Linksys BFRS41 Router died

[axlmastr]

Just wanted to post that after five years of 24/7 diligent use my Linksys BFRS41 4-Port Router died an untimely death. I had relied on that unit for much of my research into the waywardness of the electronics industry we now know. It was a good product which worked without fail long after my first DSL modem, a Zyxel 642M died two years prior. I replaced the Hermei caps in the modem after assistance from Willawake, but the modem will not get past the "Hit Enter to continue" portion of its POST in console mode. The BFRS41 will allow access to the browser interface and will talk and respond in its usual way, but will not connect my modem (Speed Touch Home) to the ISP anymore. I dropped a substitute router in and I was on instantly. I will lay the Linksys to rest in the e-scrap pile with a recent addition of a Compaq Presario 1200 that the mainboard died in. Anyone had similar experience? A good friend of mine has lost four Linksys BFRS41 routers in the same time frame. He says the heat gets to his real bad and is now looking at Netgear products because of their use of metal on the enclosure. I've sent him copies of the posts for the crappy Netgear finds at this forum just to let him know they aren't great either.

[willawake]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

can we see a pic of inside it?

its all the same though whether linksys, zyxel, d-link or netgear. not crap they work great...for a while. if they are getting hot then mod them. if you want quality then get a cisco. its gonna cost probably 3 times the price or more but the caps and psu will be nice. unfortunately all routers are getting hot but they dont want to put noisy fans in things cos the average consumer doesnt want that.

some ideas for router mods :

- dremel an 80mm hole in the top casing and bolt an 80mm fan on blowing down. if a grille is bolted to the top side of the fan it would probably look kinda cool.
- sink any hot chip
- recap them when new

[gonzo0815]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

I suspect some blown caps in this bfr . But anyhow, i don't like that router mutch, as it isn`t that stable like e.g the Linux based wrt54g. May be it is an firmware problem too.
If you put in the right caps and the firmware is good, may be any consumer router could be that stable like cisco. But for most SOHO systems from Netgear and Dlink the firmware is realy realy bad. therefore better buing a good lionksys unit and replace caps. or build your own router with the FLI4l linux system, this runs great, very stable and secure. You only need some old pc like p1 100mhz 30mb ram.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

I can recommend the Linksys WRT54GS myself, running the Sveasoft third party firmware on 8 of them last time I counted (latest stable release of Talisman...)

Plus if the Hermei caps would go bad (mine havent) there is only two of them in the v1.0 GS, and in the later revs only 4 to replace...

[Spacedye69]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

WRT54GS is my next purchase, unless someone knows where I can get a plain old wifi access point for my linux router for less than $50. I very much like my linux router,

[Per Hansson]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

Just be careful to select a good model (v1.0 - v3.0) v5.0 runs vxworks and has only 2MB flash, v4 has 16MB RAM and 8MB flash, which is half of what the v1.0 - v3.0 has... (i.e. 32MB RAM and 16MB flash)

There is also the WRT54G which has 4MB flash and 16MB RAM on revs v1.0 - v4.0, then v5.0 halves the flash and RAM and comes with vxworks...

The serial number can be seen on the outside box so just look up the good serial numbers on this site and then happy hunting...

http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.p...showpage&pid=6

[gonzo0815]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

Mine is running with dd-wrt 23 finall. Imho mutch better than all Sveasoft i`ve tested. Last Talisman (don`t know the right name anymore) which bricked my wrt54g v2.0 very bad was the 7.0 from them. After recovering the wrt i flashed dd-wrt since the v22 and never looked back. And for shure, the developer is IMHO a litle more honest than those Sveasoft stuff.
But the BFR routers aren`t very reliable in my experiences. So i dOn´t recomend them. I only reomend Zyxl or Linksys linux based products. And in Germany i likje those very expensive AVM Fritz routers too, as they are very very decent and mature products with very good ex factory firmware.

[Big Pope]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

I am using Linksys BFRS41 router around 2 years, but not yet have any problem till to now. May be i am not use with 7/24 hours.

[Spacedye69]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

dd-wrt micro available for v5.0 and up. I cheaped out and bought a WRT54G v5.? from Newegg for 39.99 + free shipping after rebate.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

Hr hr we will se if dd-wrt will work properly with that small amount of ram. If it works, anything other should be considered as overkill. But for my pptp and vpn use, i think this will not be the smartest route. For only routing and wlan, it should be enough.

[PedroDaGr8]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

dd-wrt does work but i think you have to add a cable to transfer it. last time i saw anywaysz

[elbrute]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

My Linksys BFRS41 4-Port Router did the same thing to me last week. I pulled it and popped open the case and everything looked fine. No signs of overheating and caps looked OK. Caps are D-paston's (Hermei I think). Sorry, no pics.
Anyhow, reinstalled the setup going by the book. Powered up the modem first, then the router, then the computer. Letting everything stabilize between steps. It all works now, connects to isp and everything.
Could be a sign that it's on it's way out though. Do you think a recapp is in order?

elbrute

[trodas]

Re: Linksys BFRS41 Router died

Well, yes.
Teapos of Chhsi caps also looking fine (no bulging/leaking) yet they dry inside and their specs go to hell. If you are lucky and rest of the router survived - recap it and it will work great again

I recapped with Samxon GD caps both my WGR614 that run 24/7 and happy ever since