WiFi routers crashing with Bittorrent

Should you buy these 802.11 routers?

Best WiFi routers for Bittorrent

All routers have a limit as to how many TCP (logical) connections can be opened at one time! In other words, lets say that your router has an internal TCP connection limit of 500. You have 2 computers setup on your LAN (your home network) and they are both running Shareaza or something like it. Each computer is going to be trying to open about 100 to 400 TCP connections or more per second when connecting to other filesharing clients or servers. Those connection attempts have to pass through the router on their way out to the WAN (Internet). Your router is trying to handle 400 to 800 TCP connection requests per second. [...] The result is a router that reboots itself every minute or two causing your Internet connection to go down and possibly your computers to crash.

Unfortunately the manufacturers of these routers do not readily publish the TCP connection limit for their routers, and when you call their so-called tech support it is VERY unlikley they will even know what you are talking about when you ask them how many simultaneous TCP requests the router can handle. MOST SOHO ROUTERS CAN NOT HANDLE MORE THAN 30 TO 100 TCP CONNECTION ATTEMPTS PER SECOND, AND SEEMINGLY LESS ON WIRELESS ROUTERS.

[...] So the only workaround is to keep reducing the setting for number of connections in your filesharing client software until your router stops rebooting itself... which of course will severely degrade the performance of your downloads. [...] And if any of those people have been lucky enough to find a SOHO router for under $500 with a very high TCP connection limit, please, let everyone else know what brand and model it is.

Posted Apr 5, 2005, by Master GEEK
(with my personal text edits)

Bittorrent, like many other Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications puts a heavy load on the common home network router. They produce an enormous flow of data when downloading very large files (like video files of ISO images of a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM). This kind of pressure is the real world test of reliability for any network software or hardware.

Some time ago, I had tried to identify the routers usable with eDoney or eMule. Today, I start considering the possibility of using a WiFi router with a P2P application based upon the Bittorrent protocol (Bittorrent client, BitComet, Azureus, or another similar client application). However, as you will see in the following tables, it is not always important to identify the exact peer-to-peer application involved (problems occur with everything from Kazaa to eMule or BitComet).

I show hereunder the results of an extensive Internet search for real-life experiences. Thanks to Google for its help. The lists published here may surprise some people. But, I think that this could help some customers or potential buyers.

And, please, notice that the situation may change when using a newer firmware version as some of the following demonstrates.

Routers that work well

Router	P2P program	Effect	Witness
Asus WL-500G (updated firmware)	Bittorrent	Router works Ok. Transmit power can be increased in config.	Lurks
D-Link DI-624 upgraded to firmware rev2.42	unspecified "heavy load"	Works Ok. Prev FW revisions caused the DI-624 to reset frequently	szurheal
D-Link DI-624 upgraded to firmware rev2.50	"large amount of traffic I pull thru the router downloading off of newsgroups/bittorent"	Works Ok. "I disabled the Super G and selected a different channel (11)"	chrisodin
Linksys BEFW11S4	Windows Media Player (WMP) streaming video/music	Through an exhaustive search I found that there are settings in Windows Media Player (WMP) which need to be turned off. Specifically, go to Tools-Options-Network and uncheck the Multicast, UDP boxes. This should resolve the crash/reset routine when streaming video. I tried this at 2 sites where the router consistently crashed and it worked like a charm!	rpz2005 "bobperez1" (Chicago, IL USA)
Linksys WRT54G Router/Gateway	unspecified	Works Ok with latest firmware update (currently version 2.02)	Drew Robb
Netgear DG834G	unspecified	Router works Ok	Spiny
Netgear DG834G	unspecified P2P	Awesome uptimes (almost 2000 hours and going)	aside

Routers that fail, crash or reboot

Router	P2P program	Effect	Witness
Asus WL-500G (initial firmware)	Bittorrent	Stops within minutes to 24 hours	Blog 652
D-Link DI-624	unspecified	Reset frequently	szurheal
D-Link DI-624	unspecified	Crash or stop responding	PC World
Linksys BEFSR41 Version 2	Azureus	Router locks up	Tristan9669
Linksys WRT54G (unspecified firmware version)	More than 512Kbytes /sec traffic	Router crashes	Crash
Netgear Wireless B router, MR814 (aka MR814v1)	Azureus	Reboot every 4-6 hours (can't handle more then 256 connections)	justapix
Netgear Rangemax 802.11n WPN824	Azureus	Roughly at 8 hour intervals, router locks up	curtwrx
Netgear 108	Shareaza	Heating up and locking up	Big Poppa
Netgear FM114P	Kazaa	Router to lock up solid, with the yellow "Test" light illuminated	etm001
Netgear WGR614v2 (54mbps)	unspecified	would crash from time to time	billhanagami
Netgear WPN824	Azureus, or BitComet	Router locks up	Refl3ct

Elsewhere on my web site:

How to accelerate eMule under Win98

Linksys BEFSX41:

Firmware downloads

WiFi routers crashing with Bittorrent

Should you buy these 802.11 routers?

Best WiFi routers for Bittorrent

Routers that work well

Routers that fail, crash or reboot

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