Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet and router

An easier modem power-cycle?

cgs — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:27:05 -0800

I want to add a power switch to my modem + router so I can easily restart them. Advice? When my connection poops out, I do the following:
1. unplug my cable modem + router
2. wait a bit
3. plug back in the modem
4. pause, then power up router.

And I do all this by squatting down, moving some crap around on my shelf, reaching behind each and pulling out its power source. I'd like to buy something or splice something so that I can flip an easily-reached switch, then flip it back on and it does it all.

Questions:
1. do I need to wait (in step 2)? I've heard I need to wait for the ip address to reset.
2. do I need to pause in step 4? I thought I should wait for the modem to do its thing before turning on the router.

If #2 is "no", then I guess I could just get a powerstrip w/ a switch on it. Any better ideas?

Thanks for your help-
cgs

The case of the haunted xbox.

cirrostratus — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:48:39 -0800

My internet connection is haunted! I lose connectivity the second I turn on my xbox, even when the network cable is unplugged. How can that be? The situation: we have Mediacom service in my apartment that provides a connection for two computers and xbox live on two xboxes via a netgear router. This works fine most of the time until the second I turn on the second xbox and the internet goes out every time. When this happens and the mediacom modem starts blinking just the internet light until we reset it. Eventually the internet seems to come back after reseting the modem and it seems to come back faster if there are less than four things hooked up to the router.

Here's the weird part: the connection breaks even if we have the xbox's network cable unplugged.

How can an xbox that isn't even hooked up to the router effect our connection?

More importantly, how can I prevent this from happening in the future so I can get down to business and kill some zombies in Left 4 Dead?

What is a security key for a wireless connection?

jaruwaan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:37:43 -0800

My new computer can find our wireless router; it asks for a "security key" in order to connect. What is a security key? I bought a new Dell laptop, Windows 7. The icon in the tray shows a connection to our router. I clicked that thinking I would just need to enter our password. Wrong!

It does show the name of the internet connection we set up, and that the signal is strong. The only prompt is for a security key, which does not accept either the password or pass phrase that were created for this connection.

Is the security key something related to the actual router (Netgear)? The modem (Time Warner cable)? And how do I find it, whatever/where ever it is? Halp!

VPN from home NAS system.

CodeMonkey — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:36:19 -0800

I am trying to set up my router so that I can get at my files on my 3 NAS boxes. These NAS boxes are 1) D-Link DNS323, Infrant ReadyNAS NV+, and a Buffalo TeraStation HD-H2.0TGL/R5. The router is connected to the internet via a home service cable modem so it won't have a static IP and one step is to find the IP address before accessing. I have a router (DLink DGL-4100) which says it can make a IPSec VPN or FTP using a Virtual Server (I think). There would be no other PCs on the network since I would be taking my laptop with me when I access the network. The manuals for the routers talk about FTP serving but if I get a VPN set in my router then I should be able to just browse for whatever I want that way...right? The instructions say it can be done, but how? Please give me step by step instructions the best you can for setting up the router, the NAS boxes and my XP laptop (with suggested software, if necessary) since I have looked all over the internet and can't find anything I can understand. Of course the access should be encrypted and password protected. THANKS GUYS. From the router manual. (DGL-4100):
Application Level Gateway (ALG) Configurations
Here you can enable or disable ALG’s. Some protocols and applications require special handling of the IP payload to make them work with network address translation (NAT). Each ALG provides
special handling for a specific protocol or application. A number of ALGs for common applications ar enabled by default.

IPSec VPN:
Allows multiple VPN clients to connect to their corporate network using IPSec. Some VPN clients support traversal of IPSec through NAT. This ALG may interfere with the operation of such VPN clients. If you are having trouble connecting with your corporate network, try turning this ALG off. Please check with the system adminstrator of your corporate network whether your VPN client supports NAT traversal.

FTP:
Allows FTP clients and servers to transfer data across NAT. Refer to the Advanced -> Virtual Server page if you want to host an FTP server.

