Dead router--I think

[Caddywompus81]

Howdy everyone! Boy it sure is great knowing one can come here for a quick and reliable answer! Much love to you all!

So here's a little problem. About 2-3 days ago, my internet connection went to hell. I have a cable connection with a Linksys WRT54GL v1.1 wireless router. Everything was great and then suddenly my connection was crapping out. It was impossible to browse web pages. My latency in games was through the rough (almost 10x over its usual) and I was near unable to download anything. Called the service provider (Cox Communications) and did the standard boring troubleshoot.

After much convincing on my part that I wasn't the equivalent of a soccer-mom, and explaining to them its not accessibility but connection quality, they had me bypass the router and plug straight in to the modem. BAM my internet is back!

My question to you guru's of the pc myriad is: What sent my router the way of the dumpster? I have always relied on Linksys as a fantastic brand and very reliable. Do I need to replace the router now? Which router should I get instead? Would someone in an apartment near me using Draft N mess up my wireless router? Should I get a Draft N router? Lost of questions, so sorry for the wall of text--I babble. Thank you very much in advance, you guys are great!

[shadowpr]

Are you suing it as a wireless router, or are you plugging into it?

If you're using the wireless connection, try plugging directly into it to see if that helps.

If you're not using the wireless, go into it's setting and make sure that's turned off.

[mojo]

Were you using any p2p software at the time such as bittorrent at the time? That can slow your connection down as you described. And definitely answer shadowpr's questions so we can start off with good information to troubleshoot from.

[Caddywompus81]

Shadow--I attempted to use it as both in its capacity as a wireless router and a wired router. Neither produced ideal--let alone acceptable--conditions. If the connection displays any type of acceptable activity, it is only for a brief period of time.

Mojo--No programs were running at the time that would cause this kind of drop in performance. I attempted the tests with a software firewall enabled and disabled to see if that would produce different results--it did not. I cleared the cache in my browser, etc etc. As well I even released/renewed the ip address. All this intermittent with modem and router hard resets.

Atm I am plugged directly into the cable modem--and everything is working perfectly. If I plug back into the router, the huge drop in performance occurs.

Thanks so much for your help guys. Hope my responses are helpfull.

[glc]

Update the firmware in the router and do a hard reset. If this doesn't take care of it, contact Linksys if it's still on warranty for a RMA exchange. The WRT54GL is *normally* a solid router.

[Caddywompus81]

Thanks glc. Did that first thing this morning, can't believe I didn't do that initially. Thanks so much for the help again. Once more, all of you have proved to be a great help, and a supportive community. Have a good day guys!