The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date

Ninja Rope · # ? Jun 12, 2012 16:27

SamDabbers posted:

Head over to the Mikrotik thread. A $100 RB2011 will push 100Mbps easily with QoS, VLANs, etc.

I don't know about "easily", per router-board.com the unit can only do 41 mbit worth of small packets (though it would actually be doing NAT and not routing or bridging, so possibly a little less than that?), but I suppose small packets aren't that common.

An SRX-100 would definitely be overkill, but they are really nice devices. Still cheaper are SSG-5's, but I haven't used a ScreenOS device in years. Netgear makes cheap firewalls, and their software has improved significantly in the last few years, but I can't find performance numbers for them. If it was me I'd probably hit up Matt at Express Computer Systems, who used to post on here and has sold me a bunch of gently used poo poo, and tell him what you're looking for.

Adbot · # ? May 14, 2024 21:29

Dogen · # ? Jun 12, 2012 19:15

Devian666 posted:

I'm unimpressed with the new airport express. It's too expensive for too little features.

It's preeetty much the same as the old one, but with simultaneous dual band. It's good if you need a way to play your itunes library on your stereo in another room, a bridge if you live in an apartment or something (of course, you have to have a switch to pair it with more than one device), or a wee portable wireless router.

I'm sure not running out and buying a new one, as all mine does right now is play music on my stereo.

I did just take it on vacation to work with my appletv, which was cool.

flatluigi · # ? Jun 13, 2012 02:33

I've got a five person house and my computer is upstairs and a room away from the router. It's a Linksys WRT160Nv2, which I already know doesn't support custom firmware.

How badly would I need an upgrade from that router, and what's my best shot for my specific needs?

e: note: if it isn't obvious I haven't researched too much yet past 'my router is kind of poo poo' and I'd prefer something with good QOS support

flatluigi fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Jun 13, 2012

Kanos · # ? Jun 13, 2012 04:23

I've been having a poo poo of a time getting a decent signal on my network since my old DIR-615 router died. The computer that needs wireless is about 50 feet upstairs through a ceiling and two walls from the router location.

I've tried 3 different routers at this point(Linksys E3200, ASUS RT-N16, D-Link DIR-655, currently using the latter) and all have failed to give me even a usable signal on the other machine. I'm not very good at this networking business so I'm not sure how to proceed here. Keep trying different routers? Buy a new NIC for the machine? Get new antennae? Buy a repeater?

The secondary computer is only used for web browsing/e-mail and watching youtube videos, so it doesn't need a high end gaming connection or anything.

Devian666 · # ? Jun 13, 2012 09:30

flatluigi posted:

I've got a five person house and my computer is upstairs and a room away from the router. It's a Linksys WRT160Nv2, which I already know doesn't support custom firmware.

How badly would I need an upgrade from that router, and what's my best shot for my specific needs?

e: note: if it isn't obvious I haven't researched too much yet past 'my router is kind of poo poo' and I'd prefer something with good QOS support

I would expect that you'd have problems especially while under heavy load by torrents or if everyone is watching streaming videos. Generally every router in the op has more ram which helps to solve a number of the problems you'd be likely to experience. Any of the netgear routers in the op will support QoS. You can create whatever rules seem appropriate, especially giving your computer the highest priority for traffic.

The above is the least effort appropriate as netgear routers usually work without needing to flash the firmware.

Kanos posted:

I've been having a poo poo of a time getting a decent signal on my network since my old DIR-615 router died. The computer that needs wireless is about 50 feet upstairs through a ceiling and two walls from the router location.

I've tried 3 different routers at this point(Linksys E3200, ASUS RT-N16, D-Link DIR-655, currently using the latter) and all have failed to give me even a usable signal on the other machine. I'm not very good at this networking business so I'm not sure how to proceed here. Keep trying different routers? Buy a new NIC for the machine? Get new antennae? Buy a repeater?

The secondary computer is only used for web browsing/e-mail and watching youtube videos, so it doesn't need a high end gaming connection or anything.

Routers tend to be built cheaply these days and the wireless signal is not necessarily as good as some earlier routers. You might find one that performs well but if you're buying a number of routers why not set up two of them to provide coverage. You could connected them wired, power line networking or position one of them and set it up as a wireless repeater (or buy a repeater if you've been returning the routers).

Devian666 fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Jun 13, 2012

movax · movax Aug 30, 2008

Ninja Rope posted:

I don't know about "easily", per router-board.com the unit can only do 41 mbit worth of small packets (though it would actually be doing NAT and not routing or bridging, so possibly a little less than that?), but I suppose small packets aren't that common.

An SRX-100 would definitely be overkill, but they are really nice devices. Still cheaper are SSG-5's, but I haven't used a ScreenOS device in years. Netgear makes cheap firewalls, and their software has improved significantly in the last few years, but I can't find performance numbers for them. If it was me I'd probably hit up Matt at Express Computer Systems, who used to post on here and has sold me a bunch of gently used poo poo, and tell him what you're looking for.

SamDabbers posted:

Head over to the Mikrotik thread. A $100 RB2011 will push 100Mbps easily with QoS, VLANs, etc.

I was thinking about this as well. pfSense worked OK, but was still kind of rough around the edges. More importantly, I don't want to have to worry about random parts of a x86 machine dying...CMOS battery, RAM, PSU, etc. I assume those SBC routerboards are somewhat more reliable?

SamDabbers · # ? Jun 13, 2012 18:56

movax posted:

I was thinking about this as well. pfSense worked OK, but was still kind of rough around the edges. More importantly, I don't want to have to worry about random parts of a x86 machine dying...CMOS battery, RAM, PSU, etc. I assume those SBC routerboards are somewhat more reliable?

They've been rock solid in my experience. The target market for these is small ISPs, where reliability is an important consideration.

If your Internet connection is via cable modem, there's a very good chance that the RB2011 can push more packets per second than the cable modem itself. Traffic consisting of all 64-byte packets is rare; typical web surfing/torrenting will create significantly larger packets.

movax · movax Aug 30, 2008

SamDabbers posted:

They've been rock solid in my experience. The target market for these is small ISPs, where reliability is an important consideration.

If your Internet connection is via cable modem, there's a very good chance that the RB2011 can push more packets per second than the cable modem itself. Traffic consisting of all 64-byte packets is rare; typical web surfing/torrenting will create significantly larger packets.

Yep, it's via some SMC cable gateway. I was chatting in IRC with some old 2600 folk, who were appalled at the thought of using MikroTik, but they also fully admitted that the cheapest network equipment they run these days is like $5k minimum :shobon:

Really I think it'll probably be me building/buying x86 to run pfSense, getting a RB2011L, or getting an used Juniper SRX. Decisions decisions...

CuddleChunks · # ? Jun 13, 2012 19:34

movax posted:

Yep, it's via some SMC cable gateway.

You may also want to budget for a Motorola cable modem so you can ditch that SMC. But that's a secondary consideration over getting more powerful routing hardware to handle your connections.

Wheelchair Stunts · # ? Jun 13, 2012 22:34

I thought all the smart heads from Netscreen went to Fortinet rather than Juniper.

Ninja Rope · # ? Jun 13, 2012 23:07

Wheelchair Stunts posted:

I thought all the smart heads from Netscreen went to Fortinet rather than Juniper.

The Netscreen line (now SSG) hasn't seen much in the way of updates as far as I can tell. It's definitely still well supported but the SRX series is what Juniper is putting their muscle behind if you ask me. The SRXs have taken on all the good features of the Netscreens anyway, so the only downside is the cost.

Chronos13 · # ? Jun 16, 2012 00:39

I need to do some port forwarding and my lovely rental router from my ISP locks down all configuration settings. Could I get a recommendation for a router? I realize there are some listed in the OP but I am not very well versed with networking needs and do not want to over/under-spend on a router.

My setup is nothing unique. Just using a router with 1 computer and 1 x-box plugged into the 1-4 ports. Additionally, there are as many as 3 other laptops connected wirelessly. As for network traffic, there's some streaming from the x box and bittorrent & online gaming from my computer. Other than that, it's simple web surfing. If it matters, I have a 15mb net service.

