In general, why do routers stop responding?

Just a general question, why do routers sometimes stop responding? For example, wireless connection to router/internet stop working, but LAN works fine. Is this something to do with heat, or overload? I have an Asus RT-N16 w/ DD-WRT, and it sometimes do this for simple wifi internet activity (uptime is best at 5 days). I usually have to reboot it. I believe my router is capable of handling anything I throw at it, but it just makes me mad seeing it do it. Any ideas?

 

I was having the same/similar issue with my RT-N16 and another weird issue where the wireless signal suddenly drops so that it's only accessible from within just a few meters even when in the same room.
For now, I'm trying the Tomato builds by Toastman, though admittedly DD-WRT felt snappier.

 

I've installed TomatoUSB today on it. Hopefully, it's more stable.

 

There are many reason but you won't know it unless you solder a pin header to the TTL output (Like me) and connect a TTL to USB converter to obtain access to the router console. You will be able to see router log messages.

 

Nice, never knew about that. I can definitely do some research on this.

 

hanime, are you having any luck with TomatoUSB?

For me, so far I've had uptime of 6 days, 05:03:03... not too bad so far.

 

dd wrt has some stability issues that tomato does not. use tomato if it's feature set works for you.

unfortunately, there are some key features which dd wrt has that tomato does not. tomato may not be an option depending on your needs.

I've found that a scheduled automatic (soft) reboot at 4:30 AM daily works wonders for DD WRT.

 

To answer the OP's question- most issues with routers are caused by firmware- useless coding, NAT table overflow, RAM leaks etc all are due to poor quality of the firmware.
Hardware shortcomings like weak CPU or not enough RAM are less likely to be causing noticeable issues (unless of course you take it to extreme levels and expect a router with 200MHz CPU and 8MB RAM to run a 50mbps connection).

Even relatively weak routers can be perfectly reliable with proper firmware and even the best ones can be annoying with a bad firmware.
Your router is a prime example of how it works- it uses the same SoC that Linksys E3000 and E4200 use and it has 128MB RAM on board so you'd think it's going to perform like a dream- unfortunately Asus is not very good with firmware which kinda shows.

 

200 mhz and 8 GB would be fine with a 54 mbps connection with tomato, surprising as that may seem.

 

It could be firmware, it could be heat too. Some Linksys E3000 were suffering from hot temperatures causing disconnects, it never happened to me though. Uptime of a week is actually quite short, since my E3000 doesn't suffer from heat, i've never had any problems. Due to power shortages and me messing with the firmware or troubleshooting my modem, longest uptime has been two months so far. The router never needed a hard reset (knocks on wood). Stock Linksys firmware by the way.

 

@masterchef341

54mbps? You're talking about wireless?

I was referring to LAN-WAN/WAN-LAN throughput and in this case it wouldn't be.

Here's a test made on a Linksys WRT54GL with 200MHz Broadcom CPU and 16MB RAM (it would have been even worse with 8MB).

Mind the simultaneous throughput and max simultaneous connections number- that proves my point.

 

Thanks for the inputs everyone.

I thought TomatoUSB has everything DD-WRT has, and more. But for my usage, I'm not going to do any 50+ connections, print server, etc. Just simple LAN gaming and some internet downloading/browsing.

Namaiki, I just unplugged my other router and testing the RT-N16 with Tomato. So this will be Day 1. We'll see how that goes.

I'm going to also blame this on heat as well because I opened up the RT-N16 and it was really hot (on the chipset heatsink). I've ordered a fan for it from Amazon and will be installing it this week. I will be fullfilling this mod soon: DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - Another Asus RT-N16 Router MOD

 

You are doing more than 50 connections- that I can guarantee
According to my router I have 192 connections established at the moment and I'm not doing anything in particular but anyway- connection limit is not your problem.