Virtual Server
The Virtual Server option gives Internet users access to services on your LAN. This feature is useful for hosting online services such as FTP, Web, or Game Servers. For each Virtual Server, you define
a public port on your router for redirection to an internal LAN IP Address and port.
Example: You are hosting a Web Server on a PC that has Private IP Address of 192.168.0.50 and your ISP is blocking Port 80.
1. Name the Virtual Server Rule (ex. Web Server)
2. Enter in the IP Address of the machine on your LAN – 192.168.0.50
3. Enter the Private Port as [80]
4. Enter the Public Port as [8888]
5. Select the Protocol - TCP
6. Ensure the schedule is set to Always
7. Check the Add Rule to add the settings to the Virtual Server List
8. Repeat these steps for each Virtual Server Rule you wish to add. After the list is complete, click Save Settings at the top of the page.
With this Virtual Server Rule all Internet traffic on Port 8888 will be redirected to your internal web server on port 80 at IP Address 192.168.0.50.

From the D-Link NAS DNS-323 manual:
FTP Server
The DNS-323 is equipped with a built in FTP Server, which is easy to confgure. It allows users access to important data whether they are on the local network or at a remote location. The FTP server can be confgured to allow user access to specifc directories, and will allow up to 10 users to access the DNS-323 at a time.

This section contains the configuration settings for the DNS-323 FTP Server.
The current settings and status of the DNS-323 FTP Server are displayed here.

The FTP access for users and groups can be added and edited here.

Category Determines whether the FTP server rule will apply to an individual user or a group.

User / Group Select the group or user the FTP server rule will apply to.

Folder Browse to and select the folder or directory you are granting FTP access to. Select root to grant access to all volumes.

Permission Set the user or group permission to Read Only or Read/Write.

FTP Server Settings
Max User: Sets the maximum amount of users that can connect to the FTP server.
Idle Time: Sets the amount of time a user can remain idle before being disconnected.
Port: Sets the FTP port. Default is 21.
Flow Control: Allows you to limit the amount of bandwidth available for each user.

Most standard FTP clients like Windows FTP, only support Western European codepage when transferring files.
Support has been added for non-standard FTP clients that are capable of supporting these character sets.

Access List: Lists all defned FTP Rules.

If you are behind a router, you will need to forward the FTP port from the router to the DNS-323. Additional flltering and frewall settings may need to be modifed on your router to allow FTP Access to the DNS-323 from the Internet. Once the port has been forwarded on the router, users from the internet will access the FTP server through the WAN IP address of the router.

From the ReadyNAS NV+ manual.

FTP/FTPS
To access the share via FTP in Share security mode, log in as “anonymous” and use your e-mail address for the password.
.
To access the share in User or Domain security mode, use the appropriate user login and password used to access the ReadyNAS. For better security, use an FTPS (FTP-SSL) client to connect to the
ReadyNAS FTP service. With FTPS, both the password and data are encrypted.

From the Terastation manual.
To allow Anonymous FTP, choose Enable for Anonymous FTP Server. Select a folder to share from the Anonymous User Public Shared Folder (only one folder may be shared by anonymous FTP) and
choose whether you want the share to be Writable or Read Only. Click the Apply button to set up anonymous FTP.
If FTP Server is disabled in the Basic window, this page will not be accessible.
Anonymous FTP mode uses port 8021 (e.g. ftp://IP Address:801).

Why-Fi?

Rhaomi — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:17:19 -0800

What's killing my wi-fi connection? The last few days I've been having some odd problems with my wireless network. I'll be browsing on my laptop when all of a sudden things get really slow, as if I lost the connection. But instead of being sent to "This page is not available" or "server not found" pages like when there really is no connection, I just get stuck loading forever. So if I open a tab and go to Google, it will sit and load saying "Waiting for www.google.com" in the status bar for a minute or two, then eventually say "Done" -- even though the only thing that has loaded is a completely blank tab (even the source code of the page is empty) with the raw URL in the title bar.

But throughout all this, there's no indication that I've lost my connection. The wifi icon in the system tray doesn't change, and says I'm connected if I hover over it. When I open up the Command Prompt and enter ipconfig /all, it says all my internet connection stats are normal. The subnet mask, DHCP server, DNS, etc. are all there. The IP address doesn't start with 169. It's all okay.

