WRTP54G Problem

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 22, 2005 Posts: 15

I purchased 2 Linksys WRTP54G Vonage Routers with one going in my home and the other in my office.

The 2nd router works fine in my office with not so much as a hiccup.

My home router has been a problem since day one. Keep in mind this replaced a Linksys BEFW11S4 which has worked flawlessly for years.

The problem I am having with the new router is it will not allow me to obtain a DNS automatically. So the only way for me to access the internet is to manually enter the DNS addresses.

I was on the phone with Linksys and they said there is a problem with my PC and not the Linksys product. I stated that I have 5 computers and none will obtain a DNS automatically with the new router but they can obtain with the old router and he insisted it is a problem with my PC’s. He said to download Winsock Patch from Microsoft to fix the problem.

Not being able to obtain a DNS automatically is a HUGE problem for me! I take my 2 notebook computers with me on the road daily and can’t be fooling with my network settings for each PC. It’s a royal PITA!

I have a Terayon cable modem connected to the Linksys. If I connect the modem directly to my PC (Any of them) it will let me go on the net without having to manually enter a DNS address and obtains one automatically. And another thing, even when I can’t access the net with any of my computers I can still use my Vonage phone. What gives??????

Can anyone help me? I have been on the phone for hours with Vonage, Linksys and my Cable company. Vonage and my cable company says it’s a bad router. I have returned 3 routers already and they all do the same thing. So I wonder why my office router works fine and these do not??? The only thing different with all the routers is my office router was shipped with a CD set up V2.2 and the routers which don’t work were shipped with set up cd v2.0.

btw- The Vonage phone works great at both locations!
Please help.

[ADMIN EDIT TITLE - "This is crap!" IS TOO VAGUE]

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: May 28, 2005 Posts: 1

I think you may have the same problem as a number of other "happy" WRTP54G users (including me)

Whenever my box is updated from firmware version 1.00.29 to 1.00.37 (manually by me or auto via Vonage) I loose connectivity on all 5-6 of our home PC's until DNS addresses are entered manually. Most times I lose the phone as well.

Some users think disabling wireless will help the upgrade "take"; hasn't worked for me.

Other users have suggested forwarding ports that may be used by Vonage for updating to nonsense addresses in order to defeat the upgrade process. I've tried this and those darn updates keep coming in and screwing things up.

So, each morning I manually downgrade to 1.00.29 and all is well again - getting pretty good at this - only takes 2-3 minutes now .

Have tomorrow off and will try to resolve my 2 month long LNP wait as well as this little issue - will let you know if I succeed (hope to bat at least .500)

Posts: 646 · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:01 pm Post subject:

I don't quite understand what's broken. Are the computers getting an IP, but no DNS address? Or does the router itself get an IP but not a DNS address?

Are the computers able to ping IP addresses on the internet? Say, for example, 64.233.167.147

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 22, 2005 Posts: 15

The router gets an IP and DNS but any PC (hard wire or wireless) can't obtain a DNS automatically. One must manually enter a DNS into the connected PC to be able to access the internet.

So imagine if a friend comes over with his laptop. They will not be able to just jump on the net and start surfing, you must first give them the DNS #'s for them to enter for them to be able to get on the net.

It's the strangest thing I have ever heard of. My 2 IT guys are dumbfounded as well and can't figure out what the problem is.

I am on my 4th router at home (in 1 week) and will continue to return them until I get one which works.

If I take my office router hom with me and connect it to my cable modem and to my PC's it works fine and all the connected PC's are able to obtain a DNS automatically.

Any ideas?

Posts: 646 · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:23 pm Post subject:

On my RT31P2, under the local DHCP settings, there's a place where you can enter DNS addresses. Does your WRTP54G have the same thing?

If it does, try putting in the router's IP, and/or your ISP's DNS addresses.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 22, 2005 Posts: 15

I don't think I can do this with mine but if someone knows how then please chime in. One of the qa guys at a client of mine (he tests soft switches Smile

) said to enter the DNS addresses on the router itself that way I will not have to do so on my PC's - I think this is what you are talking about. But how do I do this? I don't see how on the admin page....

Everyone can't be having the same problem as me and my other linksys product does nto act up like this one.

/Joe

Posts: 192 · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:30 pm Post subject:

Let me suggest that you may have a different issue. Here is some history that may help shed some light on what the new firmware is doing.

Like you, I converted from a BEFW11S4 (v2) which had been working flawlessly for 2-3 years. I got the WRTP54G mainly because I was lured by the prospect of a "free" upgrade to 802.11g from 802.11b (after the rebate) and I was also interested in Vonage phone service. Getting everything in one unit seemed like a good deal.

After the upgrade to 1.00.37, I've noticed that the DHCP server sets my DNS to the address of the router, not the address of the DNS servers provided by my ISP.

But in my case, this hasn't been an issue. My old BEFW11S4 could act as a DNS proxy, and it appears that the WRTP54G works the same way. My PCs send their DNS requests to the router, and the router proxies the request to the DNS servers specified by the ISP.

I have seen others on this forum complaining about the same issue; that DNS doesn't work after the upgrade. But my experience is that it works fine. It is just using the DNS proxy instead of the actual DNS addresses.

The DNS proxy function is an undocumented feature in a lot of Linksys routers. I've actually been using it deliberately in a server which has a fixed IP address on my home network. Since my ISP has been known to change the DNS server addresses without warning, I use the router address for DNS since that address never changes.

What OS are you running? My experience is only under W2K and WXP. Maybe Linux or Apple behave differently.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 22, 2005 Posts: 15

First off, thanks for all the help!

I just noticed on my router that I am running firmware version 1.00.20

I'll have to check with my office router to see if I am running the same version.

Maybe I should upgrade the firmware to solve the problem? No one has mentioned anything about firmware or asked me which version I am running...

/Joe

Posts: 646 · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:54 pm Post subject:

I had just assumed that they all got auto-updated to 1.00.37...

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 22, 2005 Posts: 15

My office router has a newer firmware version!

And why did someone change the title of my thread???? It was not offensive! What is this 1984?

I went to the Linksys site and there are no firmware upgrades available so I guess I'll just have to keep on returning these puppies until I get one that works with the newer firmware on it.