1. How can I test the ADSL connection without using the possibly-rubbish router?
By having a spare router (or just an ADSL modem) - preferably from a completely different manufacturer, so that any bugs or misbehaviours aren't likely to manifest on both at the same time - and having previously set it up and confirmed that it works. Then if suddenly, neither of your routers work, there's a good chance it's your ISP or BT that are to blame. This may be a slightly expensive option, but as the second router is a backup, it doesn't have to have all the features of the main one.
2. What could make a correctly-configured Airport/router suddenly stop working for no apparent reason?
(This is where I have to find a point somewhere between technical and condescending.)
Bugs in the firmware, usually. Some oversight that is triggered by a rare, but not impossible, sequence of events, leading to the program getting itself in a knot, and either freezing completely, or working much less effectively than normal. Rebooting fixes it because the program gets to start again from scratch, completely forgetting about whatever mess it had previously encountered.
Check the manufacturer's website for firmware updates (and then see if they also have some support forums where other users have whinged about how the new firmware's worse than the old one).
3. If component A is intermittently malfunctioning, is it possible that rebooting component B could affect it?
It's possible - if component B's startup routine involves communicating with component A, then getting component B to do all its startup routines again could lead to it sending A some data that causes A to break (eg. due to circumstances described in the answer to question 2) while the previous time round it caught A at a different time, or sent a slightly different sequence, that didn't trigger the bug.
But with no knowledge of what A and B are, I'd think it more likely to be a coincidence. I'm assuming there's nothing in the manual like "make sure you've switched on A, plugged in all the cables and counted to ten before switching on B" that would imply such a connection?
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Date: 2008-11-13 01:08 am (UTC)By having a spare router (or just an ADSL modem) - preferably from a completely different manufacturer, so that any bugs or misbehaviours aren't likely to manifest on both at the same time - and having previously set it up and confirmed that it works. Then if suddenly, neither of your routers work, there's a good chance it's your ISP or BT that are to blame. This may be a slightly expensive option, but as the second router is a backup, it doesn't have to have all the features of the main one.
(This is where I have to find a point somewhere between technical and condescending.)
Bugs in the firmware, usually. Some oversight that is triggered by a rare, but not impossible, sequence of events, leading to the program getting itself in a knot, and either freezing completely, or working much less effectively than normal. Rebooting fixes it because the program gets to start again from scratch, completely forgetting about whatever mess it had previously encountered.
Check the manufacturer's website for firmware updates (and then see if they also have some support forums where other users have whinged about how the new firmware's worse than the old one).
It's possible - if component B's startup routine involves communicating with component A, then getting component B to do all its startup routines again could lead to it sending A some data that causes A to break (eg. due to circumstances described in the answer to question 2) while the previous time round it caught A at a different time, or sent a slightly different sequence, that didn't trigger the bug.
But with no knowledge of what A and B are, I'd think it more likely to be a coincidence. I'm assuming there's nothing in the manual like "make sure you've switched on A, plugged in all the cables and counted to ten before switching on B" that would imply such a connection?