I have the above-named router with the latest firmware installed. It works
wonderfully for all wireless and wired stations on the network.
One problem: email access
From this location I get email from Outlook and Outlook Express from three
different ISPs, including RoadRunner. After installing the router (which
replaced a LinkSys BEFSR81) I can easily interface with two of the
providers. There is one, however, which I cannot (hostmysite.com is the
ISP). I receive time out messages from Outlook and Outlook Express on two
different computers. If I remove the router and plug directly into the
cable modem, the problem goes away. When I put the router back into the
equation, I still have the same problem with just that one site.
I have tried replacing my mail server domain address with its IP address
instead, but that didn't help at all. I have fiddled with the MTU settings,
that didn't help either. I have turned off the anti-virus software and that
doesn't do it.
I found a citation on Google for this same problem someone was having with
CompuServe last year. There is a good deal of discussion on that page, but
no resolution was reached except that I think the guy dumped CompuServe and
went to another ISP.
I have spoked with HostmySite, LinkSys, Microsoft, and RoadRunner. They all
point the finger at each other. I should say that HostmySite is still
diligently working on this issue -- I'm not trying to knock them. The other
three I'm not so happy with.
Your router, depending on the hardware version (version 4 and older
works best) will support third party firmware such as dd-wrt or
openwrt. Assuming your hardware is happy, it might be a fresh look on
the software side that makes the problem go away.
"Todd H." <comphelp@toddh.net> wrote in message
news:84ejna7d8k.fsf@ripco.com...
> "The Walrus" <nospam@please.com> writes:
>
>> Any ideas or suggested solutions?
>
> How desperate are you?
I don't know about desperate, but I'm very hesitant to install 3rd party
firmware when I can just take this back and trade it in for a Belkin or
something. I saw that I have one of the "neutered" routers, version 6. I'm
also hesitant because I don't even know if firmware is the answer here.
Have you ever heard of a problem like this, and if so, was the third-party
firmware the answer?
> "Todd H." <comphelp@toddh.net> wrote in message
> news:84ejna7d8k.fsf@ripco.com...
> > "The Walrus" <nospam@please.com> writes:
> >
> >> Any ideas or suggested solutions?
> >
> > How desperate are you?
>
> I don't know about desperate, but I'm very hesitant to install 3rd party
> firmware when I can just take this back and trade it in for a Belkin or
> something. I saw that I have one of the "neutered" routers, version 6. I'm
> also hesitant because I don't even know if firmware is the answer here.
> Have you ever heard of a problem like this, and if so, was the third-party
> firmware the answer?
>
> Thank you for your help.
I've had my share of problems with folks getting to imap/smtp servers,
but never anything nailed down to a problem with a linksys router
(wireless or not). I think I'd bet a quarter that if the Linksys is
fingered as the problem with a specific site though, that new firmware
would have oh, PFA, at least a 50% shot of taking care of the issue.
I'm trying to wrap my head around any hardware defectivity issue that
could cause such a failure footprint. Firmware I could more likely
see being finicky about minor protocol differences though.
Curious though, have you tried simply power cycling the router in
these times of trouble? Does that help at all? I've had plenty of
datapoints with routers of all flavors losing their mind or having
connection tables fill up thanks to connection hungry p2p software
running on the lan, or whatnot.
Yeah if it's in warranty, I'd go back and trade it for the WRTG54L
(L=Linux = non-neutered) or if you wanna have fun with third party
firmware for cheap, Buffalo WHR-G54S. Or either of em should just
work.
Seems like one of those interesting/educational/maddening problems
though!
I've tried recycling power, starting over from scratch, rain dances, etc. I
don't want to void the warranty by experimenting with third-party software.
The Geek Squad guys ran into a problem like this with a neighbor of mine.
Their solution was to have the customer switch ISP's for email. I love
those guys.
> I've tried recycling power, starting over from scratch, rain dances, etc. I
> don't want to void the warranty by experimenting with third-party
> software.
If you're in warranty and can take it back, I totally agree with ya.
If yer out of warranty and feelin experimental, I'd play.
> The Geek Squad guys ran into a problem like this with a neighbor of mine.
> Their solution was to have the customer switch ISP's for email. I love
> those guys.
Awesome.
That's a weird one for sure. Anyone have another router you can try
out in its place?
Any possibility software firewalls are involved at all? They may
behave differently given that a direct connection and a router
connection would give different ip ranges.
"Todd H." <comphelp@toddh.net> wrote in message
>> The Geek Squad guys ran into a problem like this with a neighbor of mine.
>> Their solution was to have the customer switch ISP's for email. I love
>> those guys.
>
> Awesome.
I'm veering off-topic here, but having long been in the IT business, it sure
is good to see that nothing had changed in the world of technical support.
Always pass the buck. LinkSys blames Microsoft, Microsoft blames Norton or
McAfee, the ISP blames everyone else. Those Geek Squad guys charge 250
bills plus the hardware to install a wireless network with 2 connections.
