Router Unstable

[Primaris_B]

Hey guys, first post. Naturally the first post comes because I'm in need of help lol.

Was hoping you guys could help me with this. I'll explain the situation as best as I can. My best guess is that it is an issue to do with my router.

When I play games or connect with torrents my router eventually stops sending data to my computer. My best guess is that it can't handle connecting to lots of other computers, or, it can't keep a constant connection when it needs to perform a constant task.

It CAN; load websites to perfection, stream videos from youtube, pokertube etc, send and receive files over, eg, MSN or xfire (although it may not be connected long enough to give it a chance to d/c, I'm not sure) and a few other activities.

An example of this issue, is when I play Counter-Strike: Source or Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. It'll hold a connection for a while, and then just stop working all of a sudden. The timings of it seem quite random but generally happen after more than 3 minutes of gametime. It also happens with torrent programs like utorrent.

The router used to be fine. It would hold the connection to perfection.

The measures I've taken to try and fix this are:
1. Reinstalled the routers firmware
2. Reinstalled the computer I use, to see if I could just wipe all settings and start fresh

My router is wireless, I have a cable internet connection, and 2-3 computers run the internet off the router.

If anyone can help me sort this problem out, it would be greatly appreciated. If you need any information, just tell me what it is

Thanks guys

 

[Nodsu]

Are you gaming and leeching over the wireless too? Try with a cable connection to make sure that the issue is not with the wifi.

Also, maybe try uninstalling any software firewalls, VPN software, packet filters on your computer that may be interfering.

 

[Primaris_B]

Thanks for the reply.

I wasn't sure what you meant by most of that stuff (I'm fairly nub to the lingo), but my firewall (the default windows one) is off, I don't run VPN software (had to look that up), but I'm not sure about these packet filters. What are these?

Also when you say 'am I gaming and leeching over the router,' do you mean at the same time? I don't if that is the case.

Are there any settings that I might have fiddled with that could have affected the flow of data?

 

[Nodsu]

I meant.. The computer that you are using for gaming and downloading, does it connect to the router wirelessly or with a cable? Wireless is unreliable by nature and you shouldn't expect much stability or speed from it.

If you don't know what a packet filter is, then you probably aren't using one.

Peer to peer software has a tandency to create a lot of simultaneous connections and can tip opver home routers easily. This is normal.
There should be some settings in your torrent program somewhere that let you tweak the maximum number of connections allowed and how fast new connections can be spawned.

If the connection drops even when there are no p2p programs running on any of the computers, then this is not normal.

 

[Primaris_B]

Hey, yeah my computer does connect to it wirelessly.

Its definitely not normal, as there used to be no problem and now there is. It isn't just p2p programs that cause the problem, its gaming and such. I can't pinpoint a singular problem though.

Is there anything I can do? For example, what can I reinstall? What settings can I change? How can I pinpoint the problem? Are there some kind of tests to find the problem?

Anything that will help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again

 

[Nodsu]

The first thing to do.. Use wired connection - this way we know right away whether the problem is the wireless or something beyond that.

 

[Primaris_B]

Oic ... got any suggestions on how I can do that?

 

[Nodsu]

Connect a computer to the router using an ethernet cable and try playing an online game?

 

[Primaris_B]

I'm not quite sure what it was, but the connection is all of a sudden stable. I did what you said, checked with an ethernet cable and it all ran smoothly. I asked a friend about the problem and he told me it might be something to do with time allocation under the DHCP configuration. So I fiddled with those settings and turned off the setting that used the router as a DHCP server, and it suddenly worked. I'm pretty sure it was this that fixed it. I have no explanation for it, but hopefully this concludes the problem

Thanks for the help and if it screws up again, I'll bump the thread.