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Routers of American consumer electronics manufacturer Belkin have severe issues connecting to the internet. The issues affect users around the globe. On Twitter many people complain to Belkin’s customer care that they are unable to connect to the internet.

Read the latest news: Belkin: Despite our fix, users might need to reset router

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Users also complain that the Belkin customer service by phone hangs up customers, likely because they can’t handle the load of complaints. Users that are affected see a orange or solid amber light instead of the usual color.

Besides the worldwide outage of Belkin routers, also the Belkin website is down. Belkin has stated it’s aware of the issue and in the process of fixing it. The most plausible cause of the issue appears to be that the router outage is caused by the downtime of the Belkin website. Belkin routers ping heartbeat.belkin.com frequently to diagnose themselves and also that URL is not reachable.

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Other possible causes is that the company allegedly updated the software of the routers overnight (reported by several users who were told about this by Comcast service employees) and another possible reason could be a vulnerability found in Belkin routers that’s currently exploited by cybercriminals.

Update 1: Internet providers have started to send out message to their users about the issue

Update 2: It seems all Belkin routers are affected, not limited to specific models

Update 3: We continue to follow this closely, get updates on our Facebook / Twitter / Google Plus

Update 4: Possible solution: In your browser, go to http://192.168.2.1 . Then in Dashboard go to Advanced Settings>WAN Settings>DNS> Uncheck Automatic> Change DNS to 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4

Update 5: User @LordEd reports Try a static DNS on the PC settings, not the router. Light will stay orange, but you might get Internet. Instructions are here

Update 6: Belkin recommends to set a static IP on the router

Update 7: Belkin has finally put up information on the issue, the company reports degraded performance and states:

“We are aware of reports of an interruption to internet service when using some Belkin and Linksys routers with several internet service providers. Our team is diligently working to root cause the issue. Our call centers are also experiencing a higher than normal call rate so hold times are longer than normal. Our call centers have no solution to this problem at this time. Please check this status page for further updates.”

Update 8: Belkin has updated their status page with temporarily solutions to the problems for Android, iOS Windows and Mac OSX

Update 9: Belkin has just send us an official statement on the issue, read the story, Belkin: Router outage not caused by firmware update, workaround available

Update 10: Belkin reports the issue has been solved:

“We have confirmed that the internet connectivity issue is now resolved. If your service has not yet been restored, please unplug your router and plug it back in after waiting 1 minute. Wait 5 more minutes and the router should reconnect. If you have any further issues, please contact our support at (800) 223-5546. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience to our customers. We are taking a number of actions to eliminate this sort of incident from reoccurring.”

Read more on what happened, how and why

We continue to follow this closely, get updates on our Facebook / Twitter / Google Plus