To pay that kind of money and to have them do something like that is a
crime. Maybe I'm getting old, but I remember a day when you just couldn't
get away that shit.
Replaced the router with a LinkSys WRT54GS and still have the same problem.
There is something about LinkSys and Hostmysite.com that makes them
completely incompatible.
> Replaced the router with a LinkSys WRT54GS and still have the same problem.
> There is something about LinkSys and Hostmysite.com that makes them
> completely incompatible.
We can't quite say that yet, but we do know your 2 new routers behaved
identically.
For shits and giggles when you plug your wired BEFSR81 back in and are
cabled in with a computer to the BEFSR81, does the problem with
smtp/pop to hostmysite.com persist or go away? That unit used to
work fine right?
Are the time out messages you get when trying to retrieve pop email?
SMTP sending? Both? Are you connecting wireless, wired or both into
the new wireless routers you're playing with?
"Todd H." <comphelp@toddh.net> wrote in message
news:84hcs69kgw.fsf@ripco.com...
> "The Walrus" <nospam@please.com> writes:
>
>> Replaced the router with a LinkSys WRT54GS and still have the same
>> problem.
>> There is something about LinkSys and Hostmysite.com that makes them
>> completely incompatible.
>
> We can't quite say that yet, but we do know your 2 new routers behaved
> identically.
>
> For shits and giggles when you plug your wired BEFSR81 back in and are
> cabled in with a computer to the BEFSR81, does the problem with
> smtp/pop to hostmysite.com persist or go away? That unit used to
> work fine right?
Yes, it works perfectly.
> Are the time out messages you get when trying to retrieve pop email?
> SMTP sending? Both?
Both. The standard 60-second time out message from Outlook Express. I
installed Forte Agent and it does the same thing. I've ruled out Outlook as
the problem.
>Are you connecting wireless, wired or both into
> the new wireless routers you're playing with?
This problem affects both wired and wireless connections. I've tried every
computer on the network.
I went ahead and installed the firmware update for the new WRT54GS router
(1.52.0). It's a version 6.
LinkSys suggested port triggering. I'm waiting for them to point me to a
document on how to do that. Hostmysite.com uses ports 25 and 110 for
sending and receiving respectively.
The only good part about all of this is I now know how to install a 10-node
wireless network in less than 30 minutes...
"The Walrus" <nospam@please.com> writes:
> "Todd H." <comphelp@toddh.net> wrote in message
> news:84hcs69kgw.fsf@ripco.com...
> > "The Walrus" <nospam@please.com> writes:
> >
> >> Replaced the router with a LinkSys WRT54GS and still have the same
> >> problem.
> >> There is something about LinkSys and Hostmysite.com that makes them
> >> completely incompatible.
> >
> > We can't quite say that yet, but we do know your 2 new routers behaved
> > identically.
> >
> > For shits and giggles when you plug your wired BEFSR81 back in and are
> > cabled in with a computer to the BEFSR81, does the problem with
> > smtp/pop to hostmysite.com persist or go away? That unit used to
> > work fine right?
>
> Yes, it works perfectly.
So much for the Linksys = hosed idea. :-) Wonder what in the flyin f
is going on with these wireless routers though.
> > Are the time out messages you get when trying to retrieve pop email?
> > SMTP sending? Both?
>
> Both. The standard 60-second time out message from Outlook Express.
> I installed Forte Agent and it does the same thing. I've ruled out
> Outlook as the problem.
Cool.
> >Are you connecting wireless, wired or both into
> > the new wireless routers you're playing with?
>
> This problem affects both wired and wireless connections. I've tried every
> computer on the network.
LOL. Awesome.
> I went ahead and installed the firmware update for the new WRT54GS
> router (1.52.0). It's a version 6.
>
> LinkSys suggested port triggering. I'm waiting for them to point me to a
> document on how to do that. Hostmysite.com uses ports 25 and 110 for
> sending and receiving respectively.
scroll to port triggering and try setting that up.
So one hypothesis: Perhaps that one ISP is relying on ident before
allowing communication, maybe your old wired router cheerfully answers
on ident (as does a direct wired connection to the cable modem), and
perhaps the new wireless routers have a default of ident refusing all
connections? So setting this up to trigger on outbound tcp/25 or
tcp/110 activity to allow tcp/113 to open up for the target might be
the ticket?
The issue has been resolved. Hostmysite.com moved my account to a different
email server. I connected immediately without any problem. I have asked
them what the difference between the two servers is. I'll report back if I
hear anything.
> The issue has been resolved. Hostmysite.com moved my account to a different
> email server. I connected immediately without any problem. I have asked
> them what the difference between the two servers is. I'll report back if I
> hear anything.
>
> Thanks for helping me out.
No prob. What a strange problem. Good that the webhost took it upon
themselves to fix the issue though because a stock config wrt54g or gs
is hardly a unique config by any stretch.
