Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless Router Tip...

mechmike0034 · 07-23-2004, 10:08 PM

I just bought one of these to replace a dead D-Link. After a couple of days, I noticed a problem with lockups and dropped internet connections which could only be rectified by power-cycling the router.

Broadband Reports has a ton of folks complaining about this problem with various versions of this router. (There are four revisions/versions of this unit, I have a V. 4)

Did a little research, and found three possibilities. Here's what I did - it seems to have solved the problem, and I am posting this here in hopes of helping anyone else out there with the same problem.

First, firmware upgrade. From 1.50.10 to 1.50.14

Second, this proceedure - a HARD reset, which takes three hands but makes sense to me from the written description in the link/review. The author claims this needs to be done any time there's a firmware upgrade.

Third, I found this which is a reg hack. Don't know if it'll make any difference, but I did it to all four of the PCs (all running XP) that access the router. Here's an easy way to add these entries to the registry - copy/paste the four lines of text below into Notepad, and save it as "enablePMTU.reg" (minus the quotes):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]

"EnablePMTUDiscovery "=dword:00000001
"EnablePMTUBHDetect "=dword:00000001

Once you've saved the file in Windows Explorer, right-click on it, and select "Merge" to merge it into your W2K or XP registry.

So far, so good, and no more disconnects since all of these things were done.

Again, hope this comes up in a search and helps somebody else up the line. Comments welcome from anyone who knows more about networking and MTUs than I do...

Grubbie · 09-27-2004, 02:06 PM

Hmmm i might need to take a look at this, we have a linksys wireless G and one of my roommates gets dropped a lot. I got annoyed with the linksys software, so I am just using windows to connect him. However it was popping up it was not connected when it was all the time and there were problems with him losing his default gateway every 5 secs, but it woudl find it a sec later.

Hopefully some of this might help.

verve247 · 09-27-2004, 04:26 PM

Awesome post mechMike. I have a linksys and turned off wireless due to the drops. I'll try these methods out in the next couple days and see what happens.

mechmike0034 · 09-27-2004, 08:34 PM

YMMV, but it worked for me.

The same basic procedure could be applied to most any wireless router - firmware upgrade/hard reset/reg tweak.

There are those situations though where updated firmware is actually worse performance-wise than what was replaced.

Like I said, YMMV, but won't cost you anything to try other than time. Also won't hurt anything even if it doesn't help - the potential for buggy firmware upgrades being the only exception.

Good luck.

07-23-2004, 10:08 PM	#1
mechmike0034 aka the keg killer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Ala-effin'-bama! Posts: 2,738	Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless Router Tip... I just bought one of these to replace a dead D-Link. After a couple of days, I noticed a problem with lockups and dropped internet connections which could only be rectified by power-cycling the router. Broadband Reports has a ton of folks complaining about this problem with various versions of this router. (There are four revisions/versions of this unit, I have a V. 4) Did a little research, and found three possibilities. Here's what I did - it seems to have solved the problem, and I am posting this here in hopes of helping anyone else out there with the same problem. First, firmware upgrade. From 1.50.10 to 1.50.14 Second, this proceedure - a HARD reset, which takes three hands but makes sense to me from the written description in the link/review. The author claims this needs to be done any time there's a firmware upgrade. Third, I found this which is a reg hack. Don't know if it'll make any difference, but I did it to all four of the PCs (all running XP) that access the router. Here's an easy way to add these entries to the registry - copy/paste the four lines of text below into Notepad, and save it as "enablePMTU.reg" (minus the quotes): Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters] "EnablePMTUDiscovery "=dword:00000001 "EnablePMTUBHDetect "=dword:00000001 Once you've saved the file in Windows Explorer, right-click on it, and select "Merge" to merge it into your W2K or XP registry. So far, so good, and no more disconnects since all of these things were done. Again, hope this comes up in a search and helps somebody else up the line. Comments welcome from anyone who knows more about networking and MTUs than I do... __________________ "The price of progress is trouble." (C. F. "Boss" Kettering) "50% of the American public has below-average intelligence. 70% of the American public now has regular access to the Internet. Do the math." (unknown) Last edited by mechmike0034 : 07-23-2004 at 10:12 PM.

09-27-2004, 04:26 PM	#3
verve247 Commander Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: San Francisco Posts: 1,486	Awesome post mechMike. I have a linksys and turned off wireless due to the drops. I'll try these methods out in the next couple days and see what happens. __________________ Vegetarian - Old indian word meaning poor hunter.

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09-27-2004, 02:06 PM	#2
Grubbie Captain Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Redmond Posts: 1,596	Hmmm i might need to take a look at this, we have a linksys wireless G and one of my roommates gets dropped a lot. I got annoyed with the linksys software, so I am just using windows to connect him. However it was popping up it was not connected when it was all the time and there were problems with him losing his default gateway every 5 secs, but it woudl find it a sec later. Hopefully some of this might help.

09-27-2004, 08:34 PM	#4
mechmike0034 aka the keg killer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Ala-effin'-bama! Posts: 2,738	YMMV, but it worked for me. The same basic procedure could be applied to most any wireless router - firmware upgrade/hard reset/reg tweak. There are those situations though where updated firmware is actually worse performance-wise than what was replaced. Like I said, YMMV, but won't cost you anything to try other than time. Also won't hurt anything even if it doesn't help - the potential for buggy firmware upgrades being the only exception. Good luck.

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