I have a strange problem in that when I use certain routers I have continual "disconnect" problems when racing online..

My broadband line itself tests out fine, and when I use an elderly BT Voyager router I have no issues at all.. I can play online without problems.

But whenever I swap to a more modern router - I've tried a BT Home Hub and just bought a high-quality Billion BiPAC to try to resolve this - I find that I routinely and regularly lose connection to whatever LFS game server I'm accessing. These disconnections occur, broadly, about hourly.. While connected, everything is fine - no lags, no pauses and high framerates.. [And, of course, general internet connectivity is fine at all times..]

I can't come up with any explanation for why one (old) router should work for me, and two other (more moden, expensive) ones shouldn't.. Can anyone give me any pointers to things to look at? It's XP, and an Ethernet connetion to the router.

[The reason for wanting not to use the Voyager is that it doesn't have wireless capability, and only has one ethernet connectionr.. However, I can confirm my problem isn't caused by other users - the disconnections even when no other devices are connected. ]

Thanks in advance for any suggestions..

It might be that the newer routers have some sort of integrated QoS which throttles LFS down in favor of other applications using the connection. I'm not familiar with any BT services, so I'm just shooting into the dark, but I guess that looking into QoS and disabling it both in windows and your router can save you a lot of trouble.

Thanks, but I don't think you can "turn off" QoS... it's just a matter of setting rules which can, if you choose, throttle or prioritise traffic.. and this I haven't yet done. Albeit, having QoS capabilities was one of the reasons for getting the Billion.

However, one thing occurs to me, noting the approximately hourly frequency with which the disconnections occur.. The wireless capability of the router does include one parameter with an hourly periodicity - namely the Group Key Renewal (which is a function of WPA security). I'm wondering whether there is any chance that the internal reconfiguring occasioned by this wireless function is somehow impacting the way the router responds to ethernet connections, perhaps just dropping a packet or two.. Clearly, that shouldn't happen - and I'm perhaps clutching at straws - but it would be somewhat consistent with my experience that the non-wireless Voyager is fine, but both wireless-enabled routers are problematic..

Thing to do is experiment with that parameter, I guess, or with a different (non-WPA) security mode, and see what happens.

Thanks again..

Very interesting, the phrase "clutching at straws" made me grin, I use that one alot myself

I have a similar but more intermittant problem, I was certain it was a prob with my router, and a couple of months ago set about testing with other makes, but since most of the devices and PC's in my house connect wirelessly all the routers I have tested have had wlan included.

Before my wife and kids started getting wireless laptops, Wii, mobile phones and ipods my lan was totally cabled and was rock solid lol.

wjm, have you tried installing your non wireless router and the running a downlink to the wireless one? assuming it supports it and both are compatable this might isolate the "bad" router from dropping the connection or part of it from the top tier router (connected to your LFS PC).

As I said your symptoms sound very similar to mine with only LFS seeming to lose connection and http seemingly unnafected.
I have had my fair share of mainstream routers fail in the last 10 years I am considering trying a more professional industrial one however I don't have time to rewire my LAN for a few months and it does need it


Good luck

SD.

Not sure if this is possible - Voyager has only one ethernet port and one USB - and even if it is, I'll have to work out how to do it!

Will give it some thought - thanks for the response.

Ahh yes sorry, it couldn't have sunk in when I read "the voyager only has one ethernet port" in your 1st post no point trying it if you only have the single rj45 port.

I said my prob was intermittant, however I didn't log the time between disco's, although more frequent than 60 mins, Ill check for a pattern, I will also try messing around with the qos again, and also the wireless security, I might try just running an open network too (short term just for testing)

I think with some Billion routers you can set advance qos options to give higher priority to a specific PC or service, worth a look I suppose.

Please excuse the spelling, grammar, and punctuation in my last post (and all my posts ) I really must try to be more awake when posting

Good Luck

SD.