Kairos · # ? Jun 16, 2012 04:13

I've been meaning to upgrade the wireless network in my house to 802.11n for a little while now, and was thinking about getting the ASUS RT-N16, but now that the Linksys E3200 is on sale I wonder if that might not be better. The Linksys is dual-band, but that main thing that worries me is that my last experience with Linksys was a WRT54GL that eventually cooked itself alive.

Basically, I use the wireless network for connecting various small things (game consoles, a Boxee, etc.) around the house, as well as three desktop computers that are on the floor above the modem/router. With my current setup (a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 running Tomato), it's all been working relatively well, although sometimes the desktops have connectivity issues (which I think may have more to do with the wireless cards they're using than the router itself). I'd like to keep using Tomato if possible, which was part of what was pushing me to the RT-N16, but I see that there's an experimental build available for the E3200 now.

If anyone has experience with either of these, I'd like to hear about it. The dual-band capability of the E3200 seems like a nice feature to have, although I wonder if there might be performance issues with internal antennas only.

Additionally, if anyone could recommend something new to connect the desktop computers, I'd really appreciate that, since I basically have no idea where to even start with it. My initial prejudice was that a PCI/PCI-E solution would obviously be better than USB, for instance, but I'm getting the impression as I read more that that's not really the case.

Also, if powerline networking or something would be a better solution for the desktops or other stationary things, I'm open to the idea, though I have no idea if real-world performance on them is any good, or if there'd be issues with the wiring in my house that might prevent it from working (do both ends need to be plugged into the same circuit, for instance?).

Kairos fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Jun 16, 2012

EscapeHere · # ? Jun 16, 2012 04:19

Please recommend me a device/setup!

I recently moved into an apartment in a small block of 6 - the ground floor is the landlord. As part of the deal, the landlord has agreed to let me use their internet for free via WiFi. The same deal applies to the other 4 tenants. It's a cable connection, it seems pretty fast (30+ Mbit/s in speed tests), unlimited data, and the other tenants don't seem to slow it down much - so I'm happy with this arrangement.

Currently my girlfriend and I just connect our laptops directly to landlord's AP, using WPA2+. However, we want to set up some shared storage plus a network printer etc, and we don't really want all this stuff on our landlord's AP that he or any of our neighbours can access. Yes, I know I can set up authentication on the devices themselves, but I'd prefer to just have it as its own separate network altogether that only we can access.

Question: does anybody know of a device I can get that will connect to my landlord's AP, create its own separate WiFi network with a different name and password, and be able to route traffic accordingly? That way we can connect all our devices to our own WiFi network and have it only send internet traffic through to his.

Ideally, I'd love an Airport Extreme so I can connect a drive straight to it for the file share and also use the AiTunes port. However finding documentation on this is limited - it seems it can join an existing WiFi network, but you can't then create another separate one?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

future ghost · # ? Jun 16, 2012 05:15

EscapeHere posted:

Question: does anybody know of a device I can get that will connect to my landlord's AP, create its own separate WiFi network with a different name and password, and be able to route traffic accordingly? That way we can connect all our devices to our own WiFi network and have it only send internet traffic through to his.

DD-WRT can do this. I used to have my Buffalo G54 set up to run a wireless bridge to the landlord's network at my old place. You can set your own SSID and security. I think you have to use the upstream DHCP server, although it's been awhile so I may be mis-remembering that. It'll reduce the available bandwidth, but it'll do what you want, assuming it will work with a secured network (check on the DD-WRT wiki first).

lazydog · lazydog Apr 15, 2003

I would probably get something directional, like this Ubiquiti Nanostation, point that at your free wifi, and then plug another router (airport or whatever) into that for your private network.

Otherwise, yeah, dd-wrt should let you connect to the free wifi, and create a second virtual ap, but with your bandwidth cut in half.

EscapeHere · # ? Jun 16, 2012 17:14

Thanks guys...

Can anyone recommend a good device that runs DD-WRT well? I've looked at their supported router database, but there's a lot in there to choose from.

Also, would getting one with dual WiFi radios (some Netgears have this) remove the problem of halving the bandwidth?

