Modems, routers, torrents and connectivity issues

[Stratus_ss]

First off I want to say this isnt a "my torrnets arent connecting" post

Here is the deal, I switched from cable internet to DSL. I have a DIR-625 wireless N router and a SpeedStream DSL modem.

I was testing out some of its abilities as I have just switched in the last day or so and I noticed that when the torrents were going at full speed, the router would drop the connection to the internet and the "uptime" obviously reset to 0

So I thought ok... maybe my ISP is just booting me for sucking down too much badwidth. So I throttled the download speed but that didnt help too much, the connection stayed alive about 30 mins more then before. So then I clamped down on the max. amount of connections allowed which sort of worked. This increased uptime again by maybe 40 mins.

So I got to thinking, I yanked off the cover of the router and the heatsink was warm to the touch. Of course its passive cooling. Then I checked on the modem and it was really really warm to the touch so I took the case off it to discover that it has no heat sink and it was super hot to the touch, I mean to the point where it must have been 110 degrees easily.

So I put them both in front of some 90 MM silent fans I had kicking around and the router is now cool to the touch but the modem is still quite warm. I have already returned DSL modems 3 times to my ISP so they got sick of seeing me and gave me the corporate addition of the modem (or so I am told) but I still find it strange that it doesnt have any heat sink

Now on my cable internet I never noticed connection problems or breakages in service which is partly why I find it strange that it might be a heat issue with the router.

Also since the last time I lost connectivity my download speed has gone way way down. By a factor of 10 at least. I understand this is a function of seeders and all that, but from this site I should be getting more then I am.

Yes my firewall has the ports forwarded properly, I passed all connectivity tests.

Anyways does anyone else have any experience with having to slap fans on things like DSL modems or routers? Is it possible that I have over looked some issues on the network?

there are 3 computers on the network, I have a trunk line between the router and the switch and one of the 3 computers is off 96% of the time, one is wireless and the one mentioned in the above post is plugged in directly to the switch (switch is 10/100 and the computer is gigabit ethernet)

My next step in trouble shooting this is to bypass the switch but I doubt that will do much

[VinnyTAMU]

First off I want to say this isnt a "my torrnets arent connecting" post

Here is the deal, I switched from cable internet to DSL. I have a DIR-625 wireless N router and a SpeedStream DSL modem.

I was testing out some of its abilities as I have just switched in the last day or so and I noticed that when the torrents were going at full speed, the router would drop the connection to the internet and the "uptime" obviously reset to 0

So I thought ok... maybe my ISP is just booting me for sucking down too much badwidth. So I throttled the download speed but that didnt help too much, the connection stayed alive about 30 mins more then before. So then I clamped down on the max. amount of connections allowed which sort of worked. This increased uptime again by maybe 40 mins.

So I got to thinking, I yanked off the cover of the router and the heatsink was warm to the touch. Of course its passive cooling. Then I checked on the modem and it was really really warm to the touch so I took the case off it to discover that it has no heat sink and it was super hot to the touch, I mean to the point where it must have been 110 degrees easily.

So I put them both in front of some 90 MM silent fans I had kicking around and the router is now cool to the touch but the modem is still quite warm. I have already returned DSL modems 3 times to my ISP so they got sick of seeing me and gave me the corporate addition of the modem (or so I am told) but I still find it strange that it doesnt have any heat sink

Now on my cable internet I never noticed connection problems or breakages in service which is partly why I find it strange that it might be a heat issue with the router.

Also since the last time I lost connectivity my download speed has gone way way down. By a factor of 10 at least. I understand this is a function of seeders and all that, but from this site I should be getting more then I am.

Yes my firewall has the ports forwarded properly, I passed all connectivity tests.

Anyways does anyone else have any experience with having to slap fans on things like DSL modems or routers? Is it possible that I have over looked some issues on the network?

there are 3 computers on the network, I have a trunk line between the router and the switch and one of the 3 computers is off 96% of the time, one is wireless and the one mentioned in the above post is plugged in directly to the switch (switch is 10/100 and the computer is gigabit ethernet)

My next step in trouble shooting this is to bypass the switch but I doubt that will do much

I have a feeling it is your ISP limiting you in some way. You could call them, and ask them what there policy is regarding bit-torent. Also I do not believe that the cable connecting your router to your switch is technecialy called a "trunk line". You can read about Trunking HERE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunking).

[redwraith94]

Personally I used to have AT&NSAT Initially (I was in a 3 story apt building) I ran a phone line as a piece of cat3 cable to the basement, and tied the other 3 pairs of wires not being using for signal to a copper watter pipe. After that I always got the rated speed when testing (first 1.5 mbps, then later 3.0 mbps)

I did have trouble with a linksys router overheating, and I cut open the top, and put a 80mm fan on it. the chips inside had no heatsink, and were getting hot enough to burn my fingers. (Pain is supposed to be around 140 Fahrenheit.)

Now that I moved out of the slums of Cleveland, I have Cox, and I have had trouble with the Motorola surfboard modem. Whenever it gets hot in my apt (we are no the sixth floor now) about 80 degrees or so, and I am dling a large file, or dling / seeding torrents the modem craps out.

at first I thought it was the crappy splitter, because whenever the splitter was hooked up at the wall (for T.V.) this could happen, wheres as soon as I would disconnect the splitter, and run internet only, it would connect right away. So I got the gold coated splitter from radiocrap (I don't recommend them for networking hardware, or anything else really.) Same problem, not quite as often. then the cable tech came out, and replaced the radiocrap splitter with one from SVI. less often, but probably once every two days.

So after making sure my apt doesn't hit over 70 now, I haven't had the problem.

As the modem was getting hot, it couldn't create as pure of a signal. It also isn't as sensitive to received signals when hot, because the 'noise' inside of the circuitry goes up. So it increases the signal to noise ratio (SNR).

The next step I was going to take would have been a heatsink / fan for the modem, and then slightly bumping up the voltage on the power supply, but it is stable now, as long as the room isn't hot.

[Stratus_ss]

well as an update, I woke up this morning to find that the uptime is almost at 2 hours.

I dont have any splitters or anything, in fact this is a dry-loop dsl.
In regards to the trunk line comment, technically you are right, when I took the CCNA they often used trunk line to refer to a single cable running between routers or switch to routers so I suppose I wasnt using it properly in a technical sense as I dont have multiple Vlans running off of it.

[meionm]

I attempted to use utorrent and it would criple interent connection. It turns out that number of internet connections had to be increased under windows.

I used to use dir-655 router that would drop internet connections. I don't think that uptime for that router was ever more than a week.

[Stratus_ss]

I attempted to use utorrent and it would criple interent connection. It turns out that number of internet connections had to be increased under windows.

I used to use dir-655 router that would drop internet connections. I don't think that uptime for that router was ever more than a week.

I use linux and as far as I can tell everything is configured properly, especially since I didnt have this with my cable modem. But then again they throttle torrents so I never got the kinds of speed I am getting with DSL on torrents.

I am undecided as to whether or not its the router or the modem. I guess the way to test is to get a different router and test that for a few days.

[meionm]

I am undecided as to whether or not its the router or the modem. I guess the way to test is to get a different router and test that for a few days.

Just run modem only, that's the best way to test it. If you get different router you be asking more question than getting solution.

[RedSkull]

i have a speedstream 4100 modem and its a piece of crap

would disconnect anytime anything opened a lot of connections.

my solution: dont run PPoE and hence the NAT from the modem, put it in bridged mode and run the PPoE off router or pc. havent had the modem freeze up since

now, ATT still is terrible and i get ridiculous outbound discard packets and ver y high upstream queue but i think its another issue

[Jigga]

i have a speedstream 4100 modem and its a piece of crap

would disconnect anytime anything opened a lot of connections.

my solution: dont run PPoE and hence the NAT from the modem, put it in bridged mode and run the PPoE off router or pc. havent had the modem freeze up since

now, ATT still is terrible and i get ridiculous outbound discard packets and ver y high upstream queue but i think its another issue

Yup same thing here with the speedstream 4100 modem. The I'm gonna say it's the modem and the PPPoE setting. Change it to the router to handle the PPPoE and it should run smoothly.

[gangaskan]

In regards to the trunk line comment, technically you are right, when I took the CCNA they often used trunk line to refer to a single cable running between routers or switch to routers so I suppose I wasnt using it properly in a technical sense as I dont have multiple Vlans running off of it.


what you kinda explained was a connection to another peice of newtork equipment a "uplink" if you want to call it that.

a trunk is a port, that you may assign, which passes traffic from that switch from any vlan on that network to another switch, router, etc ... whatever it may be :)


if it was a uplink, you would only get vlan 1 (aka default data vlan)


this may be different for juniper or avaya(sp?) equipment, but for cisco thats how those work i know that much!