Ok, we've got the following: * Netgear WRT54G v.8 wireless router * Zoom DSL modem
with the following attached: * Brother laser printer [wired] * Dell 1525 laptop [wifi] * Roku Netflix player [wifi] * IBM X41 laptop [wifi] Every once in a while, it just becomes impossible to get on the network, and the damned router needs to be rebooted. It happened this morning while I was using my Dell, and Roku was playing a movie. My wife unsuspended her X41 started using it, and moments later, all three lost network. I got fed up and switched to a Sprint cell modem, and power-cycled the router a couple times until the Roku and X41 were able to get back on. I'm still on the Sprint, with my wifi switched off. (They have a physical switch on the Dell, which at first I thought was absolutely silly.) Usually, what I do when I have wifi problems is a kind of 'wifi reboot.' I've got a script that does this: ifdown eth1 ifconfig eth1 down rmmod iwl3945 rmmod rfkill mac80211 cfg80211 modprobe rfkill modprobe mac80211 modprobe cfg80211 modprobe iwl3945 iwconfig eth1 essid MYESSID iwconfig eth1 key PASS-WORD-PASS-WORD-PASS-WORD-YO ifconfig eth1 192.168.2.7 # static IP ifconfig eth1 broadcast 192.168.2.255 ifconfig eth1 netmask 255.255.255 route add default gw 192.168.2.1 # the router; DSL is apparently 192.168.1.1 cp COPY_OF_RESOLVE.CONF /etc/resolve.conf /etc/init.d/networking restart # give it a big kick ping 192.168.2.1 # did it work!? Often, it works. Often enough, it does not. It gets down to the 'ping', and all I get back is "Destination host unreachable" (or what-have-you). For my wife, kicking the router sufficiently hard and waiting seems to do the trick for her. Ditto for the Roku. For me, I switch to my Sprint modem or reboot, or just give up and shut down and find something less infuriating to do with my time. :) Any ideas? Some friends suggested they could reflash the router with something called "Tomato", but Melissa looked into it, and apparently our router is too new (version 8), and is not supported. The router is not _that_ old, and was something we got to replace a non-wifi-router + WAP setup we had before, which was also infuriatingly unreliable. However, it's been a hot summer, and I think hardware is far less robust these days -- to say nothing about how crappy software seems to be getting. ;) So I'm not beyond saying "it's broken, get a new one." In that case -- what can I get? I know zilch about this crap, and dislike being "the guy to blame" when this crap breaks. It should Just Work (tm). So says my wife, so say I. Argh. >:^( (Ugh, that reminds me, my NAS's light turned red and it started beeping a few days ago. I was busy working, so I simply yanked the power cord, and haven't gone back to see what the hell _it's_ problem is. And no, none of this stuff is stored in the water heater closet. It's up on a shelf. And no, it's not covered in a comforter, either.) -- -bill! Sent from my computer _______________________________________________ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech