My DSL is droping connection with new WIFI router

Im not sure what or how is this happening, but i decided to buy an router/wifi to add coverage to my house, with really good reviews Buffalo Technology WHR-HP-G54, i tried once i got it (with stock settings) and when i connected it to my belkin dsl model/router it dropped my connection i though was a one time thing while it booted, as its not a permanent drop in internet but just temporarily. I then upgraded the firmware to tomato 1.27 and it seems to do the same.

The lost of internet is weird, no lights go down, simply stops blinking transmitting for around 10sec (sometimes more sometime less), all the lights stay the same (just stops blinking like when its transmitting), when i disconnect the Buffalo router the random dc stop completely and never i get any problems with losing the internet. I also tried different ports, and unpluging and rebooting the belkin dsl modem/router and buffalo wifi/router. I called my ISP they said they didn't see any overflow on overload on the dsl modem/router. One last thing atm the buffalo router/wifi is not setup as bridge, not sure if this would make a difference.

Maybe someone here can help me out, idk what else to try or what could be this problem related to, maybe i should buy another router, or exchange the current dsl modem, but maybe its something simpler than this.

 

See if you can find a config setting for the LCP echo interval. It could be too frequent, in which case your ISP would ignore the echos and the modem would renegotiate, so you should also try a longer interval. It's hard to tell without a log.

There should hopefully be a logging option in the router's options to tell you exactly what is going wrong.

 

How are you connecting the 2 routers together? Belkin lan to Buffalo wan/lan? If you are going to tie 2 routers together it's best to have a master and turn the second one into switch w/wireless. I use dd-wrt on my Buffalo router connected lan to lan. DHCP disabled, all handled by the upstream router.

 

Yeah if both are routers that's gonna give you a bad time. So turn off the router on one of them. They are probably both running a DHCP server, so that could be the reason for the constant drops. Again, check your logs, that should give you the clue you need.

 

I agree, IP addressing conflict. But Belking is a bad brand anyway.

 

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me, i really appreciate the interest in something that i really not that skilled.

Mmmm, im not sure both are routers, im assuming the belkin is (im not home till the weekend so i cant post the model or most spefics), its like 4 port 10/100 with an extra input for the phone line, with 2 antenas a/b/g wifi, doesnt have a LAN port just like a 4 port switch. The other i just bought Buffalo Technology WHR-HP-G54.

Atm im just using the one belkin 4 ports (i think using 4th) with RJ cat6 cable wired (like 20meters) to the 4th port on the Buffalo (not using the lan port), in the bottom the buffalo has 2 settings switch (if i remember correctly i think one is bridge and the other router, not sure though).

One of the bad things about my ISP is that they preconfig their routers/dsl modems, like its a box that you get when i sign the 2 year contract. I have no control on it, not i can access the advance settings on it, i cant even buy a new version, it has always has to be thru them and never allow anything extra at least a dsl modem. I tried a lot of time to get the password so i could access the config, but i have had no luck with the tecnitians . I can access the buffalo with Tomato firmware though in case that would help or give some info that you guys might find usefull to help me.

The bad thing is i cant chose, at the moment i sign the contract it was only belkin in stock, and i cant even chose anyother brands even if i paid out of my pocket, they dont setup anyother modems than what they have contracts with companies, and even if its from the same company if its not the same model they wont even set it up, has to come from them. But atm my contract has expire, so i can get another for free, i just called my ISP and atm they only modem they are using is Thompson, havent heard anything from that brand to see if its worth it.

Thanks again for the help, this is really driving me nuts, if you guys need something extra let me know, atm im not home but will be on friday and probably the weekend so i could run whatever you guys want.

 

You are connecting 2 routers together. I think all you need to do is login to the Buffalo and turn off DHCP If your running def on both you may have overlapping IP's address. The very bottom port on the Buffalo is the WAN/Internet port. To check what IP address the Belkin and Buffalo are issuing is to do a direct connect without the cable tying them together. Once connected check to see what IP is issued as well as gateway and dns server IP's. Def are normally 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 I have dd-wrt firmware in my Buffalo and do not recall exactly where you need to got to turn off the DHCP. I loaded the dd-wrt for better stability on the wireless. If I recall there was an option for turning the buffalo into a AP, which is what your wanting the wireless for. It is not required to switch to AP if you just turn off dhcp. Then assign a static IP (outside of the DHCP Range) to the sub routers. This allows you to access the admin page without directly connecting to it and trying to find what IP address was assigned by the upstream router (Belkin).

You need to have the SSID broadcasted. If not it will drop when the rotating key expires and new one exchanged. Setup the wireless for WPA(2) AES Personal for best performance. Use a unique SSID so you will not have conflicts.

Since your ISP has completely locked end users out of the hardware does make admin and security a little more difficult. And you do not know what ports they have open for snooping. Go here https://www.grc.comto check what ports are open.

As far as Belkin, they do not even make good boat anchors...... I have yet to find any of there hardware stable and reliable.

 

I didn't realize your modem is a modem/router when I first posted, it's probably not an issue with the actual DSL circuit if that end hasn't changed. I assumed you had a modem and a NEW router, but what you have is a new router on top of your existing router. What you need to do is turn your new router into AP-only (wireless access point) mode, and disable DHCP on the new router, so that it doesn't conflict with your DSL modem/router. Once you do that it should hopefully solve your connection dropping problem.

ROFL... +1

 

Im home , thanks again for all your efforts trying to help, bare with me on this a little as im really a noob into setting up this things.

Ill try to follow your suggestions, but i have a couple of questions and some screen maybe you guys can help me or guide me.

