Downloading Kills router?

chiuchimu · 24-03-2010, 03:01

This has happened with several routers of different makes. It seems that after I've been downloading at 600 kiloBytes/sec or more, my router dies and I have to reset it by unplugging it once. Others share the connection(hence router) so max speed may be more.

How much speed would cause a router to die?
We use time warner cable.

Lord Nikon · 24-03-2010, 03:07

by any chance are you using a torrent client to download?

If so then it's not the download that is killing the router, it's the fact that torrent clients upload as well while downloading. The upstream (Upload) is flooding the connection offline, routing pings are no longer able to get through and the router stalls. If you find out from Time Warner (Well, RoadRunner) what the upstream is for your connection, limit the uploads from the torrent client or limewire etc to about half or less. That way you won't flood yourself offline.

I'm on a 50mbit connection here and purely downloading? I can hit 5.2 megabytes per second without problems. You also haven't mentioned what make and model of router you have.

chiuchimu · 24-03-2010, 03:48

Thanks.

But I already learned the hard-way how upload slows download. My uTorrent is set up OK.

What I meant was my router always goes to 0 upload and 0 download after a while of heavy downloading. Its like its not connected anymore. It will stay like that until I unplug the router.

Lord Nikon · 24-03-2010, 06:21

What make and model of router is it?

chrisjones · 24-03-2010, 09:33

Are you 100% sure its your router and not your modem/connection?

roger skillin · 24-03-2010, 10:29

Ok i was having a problem almost identical to this where my connection would just drop if i downloaded anything at speed, it turned out it was just my ethernet card in my computer so i just stuck a cheapy one in it and it's been perfect since

chiuchimu · 24-03-2010, 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by roger skillin

Ok i was having a problem almost identical to this where my connection would just drop if i downloaded anything at speed, it turned out it was just my ethernet card in my computer so i just stuck a cheapy one in it and it's been perfect since

Interesting.
In my case, We live in a two story house with computers here and there so wireless was our first choice. We went thru three different makes of routers, two modems, and several USB wireless adapters, and yet this problem still occurred. During this time, we noticed that two of the computers that where directly wired to the router didn't lose their internet connect-ability even when the wireless computers did(a few times, all computers lost internet and the router had to be replugged). Still, that suggested it was a wireless-router problem so we wired the whole house and boxed all the wireless stuff in the garage.

Things went good for a few months(probably because I wasn't downloading a lot) but then recently I began downloading a lot of TV shows and stuff. The connection went down again this time all computers. This makes the fourth time the system went down with the new wired system and I'm pretty sure that its been my single computer downloading faster than 600 kB/sec that's been the culprit causing the router crashes all this time. Looking back, I see the crashes coincide with heavy downloading. The routers have acted like a car that's been driven too hard and has over heated.

I know its my downloading that's screwing with the routers but is it the speed of downloading, the number of connections(torrents use a lot) or what? What is max speed, max connections for average router?

Lord Nikon · 24-03-2010, 16:21

We do need more information, is your router also your cablemodem? Is it an ADSL type connection?

Without this information it limits the assistance we can give. Ideally the make and model of your modem would be perfect as it lets us do system specific diagnostics.

bonzoe · 24-03-2010, 18:52

I had the same problem with a Belkin Router, changed it for Netgear and all OK. So, some routers can't cope!

chiuchimu · 30-03-2010, 08:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonzoe

I had the same problem with a Belkin Router, changed it for Netgear and all OK. So, some routers can't cope!

Yeah. I solved my problem by cutting back the bandwidth. I don't think any router can handle a constant 700 KB/s download. I found that by cutting back to a max of 500 KB/s, my current router stays in business.

Someone should post a list that shows each router and what they can handle before they crash. That would help out a lot of people.

Lord Nikon · 30-03-2010, 09:32

strange, both my Netgear WNR2000 and my D-Link DIR-635 handle 5MB (Megabytes) per second sustained downloading...

MovedGoalPosts · 30-03-2010, 09:39

Some routers can be overwhelmed by prolonged heavy use. They dont have sufficient memory to maintain the internal tables and logs of all the connections being made. I know this was a problem with the older Linksys WRT54 series but you could get round it by flashing the firmware to a third party one such as DD-WRT and then altering a few settings that firmware enabled. No idea if that is similar to your issues.