Linksys router and wireless access point problem

Factual Questions
1

I emailed Linksys with my problem, but while I’m waiting 24 hours for technical support to get back to me, I thought I’d post my question here. The BEFSR41 is a Linksys router and the WAP11 is an 802.11b wireless access point.

I have both a WAP11 and a BEFSR41v1. Recently, the “Link” led on the WAP11 has been continuously flashing. With no other devices connected to the router it still flashes. It only stops if the router is turned off. My network is also operating noticeabley slower. Here are a few ping reports:
Router:
[iMac:~] roger% ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=150 time=0.589 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=150 time=0.554 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=150 time=0.554 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=150 time=1.281 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=150 time=1.139 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=150 time=0.787 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=150 time=1.694 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=150 time=0.562 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=150 time=0.562 ms
^C
— 192.168.1.1 ping statistics —
9 packets transmitted, 9 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.554/0.858/1.694 ms

WAP:
[iMac:~] roger% ping 192.168.1.103
PING 192.168.1.103 (192.168.1.103): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=1.966 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.959 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.955 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0.97 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=0.955 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=0.955 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=0.958 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=0.964 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=2.164 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=9 ttl=255 time=6.299 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=10 ttl=255 time=1.246 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=11 ttl=255 time=0.961 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=12 ttl=255 time=1.184 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.103: icmp_seq=13 ttl=255 time=1.335 ms
^C
— 192.168.1.103 ping statistics —
14 packets transmitted, 14 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.955/1.562/6.299 ms

Which piece of gear is bad? Can I recover from this or do I need to buy a new piece of gear?

Anybody have any ideas?

2

Have you secured your net from external users?

Your ping times look fine, so my first guess is there’s traffic on your connection that you don’t know about.

If you turn off the WAP and plug your iMac directly into the router, how’s the performance?

3

On the WAP, there are two leds. One called “ACT” for activity and the other, “Link”. The activity led is supposed to tell when wireless activity occurs and the “Link” led tattles on traffic on the router. The “Link” led has been flickering 24/7 for a few days, even when there is no wireless activity. The slowdowns I’ve noticed are for file transfers not only wirelessly, but also between the wired ports of the router. It’s starting to tick me off.

4

Oh, and the iMac is plugged directly into the router.

5

Hmmm… If I’m understanding this right, the WAP really has two activity lights - the ACT blinks on wireless traffic, and the Link blinks on wired traffic between it and the router.

If there’s no apparent wireless activity, but the wired activity is going bonkers, then my guess is the WAP has gone bad and is “babbling” - filling up your bandwith with garbage traffic. Especially if the network behaves well with the WAP disconnected.

6

Perfectly functional WAP11s are around $20-$25 delivered on eBay. At those prices it might be worthwhile just to have a backup for good/no good diagnostics. It could potentially save you a lot of time tracking down problems.

7

Yeah, it maybe time to step into the 21st century and go for a 802.11g wireless router. Belkin has one for $34.99.

8

A word of caution - I don’t know about Belkin, but the latest crop of Linksys gear (such as the WRT54G wifi router) need to be directly connected to a Windows PC to be configured. As of about six months ago, Linksys offered no support whatsoever for making the device work with a Mac.

9

Yeah, that is what is driving my switch to Belkin. Says right on the box that it is compatible with Mac. I’m assuming that goes for the setup too. The word with some of the other engineers here at work is that Belkin uses the latest and greatest chipsets so, screw Linksys.