For no apparent reason, I could no longer login to my IM programs such as MSN Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. I looked into all of the ususal suspects (malware infections, firewall issues, my ISP, etc.) but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the problem until I did a search for “Netgear MSN problems” on Google. I quickly realized that it was my router most likely the culprit. I purchased a new Netgear WGR614 Wireless-G Router a couple of months back and everything seemed to be working fine up until recently. I have all of the latest firmware upgrades and nothing has changed on the router since I installed it. My IM programs had previously worked using this router, but for some reason I suddenly had a problem.
My Yahoo just wouldn’t connect at all – the program would sit idle and act like it was connecting, but wouldn’t. MSN would at least give me an error message (that sometimes changed), but the message proved to be almost useless. When I tried to diagnose the connection problem with MSN Live Messenger’s connection troubleshooter, it would say that there wasn’t a problem!
Apparently a Common Problem
After doing my search on Google, it became quite apparent that this is a common problem among people using all different types of Netgear routers, not just the WGR614 like I have. I browsed the forums and could the feel the anguish of other Netgear owners who simply couldn’t find a good solution to the problem. I felt their pain, but continued to trek on to find the solution – after all, I use my instant messenger programs to communicate with my clients, friends, and family – so it was imperative that I get this problem fixed!
The Solution to the Netgear Problem
After reading through several wise suggestions, I finally came up with a solution that worked for my Netgear router problem:
- Open a browser window and type the IP address of your Netgear router into the URL bar (my router’s IP address is 192.168.1.1). Don’t enter a “www” or anything like that, just type in the numbers.
- Enter your username and password information when prompted to access your router settings.
- Select WAN Setup in the left-hand column under the Advanced section.
- Find the MTU Size option and change the value to 1400.
- Click the Apply button.
- Restart your router.
Test the Results
After you restart your Netgear router, open up one of your instant messenger programs (such as MSN) and hopefully everything will now work. The solution was much simpler than I had expected but it did work for me. I can’t guarantee that these same steps will work on every Netgear router, but its a step in the right direction. If this doesn’t solve your problem, click on one of the links below for more help:
