[vookster82]

Hi, i bought a wireless cable gateway to get rid of my modem...im tight for space

Anyways, when ever i go on my laptop and connect wirelessly, it will drop the wireless connection and usually never reconnect....sometimes it does It doesnt happen all the time, and with no particular reason...sometimes im not even using the wireless but connected, and it will still drop....often. other times im watching a video or surfing and it will do it.

Also, sometimes when the wireless drops...my entire internet goes down and disconnects from comcast....No upstream or downstream, however my home network will still work fine. And the only way to get it back up and running is a power cycle....it will not reconnect by itself.

Please note that this is the second router thats doing this...i returned the first one because of the same issue. I got this one from newegg and the other from a local fry's...so i can assume its a totally different batch to rule stuff like that out.

I never messed with the advanced wireless specs...but i was thinking they might be outta wak or something since it only happens when a wirelss connection is made to the router.


Also, something i just noticed yesterday and a reason i would have never of bought this if i knew this.....THIS ROUTER DOES NOT ALLOW FOR A FIRMWARE UPDATE!!!! WTF

Anyways, any and all help is greatly appreciated.

[JohnWill]

Have you considered going back to the working hardware you used to use?

[vookster82]

Ha, ofcourse...figures you'd say that JW....your always to the point with the short and sweet version of things.

Im just stubborn and would like to figure out if its some stupid default setting first i guess...time will tell when i get some free time to tinker...any ideas though?

[JohnWill]

Other than resetting it to factory defaults, nothing comes to mind. I suspect the reason for no firmware update is no new firmware for it yet. I can't believe there's no firmware update capability!

[vookster82]

nope, no way to update firmware....the older v1 router i gave to my friend a few years back also didnt have the ability to perform a firmware update. It must be something based around it being a wireless cable gateway with the modem built in...only thing i can think of.

Ill give the factory reset a try when i get time and see whats happens...ill be back

[JohnWill]

Hard as it is to believe, you may be right. I found this on the Linksys community forums. I'm be really tempted to invest in a router that I could upgrade.

Because of the unique nature of most cable modems, only the ISP (comcast, cox, charter, etc) can upgrade the firmware of the cable modem. This was done at the request of the cable companies so that they could make sure that everyone one their network is compatible. You are unable to get the firmware from Linksys. They won't even tell you what firmware is out there. And even if you did get your hands on the firmware, you would not be able to upgrade your cable modem. Additionally, even if you could upgrade your cable modem, the next time you accessed your ISP, it would detect that your firmware is higher than the system expects and would probably push a lower revision to your cable modem.

The companies which make cable modems and the cable ISPs have a partnership which allows the ISPs control over the modems and any firmware goes from the manufacturers to the ISPs. Some things like the DOCSIS versions are standardized, but basically each type of cable modem has different firmware in order to implement the DOCSIS standards.

[vookster82]

Hmmm...i never woulda guess my ISP would be in charge of the firmware.

Now ill have to look into if the firmware is in part with the router aspect of the unit, or just the modem aspect. I knew it was too good to be true to have both the router and modem in one unit.

I got comcast and what a pain they are to deal with...gotta get ready and pull out some food and beer since ill be on the phone for about 3 hours after about 6 transfers...seriously

Good grab JW
Ill be back with a verdict.

[JohnWill]

Since Comcast didn't provide the router, I can give you their response right now.

Comcast Rep: "Sorry, but this is not a Comcast supported device."

[vookster82]

ugghh...sadly i seen that one coming already.

im still gonna try for the heck of it tomorrow.
It makes no sense that "someone" cant update the darn firmware...

[JohnWill]

It makes no sense to me either. If they sell this as a consumer device, I'm at a loss as to why there is no provision to update the firmware. That seems like a gross oversight on their part.

Remember the suggestion to go back to the working configuration?

[nvht442]

We had the same problem. So we decided to let the comcast guy come out since network ops is off limits to the mere mortals....so...Randall (cable guy) was great......he stated that we were over clocked (too much power) on our amp coming in from comcast, which he hoped would fix this issue....So we have kept the WCG200 and want to see how this goes.......Our WCG200 is still exactly 1 hr behind the internet time....

[nvht442]

BTW JohnWill - did anyone ever tell you that you look like John Voight?

[squeezin]

Im sorry, but i dont quite follow the amperage overclocking, and the 1 hour time difference.


Also, do you still have wireless dropping issues?
What did he end up doing?



Sadly i still have the same issue that i originally posted with, and never got a different wireless cable gateway. I only use the wireless about once every 2 weeks and its usually about 2am when i do....so when it drops i get all pissy, go to bed and forget about it until 2 weeks later when it does it again.
Boy i cant wait till it does it to me after a long day of work and im all hopped up on caffeine....that ill be an interesting night...