VM and Belkin modem/router

Beerbaron · 8 Feb 2009 at 17:43

I have a friend whos having problems getting their modem/router to connect to the internet. Cabled in to the VM modem her laptop works fine.

The belkin modem/router (F5D7230-4) has been working fine for a few months since they moved house but on Friday it stopped.

Im sometimes able to log in to it cabled (192.168.2.1) but other times i cant even tho it says connected. When i try searching via wireless most of the time it doesnt show up. When i can view it i can never connect and get a 169 ip address.

The wireless and internet icon lights can either be constantly on, off or flickering. Seems like it doesnt have a clue what its doing!

I have reset the modem/router and flashed to the latest firmware to no joy. I have also tried several combinations of rebooting VM modem and the router.

Any ideas other than its broken?

I dont have another cable modem/router to test.

LeeC · 9 Feb 2009 at 13:17

are you trying to connect with a macbook? If so, we have come accross problems with the wireless encryption which ultimately pulls out the wan services too.

Use WPA AES only. TKIP and WEP have problems.

v0dk4 · 9 Feb 2009 at 13:25

We used the same router on VM flawlessly for years (First as Telewest, then NTL and finally VM). It started doing all sorts of random things - very similar to what you describe. At first, a reboot would sort it - then after a few weeks we had to hard reset it to get things working again. Then after a few weeks it gave up the ghost all together. Belkin support officially pronounced it dead, after confirming it was well out of warranty :/

Have you tried a full reset on it (ie back to default configs then setting up from scratch)?

One thing we did also notice was that it was worse after 1 or more machines had been running torrents for an extended period of time - worth checking if something is overloading the router by opening way too many simultaneous connections...

Hope you get it sorted.

S

bledd · 9 Feb 2009 at 13:30

ditch it and get a WRT54GL and whack Tomato on it

errata · 9 Feb 2009 at 13:41

overheating and errors tend to get worse as these things age or as dust accumulates, psu's often go wonky as well

for free you could

check the psu cable connections firm (clean it if tarnished)
open up the case and blow out any dust.

do you have an alternative psu (usually 5 or 12V) univesal ones usually have a tip that will fit

however cable routers are very cheap and sopmething more compact and jsut as good or better will be £20 ish

Beerbaron · 9 Feb 2009 at 17:24

I reset it holding in the small button on the back so it was to default settings.

I dont have another psu to test it with.

I think my friend is just going to buy a new one

Its a HP G6000 with Vista home

bledd · 10 Feb 2009 at 12:17

bledd. said:
ditch it and get a WRT54GL and whack Tomato on it

get this one.

J.B · 10 Feb 2009 at 13:28

bledd. said:
ditch it and get a WRT54GL and whack Tomato on it

The man speaks truth, I've seen this exact model of Belking router cause problems countless times, they overheat like no bodies business, buying a second hand WRT54G was well worth the money when you consider the time I spent restarting it and the agrovation it caused.