Problems with BEFSR41 router please recommend me a better one

Mark A · 2 Jan 2008 at 18:16

Hi,

Ive got a Linksys router and I'm having problems forwarding ports for P2P and torrents. I setup a static ip and forwarded the correct ports and all seemed fine, until it started randomly loosing the connection every 3-4 mins :mad:

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It seems to be a widespread problem as one of the comments on here also shows.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-028-LS&tool=3

Thats the exact problem I'm having and there doesn't seem to be a fix.

So I'm after a decent wired router for around £50 tops, if i can get something decent for that?. Please only recommend a router you have used and can confirm that ports can be forwarded without this problem as i was actually recommended this router on here

.

Thanks

Mark

tolien · 2 Jan 2008 at 21:53

Linksys WRT54GL?
You can disable the wireless, it's a good bit less than £50 and it shouldn't have a problem forwarding ports - not that the BEFSR41 should either :confused:

ns400r · 2 Jan 2008 at 22:23

Yep, WRT54GL, great little router.

Port forwarding always worked (and still does) fine on my BEFSR41 but the huge amount of ports that are opened by Torrent software usually kills the internet connection on it. No way to limit the incoming connections to the router, unlike the 54GL. You can limit the amount of open ports used in the Torrent software but that doesn't stop the external clients flooding the router.

Mark A · 2 Jan 2008 at 22:37

In the options on Azureus Ive changed the port (listening port)? to 57500 and theres another port (Incoming port number) which is default 80. These are the 2 ports Ive forwarded on my router.

With both Azureus and Shareaza after a couple of mins i see the "network cable unplugged" icon in task bar then it disappears. This happens a few times then it goes off for longer and msn signs out etc.

Could this be a setting i need to change then?, anything i could check?.

Thanks for the help

tolien · 2 Jan 2008 at 23:24

There should be options for maximum connections overall and maximum connections opened per unit time.

In Azureus one of the options is Tools -> Options -> Connection -> Advanced Network Settings -> Max simultaneous outbound connection attempts.

Mark A · 2 Jan 2008 at 23:53

Tolien said:
There should be options for maximum connections overall and maximum connections opened per unit time.

In Azureus one of the options is Tools -> Options -> Connection -> Advanced Network Settings -> Max simultaneous outbound connection attempts.

Ive just had a look and its set to 8, is that to high?. Will lowering this lower my download speed as I'm already getting really slow speeds.

Thanks

tolien · 3 Jan 2008 at 00:26

No, it should be fine - there should also be a total connections option somewhere.
Whether it'll affect your transfer rates depends on exactly how low you set it and how many torrents you have running at once.

Mark A · 3 Jan 2008 at 17:08

Thanks for the reply, i cant seem to find a setting for total connections, is it any of the below settings?.

Mark A · 4 Jan 2008 at 21:07

Does anyone else have any advice before i buy a new router?, don't really want to waste £40 if its a setting I'm doing wrong.

TIA

ns400r · 4 Jan 2008 at 23:32

Max Connections Globally is what your looking for, but........

Get a new router, it'll be much better in the long run. Linksys WRT54GL gets my vote.

tolien · 5 Jan 2008 at 00:32

Which is why we're suggesting the GL - the v4 WRT54G that you can buy new.

tolien · 5 Jan 2008 at 01:47

The GS suffers from the same lobotomisation as the G.
Ultimately next to no e-tailer will give you, or will guarantee, the version number so you need a model that's near-guaranteed to be fine, which the GL is - and the third party firmware will normally let you enable Speedbooster (which is the only difference the GS has anyway).

There are other firmwares than DD-WRT as well - Tomato is fairly popular, and there's a decent list at www.linksysinfo.org.

Mark A · 5 Jan 2008 at 07:18

Wow thanks a lot for all the help guys

, looks like I'll be purchasing a new router then. Well it'll be my sister and brother who have to buy it as they want to use my connection for her new laptop and xblive.

Cheers

Mark A · 6 Jan 2008 at 19:58

Sorry to bump my thread but i just have 1 more question. I'm going to get a new router anyway but could just do with a temporary fix until i get it. Sick of my Internet keep cutting out.

Max Connections Globally is what your looking for, but........

Get a new router, it'll be much better in the long run. Linksys WRT54GL gets my vote.

What would i set Max Connections Globally to in order to stop Azureus disconnecting my Internet?. At the moment i have it set to 0 which = unlimited, what setting would stop it from disconnecting but not slow it down to much?.

Obviously I'm going to have to fine tune a bit but i could just do with a rough figure, i don't know if its 500 or 10.

My connection is with Virgin Media and is the L package which is supposed to be 4MB if that hlp.

Thanks

ns400r · 6 Jan 2008 at 20:46

Mark A said:
Sorry to bump my thread but i just have 1 more question. I'm going to get a new router anyway but could just do with a temporary fix until i get it. Sick of my Internet keep cutting out.

What would i set Max Connections Globally to in order to stop Azureus disconnecting my Internet?. At the moment i have it set to 0 which = unlimited, what setting would stop it from disconnecting but not slow it down to much?.

Obviously I'm going to have to fine tune a bit but i could just do with a rough figure, i don't know if its 500 or 10.

My connection is with Virgin Media and is the L package which is supposed to be 4MB if that hlp.

Thanks

Set it to something along the lines of 128. Doubt this will cure the problem as the router will still get hit by more connection attempts than that when you run a torrent app but at least the torrent app will ignore the extra connections. The fault is with the router and the number of connections it is establishing, the torrent app is initiating them but there are too many for the router to handle so it crashes. You'll still get lots of connection attempts through the route that are refused by the torrent app but the router still has to handle them and that is what causes the problem. With a 54GL and Tomato firmware (for example), it is possible to set rules up on how to deal with unwanted connections. This along with a much higher number of accepted connections before the 54GL crashes will help out a lot when using torrent apps.

tolien · 6 Jan 2008 at 21:17

Incoming connections will be dropped fairly quickly by the router, whereas outgoing connections will create an entry in the NAT table (which is the real problem).

There's no "right answer" - the only way to find out how many is too many is trial and error.

ns400r · 6 Jan 2008 at 21:35

From memory the BEFSR41 has quite a high timeout on incoming connections but trial and error before a new purchase won't hurt any.

tolien · 6 Jan 2008 at 21:52

It shouldn't have any timeout - if it doesn't match an entry in the NAT table (or a forwarded port), it should get dropped.

If it's tracking blocked incoming connections, it's being even more stupid and someone clearly needs a smack.