netgear router locks up ONLY when downloading fedora??????????????????

Sat May 22 11:38:07 UTC 2004

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Well not quite true, there appear to be 2 circumstances under which this
happens. 

1) a rare power fluctuation.
2) common if trying to download cd sized iso's from overloaded sites.
3) there haven't been any other times when this has happened.

- -see the detailed narrative below-

Questions:
1) What is it about downloading large files from overloaded sites that 
   can cause an otherwise stable netgear RP614 10/100 router to lock up?
2) Can I prevent it? 

3) is there a RELIABLE method of downloading such large files that will
   ALWAYS resume an interrupted download rather than downloading the same
   bytes over again???

I can't figure this out. But actually I've had this router as long as
I've had a cable modem. And except for when trying to download LARGE iso
images from VERY busy sites, (such as any source of fedora shortly after
a core release) the only other time I've seen this is sometimes after a
local power fluctuation (when the lights dimmed but the clocks didn't
forget what time it was). The first time that happened I called my cable
tech help, and was eventually told to unplug the router, for a couple
seconds, and then reboot (he was a windows guy of course) I took this to
mean cold start the router and then ifdown eth0, ifup eth0. And this
worked like a charm. Fortunately such power fluctuations are rare in my
neighborhood, so are not a problem.

But the other time this happens is MUCH more annoying.

That is when trying to download a linux distro. I remember having
similar problems ( though not as severe ) when I downloaded mdk 9.1. and
when I got FC1. In both of those cases, it was more than a month after
release so the download volume may have been less than was the case when I
just spent days, getting the FC2 iso files...

When I go to (pick any eastern US fedora mirror) And try to get all the
binary iso's, Some of the sites seam faster than others. so even with 
broadband, mozilla may estimate around 4 hours to get one iso. No problem
start the downloads and go to bed. Get up in the morning to find that I 
got disk1 & disk4, downloads for disk2 & disk3 were stuck at around
400MB each. Ping failed to reach my email provider, so I reset the
router, and did the ifdown/ifup sequence, ping now worked. But of course
the downloads didn't resume. The next attempt bagged disk2 before another
router lockup murdered about 500MB of disk3. Spent the day trying to get
the remaining iso. Trying one mirror after another. Each time somewhere
between 1/2 and 4/5 of the way through... the router locks up. (That is,
if the site yielded a faster download, the lock-up happened sooner, and
a slower download stayed running longer. But the result was the same, an
incomplete download of the disk3 iso...)
The next day I remembered that when I used to use konqueror back in my
dial-up days (may they never come again) konqueror used to sometimes
resume downloading an incomplete file. So I spent another day getting
disk3. I don't know what I was doing wrong, konqueror kept starting over
just like mozilla had. But eventually I tried:
http://mirror.hiwaay.net/redhat/fedora/linux/core/2/i386/iso/
And got a connection that kept slowing down to a crawl but never quite
gave up. My lady made me go to the store(s) with her, and when I came
back it was still chugging away. Though konqueror's estimate of the
remaining time kept changing from about 30 min to as much as 3 more
hours and back... I went to bed. This morning (FINALLY) I've got the last
iso...  But I don't know why it was so difficult. I don't even
have a clue where to look it up...

Any help, advice, heck even *informative* flames, would be welcome. I'd
gladly RT(specified)FM if someone would at least point me at the right book.

Thank you very much.

- -- 
|      ?           ?		
|			
|        -=-   -=-	 I'm NOT clueless...    	
|        <?>   <?>    	But I just don't know.  	
|            ^          Joe (theWordy) Philbrook           
|           ---  	     J(tWdy)P
|			  <jtwdyp at ttlc.net> 
|      ?           ?		
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