Gamers blame Linksys in Firmware Soap Opera

AFTER WE REPORTED the Linksys firmware update for versions one and two of the BEFSR11/BEFSR41 hardware which fixed a known security hole allowing remote sniffing, I updated my own v1 router, and have been running it without a hitch ever since.

However, it seems not all users share this "happy experience". A reader kindly told us that "after updating this firmware people are unable to playing counterstrike and other steam powered games". We decided to investigate.

In a thread on the DSLReports.com forums, some gamers are complaining about their sudden inability to participate in networked games after applying the version 1.45.11 firmware. Complaints include getting disconnected from game servers, "dropping the lease of the IP randomly", and other problems.

One user wrote: "Not sure if its just me, but 1.45.11 doesn't work with CounterStrike CZ. I get in the game fine and then 1 min later I get dropped. Switched back to 1.45.7 and then I was able to play. Seems to me 1.45.11 is still buggy". And another reported a different problem. "It's not random after all. The router just doesn't renew the WAN IP lease automatically. That means that I have renew it manually every hour".

Many, however report the latest Linksys firmware has worked fine on their hardware. Examples include comments like "In all, a painless update that seems to have corrected the few problems I had with my v1." and "I have not seen an eMule lock since updating". You can find the message threads here and here.

Whatever the outcome is, we guess that Linksys must be paying attention, since for many users choosing between leaving your router vulnerable and being able to play games is not an option. µ