The Walrus wrote:
> I have the above-named router with the latest firmware installed. It
> works wonderfully for all wireless and wired stations on the network.
>
> One problem: email access
>
> From this location I get email from Outlook and Outlook Express from
> three different ISPs, including RoadRunner.
.....
> Any ideas or suggested solutions?
>
> Thank you.
Depending on what your other ISP's offer, I have one (earthlink) that allows
me to create multiple (up to 8) mailboxes under the master account. I just
do the smtp forward of any email sent to me at my various isp's that don't
allow direct access when not on one of their native connections (roadrunner,
adelphia, comcast are 3, non native is when traveling and using
wifi/cellphone/other networks/etc), and even from other sources like
hotmail/msn/my various domains etc....
Not only lets me get all of my email, but also however I happen to be
connected when traveling (handy since I travel a lot for work, and carry a
notebook with me)
"Todd H." <comphelp@toddh.net> wrote in message
news:84648mxc4c.fsf@ripco.com...
> "The Walrus" <nospam@please.com> writes:
>
>> The issue has been resolved. Hostmysite.com moved my account to a
>> different
>> email server. I connected immediately without any problem. I have asked
>> them what the difference between the two servers is. I'll report back if
>> I
>> hear anything.
>>
>> Thanks for helping me out.
>
> No prob. What a strange problem. Good that the webhost took it upon
> themselves to fix the issue though because a stock config wrt54g or gs
> is hardly a unique config by any stretch.
I inquired as to what was different about the two mail servers, and the
answer was they didn't know -- just that one was newer than the other. I
really spun my wheels on this one, and I was right, the answer was simple,
even though we don't really know what it is, which is about the norm for
problem solving in this line of work.
On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:25:41 -0400, "The Walrus" <nospam@please.com>
wrote in <46098bd5$0$18882$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>:
>I've tried recycling power, starting over from scratch, rain dances, etc. I
>don't want to void the warranty by experimenting with third-party software.
>
>The Geek Squad guys ran into a problem like this with a neighbor of mine.
>Their solution was to have the customer switch ISP's for email. I love
>those guys.
Geek Squad folks are by and large utterly incompetent. I've spent
considerable time cleaning up their messes.
--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_How_To>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>
"John Navas" <spamfilter0@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
> Geek Squad folks are by and large utterly incompetent. I've spent
> considerable time cleaning up their messes.
I was out of IT for a while after the boom died down and I was doing some
accounting work in an office a couple of years ago. On one of the PC's the
NIC started to get flake out and could only get a 169.254.x.x address off of
the internal NAT network. They brought in a Geek Squad guy and he spent two
hours doing things like reinstalling the NIC, replacing the NIC,
reinstalling the protocol stack, resetting the protocol stack, etc. etc.
Finally he told them it would require an XP reinstall in repair mode or even
starting over from scratch. They scheduled him back the next day for what
would cost a couple of hundred bills or more. After the guy left, I sat
down at the computer and picked a restore point from two days earlier and it
was back up and running. I'm pretty sure my NT 4.0 MCSE has been retired by
Microsoft, but I smoked the MCSE 2K on that one. :)
On Sun, 1 Apr 2007 13:32:28 -0400, "The Walrus" <nospam@please.com>
wrote in <460fecae$0$28142$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>:
>"John Navas" <spamfilter0@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
>> Geek Squad folks are by and large utterly incompetent. I've spent
>> considerable time cleaning up their messes.
>
>I was out of IT for a while after the boom died down and I was doing some
>accounting work in an office a couple of years ago. On one of the PC's the
>NIC started to get flake out and could only get a 169.254.x.x address off of
>the internal NAT network. They brought in a Geek Squad guy and he spent two
>hours doing things like reinstalling the NIC, replacing the NIC,
>reinstalling the protocol stack, resetting the protocol stack, etc. etc.
>Finally he told them it would require an XP reinstall in repair mode or even
>starting over from scratch. They scheduled him back the next day for what
>would cost a couple of hundred bills or more. After the guy left, I sat
>down at the computer and picked a restore point from two days earlier and it
>was back up and running. I'm pretty sure my NT 4.0 MCSE has been retired by
>Microsoft, but I smoked the MCSE 2K on that one. :)
My own favorite is a friend that complained to me about terrible
Internet speeds and frequent outages. This after Geek Squad had charged
her over $200 for two visits plus over $50 for a new wireless router.
What I found is that Geek Squad had configured her laptop to connect to
a neighbor's Wi-Fi. She'd been paying for high-speed cable Internet for
almost two years without actually using it. (Perish the thought Comcast
should ask her why she had no traffic.) Took me less than five minutes
to reconfigure her wireless, giving her fast, reliable Internet.
--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_How_To>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>
LinkSys WRTG54 Problem w/ Pop & SMTP Access 
Linear Mode
