Bypassing router
 

I know this isn't robotics related but since I am a news cameraguy that has covered the competitions in Toronto I figured and know there is probably enough brain power here to help me figure this out.

I have a Rogers Extreme hi-speed cable modem, a D-link EBR-2310 router and a PC (T60 thinkpad, 4G ram, Core2duo), and a macbook connected to it, there is also another computer connected to the router that someone else is using...I got suckered into sharing.

My T60 is now running Vista Ultimate with no problems at all
Mac runs Lepeord

Now, I use Ipswitch-pro WS_ftp pro to upload news video to one of the stations I shoot for and everything worked fine for a full year and then one day file uploads started failing, the upload starts and then just stops. Now when the FTP stops the internet connection is still OK as I can use the browser and all that no problem.

I did check with my ISP and they are not throttling FTP port 21.

Reset, restarted and rebooted everything, did as much trouble shooting as possible and the engineers at the TV station spend some time with my T60 making sure all the settings were ok for their server and they were fine.

When I upload with my PC or MAC plugged directly into the modem 9 out of 10 times it works fine but it appears the trouble happens when going through the router.

So I think what I am looking for is step by step advice on how to bypass the router, set up the DMZ and all that because I don't think I have done it correctly.

I thought I did but last night I sent two files from the MAC and woke up at 3am only to find "data connection lost", so I plugged the mac directly into the modem and resent the files and they went through fine.

These files by the way are 500mb to 1.2G, as they are broadcast quality video .avi's.

Right now my router is the prime suspect.

What gets me is this worked fine for the longest time, the problem did start while I was running XP-pro and continues under Vista and also the uploads stall out on the little mac book.

I'm sure the problem is simple and right under my nose but with working 14 hour shifts in news there are not too many functioning brain cells at the end of the day believe me :)

Any advice would be appreciated and I look forward hopefully to being one of the news cameras once again covering the competitions in Ontario in 2008.

If it is a complex problem I would be willing to pay for the technical advice, that's not a problem, I can also enable remote assistance.

thanks again
Mark Rozitis -ENG news camera (Sony XD HDcam)
stormcentre@rogers.blackberry.net

Re: Bypassing router
 

Mark,
If you had not changed anything and it had been working for a year then I would start out by looking outside of your installation. A call to the provider might show that they are now limiting your uploads or bandwidth. Either of these restrictions will interfere with your upload of video. It is possible that the router or modem have failed but unlikely. You can bypass the router easily enough but you will need to know what the log on info for your provider is. (they may also require some background software to log on without the router.) Just remove the connection between the router and the modem and connect your computer in place of the router. Be careful that some modems require a turn around ethernet cable instead of the standard cable. Your provider may have docs on the modem and connections on their website. Once connected try to log on and when you are connected try to upload a sample file.
If you call tech support they are likely to ask you to check for common problems that affect the modem so I will mention them here. Look for the addition of cell phones and other wireless phones near the modem. If the router is wireless and you haved changed it's location, suspect it may be interferring with the modem. I am trying to install a new Linksys wireless router and it interferes with my modem here.
Look for additional noise on the analog video on the cable the would indicate a bad cable coming to your house. Remove and reconnect all cables to the modem and router. They may have become tarnished or dirty in the past year and a reconnection will clean the surface of the connections. Look for devices that may have been added to the cable like a DVD or VCR that might be putting noise on the line. Disconnect any of these devices and check your upload again. Many consumer devices are not entirely shut off when the power button is pressed.
Hope this helps.

Re: Bypassing router
 

Hah...My family had trouble with our modem for over a year. If we couldn't fix it by waiting or resetting the modem or disconnecting/reconnecting the cables, we'd call the provider. This was followed by testing it elsewhere in the house, pressing the reset, powercycling, etc. Nothing worked. Sometimes we'd shut down the entire network and bring it back up in a particular order. After a while that didn't work either. Finally, the people at the provider found out we had a router. "Oh, that's your problem. You shouldn't have a router connected to the modem" ad infinitum. Yeah, right. We had problems really early on (pre-router) and they'd offered to replace the modem. They hadn't. The problem was in the modem all the time. We finally went out and got a combination of a router and modem and it worked much better.

A quick way to make sure the problem is in the router would be to try sending something large between computers. (OK, might not work anyway due to Mac and Windows "compatibility," but worth a shot.)I f it works, the problem might not be the router. If it doesn't, get the router checked out by a pro.

Re: Bypassing router
 

Following up on the 'looking external' you can register for a free self-service to test your line quality and upload/download speed. This may or may not find issues but they will point them out to you if they exist.

http://www.dslreports.com/tools

Re: Bypassing router
 

I don't know if you've ever upgraded the firmware on the router, but try downloading and upgrading it and see what happens. Last resort after all the suggestions, you might want to try Eric's idea and get a combination box to see what happens. I'm sure the solution is simple, though.

