This describes how to resolve common problems.

Internet Connection Stops When Router Added to Your Network

Some ISPs validate your access by checking a number which is in the computer that was used when the ISP did the installation. See Spoofing a MAC Address to Reconnect to Your ISP.

---

Intermittent Internet Connectivity or Connection Drops Transferring Large Files

Upgrade to the latest firmware.

• Connection drops every few minutes. Happens in various situations, including with Intel Centrino adapters.
• Or, in older firmware, the NAT table can overflow when there is heavy traffic between the LAN and the Internet. Overflows cause a momentary interruption of connection.

---

Computers on the Internet Cannot Get to LAN Web Server

If your ISP uses dynamic DNS, use the router's Basic Settings page to include both an Account Name and Domain Name.

---

Cannot Send Email

This may be a problem with MTU size. See MTU, Partial Loss of Internet Connection, and Performance for details, or contact your ISP to find what settings they prefer.

---

Cannot Send or Receive Email

This may happen if your Internet connection uses dynamic DNS. Change the email application to use a fully qualified domain name for the login. A fully qualified name is composed of both the host and domain.

Correct: yourusername.aol.com

Incorrect: yourusername

The correct fully qualified name can also be derived by putting your router's username and domain name together as they appear on the router's setup screens. E.g., if username = sueandfred, and domain name = aol.com, then the fully qualified name = sueandfred.aol.com. (Note the dot between the username and domain.)

---

Cannot Get to the Web Configuration Screen

• The computer may not have received an IP address. Restart it to have an IP dynamically assigned (or run “winipcfg” in Windows ME or earlier, or “ipconfig” utility in Windows NT), and then launch the browser, or
• Remove proxy settings on your Internet browser, or
• Remove the dial-up settings on your browser.

---

Logging Does Not Work

In some circumstances NETGEAR routers check to ensure the source and destination of email messages are not the same. If this happens, the router's logging messages are discarded. (The Reference Manual is not clear on this.)

An easy way to solve this is to choose a different email server for the router's "Send to This E-mail Address" field. So if "Your Outgoing Mail Server" is mail.myisp.com (as shown in the manual) then DO NOT use yourname@myisp.com for the "Send to This E-mail Address" field. Instead, use an email account you have on another server, such as hotmail. E.g., make the send field yourname@hotmail.com.

The other way to solve this is to explicitly open the ports for SMTP and POP, 110 and 25. By default, these ports are closed on NETGEAR routers. (Other, non-NETGEAR related email problems are also solved by opening these ports.)

---

Cannot See Whole Log Due to the Window Width

Select Security > Security Logs in the Web interface and enter the URL: http://192.168.0.1/log.html.

Doc ID: N101224.asp Dec. 15, 2003