Revol · # ? Jun 16, 2012 18:23

I recently just upgraded the house router to an E2500. It lives in my room, since I'm King Nerd of the house. My mom, however, has a printer that she keeps in her bedroom, since it's too big to keep with her iMac in the family room. Previously, we had a used Airport Express as a print server, but it seems to have died.

I'm surprised how hard it is to find a wireless print server. I thought it would have been a little easier to find a dedicated printer WiFi adapter. We don't want to get a new Airport Express, since she's paying $100 for a majority of features that she simply won't be using.

Can I use a wireless router (with a USB port of course) as simply a printer server on a pre-existing wireless network? I can either buy a printer server on Newegg for $60, or a WiFi router I found at Radio Shack for about the same price. And if this is possible, do I need to make sure it's a 802.11n router to be compatible with the E2500? Or can I slum it and get this ASUS 802.11b/g router and print server for $43 on Newegg?

Also, this talk about QOS on the first page is interesting, because P2P can routinely choke the rest of the line. The way I understand it, I can use QOS to tell the network to give priority to everything other than torrent and USENET? So if, say, I'm downloading something, the family's web browsing won't be affected?

And which custom firmware is best for E2500?

Space Gopher · # ? Jun 16, 2012 21:02

A lot of routers with USB ports just do NAS; if you plug a mass storage device into them, they'll expose it to the network. If it doesn't specifically mention support for print server functionality, I wouldn't expect it.

You don't need an 802.11n print server; 802.11n 2.4 GHz routers are backwards compatible with 802.11g (and b, for that matter). It won't have a huge impact on the speeds for the rest of the network, either; the n hardware is smart enough to communicate with n clients at n speeds, and with g clients at g speeds.

The E2500 doesn't have many choices for custom firmware right now. DD-WRT only has an experimental build (despite what it says in their database; apparently they expect you to go to the forum for accurate information - where the thread titled "Linksys/Cisco E2500 DD-WRT WORKING" has all kinds of stories about non-working 5 GHz hardware, bricked routers, and so on). There's also a build of Tomato floating around out there, but that's even more of an experimental project right now. There will probably be good custom firmware available eventually, but for now, the best option is to wait.

icantfindaname · # ? Jun 16, 2012 23:51

So I have a linksys e4200 that's about 6 months old now as my home router, and in the last two or so weeks it has decided to start rebooting on its own every hour or so. This is getting really obnoxious, and I'm worried that I'll have to get a new one. Is this a sign that the router is hosed? I updated the firmware, but that seems to have only slowed the reboots, if that.

Also, on an unrelated note, periodically, as in once or twice a week or so, a laptop of mine in another room on the same floor as the router gets atrocious internet speeds, like 120ms ping to the city I live in and .07Mbps download speed in internet speed tests like this. For comparison the computer hooked up to the wall and the router gets 12ms ping and 30Mbps. Is this a problem with the laptop's wireless adapter or the router itself? I know this isn't a whole lot to work off of, but I'm interested in if the router is the problem.

fagalicious · # ? Jun 17, 2012 04:29

Revol posted:

I recently just upgraded the house router to an E2500. It lives in my room, since I'm King Nerd of the house. My mom, however, has a printer that she keeps in her bedroom, since it's too big to keep with her iMac in the family room. Previously, we had a used Airport Express as a print server, but it seems to have died.

I'm surprised how hard it is to find a wireless print server. I thought it would have been a little easier to find a dedicated printer WiFi adapter. We don't want to get a new Airport Express, since she's paying $100 for a majority of features that she simply won't be using.

Can I use a wireless router (with a USB port of course) as simply a printer server on a pre-existing wireless network? I can either buy a printer server on Newegg for $60, or a WiFi router I found at Radio Shack for about the same price. And if this is possible, do I need to make sure it's a 802.11n router to be compatible with the E2500? Or can I slum it and get this ASUS 802.11b/g router and print server for $43 on Newegg?

Also, this talk about QOS on the first page is interesting, because P2P can routinely choke the rest of the line. The way I understand it, I can use QOS to tell the network to give priority to everything other than torrent and USENET? So if, say, I'm downloading something, the family's web browsing won't be affected?

And which custom firmware is best for E2500?

Since shes using an iMac, you'll want to make sure that the solution you go with is compatible as well. Also just so you know, a refurbed airport express from apple.com is $69, though its not the brand new model.