Re: Bypassing router
 

I had a Belkin wireless router that I got for free and it worked fine for a few years. Then one day I decided to upload a 700 MB video (I don't think it was through FTP, but it could have been). Half way through the router failed and stopped the upload. After restarting the router and trying again, I discovered that somehow it was only able to upload 500 MB through the cable modem before needing to restart. I had never uploaded anything that big before. This problem was very annoying because downloads were unlimited (I have downloaded gigabytes of information without needing to restart it) and file sharing between computers never caused any problems (even more gigabytes were transferred between computers). In the end, I had to get a new router (Buffalo, and it wasn't free this time) and I was able to upload the entire video. At least now I have a router that can make a portable LAN when I need one...

So your problem could very well be the router.

Oh, and the router did not have a firmware update available. In fact, I don't even remember seeing an update page because the router was so old.

Re: Bypassing router
 

Not having a D-Link router, I can't offer specifics, but if it used to work, try these:

1. As blakcheez suggested, refresh the firmware in the router. Cheap and easy.

2. Reset the router as it came from the factory. On my Linksys router there is a recessed button to accomplish this.

3. Find the port security table in the router (it may be named differently, but it';s the table that says what activities can happen on which ports) and make sure port 21 is wide open. It is usually open only inbound.

4. The DMZ is usually a bad idea unless you understand and have addressed the security risks, for example with a software firewall.

5. Speaking of firewalls, make sure the Windows firewall allows Port 21 as well, in both directions.

6. Any way to upload to some other FTP server, just to test? Not forever, just to see if it's something weird with the correct server.

If these don't help, tell us what you did/tried and we'll go from there.

Don

Re: Bypassing router
 

Thanks, and thanks to all who have replied so far, I am typing this on my blackberry but when I get home I will do some of the checks you've suggested here although a lot of them I have done already including:

Calling my ISP
Checking all cables
Resetting modem
Reset reouter to default

Trying different ftp clients

Everything is hard wired.

No new sources of RF at my place.

Signal good, for TV and net, did speed test using speakeasy.net and when it works I get a a good 8mps down and 800kbps up.....although on the upload test sometimes it can't finish the test and the needle starts fallling.

So maybe it is possible when Rogers increased it's up and down speeds that my router can't keep up?

I will look into detail at every suggestion when I get home.

I did by the way buy a linksys router, 4 port router/switch but it was very slow so I haven't played with it lately.

I just wish I had more time to study this but working full time in news means long hours and when I do sit down to read the clock literally starts moving faster :)

It worked before.....it WILL work again, I'm just frustrated I haven't figured this out yet but I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot here in the process which is good.

In the meantime I just drive the video in to that TV station so it's not the end of the world.

As for having another ftp server to upload to for practice and testing, I do not, wish I did, I was just in at the station an hour ago and there were 10 of my failed test files clogging up the main window in FlipFactory.

Everyone else can ftp in to them ok, the commercials all come in fine and other freelance news video comes in fine, it's just me right now that's having the problem.

I have noticed is that small files seem to go through ok.

The 500 to 1000mb files seem to stall.....

Works better when connected direct to modem.

I thought I put the laptop in the DMZ but I might have done that wrong, that should bypass the router.....

I do have firewall on the laptop for safety but exceptions have been made for the ftp software and port 21.

Maybe I need a commercial grade router........

I will do some further checks tonight, currently there are 15 empty cans of diet coke on and around my desk as well as clumps of CD's and paper from the three weeks I've been trying to solve this problem :)

Re: Bypassing router
 

Well I once again went through everything and tonight uploaded a file by directly connecting to the modem and it went through ok, it was a 315mb video clip of the snowfall we just had in Toronto.

Then, after going through line by line all my settings in vista and reseting and power cycling the modem and router I sent a 890mb test file from the PC using Ipswitch pro,it started fine and was going fast and all looked good then it stalled out again 35% of the way through.

I looked at the log and noticed a comment saying the file was in use by another process.

so before I install the new Netgear WNR854T router I bought this afternoon I transferred that file to a USB drive and am now uploading that file from that drive instead of the HD on the laptop.

Just in case there is some process that is assessing and temporarily locking up the file I am trying to send.

Tomorrow evening's project/test will be to try the new router..

The router in there now is the D-link EBR-2310 and the new one is a Netgear WNR854T.

Re: Bypassing router
 

I'm really liking the new router idea....

If there aren't firmware updates available, then this would definitely be my route.

