Netgear Router Issues

[mikeyw]

Heya!

I have a little problem and I hope someone could help me please. Here is a list of my specifications which are relevant that may help address the issue. Here we go:

Virgin Media 20mb cable modem connected via ethernet and Netgear WGR 614v7 with the latest firmware.

There are two computers in the house. I have noticed, even when the other computer is turned off and my computer (connected directly to the router via an ethernet cable) is browing the internet, pages can load very slow, poor bandwidth speed test results and my upload speed is almost non-existant. I play games and I time out and freeze quite a lot with a quite high ping considering the 20mb service, I used to have lower ping on the 2mb service.

I am in the essex area and many of my friends (also with Virgin Media) tell me they are experiencing problems with them too, such as a little bit of lag in game but, however, they don't time out on webpages quite as much as I do. So I unplugged the router and made a direct connection from the modem to my ethernet nic and I get slighter better upload, not as it should be and my download is still not so good but I barely ever time out, which is good but I don't see why I am timing out if I am connected directly to the router.
Connected directly to the modem at night I downloaded:

http://gentoo.virginmedia.com/experi...-2007.0-r1.iso

I got decent speeds at around 2.3 mbp/s which is the highest I have ever had it, I think. However if this was during the day with the modem on, I would be surprised if I reached 100 kbp/s.

I am going to plug the router back in now and test the download speed of something else of this host...

Okay I just got around 2000kbps whilst downloading:

http://gentoo.virginmedia.com/experi...051026.tar.bz2

I am noticing pages loading slower too, I am guessing that maybe the router isn't configured properly?

Also, the speeds on this computer are, believe me when I say this, terrible when the downstairs computer is using the internet. It's timing out constantly.

I spoke, a few weeks ago, to someone from the Virgin Media customer support service and they said that there isn't a problem on my end, I explain that there clearly is and what had been happening, even before I had installed the router, the poor speeds etc, and he just said that he was running a test and it was completely fine, which it was not.

Many thanks to anyone that can help, sorry for such a long post!

mikey

[mrmistoffelees]

Make sure that ICMP is enabled on the WAN port of the router (Advanced settings IIRC)

[mikeyw]

That setting is no where to be found!

[mrmistoffelees]

It is............

From the Netgear reference manual.

Configuring the WAN Setup Options
The WAN Setup options let you configure a DMZ server, change the MTU size and enable the
wireless router to respond to a Ping on the WAN port. These options are discussed below.
Figure 6-5: WAN Setup menu.
Connect Automatically, as Required
Normally, this option should be checked to enable it. An Internet connection will be made
automatically after each timeout, whenever Internet-bound traffic is detected. This provides
connection on demand and is potentially cost-saving in places in Europe for example where
Internet services charge by the minute.
If disabled, you must connect manually, using the “Connection Status” button on the Router Status
screen. This manual connection will stay up all the time without time outs.
54 Mbps Wireless Router WGR614v7 Reference Manual
6-8 Advanced Configuration of the Router
April 2006
Disabling the SPI Firewall
The SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) Firewall protects your LAN against Denial of Service attacks.
This should only be disabled in special circumstances.
Setting Up a Default DMZ Server
The default DMZ server feature is helpful when using some online games and videoconferencing
applications that are incompatible with NAT. The router is programmed to recognize some of these
applications and to work properly with them, but there are other applications that may not function
well. In some cases, one local computer can run the application properly if that computer’s IP
address is entered as the default DMZ server.
Incoming traffic from the Internet is normally discarded by the router unless the traffic is a
response to one of your local computers or a service that you have configured in the Ports menu.
Instead of discarding this traffic, you can have it forwarded to one computer on your network. This
computer is called the Default DMZ Server.
The WAN Setup menu, shown below lets you configure a Default DMZ Server.
To assign a computer or server to be a Default DMZ server, follow these steps:
1. Click WAN Setup link on the Advanced section of the main menu.
2. Type the IP address for that server. To remove the default DMZ server, replace the IP address
numbers with all zeros.
3. Click Apply.
Responding to Ping on Internet WAN Port
If you want the router to respond to a 'ping' from the Internet, click the ‘Respond to Ping on
Internet WAN Port’ check box. This should only be used as a diagnostic tool, since it allows your
router to be discovered. Don't check this box unless you have a specific reason to do so.

[mikeyw]

Okay I clicked 'Respong to Ping on Internet WAN Port' and applied, what exactly will this change?

