Computers & Electronics

WRT45GS problem.. HELP!

  • Last Updated:
  • Jul 12th, 2006 9:37 pm
Tags:
None
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 10, 2003
1950 posts
5 upvotes

WRT45GS problem.. HELP!

I'm hoping that one of you gurus can give me some ideas of what to try here:

The other week, I picked up a used WRT45GS used from a friend for cheap, since I've always wanted to have one so I could hack it, and get the extra features. At the time I had a DLink DI624 which was working flawlessly, and had been for years.
After picking up the WRT45GS, I sold the DLink.
Now after playing with the WRT45GS for about 1.5 weeks, I'm not entirely happy.
What happens is that while I'm downloading stuff on bittorrent, the connection to the net on all the other computers on the LAN (3 of them) slows right down, to the point of not being usable. Surfing the net is unbarebly slow.
Azureus is set up to throttle the up and down stream (just like it was before). That never changed. My max up and down speeds from ISP haven't changed (checked them again last night)
The only thing that's changed is the router. I've even upgraded the firmware to the latest that Linksys had, and now I'm running DD-WRT v23, and still have the same problem.
The strange thing is that if I even try to access the router's config pages the same huge slowdown is evident. Network traffic on the LAN is affected.

Is the linksys router really getting bogged down so much by the torrent traffic?
What did the Dlink have that the Linksys router doesn't?

I'd like to not have to buy a DLink router, since I really like the feature set the Linksys offers.
14 replies
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Nov 18, 2002
7041 posts
652 upvotes
BC Interior
Outsider wrote:I'm hoping that one of you gurus can give me some ideas of what to try here:

The other week, I picked up a used WRT45GS used from a friend for cheap, since I've always wanted to have one so I could hack it, and get the extra features. At the time I had a DLink DI624 which was working flawlessly, and had been for years.
After picking up the WRT45GS, I sold the DLink.
Now after playing with the WRT45GS for about 1.5 weeks, I'm not entirely happy.
What happens is that while I'm downloading stuff on bittorrent, the connection to the net on all the other computers on the LAN (3 of them) slows right down, to the point of not being usable. Surfing the net is unbarebly slow.
Azureus is set up to throttle the up and down stream (just like it was before). That never changed. My max up and down speeds from ISP haven't changed (checked them again last night)
The only thing that's changed is the router. I've even upgraded the firmware to the latest that Linksys had, and now I'm running DD-WRT v23, and still have the same problem.
The strange thing is that if I even try to access the router's config pages the same huge slowdown is evident. Network traffic on the LAN is affected.

Is the linksys router really getting bogged down so much by the torrent traffic?
What did the Dlink have that the Linksys router doesn't?

I'd like to not have to buy a DLink router, since I really like the feature set the Linksys offers.
Have you limited the number of connections per torrent?
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 10, 2003
1950 posts
5 upvotes
Have I limited them, or have I changed them since the router swap?

The number of connections have not changed. They are set to the defaults that came with Azureus, and have not changed with the router swap.
Deal Expert
May 30, 2005
49009 posts
10302 upvotes
Richmond Hill
Did you install any third party firmware? You'll need to install one to have access to the startup script of the router, which, if you edit it, will keep your bittorrent throttle and websurfing appropriately.
Tons of things for sale!
Silver Coins and Numismatics | Heatware
Sr. Member
User avatar
Apr 16, 2005
515 posts
Toronto
mine does the same thing but it runs relatively fine when using the hyperwrt firmware. ive tried a LOT of different firmwares and versions but no luck, using the last version of hyperwrt thibor right now, works like a charm
you can grab it from
http://www.thibor.co.uk
:)
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 10, 2003
1950 posts
5 upvotes
I'm glad I'm not the only one Gamester. If if we're having these problems, I bet a lot of other must be also.
I will give that firmware a shot, but I would still like to understand WHY this is happening.

For me often it's not enough to solve the problem. I need to understand why things behave the way they do... hope someone has some answers...
:)
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jun 8, 2003
8718 posts
1069 upvotes
Scarborough
Here goes again (after you install Thibor on G/GS)
Here's what I've done with the WRT54GS routers I've helped friends set up:

1. Get a Linksys WRT54GS v4 at the local CompUSA. They seem to have plenty in Chicago.

2. Clear NVRAM, restore factory defaults.

3. Firmware upgrade to HyperWRT Thibor GSv4.

It sounds like this version confuses everyone. It's for upgrading a stock WRT54GS v4 directly to Thibor without requiring any intermediate firmware. If he stops releasing that version, it sounds like you'll need to flash it first with DD-WRT Mini before you'll be able to load HyperWRT Thibor GS.

Maybe he needs a better explanation in the readme on his site? I have not seen Thibor explicitly say this, but maybe he should post something along the lines of:
Quote:
If you're running any version of HyperWRT (not sure this is actually true for all versions) on any version WRT54G, WRT54GS, or WRT54GL, flash with HyperWRT Thibor GS. See my note below for the WRT54G/WRT54GL.

If you're running with a stock WRT54GS v1-v3, also flash with HyperWRT Thibor GS.