I have a total of 18 routers and switches operating in my data-center right now. None of them are D-Links. I have replaced every D-Link product I own (typically with Cisco or *shiver* Linksys (which isn't so bad, now that it's part of Cisco), or Dell Switches (they have really really nice managed switches), or believe it or not, Intel switches seem to do fine) because I have never had anything but problems with D-Link firmware. My first wireless router was 9 years ago, and it was a D-Link (713P maybe?), and that crapped out after a few years. As recently as a year ago I purchased a D-Link (with the hopes that maybe they had improved their software design), with no avail... only a few months after purchasing it did the software become sound bound up that simply accessing the web portal for the router became a 45 minute process.

In short, ditch the D-Link. Personally, I'm not the hugest fan of Netgear (seems way too consumer oriented for me), but it should be better than what you have. If you have no problems uploading directly through the modem, then I highly doubt that your service is the problem.

My 2 cents,
Jacob

P.S., looking forward to hearing how your new router works. Let us know!

Re: Bypassing router
 

Yea this is a bit less consumer Netgear router...at least it looks respectable appearance wise.

Now last night I did direct to modem uploads with both computers, the IBM T60 and the Macbook and both went through fine, I did a test with the router and it failed.

Tonight if I get home in time I will install the new router and run the same tests.

It's really starting to looking like a defective router, I guess what threw me is everything works fine except for FTP uploads and they worked for a year through the router.

I will let you know how things go with the new router.....to be honest I never knew these things can fail like this.

QUOTE=whytheheckme;653840]I'm really liking the new router idea....

If there aren't firmware updates available, then this would definitely be my route.

I have a total of 18 routers and switches operating in my data-center right now. None of them are D-Links. I have replaced every D-Link product I own (typically with Cisco or *shiver* Linksys (which isn't so bad, now that it's part of Cisco), or Dell Switches (they have really really nice managed switches), or believe it or not, Intel switches seem to do fine) because I have never had anything but problems with D-Link firmware. My first wireless router was 9 years ago, and it was a D-Link (713P maybe?), and that crapped out after a few years. As recently as a year ago I purchased a D-Link (with the hopes that maybe they had improved their software design), with no avail... only a few months after purchasing it did the software become sound bound up that simply accessing the web portal for the router became a 45 minute process.

In short, ditch the D-Link. Personally, I'm not the hugest fan of Netgear (seems way too consumer oriented for me), but it should be better than what you have. If you have no problems uploading directly through the modem, then I highly doubt that your service is the problem.

My 2 cents,
Jacob

P.S., looking forward to hearing how your new router works. Let us know![/quote]

Re: Bypassing router
 

Sadly, routers fail all the time. I know in my history of networking (I'm fairly a n00b, only starting about 7 years ago (granted I'm 15 now)) I've probably 'burnt out' 10 or 11 routers. But then again, thats probably my fault for passing ridicules amounts of traffic through consumer products :D

Jacob

Re: Bypassing router
 

I am happy to report the problem is solved and yes it was the d-link router, I guess I just didn't know these things burn out like that and same here I was uploading alot of broadcast grade news video through a consumer grade router and I guess it burned out.

The NetGear WNR854T has been working since 11pm last night with 10 large files all uploading successfully and it's still going like the energizer bunny.

Thanks again for all you're help everyone here, this was the only place on the net where I could get knowledgeable answers....you guys sure know you're stuff.

mark

Re: Bypassing router
 

Glad to hear that your problem is solved! Also nice to know that it was good getting rid of my own D-Link. But yeah, anything electronic (or made by man for that matter) will always have some sort of limitation or malfunction. It's just how we are.

[threadjacking="blatant"] I might get that Linksys router that runs on open source software (Don't know the exact model number). I heard a lot of great things about it, so I'm hoping to give it a whirl. I hate the Wireless Gateway that's coming with my AT&T DSL order, though it's cheap and will get me through. Yea for 3.0MBps speeds! Although I would've gotten 6.0, but the apartment complex has one of those phone systems to buzz in guests, which limits speeds. [/threadjacking]

Re: Bypassing router
 

Yes I'm glad too, now I have to think of something to do to celebrate tonight and then start thinking about my next project :)

Sure anything can break but I really didn't know/think that routers could so easily "burn out" like this, and this unit still worked fine except during ftp uploads so that's why it was NOT a prime suspect early on. Sure learned something and that's good.

Re: Bypassing router
 

Think of it in terms of percentage of a lifetime instead.

I am also impressed that you maintained the integrity of your parentheses; you must be a software guy...

Don

Re: Bypassing router
 

It has been a couple of weeks and 15 gigs of video later and I just wanted to let everyone know that my ftp system is working perfectly so it is 100% confirmed that I had of all things a defective router.

The Netgear router has been working fine and all is good.

Of all the things....an intermittently defective router.....

Re: Bypassing router
 

That's great to hear!!! Right now I'm surviving a 2Wire wireless router from AT&T, and it's... meh.