Netgear DG834G router and website pickiness...

[Piarco]

I've been using a Netgear DG834G wireless router/modem for around 8 months now with next to no issues with the various Mac's I've had in that same period (mainly PB's). Yesterday though, it stopped connecting to the net entirely. So I reset it to see what the problem was and nothing. So I decided to sleep on the problem until this morning....

At which point I decided to do the logical thing and check the ADSL filter - which was the problem. So installed a new filter and got everything running again. Only its not.

I can't connect to certain sites: eBay, hotmail (can't use Mail for that same purpose) and even my banks website. I've retried as much as I can but to no success. Its so wierd that everything else is fine but as I'm trying to get tickets for the Wireless festival on Wednesday (to see Keane primarily) its kinda important to solve the problem.

My ISP is AOL. I know, I know, they're crap so please don't just point it out as I'm tied to them for another 9 months. Unfortunately I can't access the AOL website either which is a shame as if I remember correctly they had the settings list. I may have to get their helpline number from elsewhere, but as they don't support OS X officially for broadband (at last count anyway) I may need help from anyone else...

Any ideas? Why would the router be effectively blocking some sites? What settings am I missing? Would Airport Extreme Basestation remedy the problem and would it work with AOL?

[Gordy]

I've been using a Netgear DG834G wireless router/modem for around 8 months now with next to no issues with the various Mac's I've had in that same period (mainly PB's). Yesterday though, it stopped connecting to the net entirely. So I reset it to see what the problem was and nothing. So I decided to sleep on the problem until this morning....

At which point I decided to do the logical thing and check the ADSL filter - which was the problem. So installed a new filter and got everything running again. Only its not.

I can't connect to certain sites: eBay, hotmail (can't use Mail for that same purpose) and even my banks website. I've retried as much as I can but to no success. Its so wierd that everything else is fine but as I'm trying to get tickets for the Wireless festival on Wednesday (to see Keane primarily) its kinda important to solve the problem.

My ISP is AOL. I know, I know, they're crap so please don't just point it out as I'm tied to them for another 9 months. Unfortunately I can't access the AOL website either which is a shame as if I remember correctly they had the settings list. I may have to get their helpline number from elsewhere, but as they don't support OS X officially for broadband (at last count anyway) I may need help from anyone else...

Any ideas? Why would the router be effectively blocking some sites? What settings am I missing? Would Airport Extreme Basestation remedy the problem and would it work with AOL?

Sounds like its an aol problem not the router.

Do a tracert to any sites that don't work and see what the results are.
(Network tool in utilities)

[Piarco]

Cheers for the suggestion Gordy - what do the results mean? I may not know, but when things get to 31 and nothing happening I'm guessing its not a good sign....

Plus does the MTU setting have a big impact on net usage?

[antrabbit]

Have you tried updating the firmware?

http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/dg834gv1.asp

[Gordy]

Post the results in here and I will see what he suggests

Also try doing one to a site such as www.google.com as it will give a good comparison :)

[broken_keyboard]

On the WAN setup page where it says MTU Size, change it to 1492.

[Piarco]

Thanks for the help guys but figured it out.... t'was all down to the MTU settings.
At stock (after running the setup wizard) the MTU was either 1492 or 1458. So changed it to the suggested 1400 (I remember somewhere this was the only other thing to change for AOL) and got it up and running fine. Was sure I'd already done it, hence my confusion, but looks like I didn't apply the change.

So all good! Still might get an Airport Express basestation though as I'd really like to have Airtunes for the kitchen or my bedroom....