Bunk Rogers · # ? Jun 19, 2012 14:24

I got a bug up my rear end last night and ran a CAT6 cable from the router in my basement up into the attic of my townhouse.

Its pretty clear to me now that I'm only going to be able to run the one cable and its a miracle I got that one through. I guess I will need to put in in some type of switch in the attic. There are three rooms up on the top floor that I would like to equip with two drops each.

I've two questions. Will the CAT6 suffice or should I try running something like fiber before I patch up the holes. Also, what kind of switch\router\hub would be recommended to handle the work in the attic?

Dogen · # ? Jun 19, 2012 15:02

CAT 6 is probably fine.

Don't put a router or whatever up in the attic, drat. Run all the lines to another convenient point in your townhouse and have a patch panel there.

Bunk Rogers · # ? Jun 19, 2012 15:22

Dogen posted:

CAT 6 is probably fine.

Don't put a router or whatever up in the attic, drat. Run all the lines to another convenient point in your townhouse and have a patch panel there.

Clearly I wasn't thinking straight. I guess I could knock another hole or two.

CuddleChunks · # ? Jun 19, 2012 17:33

Bunk Rogers posted:

I've two questions. Will the CAT6 suffice or should I try running something like fiber before I patch up the holes. Also, what kind of switch\router\hub would be recommended to handle the work in the attic?

As long as you have a nice long cord on the power supply for the switch in the attic, it's not a terrible idea - except the attic will get hot and cold with the seasons and tend to chew up your poor little switch faster than if it were at room temperature. The long cord is so that you can get the power supply close to where you enter the attic or preferably into a closet so you can powercycle the switch without having to go up into the attic every time.

Trendnet gigabit switches are nice and cheap and do a decent job. Might as well start with a 5 or 8-port gigabit version of one of those to wire up your gear on the top floor. Make sure you have gigabit at the far end and you should have a screaming fast internal network.

OldPueblo · # ? Jun 20, 2012 09:29

Also is your attic blanketed in dust? It may be fine temperature wise, but if it gets all clogged up with dust then it'll overheat regardless.

Feenix · # ? Jun 20, 2012 20:16

I gave up after 3 days and went "wired" but I still wanted to ask, so I can be better informed:

Bought the most recently released Airport Express Base Station a couple days ago. For the most part, it is 100% amazing. Exactly what I wanted. Prior to that I had a WRT54GL, but had a couple things (like my PS3) Wired.

I have:

1 Apple TV
2 iPhones
2 iPads
1 iMac
1 PS3

Everything INSTANTLY connected, (including the PS3) but a little bit later, the PS3 disconnected. The short version is it was failing to Obtain an IP. I added DHCP Reservations for the PS3 (then for all my devices. I tried using IPs that were in my range, but way up high (like .101) in order to avoid conflicts. I tried renewing leases, etc... What I *SUSPECT* may be happening, although I can't freaking seem to do anything about it, is that my iPhone (or one of the devices) and my PS3 want the same goddamn Address, even though I'm telling them to keep separate ones. And my iPhone always wins. So my PS3 can connect once in a blue moon but then loses it the next time I log in.

Anyway, like I said, I think I'm fine just keeping my PS3 hard wired. But there will come a day when I move or something where I can't wire my PS3 in and will have to rely on Wireless. On that day, I'm going to need to know how to fix this ultimately frustrating situation.

Any ideas or thoughts would be extremely appreciated, of course.

Binary Badger · # ? Jun 21, 2012 03:44

I dunno, try giving your PS3 a ridiculously high static IP like 10.0.1.253? That always worked for my Canon MG6120 wireless printer.

The Apple devices will more or less want to stay down in the lower boonies.

Italy's Chicken · # ? Jun 21, 2012 04:04

Kairos posted:

The dual-band capability of the E3200 seems like a nice feature to have, although I wonder if there might be performance issues with internal antennas only.

I would not recommend the E3200 if you plan to use the 5ghz N band. It likes to randomly turn itself off for no reason. It's never gone off while I was in the middle of something, but I'll not check the wireless for a few days and then notice I'm only seeing the 2.4ghz G band.

The range on the 5ghz is quite poor in my high-rise condo, but that could just be my walls which are probably made of concrete and steel.

EC · # ? Jun 21, 2012 15:02

I'm having trouble with using AirPlay and wireless in general in my living room. My setup is like so: A WNDR3700v2 (DD-WRT v24-sp2 (02/19/11) std installed) that connects my laptop, server, printer, and a few other devices in my office. That connects to a gigabit switch in my living room, about 30' away, via a CAT6 cable. Plugged into the switch is my HTPC, 360, PS3, AppleTV, and LG TV.

At any given time, there could be 6 or 8 wireless devices all in my living room. Two laptops that my wife uses (one for work and one for school), two or three iPads, and two or three iPhones. If I'm streaming music from my iPhone to the ATV, it sometimes just completely cuts out and I have to kill wifi on the phone and then rejoin. Other times when I'm browsing on the iPad I'll notice that loading a page will hang for a bit, and then either stall all together or eventually finish out.

I'm thinking maybe it's just a distance issue. I've been looking through the Wireless settings in the router, and I see a lot of interesting things in the Advanced settings for both 2.4 and 5ghz, but before I start mucking around with stuff I wanted to ask for some advice.

Where should I start to troubleshoot and hopefully fix the issue?

Feenix · # ? Jun 21, 2012 18:18

Binary Badger posted:

I dunno, try giving your PS3 a ridiculously high static IP like 10.0.1.253? That always worked for my Canon MG6120 wireless printer.

The Apple devices will more or less want to stay down in the lower boonies.

I did try giving it like 150, 151. No good. It's like both it and my iPhone would not relinquish their desired IPs no matter what.

Whatever, wired it is, for now.

The_Mule · The_Mule Jul 22, 2003

EC posted:

I'm having trouble with using AirPlay and wireless in general in my living room. My setup is like so: A WNDR3700v2 (DD-WRT v24-sp2 (02/19/11) std installed) that connects my laptop, server, printer, and a few other devices in my office. That connects to a gigabit switch in my living room, about 30' away, via a CAT6 cable. Plugged into the switch is my HTPC, 360, PS3, AppleTV, and LG TV.

At any given time, there could be 6 or 8 wireless devices all in my living room. Two laptops that my wife uses (one for work and one for school), two or three iPads, and two or three iPhones. If I'm streaming music from my iPhone to the ATV, it sometimes just completely cuts out and I have to kill wifi on the phone and then rejoin. Other times when I'm browsing on the iPad I'll notice that loading a page will hang for a bit, and then either stall all together or eventually finish out.

I'm thinking maybe it's just a distance issue. I've been looking through the Wireless settings in the router, and I see a lot of interesting things in the Advanced settings for both 2.4 and 5ghz, but before I start mucking around with stuff I wanted to ask for some advice.

Where should I start to troubleshoot and hopefully fix the issue?

You may want to try and revert back to netgear stock firmware. I ran several versions of DD-WRT on my 3700v1 and kept having strange connection issues. Reverted back the newest stock and it has been rock solid. Here is link to the 3700 thread on their forums. Seems to be hit or miss, some people report great performance, and some are recommending reverting. If you look on newest page, I think I saw 2 references to apple products performing badly.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=53016

The_Mule fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jun 22, 2012

EC · # ? Jun 22, 2012 02:13

The_Mule posted:

You may want to try and revert back to netgear stock firmware. I ran several versions of DD-WRT on my 3700v1 and kept having strange connection issues. Reverted back the newest stock and it has been rock solid. Here is link to the 3700 thread on their forums. Seems to be hit or miss, some people report great performance, and some are recommending reverting. If you look on newest page, I think I saw 2 references to apple products performing badly.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=53016

Thanks for the info! I'll try rolling back for a week or so and see what happens.

icantfindaname · # ? Jun 22, 2012 04:46

I posted about my router restarting on its own earlier, and it's still going. It probably restarts once every hour or so. Is this a stupid question or something? I have no idea why it's doing this. I've had it for months with no problems and 2 weeks ago it decides to poo poo itself. The only major change is that I started playing a lot of Runescape. That's it. It's a Linksys E4200. The network mode is set to mixed wireless n and g because my ipad doesn't seem to like extended wireless n signal from a network repeater. Any ideas?