Many thanks

mikeey

x

[mrmistoffelees]

copied from Robin Walkers cable modem page.

Stealth-mode firewalls considered harmful
Some firewalls have a hiding mechanism they call stealth. For instance, the High Security setting in ZoneAlarm is an example of stealth mode. In stealth mode, the firewall causes the PC just to ignore incoming connection attempts, rather than rejecting them, as would be normal for incoming connection attempts to closed ports. The result is that the PC appears to be switched off and absent from the network.

This hyper-paranoid approach to security causes some difficulties. For a start, Internet standard RFC 1122 states categorically about ICMP Echoes (ping):

3.2.2.6 Echo Request/Reply: RFC-792

Every host MUST implement an ICMP Echo server function that receives Echo Requests and sends corresponding Echo Replies.

Note the MUST rather than SHOULD. This means that any internet user, or ISP server, has a right to expect that all live PCs connected to the internet will respond to ICMP ping requests with an ICMP reply. If a firewall user chooses to stealth ICMP requests so that no response is sent, they have only themselves to blame if they start experiencing problems, because they are in breach of RFC 1122.

The problems that might arise if you kill ICMP responses with stealth are:

Difficulties with DHCP lease acquisition or renewal in cases where the DHCP server checks on the availability of IP addresses, or your presence on the network, with ICMP ping requests [this doesn't actually happen on the original NTL network, but ICMP requests have been seen coming from the DHCP servers of digital TV set-top boxes. No problems seen with blueyonder];
Slowness of web connection setup in cases where the remote web server uses ICMP to determine the MTU of the response path;
Frustration at ISP help-desks (and with informal helpers) if your PC does not respond to pings and traceroutes, as it is difficult to distinguish this situation from a broken connection.
So you are strongly advised not to apply stealth techniques to the ICMP protocol. In the freeware version of ZoneAlarm, this means you should run it in Medium Security, not High Security, for the Internet Zone. In ZoneAlarm Pro, you can configure ICMP behaviour to permit ICMP Echo packets in and out even in High Security, using the Customize button of the Security Settings panel.

Windows XP has a built-in firewall that by default blocks ICMP Echo. You should uncheck this feature.

Similar problems arise with certain NAT routers, such as the Linksys. By default, the Linksys does not reply to incoming ICMP requests, equivalent to a stealth firewall. To configure the Linksys to reply properly to all incoming requests, send your web browser to the Linksys configuration page at http://192.168.1.1/ and then:

click on the Advanced tab.
On the Filters panel, find the option Block WAN Request, and check Disable.
A commonly heard objection to allowing ICMP Echo Replies is that it gives away information to hackers that there is a live connection on this IP address. Such objections are not well-founded, and can be safely ignored. There is no evidence in practice that any hacker has been aided by the presence of an ICMP Echo Reply. Hackers do not typically write code that tests an address with ICMP Echo before launching a hostile probe: they always send the hostile probe directly: either it works or it doesn't, and information from ICMP adds nothing to the analysis.


Hope this explains it.

[Armitage Shanks]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I suspect that the other posters may be unwittingly leading you away from what I strongly suspect is the root of your problem - Click here to see the countless numbers of people who have experienced problems such as yours. I personally know 3 people who have independently experienced the problem themselves and either had intermittent or total failures.

It is entirely likely that the recent hot snap may have contributed to an exacerbation of your symptoms. In the meanwhile, you could try standing the router upright, moving it out of direct sunlight and putting a fan next to it or some other crude cooling that may be enough to keep it operational.

Personally, I'd just buy a Linksys - it might not look all Apple and trendy but it does what it says on the tin. Good luck.

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Armitage Shanks

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I suspect that the other posters may be unwittingly leading you away from what I strongly suspect is the root of your problem - Click here to see the countless numbers of people who have experienced problems such as yours. I personally know 3 people who have independently experienced the problem themselves and either had intermittent or total failures.

It is entirely likely that the recent hot snap may have contributed to an exacerbation of your symptoms. In the meanwhile, you could try standing the router upright, moving it out of direct sunlight and putting a fan next to it or some other crude cooling that may be enough to keep it operational.

Personally, I'd just buy a Linksys - it might not look all Apple and trendy but it does what it says on the tin. Good luck.

You are of course quite correct, one is the low speed issue the second which compounds the problem is the issue I have described above.

The config for the cable modem needs to be posted also which I forgot to mention !