Linksys Wireless Router

I am using a Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router - the main machine it
is hard wired to is a new Dell Dimension 9200 with Windows Vista - there are
4 XP machines that use it on and off as well as a Dell wireless printer. The
network connections are notoriously finicky. Once in a while it will drop
completely - more often than not it is slow or inconsistent or will briefly
drop and then come back - for all of these symptoms, unplugging the router
and plugging it back in clears it up for a while. Any ideas on causes or
cures?

It's a problem with the Linksys router. I'm guessing you have a newer one,
probably version 5 or 6. They are known to be finicky like that. You may try
going to the Linksys site and see if a new firmware is available. There is
also a third party firmware available (DD-WRT) which works GREAT, but with
that version of router, it's a pain to install.

I have a WRT54G (version 5) and a WRT54GL (which runs the Linux based
software), both running DD-WRT, and it improves the reliability quite a bit.

Thanks Dustin - glad to know it was not just me... your assumptions are
correct, its a couple of months old. On the firmware side, Linksys does not
seem in any way interested in updating the software for this machine so the
third party idea is interesting to me. I am a fairly competent user, what
does "pain to install" mean. If there are clear set of directions I am
pretty much up for it.

Cures? I'm running essentially the same setup with all Linux systems and
zero problems.

First off, here is the site for the firmware. http://www.dd-wrt.com/
And to install it on the Version 5 or 6, there are just a few more steps:
http://scorpiontek.org/portal/content/view/27/36/

The Version 2.4 isn't available for the version 5/6's yet (they only have 3
MB RAM, and the image is too big). So, you will have to run the 2.3 Micro
version. I'm running that on mine and it works like a champ.

It makes it a bit more stable and gives you a lot more features. I love my
router after flashing it, and everytime I recommend the WRT54G routers, I
tell them to get the WRT54GL (more RAM, runs Linux) and flash it to DD-WRT.

If you are running with SSID Broadcast disabled,enable it. This might help.

Try changing the MTU to Manual and the Size to 1300 on the Basic Setup
page in the router's control panel. I was having the same problems
with mine. Some days I might have to power cycle 3-4 times a day
because it would drop the internet connection. I called Linksys up and
they told me to do that. It still does it every few days, but not near
as frequently as it was. If I turned it down a little more it might
eliminate it altogether, but I haven't tried that yet.


--
memberinmo