Faulty Netgear DGN2200?

[#1]

I have an intermittent fault connecting to the Internet (e-mail, Web, and Usenet). The set-up is this: a Netgear DGN2200v3 router (not a Plusnet router), now three-and-a-half years old, and a Dell Inspiron desktop PC, nine months old and running under Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. The router is on all the time, the PC off at night, awake or asleep or sometimes off during the day, and they are connected by an Ethernet cable.

This set up has been running fine till recently, but now when I boot the PC first thing in the morning, it sometimes cannot see the Internet. On these occasions, I can ping the router from the PC and log in to the router, so the Ethernet connection seems to be all right. And the router can see the Internet, since it acquires an IP address from Plusnet and its log shows it picking up the time from Netgear's time server. But I cannot ping through it to the Internet or establish any higher level connection.

Devices connected through Wi-Fi, including this PC, work all right.

The fault can be cleared by rebooting the router or by logging in to it (from the PC over Ethernet), and breaking and remaking the connection to Plusnet. It does not clear if I disconnect and remake the Ethernet connection from the PC's menus, but running the PC for a while via Wi-Fi, then switching back to Ethernet does clear it.

All this seems to me to indicate that something has gone soggy within the router. Does that sound right?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

if you plug the laptop into a different ethernet port on the router, does work?

[#3]

Thanks for the suggestion, dvorak. I've moved the Ethernet cable to a different port, and also unplugged it from the PC and plugged it in again, in case the problem is a dirty contact. Since the problem occurs only once a day, and not every day, it may be a few days before I know if that's solved it.

[#4]

It's been a fortnight now since I swapped the cable to another port. The problem did recur on one day, I think - though I was in a hurry and did not have time to investigate fully. Otherwise it's been fine, so I'm going to mark this as solved.

Thanks again, dvorak.

[#5]

Hi, there is a recent firmware update for the DGN2200. I suggest doing this first to see if it helps.

[#6]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have now checked again (I had before), and the router says its firmware is up to date.