Netgear FVS114 Router Drop-Out Problems

[Digital Puppy]

Well, I'm having the dreaded FVS114 router dropout problem...This is a replacement for an older Netgear model that couldn't pass the 10+ Mbps that my cable company was giving me. I liked the FVS114 because it could not only give me the speed, but the warranty was much better than the 'regular' consumer brand. I had heard about the dropouts, but I didn't really have any problems until recently.

Now, almost every time I go to the net, I'm having to reboot the router. And get this, I can use Azurus for days on end, but as soon as I fire up Outlook - bam, off it goes and I need to restart the router.

So, the point of this post is to ask the LR family for any advice to a router (non-wireless) that I can pick up that is solid and will give me throughput of 10+ Mbps. I don't really want to pay more than $100, but if it's solid, I'll grab it up.

I've opened a ticket with Netgear, but I can't wait for them to work through 3 tiers of tech support to finally realize that they need to send a new one out to me. I'm sure it will have the same problem eventually, so that's why I'm entertaining going in a completely different direction.

Thanks for reading, I look forward to your advice.

[dicecca112]

it may do wireless but still the best router on the market IMO http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellit ... 4139789B08

[kenc51]

it may do wireless but still the best router on the market IMO http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellit ... 4139789B08

Good choice!
DP you can disable wireless from the config page if you need. Also you can run a modded firmware to do some cool stuff as it's runs on the Linux kernel.

It can be got from for way less than $100 also ( around $60 )
http://legitreviews.shopping.com/xFS?KW ... uters&FD=0

If you need the IPsec support for VPN like the netgear FVS114, then this might be a better option, if you don't want to install modded software on the one linked above.
The one linked above has issues with dropping VPN connections with the Linksys firmware.
Linksys (WRT54GX2) Wireless Router - around $80
http://legitreviews.shopping.com/xPO-Li ... ith-SRX200
This one can't be modded though, AFAIK

[Digital Puppy]

Linksys (WRT54GX2) Wireless Router - around $80
http://legitreviews.shopping.com/xPO-Li ... ith-SRX200
This one can't be modded though, AFAIK

I know I can turn the wireless off - I'd rather save the money with one that doesn't have the wireless option, but whatever...does anyone know if I can get my full throughput of 10+Mbps? I'm assuming so.

Thanks for the inputs!

[Digital Puppy]

//newbie hat on//

So I'm doing some research on the WRT54GL and I keep seeing people who are "running DDR-wrt" on the router. I'm assuming that this is a 3rd party firmware for the Linksys, right? In a nutshell, what are the advantages of running this specific firmware over others? I've also heard about a "tomato" firmware

[ibleet]

I do like Linksys a lot, but having said that, I have been running this Belkin for well over a year now and it has been absolutely flawless for me. Running a wired cable network, I'm averaging 6.2 Mbits/s and never a drop-out. I'm using stock firmware but I have read that dd-wrt is excellent. Its 3rd party firmware, so check HERE and see if your device is supported.

[kenc51]

Here's a list of WRT-DD Firmware features
* 13 languages
* 802.1x Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)
* Access Restrictions
* Adhoc
* Afterburner
* Client Isolation Mode
* Client Mode (supports multiple connected clients)
* DHCP Forwarder (udhcp)
* DHCP Server (udhcp or Dnsmasq)
* DNS Forwarder (Dnsmasq)
* DMZ
* Dynamic DNS (DynDNS, easyDNS, FreeDNS, No-IP, TZO, ZoneEdit, custom, and others)
* Hotspot Portal (Sputnik Agent ,Chillispot)
* IPv6
* JFFS2 (JFFS2)
* MMC/SD Card Support (hardware modification required)
* NTP
* Ntop Remote Statistic
* OpenVPN Client & Server (only in -vpn build of the firmware)
* Port Triggering
* Port Fowarding
* PPTP VPN Server & Client
* QoS Bandwidth Management
* QoS L7 Packet Classifier (l7-filter)
* RFlow
* Routing (BIRD)
* Samba FS Automount
* Syslog
* Rx Antenna
* Tx Antenna
* Show Status of Wireless Clients and WDS with System Uptime/Processor Utilization
* Site Survey
* SNMP
* SSH server & client (dropbear)
* Startup, Firewall, and Shutdown scripts (startup script)
* Static DHCP
* Style (Changeable GUI; v.23)
* Supports New Devices (WRT54G V3, V3.1, V4, V5 and WRT54GS V2.1, V3, V4)
* Telnet server & client
* Transmit Power Adjustment (0-251mW, default is 28mW, 100mW is safe)
* UPnP
* VLAN
* WOL (Wake On Lan) (WOL)
* WDS Connection Watchdog
* WDS Repeater Mode
* Wireless MAC Address Cloning
* Wireless MAC Filter
* WMM (Wi-Fi MultiMedia QoS)
* WPA over WDS
* WPA/TKIP with AES
* WPA2
* Xbox Kaid (Kai Engine)

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wh ... F#Features

The stock firmware from Linksys runs on Linux code, WRT-DD is just a modded version with a lot of bug fixes and new features.

:edit:
I don't know anything about this "Tomato Firmware" but a google search came up with this: http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato
It must be new, WRT-DD has been around for a while now and I'd go with them first as it's probably more stable!

Also, I don't know if you're going to get 10mbps+ with any of the routers listed. While I don't know what CPU is in the WRT54GX2, the one listed by Dicecca has a Broadcom general purpose CPU running at 215MHz. May by if wireless is disabled it will do over 10mbps as it won't have to deal with WEP / WPA etc.
You are talking about PC to PC speeds and not WWW to PC, because if you need 10mbps + from the www to a PC, I doubt any of these routers can do that, not with the overhead of processing NAT and the SPI firewall, not to mention IPsec if your connected on a VPN.
Have you thought about getting a gigabit Ethernet switch? You could connect the switch to your existing router. The router will only have to deal with requests to www, assign IP address's and the switch can deal with everything else on the LAN. You can be sure you get 10mbps+ this way.