Home » Blogs » Greg's blog

PSN connection constantly dropping? Have a Linksys router and a PS3? Here's a solution.

Submitted by Greg on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 11:06am
Greg's picture

After recently purchasing a Playstation 3, I quickly realized that something was awry in my network configuration. PSN would constantly drop with a network error, I had constant error notifications relating to my media servers, and horrible download speeds. All my other devices work great (multiple PCs, both wired and wireless, Xbox Live, etc.)

At first I thought it was some kind of wireless interference, so I ran my Ethernet cable to the PS3 and switched my network setup around from wireless to wired.

No luck.

After searching the web, I came across a few references about similar issues people were having with PSN. They all had Linksys routers. After a bit more searching someone mentioned that the issue lies with the standard firmware on many Linksys routers (apologies to the source, I can't find it now.). Apparently PSN/PS3 doesn't play nice with some Linksys routers.

The solution is upgrading the router with custom firmware (DD-WRT). Not only will your PSN issues go away immediately, you'll also get what has been described as a $600 upgrade! There are so many delicious options in the new firmware that I haven't even begun to play with. You can even unlock extra RAM in some models like the WRT54GS.

Here's a brief outline of the steps for a Linksys WRT54GS (use the instructions on the dd-wrt website for your router):

  1. Download the files once you've located the correct ones from the hardware DB
  2. Install the "prep" firmware through the interface on the router. It will have a place to upload the firmware file.
  3. Power cycle the router (unplug for like 15 seconds)
  4. Upload the 'killer' firmware into the new interface you will be presented with after the power cycle
  5. Wait for the 'Success' message, then unplug the router and plug it back in
  6. Install the TFTP program on your PC you downloaded earlier
  7. Tell the TFTP program where to find the final WRT firmware you want to upload, and give it the routers IP addy (usually 192.168.1.1)
  8. Allow it a few minutes to do it's thing, it will power cycle on its own
  9. ??
  10. Profit

The whole process takes about 3 minutes. Don't use these instructions word for word though, more detailed instructions can be found at these sites:

DD-WRT Firmware Homepage
instructions for the WRT54GS v5
Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router

Good luck! Leave a comment if you have any questions.

A note...

Submitted by Greg on Fri, 03/06/2009 - 3:12pm.

Make sure you set your PC up with a static IP address first before you begin the procedure.

Details vary by OS, but typically you go into your network control panel and set up an IP address like 192.168.1.200, configure your subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway 192.168.1.1.

Otherwise you will not be able to connect to the router after you begin the process. It will still be looking for an address from the router, which it will no longer be able to provide (temporarily, of course).