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I have a Linksys WRT300N router that is about 4 years old. Last night it dropped all the wireless connections and none of them will reconnect. We can connect to the neighbors unsecure router, and my main pc (which is hard wired to the router) works just fine.

I've powered down the cable modem and the router several times and it doesn't make any difference. The firmware is up to date too.

It just happened out of the blue. Any ideas?

If my router has gone "belly up", does anyone have a recommendation on a replacement? I'm considering the D-Link DIR-655.

Thanks all.

You can't run DD-WRT on the DIR-655 and that's my main requirement when i'm looking at wireless routers now. Then comes gigabit and N. The features and stability it offers makes it #1 for me. I take it gigabit and N are important to you?

So, you'd like something like the Netgear WNR3500L better than the D-link DIR-655?

My DIR-655 seems to do the job. When Newegg recently had it on sale for $55, I bought another one to upgrade my parents' network.

I like the Linksys WRT610N / E3000, if you can get them cheaply. The stock firmware was surprisingly bad, wireless connections were extremely flaky. After flashing it with DD-WRT it works great now.

I don't know enough about DD-WRT to even know if I want/need it or not.

My requirements would be N and Gigabit. Dual band would be nice, but I don't have anything in the house that would interfere with the frequency anyway. I like that the DIR-655 has a USB port.

Currently the DIR-655 is $65 with free shipping at Newegg and Amazon.

The Netgear WNR3500L has very similar specs and is $70 plus $1 shipping at Newegg.

So do any of you think that my current router has simply bit the dust?

To me, it sounds like it. You can try re-flashing it with the same firmware, and then doing a factory reset, it MIGHT work.

TwistedKestrel wrote:

To me, it sounds like it. You can try re-flashing it with the same firmware, and then doing a factory reset, it MIGHT work.

Done that, same result. Thanks

Depending on the revision you have, you could try flashing it to DD-WRT since it seems to be wireless fail. Sounds like the internal wifi components went kaboom. Try taking it apart and looking for burnt spots on the board? At least it might satisfy your curiosity.

RickyTick wrote:

TwistedKestrel wrote:

To me, it sounds like it. You can try re-flashing it with the same firmware, and then doing a factory reset, it MIGHT work.

Done that, same result. Thanks

Yup, sounds like a dead router to me.

If you like to tinker, pop the casing open and see if there are any obvious bad capacitors (bulging/leaking). It may be possible to repair it fairly inexpensively if you've got a soldering iron and know how to use it.

just brew it! wrote:

RickyTick wrote:

TwistedKestrel wrote:

To me, it sounds like it. You can try re-flashing it with the same firmware, and then doing a factory reset, it MIGHT work.

Done that, same result. Thanks

Yup, sounds like a dead router to me.

If you like to tinker, pop the casing open and see if there are any obvious bad capacitors (bulging/leaking). It may be possible to repair it fairly inexpensively if you've got a soldering iron and know how to use it.

Oh yeah, taking it apart is a given.

The reviews on this router when new were mediocre at best, so I guess I'm ready to purchase a new router anyway. I find myself leaning towards the DIR-655.

Thanks to all for the great help...as usual.

Yeah, sounds like something is toast. A lot of routers run hot, so they tend to toast themselves eventually.

RickyTick wrote:

The reviews on this router when new were mediocre at best, so I guess I'm ready to purchase a new router anyway. I find myself leaning towards the DIR-655.

Linksys have been in declline ever since Cisco bought them and made them their "consumer" line (carefully avoiding adding any feature that might impinge on their enterprise products)

There hasn't been much progress in routers/APs since N lost its draft status, unfortunately. The 655 is still a good choice; there's also this deal.

UberGerbil wrote:

Yeah, sounds like something is toast. A lot of routers run hot, so they tend to toast themselves eventually.

RickyTick wrote:

The reviews on this router when new were mediocre at best, so I guess I'm ready to purchase a new router anyway. I find myself leaning towards the DIR-655.

Linksys have been in declline ever since Cisco bought them and made them their "consumer" line (carefully avoiding adding any feature that might impinge on their enterprise products)

There hasn't been much progress in routers/APs since N lost its draft status, unfortunately. The 655 is still a good choice; there's also this deal.

Yeah, I saw that a few minutes ago. Thanks for pointing that out. It might be worth the $40 difference if it's a much better router.

*Update*

It seems that the router fairy came by some time in the night. Suddenly all the wireless devices are connected perfectly. I did absolutely nothing to the router since Monday.

Does this make any sense?

Could be a temperature-related failure. Or maybe there's a strong source of RF interference in the area that is turned off now.

just brew it! wrote:

Or maybe there's a strong source of RF interference in the area that is turned off now.

Is that likely, since they could connect to the neighbors? Can strong RF interference be localized to only part of the 11 channel spectrum?

wibeasley wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Or maybe there's a strong source of RF interference in the area that is turned off now.

Is that likely, since they could connect to the neighbors? Can strong RF interference be localized to only part of the 11 channel spectrum?

If the source of interference was very near the malfunctioning router, I imagine it could've disrupted just that router's ability to hear the PCs trying to connect to it, without affecting other routers further away and/or in the opposite direction.

Oh that makes sense. I hadn't thought of the router's need to hear back among noise, only the card's need to hear among the noise.

RickyTick wrote:

It seems that the router fairy came by some time in the night. Suddenly all the wireless devices are connected perfectly. I did absolutely nothing to the router since Monday. Does this make any sense?

I just dealt with (hidden) blown capacitors in my GPU. That was frustrating troubleshooting because identical conditions would lead to different results, with no apparent pattern. If your router dies again, and you're on the verge of junking it, it might be worth opening the case and seeing if any caps are blown or bulging.

Like others mentioned it could be something degrading below spec, possibly heating issues. Try locating the RF base chip on the router's board (may be too hot to touch after use) and installing a tiny heatsink using metal glue at the corners and a bit of thermal compound on the surface. May help stabilize operation, and can't hurt unless you botch the gluing.