Equipment Support > Hardware By Brand > Linksys > [Wired] WRT610N v1

reply to staticfree6

Re: [Wired] WRT610N v1

I hope it is a firmware issue because that means it can be fixed.
Well I am happy you are lucky with yours PeteC2.
I know it is not any other factors (like my laptop clients, windows Vista/XP) causing the linksys stops broadcasting its SSID because I have other routers and access points going at the same time and they do not disappear. Also my far away neighboring wi-fi signals are even picked up by my laptop clients when the Linksys routers signals disappear. It is the router that stops sending out signal for some reason or other on the 2.4Ghz band.

It has not happened since I rebooted the router last night (almost a day one by now) and signal is still there strong. My son was associated and connected to the 2.4Ghz band of the WRT610N that night that it stopped broadcasting... he said he used his Sony PS3 to download a couple of files. So maybe that has something to do with it. Like I said certain types of traffic activity may cause the symptom. I connect to the router via wireless-N adapters, his PS3 I guess is 802.11b/g which would cause the router to negotiate mixed mode operation. This could trigger the buggy signal behavour. I just don't know at this point in time.
It's odd the router stays stable for a long while sometimes and then all of a sudden out of nowhere does this quirk and you cannot see its SSID doing a wi-fi scan from your laptop.
Hope Linksys can sort it out in the near future.

I vaguely recall an issue with the client (not the router) side if the client was running Intel b/g/n - there's a setting somewhere in the device configuration. I recall this happening with a visitor's 'N' laptop and it drove both of us crazy - but once the client config was updated the problems went away....

Have to see if I can dig that up - but you might want to Google that.

I think most people have had the greatest success setting the 610 up so that the 2.4ghz band is for b/g only, and the 5ghz is N only - to avoid mixed mode compatibility stuff. You might want to try that.

Update: since my last post after I had rebooted the WRT610N router, it has not dropped out either band on me. Well not 100% though, as I did notice a couple of times where a band (2.4Ghz or 5Ghz) would disappear on my laptop scan but later on mysteriously just show up detected again (fyi, this laptop uses an internal Intel 5300agn wi-fi mini-pcie card. Why this is important and significant is explained below).

Same for my other Linksys WRT320N router which is running on 5Ghz band mode. Tonight I was observing my wi-fi signals with a SSID scanner utility called InSSIDer as well as Windows 7 own scanner.
The 5Ghz SSID from my WRT320N just disappeared this evening. I checked to make sure my WRT320N router was still powered on and its status lights blinking normally... it was. So I went and got my other laptop that uses a GigaByte Atheros based wireless a/bgn mini-pcie adapter and booted it up to check wi-fi signals and SSID's.
Whoa and behold, the 5Ghz WRT320N SSID signal showed up on that laptop! The signal still however failed to show up on the Intel 5300agn based laptop. So there is something here about the Intel cards and Linksys routers not playing 100% well with each other. (I think I've read or recall mention about Intel cards having problems with Linksys routers somewhere before) but I thought that Intel (or Linksys) fixed it by now.

Anyway, I used my other Atheros based wireless laptop to connect to the 5Ghz WRT320N and it did so successfully. After which, all of a sudden my Intel 5300agn based laptop wi-fi scanners now show the WRT320N SSID returned back from the dead! Something about the Linksys signal protocol changes and plays funny games with the Intel 5300agn adapter card.
So what this means is that my earlier reports that the Linksys WRT610N and the WRT320N routers dropping signals is not totally 100% accurate... the signals are still there, just not seen by the Intel 5300agn adapters until the signal protocol of sorts is cleared and then the Intel 5300agn sees the signal again and can connect. (when it does not see the signal it cannot even connect even if you tried to manually force enter the SSID and passphrase). I should also point out here that I have my Intel 5300agn card set to "Auto 20/40Mhz" channel bonding mode for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands in the Windows Intel driver configuration settings.

