Can a router go bad?

[Bukem_]

My connection has been very slow the last month. If I bypass the router the connection is fine, which leads me to the obvious answer, but I wanted to make sure.

For the most part it seems to have real trouble loading images, half the images on this site won't load, and requests for any image intensive site frequently times out.

Ffiw, I called my cable company when this first happened, and they said they were having difficulty with my area, so I didn't think it was me at first, but bypassing the router makes me think it infact is.

If it is the router, any suggestions for a new one(with wireless). The one I have now is a netgear that I got for 4 bucks by stacking rebates.

[TacoVendor]

They can, but typically when they go bad they just quit working all together.

One thing you might check is the connection speed from your computer to the router. Don't let it autonegotiate. Set both sides to either 100mb or 10mb (won't matter much which you set at, either is faster than your cable connection). Then you want to check your connection speed from the router to your cable box. Find out what the port on the box is at (typically 10mb) and make sure your router is running the same speed. Again, autonegotiation can be evil when they don't synch right.

Good luck

[Bukem_]

Is there any reason why it would start autonegotiating when it was working fine before?

Also, any logical reason why I can only get a connection when bypassing the router by using usb? Ethernet cable doesn't work. But Ethernet does when I go throught the router...

[TacoVendor]

Your computer and devices are set to autonegotiate by default. If they synch up bad when you turn on a part then you get the very slow connection like you are seeing.

You mentioned that ethernet did not work any more when connecting to the router. I thought you said in your first post that it was just slow. If you did completely lose the ethernet connection from your computer to the router then it could very well be a bad port or controller. I have had ports go bad from power surges.

[grandgnu]

They can go bad, and people are usually apt to blame excessiv exposure to Doom 3, but usually it's related to their parental upbringing.

[Wyers]

"They can go bad"

When Good Routers Go Bad.

On the next Springer.

[BBill]

Could you have turned on the built in firewall for XP?

Most cable/DSL routers have built in hardware based firewalls. If you have that active and the XP software based firewall active it could possibly slow things down.

Of course if you are not going through the router the XP firewall should be on.

[Rednax]

I seem to have a lot of troubles with the network cards, and the problems often are intermittent or inconsistent. Pop in a new NIC and things work fine again. YMMV.