Weirdest of all, despite the fact that I can see that all the connection info is normal, if I enter my router's IP address into the address bar (which usually takes me to the router's settings page), it just does the same thing. Load... load... load... blank tab. I understand not being able to connect to the internet, but if I can see all my connection and router info in Command Prompt, why can't I connect to the same router with my browser?

The only way to fix it, I've found, is to disconnect from the wireless network and reconnect. It'll then work fine for anywhere from one minute to fifteen, at which point the connection drops again. This is only affecting my laptop, by the way -- iPods and other laptops connect fine.

I've tried restarting my computer, restarting the router, and repairing the connection -- nothing works. It seems that getting closer to the router improves things, but I'm not sure since the problem comes and goes randomly. And besides, the router is in the same place as it's always been, so unless it's suddenly lost broadcasting power I don't see what would cause the problem. And in the "View Wireless Networks" window, it says the network has an Excellent signal when I'm not connected (though that decreases a bar or two once I do).

The only incident I can think of is that a power surge recently burnt out the power supply, and I had to buy a universal one with an adapter to get the router up and running again. But this was a week or two before the trouble started, so that's probably not the source.

Is there anything that would cause a wireless router to lose signal strength like that? Is there something I can do to fix it, or should I just spring for a new one?

Details: I have a Dell laptop running Windows XP SP3. I have a Bellsouth Fast Access DSL internet connection. The router is a 2Wire HomePortal 1700HW. The loading problem happens on Firefox, Chrome, and IE7.

One more detail I remembered: For awhile when the problem first started, ipconfig /all was giving me some weird info. For instance, it said that the "lease" for the connection expired one second after it was obtained. But it's not doing that anymore.

I just want the damned router to work.

ocherdraco — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:41:39 -0800

Is my wireless router dead? If not, how do I fix it? The details, as I understand them:

I'm on a Mac. I have cable internet via TimeWarner, and an RCA Cable Modem. When I plug the ethernet cable from this modem directly into my computer, I am able to access the internet. When it is plugged into the wireless router, I am not.

Currently, on my wireless router (Netgear WGR614 v7), when the ethernet cable from the modem is plugged into it, the only light that turns on is the power light, and, of course, the network does not appear in the list of available networks. I have tried: unplugging and replugging the ethernet cable, unplugging and replugging the power cord. No change. The Netgear website infuriatingly refers me to the user manual to "troubleshoot the light status," and the user manual just tells me to turn it off and on again, with no indication of what to do if that doesn't work.

I have, over the past several days, had increasingly spotty wireless, and last night, the signal was dropping every minute or so, but when it was there, it was as strong as normal.

Is there anything I can do, or must I just go buy a new one?

Router & Modem bridging

steampowered — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:41:18 -0800

How do I bridge my Linksys WRT54GS router with my (DSL) Motorola 2210-02-1022 Router (Style MSTATEA)? They were initially "bridged" for the sake of something about PPPoE, and I reset both because when that happened, our connection wasn't secure and I couldn't do anything to change it. Finding information on how to, and attempting to access the router or modem independently didn't produce any results. I've tried "power cycles," reset both multiple times, and have tried a variety of settings on the modem (making the modem the default PPP device versus making the plugged in item the default PPP device) and on the router (Automatic DHCP and PPPoE). I could call AT&T again to straighten this out, but I'd rather not walk through this for two hours and risk doing all the work in vain if our network is not secure again.

Help me get our Internet devices back on speaking terms.

synecdoche — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:40:54 -0800

We have a US Robotics wireless router (USR5461) and a cable modem provided to us by our Internet provider (Rogers, in Ontario--it is a labeled as "WebStar" and "Scientific American"). They don't seem to be on speaking terms however. How can we get our wireless connection back? For the last several days, we have been unable to connect to the Internet in our apartment. We have the aforementioned router and modem, and can connect to each independently, but they don't seem to be working together. I can get to the router's configuration web page, and can connect to the network using Airport. Also, if I use a cable and plug in directly to the modem, I can get online just fine.

This has been happening off and on for the last several months, but now it seems to be constant. Sometimes I can get a few minutes of connectivity if I unplug every cord going into every device (the power cords, the ethernet cord, the cord that goes to the cable outlet) but it never lasts long.