I don't know if the problem with this scenario lies with a flaw in the Linksys router algorithms or with the Intel 5300agn driver or with both! But it is identified here for all to know.

P.S. - update: one caveat here, I seem to now recall that I could not see missing SSID signals from these routers not only from my Intel 5300agn based cards, but I think I also could not see them one time before (last week) using an external Netgear USB dual band wireless dongle model WNDA3100 Adapter. So it may not only be Intel chipsets that are affected but other brands as well. Hmmm, this sort of then points the blame on something fishy going on with the Linksys router signal protocols... yeah?

I don't know about the Intel 5300a/g/n WiFi chipset, as I do not have it on any of my current machines, however, I do have both the Broadcom and Atheros 11g internal WiFi adapters, as well as the Linksys Dual-Band Express card adapter, and none of these exhibit that issue (of course, one would expect the Linksys adapter to play nice with the WRT610N!) either on the 2.4ghz nore 5ghz channels.

For what it is worth, the Intel WiFi chipsets have not always enjoyed a reputation for stability...however, is it the adapter, or is it the router? Is it some other issue altogether?

In the end, I would say that there comes a point where you simply find what works, and use it, hell with the "brand", yes?

I did not wish to imply that because the WRT610N works and plays very nicely on my network, that you had something "wrong"...just that if it were a firmware issue, then it should replicate on most folk's networks, and this apparently is not the case. However, for what this router costs, I would not let it drive me crazy! If you have exhausted reasonable trouble-shooting steps, then I'd return it and go with another brand/model.
--
Deeds, not words

Just dropping in to add update status of my Linksys WRT610N router. It has been running continuously (as an access point AP) since my last post a few weeks ago... no drops or reboots. Fantastic. I do notice that the wireless SSID signals seem to go undetected by my laptops downstairs (1 floor down) every now and then but I know for sure the router is still running. Something about the Linksys wireless RF signal processing that makes it susceptible somehow to interference from my other wireless routers signals on the same band channel. I noticed if I had another wireless router running and close by on the same channel, these Linksys router signals would start to disappear from network scan status. But in reality, I believe they are still there just weaker and not detected and thus do not show up. Also has something to do with the wireless adapter driver used in the laptop PC's too.

Bottom line, WRT-610N dual band router seems to be robust and reliable. Has not been rebooted since May 20th or there abouts, and it is still stable and running non-stop today June 10, 2009. Go buy it if you need a simultaneous Dual-Band router. I rate it A-Okay for the $106 I bought it for on ebay.

If you have two APs in your home, both running on the same channel, then they are going to interfere with each other. You need to use a different channel for each AP. There are 11 available channels, but only three do not overlap - 1, 6, and 11. By default, I believe that they are set to use Channel 1. So, change the other AP to Channel 6 or 11. Actually, if you have one AP running at either end (either Channel 1 OR Channel 11), then the second can run on any channel that's Channel 6 or past (6-11 if one AP is on Channel 1; 1-6 if one AP is on Channel 11).

I had two wireless routers set up in my home for awhile - my old 2Wire router (from ATT UVerse), and my new WRT610N. They ran on different channels as I describe above, and there were no problems at all. I ran it this way for about 45 days, until I cut everything over from UVerse to my new provider.

Also, you should use your PC to look for available wireless networks and see what channels your neighbors are using. If there is a strong signal from a neighbor, and it's using the same channel that you're using, you may experience random problems due to interference.

I purchased my WRT610N and immediately upgraded the code to the latest version. The code that was on it was over a year old. I have had zero problems with the unit. I only use it as a wireless AP, and use a Cisco ASA5505 as my firewall to the Internet.

-rb

There is another Linksys firmware update for the WRT610N.

1.00.03.B15 July 28, 2009

Also, when you go to download firmware, you are now prompted for a version of WRT610N, with both Version 1 and Version 2 showing up.

So, apparently there have been some hardware changes made recently.

Hope this helps.

-rb