Linksys BEFW11S4 hangs with streaming audio
Plan9
more times than not the BEFW11S4 hangs if I listen to streaming audio,
e.g. Amazon.com music clips, or Windows Media Player Radio. I read
somewhere to disable UDP and Multicast in the Media Player, but that
does not seem to help. When the router hangs the only way to access
the Internet again is to power cycle it. My Westell 2100 (Bellsouth)
is set in bridged mode and simply acts as a modem and does not need to
be reset. Other than this quirk the router works great for wired
(static IP) and wireless (DHCP) access.
Should I back off to a previous version of the firmware? Any settings
in the BEFW11S4 that I should make sure are enabled or disabled? Use
the BEFW11S4 as a doorstop and buy a new wireless router? :-) I have
the larger antennas and I have wireless access all throughout my
house. I'd hate to lose that ability.
--
Regards, Ben
Jeff Liebermann
I have exactly the same wireless router. It hangs erratically a few
times per week. Type of traffic doesn't seem to make much difference.
I have it because it drove one of my customers nuts so I traded him
for one that works.
If you search alt.internet.wireless for "BEFW11S4 hangs", you'll get
quite a few hits on the topic.
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=befw11s4+hangs
The current consensus is that there's no fix. It's not affected by
the firmware version. That bad news is that you'll probably have to
fix the problem by replacing the wireless router with a model that
doesn't hang, or has a heartbeat timer.
To preserve your investments in antennas, other routers with Rev-TNC
connectors are available such as the Linksys WRT54G or WRT54GS. If
you decide to buy one of these, be sure to *NOT* buy a WRT54G v5. It
has problems.
--
Jeff Liebermann je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Frank
Bill & Debbie
news:mpa4r1l7k2c4fcgnu...@4ax.com...
I also run XP w/SP2 and had the same problem with the Linksys router. It
made no difference about the traffic. Hang could only be fixed by power
down cycle for the router. The good news: The problem has just gone away.
All I can attribute to fixing the problem is recent updates I have installed
for both XP and my laptop.
Anyway, good luck.
Aaron Leonard
There is also a known problem with firmware 1.52.02 where the
BEFW11S4 V4 may hang when using Macintosh clients with Airport cards.
This one is seen to clear up if downgrading to 1.50.10 firmware -
it would be interesting to see whether the streaming audio issue
is also cleared up by a downgrade.
If someone (Plan9?) can readily replicate this streaming audio problem,
then please email me with your contact information.
Regards,
Aaron (@cisco.com)
---
~ "Jeff Liebermann" <je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in message
~ news:mpa4r1l7k2c4fcgnu...@4ax.com...
~ > Plan9 <benz...@hotmail.com> hath wroth:
~ >
~ >>I am using a BEFW11S4 (V4 firmware 1.52.02) and Windows XP SP2 and
~ >>more times than not the BEFW11S4 hangs if I listen to streaming audio,
~ >>e.g. Amazon.com music clips, or Windows Media Player Radio. I read
~ >>somewhere to disable UDP and Multicast in the Media Player, but that
~ >>does not seem to help. When the router hangs the only way to access
~ >>the Internet again is to power cycle it. My Westell 2100 (Bellsouth)
~ >>is set in bridged mode and simply acts as a modem and does not need to
~ >>be reset. Other than this quirk the router works great for wired
~ >>(static IP) and wireless (DHCP) access.
~ >>
~ >>Should I back off to a previous version of the firmware? Any settings
~ >>in the BEFW11S4 that I should make sure are enabled or disabled? Use
~ >>the BEFW11S4 as a doorstop and buy a new wireless router? :-) I have
~ >>the larger antennas and I have wireless access all throughout my
~ >>house. I'd hate to lose that ability.
~ >
~ > I have exactly the same wireless router. It hangs erratically a few
~ > times per week. Type of traffic doesn't seem to make much difference.
~ > I have it because it drove one of my customers nuts so I traded him
~ > for one that works.
~ >
~ > If you search alt.internet.wireless for "BEFW11S4 hangs", you'll get
~ > quite a few hits on the topic.
~ > http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=befw11s4+hangs
~ > The current consensus is that there's no fix. It's not affected by
~ > the firmware version. That bad news is that you'll probably have to
~ > fix the problem by replacing the wireless router with a model that
~ > doesn't hang, or has a heartbeat timer.
~ >
~ > To preserve your investments in antennas, other routers with Rev-TNC
~ > connectors are available such as the Linksys WRT54G or WRT54GS. If
~ > you decide to buy one of these, be sure to *NOT* buy a WRT54G v5. It
~ > has problems.
~ >
~ > --
~ > Jeff Liebermann je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
~ > 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
~ > Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
~ > Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
~
~ I also run XP w/SP2 and had the same problem with the Linksys router. It
~ made no difference about the traffic. Hang could only be fixed by power
~ down cycle for the router. The good news: The problem has just gone away.
~ All I can attribute to fixing the problem is recent updates I have installed
~ for both XP and my laptop.
~
~ Anyway, good luck.
~
Rosco
more than just steaming audio/video kills mine. Sometimes it will
jsut die because it doesnt like the website I visited. Sometimes it
just get's "sleepy" I guess and decideds to die for no reason at
all!!
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>I've raised this issue with Linksys product management.
