Problem (and solution) using Netgear DG834GT Router

Hi Everyone,

I spent ages trying to understand why I was getting massive amounts of packet-loss (often more than 150%… how is that possible!?). My friend and I have very similar (high-end) PCs, we both have 2Mb ADSL connections, but he could run SL perfectly well and I had major packet-loss problems, which made SL unplayable. The only major difference between our systems was he uses a modem and I use a Netgear 834GT Router.

I had set-up the firewall on my router to accept inbound and outbound packets from the Linden IPs and on the ports specified (12020 - 13050) *note - you have to set this range of ports up as a 'service'*, but I was still getting loads of packet-loss and lag (I kept getting logged-out of the sim, then like ground-hog day I'd log back in and be where I was the last time I logged-in!).

Eventually, having tried everything I could think of to adjust the firewall, I was at the point of giving-up. I then downloaded the latest firmware for the router (http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/DG834GT.asp) and installed-it - during which it came-up with a pop-up saying that 'the document contains no data' and a little pop-up informing me that this could take a few minutes. I went outside and did a few jobs... came back-in 20 minutes later and the 'few minutes' thing was still up on-screen, I assumed it had crashed, so I clicked the refresh button and all was well. My router now had firmware version 1.0.1.28 and when I tried SL... It worked a treat!! - what a difference! (Hey NetGear!, nice firmware upgrader... NOT!)

So it seems that the Netgear DG834GT router's firewall doesn't work out of the box. The firmware upgrade IS the answer.

Hopefully, this will save someone else having to spend hours trying to work-out why they get packet-loss problems!

Cheers,

Yawneeb

I had a similar problem with a netgear product, a wireless adaptor. For some reason, I only got packet loss with sp2 installed. Uninstall sp2 and it worked fine. I checked it out on their homepage, and it seems this was a common problem and had an updated driver available to download. Downloaded the new driver but still no luck. Checked on various forums to find there are many who have had the same experience. Anyway, I lost patience and was faced with no sp2 or a new adapter, so I went for the later.