Internet router problem...help

[WA2TTP Steve]

Ok computer geeks how about some help with my problem.

I recently was unable to use two websites that I've used many times in the past. Southwest.com and Youtube.com. Youtube will load the home page but if you select a video it just sits there with the spinning arrow on the screen. Southwest will just sit there with an hour glass and a partial or no sign of home page.

My system consists of a cable modem into a Linksys WRT54g wireless router. If I plug the laptop, running Vista, directly into the modem it works fine on both sites in question. Using the router lan port shows the same problem. I also tried my desk top, an old Dell, and when my daughter stopped by I tried her laptop, same problem.

I cycled the power on router and the modem. Also did a hard reset on it and ran thru the setup again, still ng.

The router is a couple of years old and hasn't had anything thing done to it since I installed it. I was thinking of just replacing it but I'm perplexed by why it would work on all the other sites and email but not these two. No problem with banking or credit card sites at all thru the router.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

73,
Steve
WA2TTP

[WD5JKO]

Go to Brian's website, click button on the left and download "get Adobe Flash Player". That should fix you up.

http://www.amforever.com/

[KA1ZGC]

I just did a quick search on that router to see if it was built to be RoHS-compliant (because two years is about enough time for sinister tin whiskers to grow), but I don't see any such claims of compliance.

The problem is clearly in the router, but not the sort of things that a router is supposed to be paying any attention to.

One last ditch effort might be to upgrade the firmware. The administrative web interface should have a link (and instructions) for doing that.

All in all, though, it sounds like something's gone bad in the router, which is causing it to behave erratically. If a firmware upgrade doesn't mitigate it, you're probably better off buying a new router.

For what it's worth, I had a Netgear (the MFJ of network equipment) wireless router that would mangle its routing tables after a few days until I plugged something into one of the ethernet ports, when it would suddenly straighten out and fly right. Took about nine months for that to set in, and the only solution was replacement.

Good luck.

[W1RKW]

have you tried to ping those 2 websites with the router in place? Get the IP addresses of both sites and try to connect using the IP address instead of the domain name.

I'd be interested in knowing what the 2 IP addresses are.  I had a situation once where a block or range of IP addresses would not work.  Turned out to be problem at the providers end.  They swore up and down that it wasn't their problem but a bit of sleuthing revealed the problem.

Update:
Southwest: 208.94.153.100
Youtube:    208.65.153.238, 208.65.153.251, 208.65.153.253, 208.117.236.69

Interesting that Southwest and Youtube begin with 208.

Try to connect using the IP address instead.  Try to ping them too.

I'd be willing to bet anything starting with 208.....  will not work.  I'd be on the phone with your provider and tell them that.

[KM1H]

You didnt mention your system but YouTube and others have dropped support of IE6 yesterday or today and others are following suit.

Carl
KM1H

[w3jn]

Disable the firewall in the router.  I'm betting that somehow 208.xx.xx.xxx IPs got blocked somehow.

[WA2TTP Steve]

Many thanks to all who provided there hints.

I tried plugging in the IP address for Youtube and Southwest per Bob's suggestion. Doing that Youtube would come up and work but ng for Southwest.

I upgraded the firmware and son of gun it's working like a champ and it seems much faster than its been in recent memory. Simple fix if you know what to do. Thank you Tom.

Thank again for everyones hints. What a great board this is!!

73,
Steve,
WA2TTP

[k4kyv]

I just agreed to purchase a new cable modem.  The cable co. has been bugging me recently, telling me that mine is obsolete and that I am not able to full enjoy their wonderful internet service, and that I should take them up on their special deal for a new one for only $5 a month rental, or I can buy it outright for $49.95.

I decided to gamble with the 50 bucks.  Not sure I'll get any better service from the internet, but I am hoping it will generate less RFI than my present one, which puts birdies all over the HF spectrum from about 8 mHz upwards, and renders 10m practically unusable until I turn it off.  Of course, the new one may be worse, but I decided to try the crap shoot.

[flintstone mop]

There was a lot of negativity towards Linksys because of the firmware upgrades. Did you go through tech support or just grab the upgrade and install yourself.
And 10-4 on the IE6 support.

Fred

[ke7trp]

Glad you got it fixed. 

I got through one Router a year.  I recently through out a box of at least 6 of them.   My Big Vertical arcs right before a storm or monsoon. 6 to 12 inch arcs from section to section.  Sounds like a bull whip.  Nobody has ever been able to explain this or offered any solution. As a result.  These routers are one of the first thing that die.  One ARC and the thing reboots or stops working. I normaly run in and unplug it if I am home.

Its always in your best interest to upgrade the cable modem and router. Technology changes fast.  I had a G router, My brother gave me one that was about 6 months old. Much newer then the one I had. I plugged it in and my internet speed doubled on bandwidth tests. Same spec on both.

The biggest thing that bothers me with these internet companies is the bandwidth throttle routers they use. I recently purchased a FLip Camera so I can take videos of my BA gear.  One video upload and they throttle me way way down. After a time period, The speed is back up.  I wonder why they do that when I pay $165 a month for this service...  Just makes me mad.

C

[KA1ZGC]

I upgraded the firmware and son of gun it's working like a champ and it seems much faster than its been in recent memory. Simple fix if you know what to do. Thank you Tom.

My pleasure. It was a bit of a hail-Mary, but glad to hear it's working for you now.

[WA2TTP Steve]

Fred,

I went to the Linksys site per the instructions in the admin section of the router interface as Tom suggested. Very easy to do.

Clark,

My present router is 4 years old, the one before it lasted about 3 years and died. Do you have any ball lightning shooting thru your house???

Don,

My cable modem is an RCA DCM 425. No noise issues with it but I on the second one, the first on died after about a year.

Steve

[ke7trp]

LOL.. No ball lightning.. Just arcing on the vertical!  It reboots the cable modem, cable box and kills the Wireless routers sometimes.

C

[WD5JKO]

Go to Brian's website, click button on the left and download "get Adobe Flash Player". That should fix you up.
http://www.amforever.com/

   Sorry about that reply, I did not read your post stating the problem very well. Me bad. Now I'd like to say that I have the same router as you. My son, a computer Geek bought the router because it had decent hardware, along with poor reviews, and thus a cheap purchase price. He then re-flashed the firmware with a 3rd party operating system, tomato:   http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato      With Tomato, we have increased functionality and security. The thing has been running now over two years without any issues. I'm currently using wireless with wpa2 security.  The thing works great. No more stations being dropped as others log in and off from the wireless. Jim, WD5JKO