I recently got a RangeMax 240 wireless router (WPNT834). I installed it last week and have been using it with no issues at all with my new cable setup. In fact, the automatic setup went smoothly and I was pretty impressed. Tonight though, I started hooking my son’s laptop up to use the wireless access point and I’m having all sorts of issues. I’ve tried all of the following combos to get him connected:
setting up an access list, with no encryption, and adding his laptop to the access list.
64 bit WEP
64 bit WEP + access list
wide open access (no encryption, no access list… come on down freeloaders!)
The laptop connects and the signal strength is very good. But then after 3 or 4 web pages, I lose the wireless connection. Sometimes it automatically re-connects after about 20 seconds. But other times, it seems to take my entire router down - my PC that’s wired to the router can’t access it via its address (www.routerlogin.com) nor can it access any OTHER web site in my browser. The only way to fix this is to power cycle the router.
Any ideas? Is the router bad or is there something I’m stupdly not doing?
Are you using a matching RangeMax card for the laptop or the built in wireless (or any old card)?
While the RangeMax 240 was the least picky when we tested MIMO routers, they are all based on non-standard technology and work best with cards from the same manufacturer - also you won’t get the full benefits of the RangeMax if you don’t use the matching cards/USB.
THe fact that you can’t access the router doesn’tquite fit, though. Do you change the IP address during setup?
You can access the router by it’s internal LAN IP address, which is usually going to be 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. You can confirm what it is by doing a IPCONFIG /ALL at the command prompt and finding the Gateway IP address.
Generally, when I’ve come across problems with the Rangemax routers, they usually come down to a problem with the firmware. Either a firmware update fixes them or they simply get replaced under the manufacturer’s warranty.
The last firmware update was from April, so the router may or may not have come with the update.
From the sound of things, your router isn’t forwarding or handling DNS requests properly, which would lead to the routerlogin.com page not resolving to the correct internal address for the router.
One thing to try is to configure your computers to use a static internal LAN IP, but with your external ISP’s DNS servers entered in manually as well. Not really fixing the problem, but it will help to narrow down where the problem lies.
Thanks for the input guys. I’m using a standard Intel wireless card, so I can accept that it won’t be as good as using a RangeMax card. But it SHOULD work! I didn’t change anything on the router during setup.
As for the routerlogin address not working - when it gets balled up I can’t even access it by going to 192.168.1.1 - I’ve checked the firmware, and it claims to be up to date.
One thing to try is to configure your computers to use a static internal LAN IP, but with your external ISP’s DNS servers entered in manually as well. Not really fixing the problem, but it will help to narrow down where the problem lies.
I think I get what you’re telling me here - manually put in what the DHCP gives me (more or less) - assign the laptop its’ address and put in the gateway. I’ll give that a shot.
Edit to add: I couldn’t find any DNS server addresses - ipconfig/all doesn’t show them and the router page just has “get automatically from isp” - where do I get those addresses from?
I had a similar problem with my US Robotics wireless router. My wife’s computer was hooked in directly to one of the ports, and I accessed it through a wireless connection using a USR card no less. I would get sporadic disconnects for no apparent reason, and attempting to download a file would generally result in the router crashing. Flashing to the latest firmware failed to resolve the problem, and USR tech support was quite useless.
My own guess based on what I could see was the the router was likely not able to keep up with the all the bits flowing in on the download. Sure enough, after some time, USR issued a new firmware release and the notes had buried deep within it “resolves problem with router resets on file downloads”.
