I have a internet connection problem, I have Linksys BEFSR41 V.2 EtherFast Cable /DSL Router. I use a Motorola SB4200 SURFboard Cable Modem to access my cable internet through the local ISP - Eastlink in Nova Scotia , Canada. Here is my computer infomation (the second computer has a similer set up) ****************************************** OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 5.1.2600 Build 2600 Stepping 0 AuthenticAMD ~1830 Mhz BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG, 12/08/2003 SMBIOS Version 2.3 Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB Available Physical Memory 260.14 MB Total Virtual Memory 1.72 GB Available Virtual Memory 1.26 GB Page File Space 1.22 GB Page File C:\pagefile.sys ******************************************** I was having problems communicating in audio conversations with Messenger and figured that it was my router not letting me connect to the other computer over the internet. So I upgraded the firmware version on my router to Firmware Version: 1.45.7, Jul 31 2003. Now I seem to lose my connections to the internet, lan and even the router it self. If I unplug the power to the router and plug it back in everything seems to work again. Both Machines are XP and lose the connection atleast once or twice a day. I don't think I should have to be unplugging the power to the router every time I want my Internet and definatly not every day. Thanks for any help Matt

Try reflashing the router with the 1.45.7 version of the router code. Actually, do it several times. This time, unplug the connection to the modem and all other systems except the one you are flashing the router from. Then power the router off first and let it set for awhile to cool off. Then do the flash update and after done, power cycle the router and make sure the red led does not flash indicating an error. Then hook everything up and try it again. Some of the Linksys routers have had a problem of the flash not working right every time and losing its "memory" a little if left setting for long periods of time, or if they get too hot. Reflashing several times seems to solve the problem. The v1.45.7 version does seems to have some problems when the ISP refreshes the IP address assignment to the modem. The router may or may not handle it correctly and all systems attached may or may not continue to work. Normally the 192.168.1.100 local IP addressed system will work OK, but others may loose their internet connection. Running WINIPCFG and doing a Release All and a Renew ALL and then waiting about 5 minutes seems to solve the connection problem without power cycling the router. This allows the incorrect WAN routing table entries in the router to timeout. (It appears just doing a quick power cycle of the router does not clear the routing table entries. I also find it interesting that there is no interface to do this manually. This suggest that its power on code does not do it either.) Version 1.44.2 does not seem to have this problem, but it has other worse problems. In version 1.45.6 the dropping internet connection was almost solid for me when the ISP changed or refreshed the IP address. As my Cable ISP only refreshes the IP address once a week, I only have a problem one night a week. One of their top tech's suggested that I should clone the Routers MAC address with that of my primary systems NIC card's MAC address. Not sure what that would do, other than maybe change what the ISP sends out when it refreshes the IP address. Maybe some tech for a cable company or from LinkSys can explain what is going on. It is my understanding that some ISP's in Canada are now refreshing their Cable customers IP address as oftn as every four hours (to discourage customers from running PnP servers).

Hey Matt- Are you still loosing connection to the internet with the linksys? I was having a similar problem and may have found a solution last night. Got a new PC last week and I wanted to create a home network with the new PC (Win XP Pro) and old Win 98SE PC so they both can use the internet. Here's my Config: ISP is Adelphia Location is Northeastern PA. Ericsson PipeRider cable modem New Linksys router BEFSR41 V3 (wired) firmware: V3 version 1.04.8, July 20 2003 New PC is generic built by local store with 2.8gig P4 CPU/512Meg ram/Intel D865PERLK motherboard with built in Intel Pro100 LAN port - New PC running Win XP Pro and Norton Internet Security (Norton antivirus, firewall, spam block, privacy thing, etc). Old PC is generic AMD450 CPU/128meg RAM/Kingston 10/100 eithernet card running Win 98SE and ZoneAlarm. Old Win98 PC works fine surfing the net with the linksys connected. However, when I surf the net on the WinXP PC, it always connects ok at first, but then the WinXP PC randomly drops the internet connection! Sometimes the WinXP system is connected for 2 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes, but it always drops. When this happens, I can ping the router OK from both PCs, but I cannot ping the modem, so it appears the router is loosing connectivity to the modem. Strange thing is, the modem and router lights are still flickering and I cannot ping the modem! The only way to restore the connection is turn router off/on or hit reset on the router. I did notice that the WinXP PC is more likely to drop when I am doing lots of activity (ie several MS explorer windows open). WinXP will stay connected for hours if there is no activity. This problem has been driving me nuts for almost a week, but I think I fixed it. I tried the following on the WinXP PC: 1) Disable WinXP firewall - did not work, still drops me. 2) Disable Norton Internet Security (firewall, not anti-virus). Doing this scared me since I now felt wide open to the net, but I hope the router would block anything nasty. However, this did not fix the problem either! 3) And finally, last change was the charm - I was going to update the router firmware and read on linksys site that you must switch to static IP and change the network connection to 10mbps prior to doing the firmware upgrade. Not sure why, but linksys said to do it, so I changed WinXP from get IP address dynamically to static assigned -ip=192.168.1.2, subnet mask=255.255.255.0, default gateway=192.168.1.1 and then I plugged in my DNS numbers for Adelphia. Then I changed my LAN connection to 10mbps and rebooted. Tried it before flashing the firmware, and it worked great!! Stayed on for a few hours last night! I never did flash the firmware, but I may do that later as well. Sorry this is soooo long, but I hope it helps you or anyone else that is pulling their hair out trying to get the linksys stable. Anyone have any comments as to why this worked? Good luck, John O.

I'm having the same problem, but I cannot find where I can do the changes like you said (to 10mbps, to static assigned IP, etc.) I have XP and Linksys. Can you head me in the right direction???