LinkSys WRT 150N Wireless connection issue

[checkmate_911]

Hi,

I am having some connection issues with my new router WRT150N.

System OS WirelessNetworkAdapter
........................................................................
Old Laptop1 : XP Atheros AR 500 G
New Laptop2 : Vista Intel PRO 3945ABG
Freind's Laptop3 : Vista Intel 4965AG
Freind's Laptop4 : XP Intel PRO 3945ABG

All of these are working perfectly when they connected using ethernet cord to this router.

I am having problem in wireless mode:
Only Laptop1 is working perfectly when it is connected in wireless mode. Laptop2,3&4 are showing excellent Local and internet wireless connection but not able to open anythingfrom internet! I can ping each other in my local network but not outside like google.com from 2,3&4. Once in 10times outside ping recieves 1or 2 packets! I tried network mode in both Mixed and BG-Mixed but same issue.

All these laptops are working good with my very old Netgear wireless router.

Any clue?

I really appreciate your help.

Thanks.

 

[thiggins]

Check your client's IP Gateway and DNS addresses and compare them to the settings on Laptop 1.

 

[checkmate_911]

Check your client's IP Gateway and DNS addresses and compare them to the settings on Laptop 1.

Thanks for your reply.

I compared both laptops IpConfigs and everything looks similar except NodeType and offcourse local Ipaddress.
For working Laptop the NodeType is Unknown and not working one type is Hybrid.

More observations:
Like ping, When I type google.com in my browser the status bar shows 'waiting for reply google.com' until it is timed out. Once in 20 times I am able to open google.com successfully. I never had this rate of success with other sites like msn.com or cnn.com though!

 

[jdabbs]

It may be a trusted network issue with a client-side firewall (though a bit unlikely since one interface does permit traffic), or MAC whitelisting at the router (your wired MAC is not your wireless MAC).

Are you able to successfully ping 4.2.2.2?

Edit: Neither explanation covers why you get connectivity some of the time. Hopefully you're not connecting to the neighbor's network instead.

 

[checkmate_911]

I'll re-check the MAC listing again.

Pinging 4.2.2.1 is either 100% success or atmost 25% lost data. Same with google. But pinging cnn or msn resulting 100% lost data.

I am sure I am not connecting to another wireless when google page is loading successfully.

 

[jdabbs]

The 25% loss can be explained by ARP, provided it's the first packet that is lost.

As a baseline, I attempted to ping msn.com and cnn.com from my system. Since I failed as well, they're probably blocking ICMP as a precaution against DDoS attacks. Don't use MSN or CNN to troubleshoot.

In your first post, you said you weren't able to ping Google, but in your latest, you are able to ping it just fine (or within 25% p/l). Are you testing from system 2/3/4 via wireless?

If you can ping google.com and 4.2.2.1 successfully without problems, it's probably a DNS issue as Tim was leading towards earlier. From one of the problematic systems, try accessing http://74.55.91.20/ (the SNB website).

 

[checkmate_911]

I guess its my bad by mis-informing about google ping.
I didn't know 25% lost is in success category and some sites blocks ping!

I'll re-check all my configuration setting again.
Thanks for your time guys. I hope I'll find something otherwise I need to bother you guys again.

 

[jdabbs]

TBH, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the problem myself. One issue with remote troubleshooting is that often incorrect assumptions are made. This leads down wrong avenues, wasting both your time and mine.

The last shot in the dark is a suggestion to go to your wireless network connection properties and specify 208.67.222.222 (OpenDNS, it's safe) as your only DNS server. If pinging msn.com is currently providing p/l stats, then DNS is working somewhat. You may be relying on slow or inoperative DNS servers; this'll eliminate that as a potential cause.

If that doesn't work, change it back to the previous value, and begin basic information gathering/troubleshooting.

From devices 2/3/4:

Wireless connection: DHCP or static IP addressing? Check DNS as well.
Can you ping the gateway (router IP)?
Can you ping 4.2.2.2?
Can you ping google.com?
Can you visit yahoo.com? If not, is there a proxy specified in the browser?
Are there any firewalls/AV software installed? Disable them and try again.

 

[checkmate_911]

Ok, I am back with same problem.

I experimented with only Laptop1&2 this time as my friend's laptops are not avail in the working days.

For quick reference:
System OS WirelessNetworkAdapter
.................................................. ......................
Laptop1 : XP Atheros AR 500 G
Laptop2 : Vista Intel PRO 3945ABG

Laptop1 always worked fine. Laptop2 worked only with ethernet connection to Linksys.When Laptop2 connected to Netgear, it worked with both wired and wireless.

1)To make sure some unknown Mac filter is causing this, I hit reset button on the router and then connected it to Laptop2 and gave new SSID and cloned Laptop2's Mac into router. Then connected router to modem and restarted all the sytems. As ussual Laptop1 worked perfectly and laptop2 is having same wireless issue: Showing good connectivity but not loading any page.But with ethernet connection Laptop2 worked fine.

