wireless router

[old and confused]

I have a Linksys WRT54G router behind a DW6000 Direcway modem. I have XP pro OS on a Dell D600 laptop. I have to keep powering the router down to maintain an internet connection. If I bypass the router and plug the modem directly into my laptop I am able to keep conected with no problems. I have reset the router more than once and still have to power the modem down to renew the conection. Is there a more reliabe wireless gateway router that I can buy for my situation?

[osprey4]

Does the laptop connect wirelessly?

When you lose internet, try going to the router config page (192.168.1.1?), then try going to the modem config page. That will tell you where the connection is going south.

[old and confused]

The laptop connects by cable. I can unplug the router from the laptop and plug the laptop up directly to the modem and it works great.

[johnnyis42]

well, there may be a few things causting this problem.

with windows xp if it is up to date and the firewall is enabled on the network card and/or you have another firewall AND you are allowing ICMP through ("ping") then that could be why the router keeps dropping and the direct connection does not.

if this is not the case, however, and you have DSL with PPPOE, you may need to change some setitngs to the router to maintain the connection and/or auto dial it after the laptop has been idle.

lastly, does the directway modem provide router/gateway functionality? if it does than you're hindering the conneciton by using the linksys because that would mean you have 2 layers of NAT, where the directway is remapping your connection once and then the linksys a second time, which could easily cause you problems with maintaining connectivity from behind the linksys.

what you might want to try is to get the ip address that the laptop has when plugged directly into the modem. if it is anything like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x then the directway is definitely providing the router NAT functionality.

[GroundZero3]

Do you have the latest firmware installed on the router? The orginal firmware had some wireless issues/connectivity issues