Router strangeness, help!

Since yesterday, accessing my router's settings (web interface) carries with it about a 50/50 chance of the thing crashing. The wireless LED goes out and my main computer, a Mac which is normally connected wirelessly, loses connection. It becomes impossible to switch to a wired connection. The second computer, a Windoze XP laptop which is hard-wired to the router, also loses its connection.

All the other LEDs remain switched on but there's nothing happening. The only solution is to power-cycle the router (actually it's a modem/router, Linksys WAG345G).

The router is set to allow wireless admin access and this has never been a problem before now. It has its original firmware; there is an update that has been available for a while that I've not applied but again, this problem has suddenly arisen from nowhere.

The *only* thing that has changed is that Firefox auto-updated to 3.0.9 beta yesterday morning. I don't believe in coincidences so FF is my primary suspect, although I don't have the expertise to suggest a reason why the browser should cause the router to crash.

Of course it might not even be that. Could be something completely different. The problem is that it doesn't happen every time, so doing diagnostics by trying other browsers, switching to wired on the Mac etc etc etc could be a long and frustrating process.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[haydnwalker]

Use Safari on the Mac for a few days testing it every so often. FF *could* be the problem as for a while my Linksys cable router did a similar thing (not being able to access admin pages) on one of the previous FF versions but using IE solved it. Happily up to now all is well...

---------- Post added at 15:28 ---------- Previous post was at 15:27 ----------

Also there could be some strange network traffic from something on the network (likely the windows box)? So running network scans would be useful to check that (wireshark is good for it).

The Windows box is my employer's laptop and it's locked down tighter than a nun's knickers. I can't install or run anything on it. Is Wireshark a Windows app or will it run on the Mac? I have to do all my network admin from the Mac.

---------- Post added at 15:33 ---------- Previous post was at 15:32 ----------

... meantime I have rebooted and switched to a wired connection, then successfully accessed the router. As I said, it only fails sometimes so nothing proven yet.

Guess switching to Safari is the way to go.

[haydnwalker]

I thought it was a windows only app but I've just done a quick Google (...its your friend you know ;-) ) and found this: http://wireshark.darwinports.com/ Its also been ported to Mac

Crivvens ... it happened again this morning, so I rebooted the router then tried to access it by Safari instead. Except that Safari, instead of prompting me for the admin's username and password, just gave me a 401 Authorization Required error. Does anyone know how to force Safari to ask for the authorization?

[Uncle Peter]

Hi Chris, is safari auto-completing the url for you, thus redirecting you to a router admin page which requires authentication rather than the actual login screen itself? if it is then just try deleting the trailing url dialog

Hi Peter ... I found the likely answer to this on another forum last night - http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...fm/365349.html - basically a combination of a firmware problem and Safari being very intolerant of it. I then tried accessing the router via (shock horror) IE for Mac which I still have installed. And it crashed the router! So I think we can now discount FF 3.0.9 as the problem.

Next theory - does this just mean the router is dying? Why would trying to access the admin pages on it cause it to crash?

I would say try updating the firmware however with it being unstable you could brick it. I take it its ADSL as you are in the sticks? another thing I would try is a resert of the routers setting there should be a button but then you have to be able to access it to set it back up again

I think its routers software related

[pedantic]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I would say try updating the firmware however with it being unstable you could brick it. I take it its ADSL as you are in the sticks? another thing I would try is a resert of the routers setting there should be a button but then you have to be able to access it to set it back up again

I think its routers software related

That's what I would do...

A hard reset, and then stick the latest firmware on it. Worked for me on a friends router quite recently, it's probably just buggy firmware that's causing all this.

Thanks guys, looks like that's the way forwards. Now I need to have another go at getting someone at Linksys to tell me which is the correct firmware to download!