Also, this is happening with the two computers my partner and I have--both are Macbooks but of different generations.

Any ideas as to how to fix this? It seems to me that everything is working fine except for the part where they are supposed to talk to each other and has me wondering if there's some sort of bad connection inside the router. The little light on the router that is supposed to indicate internet connectivity won't come on, either. I am really hoping we won't have to replace this router as it is only a year or so old.

How do I restrict internet traffic?

LDL707 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:53:23 -0800

Is there a way to limit download/uploads through my internet connection? My house has Comcast cable internet, and every month, we are very close to the 250 GB bandwidth cap. This is primarily due to my roommates running bittorrent and leaving it up all day.

I am running a Linksys router with Tomato firmware. Ideally, my goal would be to block bittorrent traffic once the total uploads and downloads equal about 7 gigs per day. That is, up to 7 gigs a day, the internet connection is undisturbed, and after that point, other internet functions like http would still work, but bittorrent would be disabled.

Is there a way to completely block traffic through a specific protocol with QoS, and is it possible to set up a rule so that this would only happen after the 7GB limit is reached?

Can someone please explain random internet slowings which can only be fixed by unplugging router...

dan g. — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:56:30 -0800

What is causing my Qwest DSL internet connection to get slow several times a day. Unplugging the router fixes the problem temporarily. We have Qwest DSL hooked up to an apple time capsule/time machine thing which serves as our wireless router. We've had this problem for several years where the internet connection suddenly gets molasses slow and the only fix is to unplug the router, leave it unplugged for 30 seconds, then plug it back in and wait for the connection to come back up.
Recently though, this has been happening with more frequency, to the point where it happens 3-4 times a day now, and the connection can take as long as 5-10 minutes to come back sometimes (this time varies wildly though).
2 questions:
1: Can someone explain in layman's terms what is happening and why unplugging the router fixes the problem?
2: How best to address this problem. Is the router just wearing out? Is there something that Qwest can/should do on their end to fix things? Would a new router solve the problem?

Thanks AskMe!

I want you to un-fix my internet!

gakiko — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:47:20 -0800

I have a TP-Link TL-WR340GD router and 2 PCs: one of them is connected to the router through wireless, the other through a LAN cable. I'd like my router to cut off my internet every day at some fixed hour without me changing anything on the 2 PCs. Is this even possible? Of course, I'd like the router to give me back my daily internet at some (later) hour, preferably again without my intervention.

Collateral damage is acceptable: I don't use the local network for anything, so it doesn't matter if the PCs can't see each other, and it doesn't matter if the wireless function of the router is disabled.

I'm also ok with running a sort of script from my PC every day, if that's what it takes. Both machines run on WinXP.

It's more important to disinternetify the cabled machine, the one connecting through wireless is not so problematic.

Plug it in, plug it in...

Christ, what an asshole — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:01:39 -0800

Modem/Router issues: why does our internet always cut out on one computer on the network, resulting in having to constantly plug/unplug the router to get it working again? Router: WRT54G, ISP: Comcast.

We have two desktops (PCs) set up in the network, one direct with an ethernet cable, the other wireless. For whatever reason, the computer connected through the ethernet cable has its internet connection spontaneously cut out, sometimes several times throughout the day, which makes for some unusually frustrating surfing.

It's puzzling because all the modem lights are flickering just like normal, and the computer connected wirelessly works fine. Meanwhile, the first computer has an icon displaying that it's connected, but it remains dead and has no upload/download activity. As a result and through trial/error, the only way to get it working again is by unplugging the power to the router, letting it sit for a minute, then replugging and hoping it comes back, which it ostensibly does in more cases than not.

What could be the issue causing this brand of interference?

Miro hates us.

InsanePenguin — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:05:47 -0800

Why is Miro killing my internet? So, my girlfriend and I follow a bunch of shows but have weird schedules at our job and often miss them. I also watch a lot of Revision3 content. We LOVE Miro, it's a wonderful video aggregator, but ever since we updated to the 2.0 release a couple months ago, we've had some significant issues.

