for a fact that it is from experience]
good luck man, getting good wifi is not easy, for most people its not even practical, it can be done tho  promise.

oh and as a rule, dont play games on wifi, it is like horrible for that


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## Mussels (Feb 20, 2008)

newtekie1 said:


> No, WEP isn't nearly as easy to hack as simple MAC filtering.  Two totally different setups processes are needed, one is far more complicated than the other.  Though the effectiveness of wireless security isn't the topic of this thread so lets just drop it.



it COULD be related. WEP and MAC address filtering are easy to hack, and the most common method to do is to disconnect the user and catch packets as they reconnect. That is why we suggested moving to WPA, which he has done without solving the problem.


One suggetsion to fix router crashes is to clear and disable all logfiles - i know torrents can cause the log to fill, using all RAM in the router and making it crash.


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## mrhuggles (Feb 21, 2008)

really? ive never had any luck with dissableing log files, actually with all the consumer router software I've tried, i would try everything you could think of even manualy playing with the config, the only thing that *ever* worked for me was setting a DMZ, which makes a crashy router loose 100% of its crashyness related to being used, since it doesnt route incoming packets any more after that, my netgear router was only crashing about once every 12 days or so after that...


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## newtekie1 (Feb 21, 2008)

Mussels said:


> One suggetsion to fix router crashes is to clear and disable all logfiles - i know torrents can cause the log to fill, using all RAM in the router and making it crash.



Yes, that is a common problem with routers.  Torrenting quickly fills the log files, and causes crashes.  The WRT54G is particularly bad about this with the stock firmware.  I agree with the idea of installing one of the 3rd party firmwares available to try and solve this.


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## mrhuggles (Feb 21, 2008)

oh yeah your right, connection tracking, getting a buffer overflow, thats one possibility, dunno if i'd call connection tracking a log, more like a cache, but yeah huh that was the problem with oldlinux firmwares, VXWorks ofcource has that problem too and many many others, anyone care to speculate whats up with VXWorks being like that?


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## Mussels (Feb 21, 2008)

mrhuggles said:


> oh yeah your right, connection tracking, getting a buffer overflow, thats one possibility, dunno if i'd call connection tracking a log, more like a cache, but yeah huh that was the problem with oldlinux firmwares, VXWorks ofcource has that problem too and many many others, anyone care to speculate whats up with VXWorks being like that?



No idea what vxworks etc is...

The reason the router fills up, is that blocked connections are treated by the firewall as hack attempts. So it fills up with hundreds of connections a second at times... this runs out of ram fast, and bye bye router as it reboots.


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