Wireless router...?

I've had a Linksys WRV54G wireless router for about a year and change now, and it's showing its age. Just today, the thing died 5-6 times and wouldn't start for a minute or two each time.

It's time for a new router.

I did some preliminary research, and found that the reason that my router had been such a problem (even before it started dying, it would drop the network all the time) was apparently because of overheating due to the load of running online games and my dad running P2P transfers all the time, and that for those kinds of loads a "business-class" router was recommended.

I did some more research, but the problem is that... well, I can't find any business-class routers period, much less reviews to see if they're any good.

Here's the layout: There are 3 computers on the network. Two of them, mentioned earlier, are high-bandwidth users, one running online games, and the other P2P transmissions. The third is USUALLY used just for web surfing, but occasionally it too runs online games. Every so often, a fourth or fifth laptop connects to the network, and my Wii does as well, although as of now the stress my Wii places on it is minimal.

The primary gaming computer (mine) will be in the same room as the router, and the P2P comp will be around 10 feet away, with 2-3 walls separating them. The others will only have 1 wall in between them, about 20-30 feet away. They are all equipped with the wireless-G standard connection, although I may see about upgrading my connection to the new N standard.

What would you recommend I buy?

Uhhh..... bump?

It died after one year of use? That has got to suck .
Before pronouncing it dead, did you at least attempt to upgrade the firmware? If you did, read on I suppose.

Not sure what you mean by business class routers, maybe you mean this? They are terribly expensive and I'm not sure you know how to configure cisco routers. And no, I'm not going to be your personal tech support for it =p.

What I think you need is a proven rock solid router. I'm sure others might disagree with me but I recommend nabbing a Linksys WRT54GL router. Like you, I've got everything but the kitchen sink using bandwidth through a router, that includes my little ftp setups. So far it hasn't died on me at all for the past three or four years. Well I take that back, when I first bought it the original firmware was causing problems (dropping connections during large file transfers) but a firmware upgrade quickly fixed that. In short it will probably be the only router you'll ever need.

Again I'm not quite sure why you need a business-level wireless router. Maybe you left out something?

Well, honestly I wouldn't pick one up, but I'd been reading around sites like Tom's Hardware that it's more or less what I'd need.

Looking at that router, though... I think that I'll stick to something else.

And that router looks good, but I'm rather wary of Linksys routers since my current piece of crap is a Linksys WRV54G, and it's been nothing but a pain since I got it. At first it wouldn't even interact with the modem, and then once it did the thing started dropping the network. Considering that it's at an excellent price point though, I might wind up grabbing it.

Originally Posted by The_Griffin

And that router looks good, but I'm rather wary of Linksys routers since my current piece of crap is a Linksys WRV54G, and it's been nothing but a pain since I got it. At first it wouldn't even interact with the modem, and then once it did the thing started dropping the network.

If you're running p2p software such as bittorent on your current router, then maybe you're just generating too many connections. Some routers have a pretty conservative limit on these things. You can fix that using a telnet script.

I had no end of troubles with my router until I figured that trick out.

Originally Posted by Soluzar

If you're running p2p software such as bittorent on your current router, then maybe you're just generating too many connections. Some routers have a pretty conservative limit on these things. You can fix that using a telnet script.

I had no end of troubles with my router until I figured that trick out.

The problem with it though is that it's dropped the network within 30 seconds of it restarting, and lately it's just outright turned itself off. When that happened, my dad's computer didn't have enough time to reconnect to the network. I'll give that a try, though.

192.168.0.1 23
WAIT "login:"
SEND "root\m"
WAIT "Password:"
SEND "admin\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "cd /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "echo 2048 > ip_conntrack_max\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "echo 50 > ip_conntrack_generic_timeout\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "echo 5 > ip_conntrack_tcp_timeout_close\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "echo 120 > ip_conntrack_tcp_timeout_close_wait\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "echo 1200 > ip_conntrack_tcp_timeout_established\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "echo 120 > ip_conntrack_tcp_timeout_fin_wait\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "echo 60 > ip_conntrack_tcp_timeout_time_wait\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "echo 10 > ip_conntrack_udp_timeout\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "cd /\m"
WAIT "#"
SEND "exit\m"

That script worked for me. Naturally you will need to put in your own router's IP, as well as the proper login details, but since I've run that script... it hasn't dropped the connection again. Mind you, this router is a POS. Just much less so with some tweaking.

Sorry about the wait on the delay, I've been busy for the past few days.

That script looks interesting, but I'm not quite sure how to run it. Pardon my ignorance, but I've mostly dealt with the user-level interface in the router, and I've never delved into the command-line.

Some specific information you might be interested in:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

As shipped, the Linksys firmware crashes under heavy peer-to-peer network traffic, such as BitTorrent. The reason for this crash is that Linux's connection tracking by default keeps track of old connections for five days. This five day limit quickly overwhelms the router when there are a high number of network connections, such as with BitTorrent, and can only be resolved by power cycling the router. For a detailed tutorial on how to permanently fix this issue on a pre-v5 router see the uTorrent FAQ[15]. Briefly, it involves installing a 3rd party firmware.

I don't know if this bug exists in the v5 and v6 routers, since they run VxWorks rather than embedded Linux.

That's very intriguing... My router's a WRV54G though, so it MAY not apply to me. I'll look into it more, though.