Raise it again. Go to:
http://www.pcflank.com/exploits.htm
Run the router exploits test. My BEFW11S4v4 hangs on two of the test
(I forgot which ones). It's been hanging since the initial firmware
release. 4 other BEFW11S4v4 routers also hang on this test.
--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# http://802.11junk.com je...@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
Rosco
> http://www.pcflank.com/exploits.htm
Mine passes all tests but still hangs whenever it wants
Plan9
I am now the proud owner/user of a WRT54G V4 (last one on the shelf at
a local WalMart). But I'll continue to play with the BEFW11S4 over
the next few weeks for fun and giggles.
Aaron I have contacted you via PM about testing the BEFW11S4.
--
Regards, Ben
Jeff Liebermann
>On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 11:32:36 -0700, Aaron Leonard <Aa...@Cisco.COM>
>wrote:
>
>>I've raised this issue with Linksys product management.
>
>Raise it again. Go to:
> http://www.pcflank.com/exploits.htm
>Run the router exploits test. My BEFW11S4v4 hangs on two of the test
>(I forgot which ones). It's been hanging since the initial firmware
>release. 4 other BEFW11S4v4 routers also hang on this test.
Ok, I lied. I just ran the tests again. My BEFW11S4 v4 1.52.02
firmware. It hangs the router on the TARGA3 test repeatedly and
passes on the other exploits.
Targa3 is a denial-of-service attack aimed at systems with IP stack
vulnerabilities. Targa3 sends random malformed IP packets that cause
some IP stacks to crash or act unexpectedly. Malformed IP packets
consist of invalid fragmentation, protocol, packet size, header
values, options, offsets, tcp segments, and routing flags. Once the
TCP stack received the invalid packet, the kernel had to allocate
resources to handle the packet. If enough malformed packets were
received, the system would crash because of exhausted resources.
Targa3 can be used to test firewalls and routers for stability and
reactions to unexpected packets.
Affected systems: Win 95,98,Me,NT,2000
--
Jeff Liebermann je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Jeff Liebermann
>>Raise it again. Go to:
>> http://www.pcflank.com/exploits.htm
>>Run the router exploits test. My BEFW11S4v4 hangs on two of the test
>>(I forgot which ones). It's been hanging since the initial firmware
>>release. 4 other BEFW11S4v4 routers also hang on this test.
>Ok, I lied. I just ran the tests again. My BEFW11S4 v4 1.52.02
>firmware. It hangs the router on the TARGA3 test repeatedly and
>passes on the other exploits.
Well, there's something else going on. When I check all the test
boxes, except TARGA3, the final web page says the router passed the
tests. However, within 5-10 minutes, the router is hung. I did this
3 times and it's repeatable. The problem is that I can't find which
one or more of the tests is causing the delayed hangs. I tried to
find it systematically but only the entire list, except TARG3 will do
it. Weird(tm).
Aaron Leonard
for now.
Btw, in case anyone out there in TV Land wants to try out fw 1.50.10
(or some other version) on their BEFW11S4 V4 to see whether the results
are better/worse, you can find the fw at:
ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/befsr41/ and ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/
(look for fw names starting with "befw11s4")
Aaron
---
~ Jeff Liebermann <je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> hath wroth:
~
~ >>Raise it again. Go to:
~ >> http://www.pcflank.com/exploits.htm
~ >>Run the router exploits test. My BEFW11S4v4 hangs on two of the test
~ >>(I forgot which ones). It's been hanging since the initial firmware
~ >>release. 4 other BEFW11S4v4 routers also hang on this test.
~
~ >Ok, I lied. I just ran the tests again. My BEFW11S4 v4 1.52.02
~ >firmware. It hangs the router on the TARGA3 test repeatedly and
~ >passes on the other exploits.
~
~ Well, there's something else going on. When I check all the test
~ boxes, except TARGA3, the final web page says the router passed the
~ tests. However, within 5-10 minutes, the router is hung. I did this
~ 3 times and it's repeatable. The problem is that I can't find which
~ one or more of the tests is causing the delayed hangs. I tried to
~ find it systematically but only the entire list, except TARG3 will do
~ it. Weird(tm).
Plan9
ran some more tests. clicking on music links at amazon.com hung the
router randomly, but with no pattern that I could determine and
required a power reboot each time. I then tried the Radio function of
Windows media Player 9.0.3250; accessing Classic Rock - Vinyl 107
(48K) hung the router repeatedly and never started playing.
So I decided to try Aaron's suggestion of flashing 1.50.10. I screwed
up the first attempt to reflash using tftp because I forgot to disable
the firewall. Kerio kept getting in the way and the router was hosed
before I could stop Kerio. The power light kept flashing frantically
in what has been called "GFLOD" (Green Flashing Light of Death).
I was able to recover the BEFW11S4-v4 by holding down the reset button
for 60 seconds, then removing power while still holding down the
reset, then releasing reset, and then repowering the router. My pc is
setup with a static IP so I turned off the firewall (Kerio) and
flashed the 1.50.10 firmware with the tftp tool.
No hangs at amazon.com and I've been listening to Internet radio Vinyl
107 from Sweden via Window Media Player for the last hour.
I'll continue to play with the BEFW11S4 over the weekend, but this may
have solved the problem or lessened it. At least I may have a spare
router in case the WRT54G ever goes belly up. :-)
--
Regards, Ben