Windows 7 W7 killing router?

[stregone1017]

Hi all, I'm new here and having a go at W7.

My problem: When ever i do certain things online that require large amounts of bandwidth my router seems to crap out and i have to restart it for it to gain internet access again. If i plug directly to my modem everything is fine so thats how i've come to the conclusion that its my router. It only seems to happen when im playing video games like WoW and occasionally CS:S, generally anything where there might be large ammounts of packet transfers. Heres a little info to help.

Router: linksys BEFSR41 v2 firmware 1.45
Network card: Realtek RTL8168B/8111B Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet
running w7 RC 7100

I've also tried unchecking IPv6 for good measure since my router is old, and forwarding any and all used ports for the applications that seem to kill it. For the record this doesnt happen in my XP or Vista 64 install.

Any ideas?

 

[Mr_Jones]

Possible Fix

Hello,

I know this seems diffucult to believe, however my router did the same thing, I have discovered that I had to
put a FAN on the router, it was OVERHEATING. yes OVERHEATING.

I believe that Win 7 RC has some sort of overhead that overworks the router.

My Wireless was cutting out first then the ethernet went next, I had to shut it off for a few minutes to reestablish the connection, I think I was letting it cool, however I didn't know it. I thought I was simply resetting it.

So once when I reset it I has put a key fob thermometer on the router and it was over 100 degrees, WOW
I put a fan blowing on the router and I have not had to re-set the router since.

Yes this may be only my router and yes it is hard to believe, I had an AirLink101 first, then bought a D-Link

BOTH did the same thing until I set the cooling fan, then both worked again.

you be the judge

Good Luck

Jones

 

[kevin from Chi-town]

Mr Jones...I hate to tell you but it doesn't work like that. A specific OS won't "overwork" a router to the point where its overheating. If its getting that hot, then you had that issue before

 

[Mr_Jones]

Freakishly ODD

Yep, I am sure your right, it is strange that a new router did the very same thing as the old one that worked fine before.

I have RC on two systems,

I'll bet I have a defect in the new router the same as the old router,

freakishly odd, that they now both work without the problem.

thanks for the advice

Jones

 

[Gazza]

ISP problems, let them know they need to fix something at there end, that and the router may not be compatable with your connection, yes some do conflict on your ISP connection.

 

[Ringo]

I'm having the exact same issue, and it's niether ISP problems or the router overheating. It's most definatly Windows 7. My PC dual boots with XP and 7 plus I have four other PCs on my network. One other desktop dual booting XP/7 two more running XP and one laptop using Vista.

The problem only occurs when either of the Windows 7 machines trys to use a large amount of bandwidth across multiple programs, and it's not actually the router, it's the local adapter on the specific machine that crashes, rebooting the router does fix it but thats just because it's retarting the whole network.

Specifically the problem occurs when I try to max out the bandwidth and then do anything else that requires it. For example downloading from somewhere that caps my connection and then trying to open an online game or streaming a high def video then trying to browse. Doing any one thing seems fine, I can download at about 1000 kbps (about max for me) and it's quite stable, but as soon as I try and do anything else the adapter crashes and needs to be restarted.

Anyone got any ideas what might be causeing it? I got a error message once that suggested it might be something to do with DHCP (something like "That IP is assigned to another computer" or words to that effect) but the message hasn't appeared again and I can't see anything wrong with my network settings. It's also one of those problems that's rather difficult to find because it only happens after a few minutes, so you have to change one thing wait for it to crash, change another, wait, etc ...takes forever.

Edit - I found the error message I got from a different unrelated thread. It was "The Network Adaptor "Local Area Connection" does not have a valid IP Configuration"

 

[Ringo]

On a side note, Mr Jones, I've found router deisgn in general is terrible. So many of the models from major companys have fairly major design flaws. Overheating is normally the biggest problem. For example I used to have a Speedtouch that wouldn't work unless you turned it upside down because some genius decided the best place to put the heat vent was on the bottom. ¬_¬

If you put it the right way up it would crash in about 20 minutes, turn it upside down and it was totally stable.

 

[eddiepscetti]

I'm not sure if my issue is the same or not, but my network connection seems fine with W7 but appears to be stuffed in XP (I'm dual booting on one system.) I've tried everything I can think of in XP, but the network card won't grab an IP address and tells me I have limited or no connection. The only thing I haven't done is reboot the router, but since W7 is working fine I didn't think it was necessary. Any suggestions? This is driving me bat-crazy since I'm unable to check my e-mail in W7.

 

[Ringo]

I'm not sure if my issue is the same or not, but my network connection seems fine with W7 but appears to be stuffed in XP (I'm dual booting on one system.) I've tried everything I can think of in XP, but the network card won't grab an IP address and tells me I have limited or no connection. The only thing I haven't done is reboot the router, but since W7 is working fine I didn't think it was necessary. Any suggestions? This is driving me bat-crazy since I'm unable to check my e-mail in W7.

Rebooting the router is step one of any networking issue. Why would you not try that? You don't lose anything by rebooting it and that's all you need to do to fix the majority of networking problems.

 

[eddiepscetti]

Yes, you would be correct. The only reason is because my wife works from home and everytime I wanted to do so, she would be doing something 'critical'. As they say, happy wife, happy life. Also, as I mentioned, I have not had any issues with the router in the past, so I honestly didn't even think about rebooting it until I saw it posted here.

 

[kevin from Chi-town]

hey boys...what type router is in question here?

 

[eddiepscetti]

I have a Linksys WTR54G.

 

[kevin from Chi-town]

same as mine...this issue was brought up before, read through here.... http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-support/1499-router-issues-2.html

I suggest unchecking IP 6 for starters....repost with results

 

[eddiepscetti]

Thanks Kevin, I'll give that a try when I get home tonight. I read the link you provided and it sounds a lot like what I've been experiencing.

 

[Windows 7]

i had a similar problem, same symptoms but not win 7 related though. it was a comcast issue. my problem was fixed by cloning the mac address of the computer when connected directly to the modem.

 

[kevin from Chi-town]

when using a wireless router with comcast, you need to clone the mac of the pc from which the comcast was initially set up. you're right windows....this is also applicable when comcast is your isp

 

[eddiepscetti]

Kevin, I unchecked IPv6, rebooted the router and my computer with the same results. I've since uninstalled W7 thinking that may resolve the problem, but it hasn't. Now, for all intents and purposes, I have a paperweight until I can get the stupid network card to work.

 

[kevin from Chi-town]

what are your pc's specs? if its a laptop give model #

 

[eddiepscetti]

Kevin, in another thread I started under support it was suggested that I try doing a netsh winsock reset. I honestly didn't think it was going to work, but after I rebooted the cards started connecting. For future reference, there are heaps of options with netsh that people can try that just might solve the problem. In my case, it was the one suggested to me.

Thanks everyone for your help on this issue. I can now say I'm good to go and have access again.

 

[stregone1017]

Ok now that my thread has been derailed, anyone have any ideas on my original problem?

Router is not over heating from what i can tell, coldest room in the house and isn't very warm to the touch.

I don;t really want to go out and buy a new router only for it not to help since it doesn't seem that anyone has made any W7 friendly networking gear yet. Does anyone recommend any tools to help diagnose network errors or anything that could monitor my router for errors? Or are there any type of MTU tweaks or anything known out there for W7 i could try?