flaky residential router

[Jordon Bedwell]

On 2/9/2011 9:54 PM, Thufir Hawat wrote:
> I have a strange, intermittent, connection problem.  Oddly enough, the
> wireless part of the router seems to work fine.  However, the computer
> will periodically experience connectivity problems only solved by a
> reboot.
>
> I try:
>
> ifconfig eth0 down; ifconfig eth1 down; ifconfig eth0 up; ifconfig eth1
> up; ifconfig; ping 192.168.1.1
>
>
> and the router's available, however I cannot ping google.com, I get
> "network unavailable" which, given that the wireless connection is
> working, this is kinda odd.  (Yes, the wireless is connected to my
> router, not to my neighbors -- I double checked.)
>
> I've tried powercycling the router, but get the same result as above.
> However, restarting the computer allows a reconnection.
>
> Obviously, I need to replace the router.  However, that doesn't explain
> what's going on.  Why would restarting the computer have any effect?  If
> I was on Windows, I'd suspect corrupted system files or something along
> those lines.

At this point I would assume either user corruption (most likely not the 
issue ~ even on Windows...) or NIC chip issues (the most likely), not 
the router.  Your entire statement implies that obviously it's something 
on the computer itself and not the router.

First, use a Live CD to see if you have the same issue, if you do not 
then it was user based driver corruption most likely.  If you do then go 
buy a cheap NIC card (they're as little as $10 USD ~ some computer shops 
have some on hand they use for quick diagnostics that they would let you 
use real quick) and see if it has the same connection problems on your 
production machine, if it does not then it's obviously the NIC chip in 
the computer.

On computers the wireless chip is not the same as your wired chip so 
each could function without the other reliably even in a router one 
could function without the other unless it's a software issue but at 
this point restarting the router does not work to re-establish a 
connection and an entire machine restart is required which would lead 
most people to believe it's an issue with the computer, not the router.