Netgear DG834PN

[Martin963]

Totally odd behaviour this afternoon...

Orange have apparently been working in our area,  and there was a warning that the internet might be affected today.    We are on Orange Decouverte.....

About 16.00 ours ground to a halt (well it only manages 500 kbps at the best of times) but the router showed we were still connected/synchronised,  it was just that nothing was coming down the line to us.    I was able to ascertain that we could still send emails,  but could not receive them.   Later I noticed that we could use the Google Search engine,   working as well as it ever does,   but all the search results were unavailable,  just timing out.  Couldn't access anything else whatsoever.     Not a cache issue,   Google Translate on the Google page worked perfectly, so clearly our router could "see" Google in real time!

Fruitless call to Orange,  they said it wasn't them.   Total frustration.

But they were right,   I unearthed our spare router and it's working perfectly.

So I propose to do a factory reset on the 834,   but before I do I just wondered whether any of you clever people could tell me what's happened.   Firewall in the 834 gone beserk?   Could that have been caused by Orange's work in the area...?

The Netgear has never misbehaved before,  so I'm puzzled.

Thanks folks.....

[Pierre ZFP]

I've had similar issues with a Netgear router, not the exact same model but nearly.  I used to swear by it then it started acting up in the same way as yours.  A reboot (turn it off and on again) would sometimes work, same for a factory reset.  I sort of thought it might be the power supply which would run quite hot but I have no proof of this.  My son swapped it out a couple of years ago for a Belkin router and it's been fine since, the Belkin has better wi-fi coverage too.

Sucking eggs but if you do a factory reset don't forget to change the admin password and possibly the default channel if you have conflict with neighbours

[Martin963]

Thanks Pierre. I duly reset, re-entered the Orange Decouverte password etc, and have exactly the same situation on the 834. Access to Google works perfectly, but absolutely nothing else. Same on all three computers (two Windoze laptops and a main Linux machine via ethernet); the Netgear 300 router seems to be fine.

It really is most odd.

Oh well, I'll try it periodically, maybe try a different PSU, and then take it back to England for the winter to see if that teaches it a lesson!

Thanks again Pierre. I just don't understand why Google (of all things) should work perfectly, although a couple of days ago Google demanded that I click a user agreement (which I didn't read) - I suppose it couldn't be a false agreement which has cast a Google-only spell on the router itself....?

[Pierre ZFP]

That kind of makes sense now

It has to do with IPv4 and IPv6 protocols Internet connectivity. Most

likely your network adapter does not have Internet connectivity for

IPv4. Google has an IPv6 address, so you are able to connect. The most

other sites have IPv4 addresses.

To resolve your problem, try the following in Windows 7:

Control Panel

Network and Internet

Network Sharing Center

Change Adapter Settings

Double Click on your adapter, either Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection as the case may be.

You probably will see:

Internet only in IPv6 Connectivity

Click on Disable button

Your adapter will be disabled

Again double click on your adapter

Your adapter will be enabled and this time it will show Internet Connectivity in both IPv4 and IPv6.

Now, you should be able to access all websites.

Good luck!

[Martin963]

Thanks Pierre.

You will know that this is not my area of expertise, but when you say "network adaptor" you mean I assume the thing in the computer rather than the Netgear 834. Unfortunately the Windows 7 laptop doesn't have the usual ethernet plug and the Windows 8 laptop (oh how I hate W 8) tells me that there's a Realtek adaptor but won't let me change anything, just COPY the details!

But if websites are migrating IP4 -> IP6 I don't understand why the old Netgear 834 suddenly has lost IP4 connections, I'd expect it to be fine on IP4 but be stuck on IP6, but it's the other way round.

What am I missing? (and as I say I don't really understand all this).

Don't worry too much, I'll take the Netgear 834 home and get someone in England to chastise it...

[Martin963]

Works perfectly in Devon.

I'll bring out a spare moderner one next time as the Netgear is happy here in Britain.

Very odd though.

[sid]

I had a similar occurrence a couple of years ago. I had been using a DG834 (UK model) which I had bought back around 2002 and it had never let me down, then suddenly I started getting very poor access. I called FT to ask them to check our line as it was consistently slow for over 2 weeks. The tech came to the village, checked the local line, and then came to the house and plugged a handheld device into our phone socket and declared that we were getting the promised 2mega access. He pointed to the modem router and said "that's the problem". I didn't know whether to believe him but decided to purchase a new one and now have a DGN2200v3 which works fine. I haven't bothered to try the old one again, what's the point?

I suspect that this could happen with any make, just like TVs or kettles eventually stop working. Not many of us would have spare modems to swap in/out. If you're on a Livebox presumably you could take it to the shop and get another?

Incidentally I never turn my modem off. An IT engineer told me a long time ago that turning electronic stuff off and on was one of the main causes of eventual failure. Maybe this is no longer true but I'm a creature of habit!

I get dropouts when it rains heavily! I suspect a connection box on a pole somewhere has not had its lid fastened on properly.

I really envy these people on 20mega or more. Our son in UK has 50mega (BT Infinity). I don't think we'll ever see the day here!

 

[pomme]

If it was a UK modem, doing a factory reset will possibly have reset the VPI and VCI settings to 0 and 38 and other parameters used in the UK.

The usual VPI and VCI settings for France are 8 and 35. You should also check the other settings, PP Type, Encapsulation, MTU, etc are correct for Orange France.

[Martin963]

Thanks for the further input from folk. I'll leave well alone, taking a spare moderner router out with me next time we go.