Miro KILLS our internet connection. Kills it dead. With fire. But only at home. Normally we can both have a bunch of torrents running, be browsing the internet, and I can be on Xbox Live and the internet flows smoothly. As soon as one of us opens Miro, even if it isn't actually downloading anything, the internet chugs to a stop. A dead stop. The kicker? This only happens at home. At work, it's fine. At her mom's house, it's fine. While I was waiting for an oil change the other day and connected to a Staples Hotspot, it was fine. But not at home.

I run OSX and she runs Windows 7 RC1. I've tried resetting our router to factory settings, but nothing seems to work. Could this indicate a bad router? Bad firmware? I would put on Tomato, but we seem to have bought the only Linksys router that doesn't support third-party firmware. What could be doing this?!

I'm at my wit's end, here, MeFi. Please, god, help me.

Wire(less) me up, Scotty!

cachondeo45 — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:20:19 -0800

Wireless Filter: Internet is free in my apartment complex but our connection is crap. Help! Quick facts:

-13 unit (old) complex
-we are on the third floor
-the wireless router is on the first floor of the back apartments, so we get spotty internet only in the back part of our apartment, and absolutely nothing on the front end.
-landlord says it is a Gateway 2Wire either 100 ft or 150 ft.
-service is from SBC, which the landlord pays.
-the wireless is WEP protected and all tenants have the password.
-(i don't know if this matters but) I have a PC and my roommate has a mac.

He said he'll do whatever it takes to get us better service. So what does it take? Just a stronger router that goes the distance? I think he is illegally distributing the wireless among all of the apartments, and is unwilling to call SBC but he says if we find a solution, he'd see to it that it gets purchased / installed.

Please, oh techie mefites with great and powerful knowledge, help us!!!!

Wi-Fi-Free-For-All

nam3d — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:37:23 -0800

(2 part question) I have an open wifi router which I am happy for neighbours and passers-by to connect to. Is there a piece of software out there (for the mac) that will tell me when people connect to my router? and would there be a way of redirecting people to a landing page when they connect to my router?

Why can't I use the internet despite my router telling me I can?

tumples — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:02:22 -0800

Please help me get my internet back! My computer is showing it is connected to the router and the internet, and it says it is in the router logs and through its updater, but I cannot load any webpages or use anything needing anything the internet. My router suddenly broke this afternoon during normal internet surfing. One minute it was fine, the next no pages would load despite the network icon in my system tray telling me it was both connected to the network with the blue circle indicating the internet still being available. I can connect the computer to the cable modem and the internet works fine (how I am sending this).

I have tried so many methods to try to work out why it has done this including the usual full power restarts including cable modem and computer, unpluggin and replugging everything. I have loaded up two different firmware versions but still no change. Sometimes the router has problems establishing the dhcp server and obtaining the IP address and dns servers from my isp Virgin Media.

The frustrating thing is that I know the internet works fine, and all of the settings look as they should, especially since I have reentered most of them today. When I click on the button on the router software to look for firmware updates, it is able to check and give me results as well as the working option to download it, which it did albeit very very slowly.

Does anyone have any idea how to solve this infuriating problem? All the lights and signals are on for me being connected to the internet, but it just wont work!

My router is a Dlink DIR-655, I am using an Acer laptop on Vista.

Why can't we connect wirelessly?

mai — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:29:34 -0800

Why can't we connect wirelessly to the internet? We have comcast cable internet and a netgear router and fourteen computers, 13 of which connect wirelessly and one of which uses a wired ethernet connection.

Our internet connection stopped working (possibly because the modem was fried by a lightning strike near us?). None of the lights on the modem would go on, so Comcast told us to bring it in and get a new one.

After replacing the modem, the situation is this:
1. If I am wired directly to the modem, I can connect to the internet.
I am on a Mac.
2. My roommate tried to connect directly to the modem running Linux and could not get internet.
3. The router is broadcasting wireless signal. We can all connect to it and can see each other. But, when the router is connected to the modem, there is no internet coming through the pipes.
4. I tried connecting to the router and having it search for firmware updates, and it can't see the internet at all.
5. I tried the whole reset rigamarole (of router, of modem, of everything), it did not help.

So, is our router broken? Is there something else going on?
I am not super knowledgeable about computers. I usually solve problems by googling for info and bumbling about until something works. Detailed, action-oriented explainations are appreciated.