2)To make sure both laptops are going to same DNS, always checked the DNS list when they are connected wirelessly, ethernet and to old netgear router. The list appears always same. Also I took JDABBS suggestion and setup openDNS. As usual Laptop2 showed same wireless problem. Pinging msn.com with openDNS also failed.

Pinging 4.2.2.2,yahoo.com and google.com worked with atmost 25% data lost from Laptop2. Pinging from laptop1 is never lost any data. Both laptops are able to ping router successfully.

Few times google.com got loaded successfully in browser, but i never had any success with other sites. Sometimes browser filled with some junk data with some wierd chars.

At this point I am thinking there is some communication sync problem between router and wireless adpater. And that to all failed adapters are Intel.

Do you guys think should I change some advanced wireless settings both router and adapater?

 

[jdabbs]

If you can successfully ping the gateway and Laptop1 from Laptop2's wireless connection, then it's unlikely to be a "communication sync" error. You can try running a continuous ping: ping google.com -t -w 25 (terminate with Ctrl-C) to better gauge the stability of the link.

The MAC whitelisting I was referring to isn't cloning, but Wireless>Wireless MAC filter. Leave it disabled.

Are you sure you don't have a third-party firewall (ZoneAlarm) or antivirus software with a firewall component?

 

[checkmate_911]

Yes, I always disabled MAC filter. Also I disabled Norton and windows firewall.

Continuous pinging:
From Laptop1, ping is successful until i killed it. Pinged google and laptop2.

From Laptop2, ping to google is success for only 5 to 6 times and then it is getting 'Request timed out' until i killed it. If I connect Laptop2 to Netgear router and pinging google is showing same behavior but 'Request timed out' is happening little bit later like after 10 to 12 attempts.
Pinging Laptop1 from Laptop2 is always success.

Is that mean my connection getting dropped in the middle? How come
Laptop2 is working good with Netgear eventhough continuous ping is failed on it too?

 

[jdabbs]

You shouldn't be seeing any sustained packet loss. Try opening multiple continuous ping sessions--one pinging the router and the other google. Observe the packet loss on both and whether drops occur on both at the same time.

 

[checkmate_911]

JDABBS,

I did simultaneous ping test like you suggested. Today, I brought in Latop3(see first post) for this testing. On each laptop, I started three command sessions. Two of those sessions are for to ping other two laptops and third one for to ping google. I used -n 100 ping option to exec 100 continuous pings. I started all the ping sessions on all laptops at the same. I did this test five times. The % data lost in LAN is very negligible like utmost 1% lost in one or two cases.

Here are the google ping % lost results:
Laptop1: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Laptop2: 12, 88, 9, 9, 10
Laptop3: 51, 11, 5, 34, 70

As expected, Laptop2&3 are very unpredictable. The weird part is when the data lost is more than 15%, the laptop definitely lost the internet connection eventhough notification area on taskbar is showing excellent Local and Internet connection. In this case, I needed to disconnect and reconnect the wireless connection on that laptop to perform next ping test. Note that all Laptops were never lost the wireless connection to router and router never lost internet connection to it as other laptops were still pinging google.


So do you have any clue how laptop keeping local connection but loosing internet connection? Or is it router problem?

 

[jdabbs]

The reason I recommended pinging the router was to test the connection path. You can get a weak signal to the router (and by extension the Internet), but still be able to communicate with a laptop in the same room. Where are you testing the laptops? Are you getting lousy connectivity if they're in the same room as the router?

 

[checkmate_911]

All three laptops and router are sitting very close by while testing. I'll do router pinging test later but I doubt it will fail.

 

[checkmate_911]

I turn of all other laptops and from Laptop2, I continuously pinged router and google from other room. As expected, router ping always successful, but google ping showed same high percent packet loss.

Wierd part is when I mannually disconnect wireless while pinging is going on,
"Reply from 192.168.1.104: Destination host unreachable" message is coming.

At this time Laptop3 is not connected to anything using wire and wireless. I remembered 192.168.1.104 was the IP address of this laptop when it was connected using wire to the router. I surprise that IP address still in my laptop and ping is using it when nothing is connected! Is there anyway to clear it out? I tried DnsFlush option but didn't help.

 

[checkmate_911]

Ok, when I disable ethernet the reply from different IP is gone. I guess it is using ethernet card to ping when wireless is disabled.

I observed one more thing: When I open wireless connection status window, the connection speed is showing on it only 9Mbps. I think it should be
54Mbps just like Laptop1 is showing. Even 9Mbps is not constant, each time I open status window, it is different number!

 

[jdabbs]

I don't have an explanation as to why, given good connectivity to the router, only some clients are experiencing packet loss. I'd update to the newest firmware, and if that doesn't help, contact Linksys to see if they recommend a replacement.

 

[checkmate_911]

Finally got it.
Installed DD-wrt firmware and all laptops are started working perfectly without any tweaks. So 150N v1 firmware is faulted! I hope DD-WRT is a trustworthy one.

Thank you guys for your valuable time. Special thanks to jdabbs.