Firewall - has to be the problem!

Ok, so I've posted a few topics and have had a lot of great suggestions why I keep getting booted off SL, but nothing seems to help. Have the new computer, the right video card, the higher speed DSL (upgraded twice), done everything everyone has suggested from adding ports to whatever...anyway, I am still getting knocked off every 20 to about 35 minutes. Went to the firewall router logs and see that there is a constant UDP or TCP connection dropped - suspicous UPD or TCP data message, one after the other. I have no idea what that means.

Anyway, we have a Netgear VSP318 firewall. It's supposedly great, but it's about 4 years old. Seems to work fine with every other application on the net. I called them and it's out of warranty so they won't help me. Read the manual, didn't mean a thing to me and didn't seem to suggest any fixes anyway that we have not already tried.

My last attempt to stay with SL will be to get a new router/firewall or whatever you call the firewall. So, the question is................... WHAT TYPE OF FIREWALL ARE YOU USING THAT YOU KNOW IS WORKING WITH SL? The other part of that question is, if it is working, did you have to configure anything special like add ports, or whatever, to make it work so that you can stay on SL indefinitely...like more than an hour!

I have been told that we don't need to replace the firewall because it is a good one, but if anyone knows about the netgear firewalls and can help me configure it to work with SL I'd be very appreciative. If not, then suggestions for a new one would be very helpful.

THANKS!

I don't have anything to add, but have you looked in the KB? I'm sure you have, but here's a link anyway: https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417

Have you tried running a traceroute?

I've read everything I can read on the boards at SL. They say that they are not responsible for firewall settings, and there is an article about opening up some ports for SL, which I did, didn't change a thing.

Not sure what a traceroute is, but have the logs from the firewall which I already mentioned.

you tried connecting directly from the computer, to the modem, and modem direct into the internet already right?

thats what I would do before buying a new router, firewall, or both.

A firewall either blocks stuff or it doesn't - there's no "well, I'll let this stuff through for a while then block it."

That said, consumer network gear is notorious for being... complete crap. Have you tried unplugging the power from everything for a minute or so?

Finally, finally we have found the problem. It was the firewall all along. We had another one, so we connected it, and I've been connected for hours without any problems whatsoever! We didn't have to add any ports or change a thing. I am soooooooooo happy! It's been a couple months of disconnect after disconnect which was aggravating, but now I can use SL without that issue at least.

It can be doing network address translation and time out the translation tables regardless of traffic.

This has been known to happen. I had one router, a Belkin, that would occasionally start blocking Port 80 traffic until it was restarted. The Belkin got replaced when it started doing this more and more often.

A couple of months ago, I posted in the Linux section here about a problem I was having with voice - specifically, that I could hear people talking on voice for exactly 30 seconds, at which time voice would be silenced, until I got indication in the viewer that I was again being connected to voice, and I'd be able to hear everyone again for exactly 30 seconds, and so it went. All other network and Internet traffic was just fine, but resetting the router fixed my voice problem.

Firewalls either work, or they don't. There is no in between. So if you are connecting *at all*, then it is not a firewall issue. That said, routers do behave like and function as hardware firewalls; however, as my stories above illustrate, routers can and do "get stupid". Most of the time, a simple reset fixes it. Sometimes, however, a router needs its firmware reloaded. The recommendation to remove your router completely from the equation by connecting your computer directly to your DSL modem is sound advice.