Vista 64 drops Internet connection?

pghjezebel — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:29:02 -0800

What is causing my Vista 64 PC to keep dropping its Internet connection? I keep losing my internet connection on my PC, which is running Vista 64bit. I'm at loss for what is causing it. After searching online, I've tried the following solutions:

-Made sure Vista is not putting my Network adapter (Model: Realtek rtl8168c(p)/8111c(p) family pci-e GBE NIC) to sleep.
-Disabled DHCP and DNS on our router (which is a Linksys RTP300 from Vonage).
- netsh winsock reset

None of these suggestions have worked. Sometimes I stay connected for a while, and then I'm offline again. Sometimes I need to restart, other times it will reconnect itself within a matter of seconds. It also seems to kick me offline more frequently when both my husband and I are online at the same time.

My next actions were going to be to try a different network card and/or router, but any suggestions would be appreciated!

Whitelisting sites for an Ipod Touch

mecran01 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:45:38 -0800

My son (12) has saved his lawn mowing money and is buying a refurb Ipod touch. I want to mediate his internet access, if possible, at the router level. Please believe me when I say that I know that social control is the best method for helping my son make choices about his internet usage.

But due to reasons I don't need to go into regarding the micropolitics of our home, I need to know if there is a way to use my linksys router or some other tool to create a whitelist of sites that he can visit, preferably without restricting the other computers in the home.

If you want to tell me I'm an idiot for trying to restrict my son's access, that's fine but please do it in a private message. I just am looking for an ipod touch/router/whitelist solution, if one exists, that has a nice degree of granularity. It's not just about protecting him from EEEEEEvil, but also to keep him from surfing the web until 2 a.m.

There is a limited discussion of Ipod parental controls here, but it's not quite what I'm looking for. And here is information on changing the /etc/hosts file, but that doesn't let me turn off the internet at 11pm (for him) while keeping it on for the rest of the house.

Thanks!

Confused by Cat5e voice and data wiring

iknowizbirfmark — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:30:42 -0800

I'm trying to do all the wiring in my house in order to distribute data and voice connectivity to each of the locations to which Cat 5e is run. It's been a while since I've done wiring (last time was probably a college job maybe 15! years ago), and I've got a few questions about how to set this all up. Sorry for the length, but I wanted to be as clear as possible about my current set-up. All the inbound and outbound wiring goes into a structured wiring enclosure from Open House, using their data termination hub.

My current set-up: my Comcast cable modem's RJ-45 output is plugged into my WRT54G, which broadcasts a G network. The WRT54G's 4 outputs go to:

an Apple Airport Extreme to broadcast an N network to faster wireless devices;

a Slingbox;

the DirecTV receiver;

and a computer at that location for playing video and music and browsing internet on the attached display.

I want to connect the 4 outbound wiring locations to the wired network. So far, I have just wired in the outbound wiring to an data termination hub, matching the colors on the wires to the colors on the hub. Then, I wired all the jacks attached to that outbound wiring using the T568A standard. All the jacks seem to work fine, and I can remove one of devices currently attached to the WRT54G and connect that output to the jack on the termination hub which corresponds to each of the outbound wires. I get connectivity at the other end of each of the wires, and things seem to work well.

Question 1: Is there a way to check that this wiring is done correctly? I get the same kinds of numbers through Speedtest that I get from wireless devices on the network and the devices wired directly to the WRT54G, but it's limited by the outbound network connection and not anywhere close to 100baseT capacity. Is there a way to verify that the wiring is done correctly, or does the fact that I have a good internet connection mean that all is good? When I finally get a decent LAN set up, I feel like I will be using much more of the "capacity" of my wiring set-up, and I'm not that sure of my skills and connections.

Question 2: What do I need to put between the WRT54G and the jacks on the Cat 5e termination hub in order to distribute the network to each remote jack? Will an simple unmanaged hub do, as long as the WRT54G is not overwhelmed by the number of different active connections? Can I use a hub at each remote jack, if I want to have multiple wired devices in each remote location? Or do I need an actual switch between the WRT54G and the Cat 5e jack connected to each remote jack? What does an unmanaged hub actually do? If the WRT54G does all the routing and switching, do I just need to physically connect the right wires at the remote jacks, so that I could just wire multiple jacks into the same wire and let the WRT54G figure it all out? Bonus question: Whether I need a hub or a switch, will I find anything to fit nicely into my Open House enclosure? Is this or this what I need?

