Excessive amount of packets being sent to a router

[spiritualvirus]

Hi all,
This is my first post and I look forward to spending time at this forum.

I have been experiencing subpar performance from my router for as long as I have had it. (I have had the router for 3 months). The router's model is a
Linksys WRT54G ver 6 (Firmware 1.00.9 = Latest)
I find that every hour or two the router will stop taking connections and freeze. I have pinpointed the router as the problem here because my internet connection is fine if it is connected right to a computer. Also, the admin webpage of the router becomes screwed up when the router freezes.
So I did some research about this router and it seems to have this problem when it gets flooded with lots of ethernet packets. So, I investigated my network (which is 3 wired, 3 wireless computers in my apartment) and it appears some of my roommates had been running torrents. I know these programs make a ton of connections and if 3 people were running 100 connections a piece, the router could definitely be bogged down by this. So I got my roommates to turnoff the torrents, but we still had the same problem.

So today, I did a packet capture using Wireshark and found the same packet had been sent 20,000 times in a period of about 5 hours. During this period, my internet connection was idle i.e. no other programs were using it.
Here is what the packet looks like in Wireshark:
Source:
MS-NLB-PhysServer-24_39:56:6e:77
Destination:
Cisco-Li_56:6e:77
Protocol:
0x886c
Info:
Ethernet II

This is repeated about 20,000 times dispersed by normal network packets (broadcast and such)

I did some research on MS-NLB and it appears to be Microsoft Network Load Balancing. However, it is meant to run on Windows Server and I am running XP. I did some preliminary googling on turning it off and I couldn't find anything.

Does any have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah sometimes Wireshark (previously known as Ethereal) will send you on a wild goose chase. NLB should only show up with multiple NICs also. Even if you were running server, with only 1x NIC plugged in...those should not bring a router to its knees.

I agree...combine P2P programs with common home market routers, and you end up with a bogged down router. They just can't handle the concurrent connections...only so much CPU and RAM before it's hammered...and needs a reboot.

The first thing that comes to my mind....you mention peer to peer programs...(torrents, kazaa, limewire, etc etc etc). "OK, who's infected?"
Peer to peer programs invite back doors, trojans, worms, etc. If you have peer to peer users, using it for a while, and you ask them to shut down their peer to peer programs....and you still have traffic....I'd question "what else is on your PC now?".

Best test..shut down their PCs..fully, reboot the router...and using a "clean" PC..see how she runs.

And last but not least..."wireless"..is she secured? Anyone else leaching off of it?

[spiritualvirus]

Well, I got the NLB packets to stop. You said multiple NICS could be causing it and I have multiple NICS. (the onboard on my mobo is flighty at times so I have an extra and I have one for crossover with my XBOX). I recently had to revert back to a backed up registry and it re-enabled these connections.
SO, the fix was to disable the other NICS.

I really regret buying a home router. I should have bought a old box and thrown a linux routing distro and some NICS in it. That would have been way better.
Anyways,

Thanks a ton for the help.