Since you both agree into the DHCP, i went in . but the menu has lot of options, not sure if i have to change something in 1 or only in 2 (see pic pls)

 

#2 un check the box, it Impacts the lan and connect the main router in to ports 1-4. Do not use the WAN port.

You can disable on Option 1, but not needed if you do not connect through it.

 

It worked, im really happy, been browsing for 4 hours not a single drop on my main desktop (wired to the belkin), by now i should dropped at least a couple of times, will do more testing but its seems fine, the way it was before having the extra wifi.

Thanks again for all the time you invested helping me, +rep .

 

Glad to hear it worked.

 

I looked at your admin page you posted and am wondering if TKIP encryption will limit your signal output.

 

As i said before, im fairly new to all this.

is TKIP bad? or do you suggest to be changed to anything else?

 

I did not catch that he was using TKIP.

If your running TKIP, it's breakable, just change it to WPA(2) AES Personal to improve your security. TKIP and some drivers do not play well.

 

Bad news, upon further testing it has the same behavior losing the internet in both the wired directly to belkin (desktop) and thru the wifi of the buffalo (mutiple laptops).

Ill drop the TKIP, but still kinda frustrating that i keep losing the internet up both being connected, once i unplug the cable that goes to the Buffalo the belkin never drops.

 

It sounds like Belkin is doing what it does best, throw craps. I had one client that went through 4 before he got a good one.

 

Finally one of the ISP workers felt my pain and gave me the password to enter the the advance settings on the belkin (dsl modem/router) , I just tested it and im in.

So i come back to you guys since I still have the same problem as before, with the losing the connection on the belkin (even my desktop wired to the belkin loses connection) when the buffalo is pluged (not instantly but in time i lose access to the internet, dhcp is disabled already on the buffalo), but now i can access both belkin n buffalo (tomato) in case you guys think any info might find useful to help me solve this trouble. Btw if i never plug the buffalo, i never have this problem so im assuming is something that the buffalo is doing to the belkin, again not that good with this things.

Thanks again for your time, heres to hoping i can get this combo work, or least to know if its the belkin so i ask my isp to change me to another dsl modem/router.

 

Set the Belkin to bridge ( I think DHCP needs to be on) will get the Buffalo working. But your problem is that the Belkin will still hang up and halt internet traffic.

 

Thanks again for trying to still help me, here some screens of both the belkin (dsl modem/router) and Buffalo (router WIFI only wanna be ) maybe you guys can see something i should change or see the things that its causing the problem, btw im sorry tried to find a way to change the belkin to english but no were to be found, just spanish, some have the abbreviations but if you need some kind of tranlation let me know.

 

2 things that showed up. You have dhcp turned off on the Buffalo routers (lan) side but not on the WAN side.

You also have both router DHCP range on the same subnet. This can not be, it just screws up mapping.

I use dd-wrt on the same buffalo router and have not problems. I would turn on the DHCP on the Belkin. Now you need to decide if you want all of the control to be the Belkin or Buffalo. If you want Belkin to be the main router you turn the Buffalo into a switch w/wireless. To do this turn off DHCP on the Buffalo, assign an IP address out side of the range used on the Belkin. This is a problem because it is using the full range. Change the range to only cover 50 ip's like 50-100. Now connect lan to lan. All of the dhcp will be handled by the Belkin.

Your other option is to have the Buffalo control your local lan except Internet/WAN connection. This ends up being a double NAT with is good for security if you do not need to access your network from the outside. To do this you need to change the subnet on the Buffalo Lan to 192.168.2.1/255.255.255.0 Then connect Belkin Lan to Buffalo WAN. If you do heavy file transfer this may be the better solution. I would also add a security rule into the belkin to pass all to the buffalo (DMZ).

If I recall this Belkin is a modem/router combo? If it's not there is one more option you have. Use only the Buffalo.

Have the MAC address for the Belkin cloned into the Buffalo. Setup the PPPoE and see it it will connect. If so your problems may have been solved.

None of this matters if the Belkin must be in the circuit and can not handle the traffic. Belkin has a history of not being stable, constant lockup and drops, if they even work at all.

I hope this helps....

 

Thanks for your help blue68f100, i think its fixed (kinda early to tell but 5 hours and no losing of internet on the desktop or 3 laptops on wifi), i left the belkin dhcp on, turn off the buffalo dhcp (lan and wan), changed the range of dhcp ips for the belkin from 11-254, moved the buffalo ip to 10 static.

Weird that my isp doesnt allow users to enter the advance settings, where i need to be able to move the dhcp range to fix this problem.

Btw a friends suggested to also put my desktop into a static ip like i put the buffalo since i have 8 atm, any advantages/disadvantages of doing this? or do you guys recommend to do it?

 

I do not like static IP's for normal use. If the DNS numbers change you will have the old numbers. Some router have an advanced feature called reserved IP. This will assign any IP of your choosing Iin range or out of range) based on the MAC address of the hardware. I use this instead of static for servers, printers ......

Unless you need some adv feature in the Belkin, the Buffalo is a better router. Then load dd-wrt firmware to the buffalo then you have more features and settings that you get lost in them. Give you great vercetility and a lot of advanced settings. I use the dd-wrt due to it's stability. I would consider loading the buffalo with the dd-wrt firmware. It may have what you need for it direct connect replacing the Belkin all together.

 

I would like to move on to better hardware even if it was out of my own pocket, but im not sure i can, i mean my belkin (dsl and router) has 4 lan ports and one that the telephone line enters for the dsl. Not sure if i can get something that has the same design that would work with my isp (he doesnt allow users to config them so im not sure i could make it work), in here our isp has like prebuild packages that have the routers and spliters that are already preconig just plug n play on your house telephone line, but i would love to get something that its more advance and secure, but ikd really if my isp will allow it, or even if i could config it to work with my current line.