Question 3: Eventually, I will probably want to use the Cat5e drops to provide voice to the remote jacks as well. How can I figure out what twisted pair or pairs actually carry the voice signal from the phone company? Can I determine this by looking at the network interface box? How can I pass the voice and the data for the network over the same Cat5e cable, even if the maximum data speed is slower, maybe limited to "10baseT" speeds? Which wires get wired where?

Thanks for any help you can provide to a guy who hasn't messed around with low-voltage wiring since the mid 90s!

wifi router can't make it through walls: what's the most effective way to extend the range of our wifi cloud?

krautland — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:44:00 -0800

our new belkin router doesn't have the power to make it all the way through the house. are range extenders good? which one should I choose? (more inside) I gave my parents (in germany) a wireless router for their mac/pc mix household. it's this belkin G (802.11g), their basic model. unfortunately the router has to sit in a room in the far corner of their house and thick german cement walls (no plywood here) are ensuring the signal doesn't make it all the way across the house into the attic or kitchen. the signal currently covers half the house, so getting through the walls is not completely impossible, they just do to the router what a pair of massive mittens would do to your dexterity.

I'd like to extend that range so that certain rooms they use as offices are covered by the signal. belkin seems to offer a universal range extender but the german amazon page for that product has a user opinion stating that said extender doesn't really work if it's more than a couple feet from the router itself. I wonder if the hivemind has an opinion on this...

I'm not married to using belkins to extend the range of the router but I am married to the router since exchanging it would be rather difficult for me right now.

what's the most effective way to extend the range of our wifi cloud?

Help me stop stealing wireless from my neighbour

Beardman — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:49:51 -0800

Can you walk a poor knave through a router swap? (Surprisingly, Google is not that obliging...is that because it's as dumb as asking "Can you walk me through plugging in my TV?") Here's the situation.

I currently have a desktop PC (XP) hooked up to a non-wireless router that came from my ISP (Primus Canada). I recently bought a MacBook (OSX) and want to have wifi in the apartment. I already own a different, wireless, router. The wireless router was hooked up in a different apartment some time ago (c/o Bell Canada). What I would like is to replace the non-wireless router with the wireless one, using the Airport on my MacBook to connect to the net, but a cable to connect the PC to the net.

So is it just as easy as unplugging the non-wireless one, and plugging in the wireless one?

If I also have to change keys and codes and the like, what should I expect? What do I need to know?

Will I need to still have whatever keys/codes were associated with the wireless router when it was last hooked up? I'm not sure if I still have them written down.

Finally, the stupidest question: is my ISP charging me a price for just non-wireless internet, such that switching to a wireless router would be barred by my current plan? Or is that just not how it works?

Many thanks for bearing with me. (I feel kind of like a fuddy who thinks you have to be at your home computer to check your Hotmail account.)

Why oh why won't my Macbook Pro connect to the wireless Internet after sleep?

geeky — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:59:47 -0800

Why oh why won't my Macbook Pro connect to the wireless Internet after sleep? First and foremost, this is definitely an issue with the Macbook. We have 2 PCs (desktops), 3 game systems and 2 Tivo's using the router (wired and wireless) without issue. We've also used a Windows laptop on the router, and aside from the occasional dropped connection, it worked fine as well.

We had a Netgear G router for 4 or 5 years that the Macbook worked just fine with, even after I dropped the Macbook hard enough to dent it once (oops). But recently the Netgear router died, so we bought a replacement: a DLink DIR-655 Wireless N Router. I went through the usual setup pains trying to get the router configuration just right so that all of our various machines could get on the Internet. Now we're at the point where everything works fine, except for the Macbook.

