Transparent Proxies & WGT624 Wireless Router

[ethiksgradient]

Viewing the NTLWorld.com telly pages crashes my Netgear WGT624 wireless router unless I use a web proxy external to NTL's network.

This would indicate to me that NTL's transparent proxies are doing something peculiar.

It's not OS/browser, as Safari on OSX, Firefox on Linux and IE6 on Windows XP all produce the same result.

Any suggestions for either disabling the transparent proxy or altering its behaviour?

[threadbare]

have tried disabling the external proxy?

perhaps it is the router and it needs a firmware update...

[ethiksgradient]

The external proxy is one thing that makes it work, and it takes me around NTL's transparent proxy. Running a proxy on the LAN and using that doesn't change things, which is why I'm reasonably confident that it's something that the transparent proxy does that's causing the fault.

The router is running the latest firmware; however, I've been through a number of firmware upgrades and none of them have altered this behaviour. Altering the firewalling behaviour (turning on/off the SPI firewall, etc) does not alter this behaviour.

I have opened a case with Netgear for this because no network traffic should ever cause the router to crash, but I am not optimistic of a productive outcome there.

[OldGeezer]

I've just reproduced this with my WGT624, although I haven't yet upgraded to the 4.2.6 firmware.

[ethiksgradient]

More info.

I've tried twiddling the MTU from 1500 down to 1400, and this only makes things very unreliable indeed.

[MrBen]

Originally Posted by ethiksgradient

Viewing the NTLWorld.com telly pages crashes my Netgear WGT624 wireless router unless I use a web proxy external to NTL's network.

Is there a specific page? The reason I ask, is I have one of these routers but don't have a problem... thus far anyways

Is your router hardware version 1 or 2?

Thanks,
Ben

[ethiksgradient]

Any of the TV listings will do; I used the "basic" choice to demonstrate.

This page will also do the trick:

http://michaelpaulus.com/gallery/character-Skeletons

[ethiksgradient]

Binned. Buffalo WBR2-G54 bought and installed. All happy now.

Netgear = cack.

Originally Posted by ethiksgradient

Binned. Buffalo WBR2-G54 bought and installed. All happy now.

Netgear = cack.

You were confident that it was NTL's transparent proxies that caused the problem, yet you went and bought an alternative router

[ethiksgradient]

Originally Posted by gary_580

You were confident that it was NTL's transparent proxies that caused the problem, yet you went and bought an alternative router

That's a misstatement of the problem.

The problem is that the WGT624 does not correctly handle certain types of traffic which can be shown to be connected to NTL's transparent proxies. This does not indicate that the problem lies with the proxies; it indicates that the router cannot handle certain types of traffic which, by definition, it should handle. Without running a protocol analyser on the traffic between the router and the modem, I cannot say for certain what it is about the traffic that causes the lockups. This is not something I have the time to do.

The router is broken; it crashes and locks up on traffic that other products handle correctly. It also crashes and reboots of its own accord.

Replacing the router is the correct course of action, IMHO.

surerly the correct course of action is to report it to Netgear and get them to fix it?

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by gary_580

surerly the correct course of action is to report it to Netgear and get them to fix it?

to paraphrase
The correct course of action is to report this to netgear and then wait for them to patch and release new firmware to fix this.

But, in the meantime the problem continues to exist, which does not help your browsing.

[ethiksgradient]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

to paraphrase
The correct course of action is to report this to netgear and then wait for them to patch and release new firmware to fix this.

But, in the meantime the problem continues to exist, which does not help your browsing.

The way I consider it is this: I'll be able to sell the WGT624 - it's nearly new, and is a feature-packed device by any measure. The Buffalo was some £20 cheaper and is here, and works now.

I might end up a tenner or so out of pocket, but I've made much worse purchasing decisions in the past