If you're running with a stock WRT54GS v4, flash with HyperWRT Thibor GSv4. This is absolutely the one and only time you should flash with this version. Once you flash with this version, the code running on the router is the same as HyperWRT Thibor GS.

If you're running with a WRT54GS v5 or WRT54G v5, HyperWRT is not compatible with your router.

If you're running with a WRT54G or WRT54GL, you may need to flash HyperWRT +tofu or DD-WRT Mini before flashing with HyperWRT Thibor GS. I don't have a WRT54G or WRT54GL, so I do not test my code on those models, but others have reported it works.

3. Clear NVRAM, restore factory defaults again after it's running HyperWRT Thibor GS.

4. Set up the Firewall. Block Portscans. Block Anonymous Internet requests. Filter Multicast. Do not filter Internet NAT Redirection. Filter IDENT. Enable Passthrough for all VPN types.

5. Set up UPnP: Enable UPnP, Disable "Clear port forwards at startup", Enable "Send presentation URL".

6. Set up QoS. Upstream bandwidth "Manual" based on Speakeasy Speed Test. Priority Highest for DNS and VOIP applications and DNS. Priority High for HTTP/HTTPS. Priority Low for PTP. Prioritize ACK and ICMP.

If I don't do this step, they still seem ok with P2P, but always complain if and when they try VOIP applications so now I just do it. I do no special P2P configuration within the P2P application, I just let it use all the bandwidth it wants and let Thibor just prioritize it behind VOIP and web browsing.

7. Set up Conntrack settings: 600 seconds for Established State Timeout. 4096 for Max Connections.

8. Set up a Startup Script.

Code:
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses

9. Set up static DHCP addresses for all of their systems.

10. Pretty much leave everything else alone, including leaving Dnsmasq running.

11. Backup the configuration so that they have a good baseline in case they play with it later and make things worse.

12. There is much rejoicing.

If this doesn't produce acceptable results for you, then I would tend to think there's something's wrong with your router, or outside of the router, and not the configuration of the router. This has worked in a number of different homes, including with simultaneous P2P (typically Azureus), VOIP (Skype or [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=315]Vonage[/rfdlink]), and web browsing. For most simultaneous P2P and VOIP, they can't tell the difference when web browsing. They can tell a difference when P2P is running hard with tons of torrents, especially with trackerless DHT torrents, but it's very minor, more of a genuinely hard-to-perceive lag from the click on a link until the page loads. But it still easily passes the "feels snappy" test with DHT torrents running! Smile
Deal Guru
User avatar
Jan 11, 2004
10408 posts
1123 upvotes
Toronto
changed over to the 3rd party firmware also! tryed a few of them, but hyperwrt seems to be the very best of them all! and all the features I want! I download lots of bt! but limit the #of connections because I want to surf the net be on msn also.. so the router works great!

Gamester2K wrote:mine does the same thing but it runs relatively fine when using the hyperwrt firmware. ive tried a LOT of different firmwares and versions but no luck, using the last version of hyperwrt thibor right now, works like a charm
you can grab it from
http://www.thibor.co.uk
:)
"When operating the viewfinder diopter control with your eye to the viewfinder, care should be taken not to put your finger in your eye accidentally."
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 9, 2003
9283 posts
81 upvotes
Toronto
Uhhh maybe you should just get a normal router, and stop screwing around with extra functions and third-party firmware.

If it's not broken, don't fix it. You should have left your D-Link router alone. I have in my household a Linksys 802.11g access point that's been serving me for about 5 years. Flawless. Sure, there's newer, cooler stuff that can send out a stronger signal at a further distance. But this thing works and I don't touch it.
Machine: AMD 7950X3D | Asus X670E-E | 64GB Corsair DDR5-6000 | 4 + 2TB WD SN850X NVMe | 6TB WD Black | 16 + 14TB WD Gold | Corsair 7000D | Corsair RM850x | Asus RTX 4070 Super | 2 x 32" ViewSonic VX3276-2K-MHD | Win11 Pro 64-bit
Deal Addict
Dec 7, 2004
1301 posts
I got the GS too, I use Thibor 14 and have been running torrents for 30 days straight - 24/7.

No reboots, no problems. There is a very slight slowdown in web browsing when BT is running, but nothing unexpected since the BW is already in use.
Deal Fanatic
Oct 3, 2004
6348 posts
1610 upvotes
WRT45GS?

You mean WRT54GS, blah, this is an old thread.... :mad:
Deal Expert
User avatar
Dec 19, 2001
31347 posts
2025 upvotes
Fernando Poo
I've had success with the original HyperWRT (2.0 Beta : 2.1b1) on my ver.3 WRT54G. Tried the newer versions by other people and it just messed things up (it removed options I had under HyperWRT 2 and gave me blank pages). Probably made a mistake along the way, since I wouldn't think they'd give way fewer options with the "upgrades".

Are there any real advantages to moving to the newer versions if everything is working fine now?
Welcome to the Minitrue FDs, Ficdep

Top

Thread Information

There are currently 2 users viewing this thread. (0 members and 2 guests)