The Macbook will connect to the router, get an IP, and work as expected after a fresh boot. I'll close the lid to put the Macbook to sleep, but when I open the lid later, where the Macbook would automatically get a working connection before, there's now anywhere from a 40% to 70% chance that I'll actually get a working connection, even when manually connecting or trying any of the things listed below under "Things that sometimes work" and "Things that always work". The airport card is working. It picks up the SSID from the router, connects to the router, indicates it is "getting status", gets a self-assigned IP address, and then eventually drops the connection. It never gets a valid IP address from the router. Except sometimes when it does. Even though I'm not changing any settings on the router or Macbook. Once I do eventually get a valid IP and working connection, it's rock solid. See how frustrating this is?

Here are the facts and specs:

Router:
DLink DIR-655 Wireless N Router
G only
manual channel
broadcasting SSID
WPA - Personal / WPA - TKIP

Macbook Pro 3,1:
OS X 10.4.11
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Airport Extreme 1.4.4

Attempted Fixes:
Setting router to one manual channel
Running permissions repair
Setting manual IP on Macbook and reserving IP on the router
Installing updates and patches on Macbook
Updating firmware on router
Deleting com.apple.internet*.plist files
Deleting all preferred networks
Deleting all keychain entries
Set "By default, join:" to Automatic or Preferred Networks
Turned off IPv6

Things that always work:
Rebooting Macbook
Rebooting router

Things that sometimes work:
Turn off/on airport card
Running Diagnostics

I've been a PC girl most of my life, so I freely admit I'm not a Mac expert. Is there something I'm missing here? Please help me get my Macbook's wireless connection back to normal before I throw it into a wall! I've extensively searched the internet for solutions and spent an inordinate amount of time attempting to fix the problem, but so far no dice. I'm hoping there's a Mac genius lurking on MeFi that can come to my rescue. Is there anything else I can try to fix this problem, or should I just resort to buying a new router?

Is my macbook screwed or just my wireless?

nunoidia — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:16:08 -0800

My macbook can't find my wireless connection. It was working perfectly for the past three weeks, but now it won't connect (I've only had teh internetz for those three weeks). I connect using plusnet (in the UK), through a D-link DSL-2640B adsl modem/router, on my almost two year old macbook (running leopard). I have tried resetting the router and airport on my mac; all that happens is that about half a minute after I turn airport back on, the mac finds my router for about 5 seconds, then drops the connection, and can't find it again. I don't think it's the router / wireless actually being pants, as both my iphone and my wii can connect to wireless just fine.

I'm a little stumped, short of thinking that the airport card is dying a death, does anyone have any ideas of what to try, or confirmation indeed that it's time to get a new mac? (on a separate point my screen has started flickering annoyingly again when running off battery, as it did three months after purchase, and I am loath to spend the money to fix it if it's time to get a new computer). I am out of ideas. Oh, in case it matters I am connecting through WPA-PSK and am not broadcasting my SSID

Sorry if this has come up already, I did a search, but couldn't see anyone with the exact same problem I have.

Where oh where has my wifi gone?

bjork24 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:20:20 -0800

What the WiFi?! My wireless network has gone insane, and it's about to give me a nervous breakdown. Please, please, PLEASE help. My wireless network has gone berserk over the last six months. Prior to this current rash of craziness, it worked flawlessly for two and a half years, now it's doing this:

1. Internet drops in and out in a cyclical pattern. I have access for five minutes, then nothing for two or three, then it's up again for five, down again for two. Up and down, on and off, over and over and over. Over the course of the day, however, the downtime tends to win out.

2. I have no cordless phones, microwaves, or any other device (that I know of) that might be interfering with the signal.

3. When the internet is down, I'm still able to access all the other computers on the wireless network. The network is comprised of five computers - four that connect to the router wirelessly, and one that's wired.

4. When the internet is down, I'm usually able to still use IM (adium), and 50% of the time Google sites still come up.

5. I've gone through three routers over the last six months. Two WRT54Gs, and one Dynex. The problems persist regardless of the firmware (I've tried Tomato, DD-WRT, and the proprietary versions for each router). The linksys routers were version 2 and 7.

The wired computer always seems to have internet access, which leads me to believe it's something in the wireless transmission, but what?! I've tweaked all sorts of settings in the router -- turned security off and on, increased and decreased MTU, bumped up transmit power, etc. -- but none of it seems to make a difference.

Does anyone have any clue why my wireless has gone batshitinsane?