OXBALLS DOT COM · # ? Jun 22, 2012 07:25

On the latest custom builds of TomatoUSB, which dual-band routers support simultaneous dual-band operation? Before it was only the E3000/610v2, but that was a while ago, now.

I've been looking at the Asus RT-N66U as well, because I hate Cisco. I know that there are custom builds of TomatoUSB that support this router, but do they also allow simultaneous dual band? Does anyone have any experience with this new one?

I'm a big fan of TomatoUSB, but I'm moving to an area where I'd like 5 ghz but want to retain 2.4 ghz for some of my other devices.

Kanos · # ? Jun 22, 2012 13:51

Kanos posted:

I've been having a poo poo of a time getting a decent signal on my network since my old DIR-615 router died. The computer that needs wireless is about 50 feet upstairs through a ceiling and two walls from the router location.

I've tried 3 different routers at this point(Linksys E3200, ASUS RT-N16, D-Link DIR-655, currently using the latter) and all have failed to give me even a usable signal on the other machine. I'm not very good at this networking business so I'm not sure how to proceed here. Keep trying different routers? Buy a new NIC for the machine? Get new antennae? Buy a repeater?

The secondary computer is only used for web browsing/e-mail and watching youtube videos, so it doesn't need a high end gaming connection or anything.

Update to this, because this problem is not going away.

I purchased and set up a repeater, got it working fine, placed it in an intervening spot between the router and the receiving computer, and things seemed to work; signal strength shot from 1-2 bars to 4-5 at all times, connection speed quadrupled or so. The problem I'm having now is that the connection cuts out almost constantly, as in it will connect, work fine for anywhere from 5-20 minutes, then cut out and not work again for an indeterminate amount of time, reverting the second computer to local only access(despite still having 4-5 bars). The internet connection itself is 100% stable at all times on my machine here that is wired directly to the router, it has never missed a beat.

Is it possibly the old NIC? Is the repeater defective? Is my router a piece of poo poo? I miss my old router terribly at this point.

Router: D-Link DIR-655
Repeater: Hawking HWREN1
Wireless NIC: Netgear WN311B

Vaginal Engineer · # ? Jun 22, 2012 16:00

icantfindaname posted:

I posted about my router restarting on its own earlier, and it's still going. It probably restarts once every hour or so. Is this a stupid question or something? I have no idea why it's doing this. I've had it for months with no problems and 2 weeks ago it decides to poo poo itself. The only major change is that I started playing a lot of Runescape. That's it. It's a Linksys E4200. The network mode is set to mixed wireless n and g because my ipad doesn't seem to like extended wireless n signal from a network repeater. Any ideas?

It may be an overheating issue. Next time your router resets, touch it and see if it seems hot. I think there are some easy to find guides about drilling holes and other methods to prevent Linksys routers from overheating. If that's not the issue, then your router may be fried. You can try installing 3rd party firmware (e.g. Tomato USB), but I'm not sure if your router is supported.

flatluigi · # ? Jun 22, 2012 16:07

I'm not sure if this is covered by this thread, but it seems like the best place to ask: What's the preferred wireless adapter for a PC? I have a cheap PCI card in it right now but I'm pretty sure it doesn't even support wireless N.

redstormpopcorn · # ? Jun 22, 2012 19:04

flatluigi posted:

I'm not sure if this is covered by this thread, but it seems like the best place to ask: What's the preferred wireless adapter for a PC? I have a cheap PCI card in it right now but I'm pretty sure it doesn't even support wireless N.

If you're okay with USB, I've been pretty happy with my Asus USB-N53.

Adbot · # ? May 14, 2024 21:29

Sneeze Party · # ? Jun 23, 2012 06:40

My newly-built PC has an 802.11n PCI card. The problem is that it's really low to the floor and it gets horrible signal strength down there. On top of the desk, the signal is much stronger.

So, I'd like to get an extension cord/antenna that would sit on top of my desk while the computer itself remains below.

I'm having a hard time finding free-standing antennas with long cords.

Any suggestions?