College House Losing Connection, Router Overheating?!?

Raz0rclaw · 09-03-2007, 10:07 PM

I'm on the computer chair for my house at Michigan State University. We have a few switches to have Ethernet hook up to all 60-70 Users on our network. All of this is connected to a $150 dollar router which I think is the problem of losing connection so much. For right now I've just been restarting the router and the internet connection seems to work fine for a while but goes right back out 30 minutes to an hour later.

Should I be looking to propose a new router for the house? Or what other things could be going wrong?

johnwill · 09-04-2007, 06:16 PM

You need to spend more money on an enterprise level router if you plan on supporting that many users. Most SOHO routers will indeed fall down pretty quickly under that load. What kind of bandwidth do you have coming in to support that many users? Make sure the router supports QoS for all the assigned addresses so that a couple of bandwidth hogs don't bring the network to it's knees.

You also might want to consider reviewing the connections between the switches if you do a lot of file sharing on the local network, can you give us a map of exactly how all of these switches are connected, and the speed of the switch-to-switch connections?

Raz0rclaw · 09-09-2007, 03:56 PM

What type of router would do the job for this many users?

johnwill · 09-10-2007, 01:08 PM

Look at something like the Cisco PIX line.

09-03-2007, 10:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
Raz0rclaw Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 2 OS: XP Professional	College House Losing Connection, Router Overheating?!? I'm on the computer chair for my house at Michigan State University. We have a few switches to have Ethernet hook up to all 60-70 Users on our network. All of this is connected to a $150 dollar router which I think is the problem of losing connection so much. For right now I've just been restarting the router and the internet connection seems to work fine for a while but goes right back out 30 minutes to an hour later. Should I be looking to propose a new router for the house? Or what other things could be going wrong?

09-04-2007, 06:16 PM	#2 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 32,581 OS: XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Re: College House Losing Connection, Router Overheating?!? You need to spend more money on an enterprise level router if you plan on supporting that many users. Most SOHO routers will indeed fall down pretty quickly under that load. What kind of bandwidth do you have coming in to support that many users? Make sure the router supports QoS for all the assigned addresses so that a couple of bandwidth hogs don't bring the network to it's knees. You also might want to consider reviewing the connections between the switches if you do a lot of file sharing on the local network, can you give us a map of exactly how all of these switches are connected, and the speed of the switch-to-switch connections? __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

09-09-2007, 03:56 PM	#3 (permalink)
Raz0rclaw Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 2 OS: XP Professional	Re: College House Losing Connection, Router Overheating?!? What type of router would do the job for this many users?

09-10-2007, 01:08 PM	#4 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 32,581 OS: XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Re: College House Losing Connection, Router Overheating?!? Look at something like the Cisco PIX line. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience