The title sounds a bit ambigious, but I am having serious issues with my net connection, and I'm thinking that the issues are all pointing towards my router being on the blink.

I have a Billion 5100 Router, just FYI.

Now, my issue is this:

For the last week or so, my internet has been periodically dropping out. Now, when I say dropping out, that means that I cannot visit websites that are not in my cache. Downloads still work fine, Xbox live works fine, and even if one of the websites that are in my cache happens to be a forum, I can still browse all of the forums fine - but as soon as I attempt to visit a site that isn't in my cache, the page cannot be found.

The only solution to this is that I have to switch my router on and off, which makes it work fine for a time, before repeating the process (I have to do this maybe 6-7 times a day).

Now, that aside, I'm having some other wierd issues as well.

I bought an Xbox 360 and wanted to set it up so that I can stream MP3's from my PC to my Xbox. I downloaded SP2, fiddled with my router's port forwarding etc, and eventually it worked. After doing a full reset on my Router to attempt to fix the wierd internet browsing problem, this no longer works, and I cannot get it to work again by retracing my previous steps and setting it up as I had it before the reset.

Last night playing an Xbox Live game of GR:AW with my friend, it became apparent that my connection was, for lack of a better word, Balls. I was lagging everywhere, communication was dropping out, so I quit the game and checked out my PC. When I opened Azureus (my BT Client), it had an error in the taskbar down the bottom. Where the light is usually Green, to indicate that everything was fine, it was now Red, saying that I am "Firewalled". I turned off Windows Firewall (which I have had running ever since I installed SP2, without an issue), however the problem is still there.

This is leading me to think that for some reason, my Router is making it a pain in the ass for my internet to work properly. As I said before, I have no firewall active at all, however Azureus says that there is one active, and my Xbox Live is running like s***.

I know that was a massive novel, I'm sorry for it, however I'm at the end of my tether. I've called my ISP (Westnet), who have walked through EVERYTHING they thought it could be (they told me to manually set the DNS server), and nothing has fixed it. It says I'm connected fine at their end, however at my end, my web-browsing goes to s***, and my PC thinks there is a Firewall active, where there isn't. I have my ports forwarded etc, too.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Any ideas what it could be? I really hope I'm not required to buy a new router, as I'm low on cash, so I'd like to exhaust all other alternatives too.

Thanks, any help with this is GREATLY appreciated!

I've seen cases where bipac 5100's have done the same thing.

When you start having problems, check if you can ping hostnames vs. ip's, I've had a 5100 with dead dns.
Also, when problems start up, see if you can log into the web interface. If it's very laggy and slow to respond (should be almost instantaneous when loading on a lan) it's most likely dead/dying.

Also, make sure you've got the latest firmware for it - http://billion.com.au/support/bipac5100.php

Sounds like the router has s*** it self that or you have a problem with your line, you loose line sync?

PS. 5100's are s***, get something with broadcom chipset Dynalink RTA1250 for example nice and cheap but very good all round.

last edited by 0z at 19:02:37 08/May/06

a stab in the dark here, but some P2P programs (read BitTorrent) can make some NAT devices flip out

an old Netgear device of ours had to be restarted often

because P2P apps open and close TCP connections quickly, and NAT implementations often wait awhile before making a recently used port available for outgoing connections again, this has the effect of making the device run out of ports

stuff that is already connected (IRC, any downloads currently in progress etc) will continue to work, but new connections will not (often making short term connections like mail checking and web requests suck)

not much solution to that except check for new firmware and hope they fixed the problem as netgear (mostly) did

eXemplar - sounds like my problem precisely. I'm gonna try upgrading to the latest Firmware and see how that goes. Thanks heaps man.

Sidenote: Anyone selling a router for cheap? :P

Edit: Hahahah, after 2x hard-resets, and a few on-and-off switches, I still can't actually get into the router to upgrade the firmware.

f*** :(

last edited by Pharcyde at 21:49:13 08/May/06

Yeah, I've got a brick here like that too. I feel your pain =(