Router instability -Updated- Router-crashing bug -SOLVED-

[blindbox]

I've been using this firmware for almost a week, and I notice that the router becomes unstable. It keeps crashing every 3 - 4 hours, and I really need 24/7 stability.

So, details:
Router : D-Link DIR-300
Firmware : Gargoyle 1.2.4
QoS : enabled
Connection : PPoE
etc.

Is it related to a lack of memory? I remember seeing my bandwidth graphs not online a few minutes before crashing.

UPDATE: - Router-crashing bug found. Fixed by disabling QoS. Case happens even after a fresh router reboot.

I have up to 5 hosts connecting. Eric, I've found a router-crashing bug.

I tried to connect to my local Killing Floor server. When downloading the map, the router crashes. This happens to me at all the 3 times I tried playing Killing Floor, then I gave up trying to play Killing Floor.

How do I disable bandwidth monitor? I know the router QoS works very well enough.

EDIT: By local, I mean in the same country, not on LAN.

[DoesItMatter]

It could definitely be related to memory.

The DIR-300 / Airlink AR430W / Fon 2100/2200/2201+ are all related
as far as they have 4 MB Flash (Fon's have 8MB flash) but they
only have 16MB RAM, and a fresh install of Gargoyle without any
rules/quotas/etc usually takes around 14-15 MB of RAM.

Once you start adding stuff, you start to max it out pretty quickly.

[blindbox]

Any way to reduce it? One thing is, I don't use the wireless on this device (it's too weak, users have been complaining) . And, are there things that can be put on nvram instead of the RAM?

Router's doing 9 hours on my stability test, this time without touching anything.

[blindbox]

Not sure if this is related, but my memory usage shows this : -

Code: Select all

 Memory Usage:12.6MB / 13.4MB (94.2%)  

Why is it 13.4 MB and not 16 MB?

[Eric]

You have QoS enabled -- that's a known memory hog. I'm guessing if you disabled that you would be fine.

Also, the bandwidth monitor, which is always enabled, can chew up memory if you have a large number of computers on your network. How many hosts do you have connecting?

The reason the full 16MB isn't reported is that you're seeing 16MB minus the size of Linux kernel. The kernel always sits in memory and takes up some of it, and because of the way linux reports memory this is not included in any of the statistics available.

[blindbox]

I have up to 5 hosts connecting. Eric, I've found a router-crashing bug.

I tried to connect to my local Killing Floor server. When downloading the map, the router crashes. This happens to me at all the 3 times I tried playing Killing Floor, then I gave up trying to play Killing Floor.

How do I disable bandwidth monitor? I know the router QoS works very well enough.

EDIT: By local, I mean in the same country, not on LAN.

[Eric]

You can't disable the bandwidth monitor in the web interface, but you can login via ssh and run:

Code: Select all

/etc/init.d/bwmon_gargoyle stop
/etc/init.d/bwmon_gargoyle disable

That should shut it down and prevent it from coming back up automatically. However, there are a few scripts that will bring it back up if you save settings.

I wouldn't expect just 5 hosts to crash the router this way. Are you sure it's not the QoS? It may work fine, and then crash if it's trying to match a bunch of packets of a certain type all at once.

[blindbox]

Eh, well on a torrent load, it managed to throttle it well.

If it's trying to match packets all at once, then I'm pretty sure that's breaking the hierarchical order.

Will use that script given.

I'll try disable QoS and see if it fixes my Killing Floor problem, by the way.

EDIT: I've found out that QoS is related to my Killing Floor problem. Disabling QoS makes my map download works properly. Hmm.

[DoesItMatter]

blindbox,

The routers all mentioned in this thread are NOT powerhouses.

Airlink AR430W / DIR-300 Rev A / Fon 2100,2200,2201+

They all run pretty tight on RAM and only have 183mhz processors

They just cannot handle large amounts of packets at one time.

You may definitely want to consider upgrading to a newer router.

These are fine for basic home usage, but if you are slamming them
with torrents or lots of packet data for LAN gaming, the router cries!

See if you can find a WRT54G-TM for cheap - those rock!

[blindbox]

Just trying to do what I can with this router. Still though, I don't think downloading a map off a server is supposed to break the whole QoS when filtering a torrent doesn't. I guess I'll just assume that doing Killing Floor's method is a bit erratic and it crashes the router by consuming the ram. Can't really measure this realtime.

I do have a WRT54g v3 with all its ports broken except the wan port somewhere for some wireless bridging and QoSing...

What routers do you recommend that are close to 50 USD?