Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with 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

Best basic wireless router?

dpx.mfx — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:12:20 -0800

I am in need of a new wireless router. Please talk to me like I know nothing about routers, computers, or technology in general (this is maybe 75% true) and help me choose. I have TimeWarner Cable's internet access. We have the "standard" access, which is "up to 7mbps" (we can upgrade to Turbo -- "up to 22 mbps" -- should we?). I have a Lenovo T61 laptop that is about a year old, and a Toshiba satellite laptop that's at least two years old. I use the Toshiba to VPN to my office and so would like something that's pretty stable. Other than that, mostly email and basic websurfing. We are also networking a Tivo (our old one has a wireless adapter. A new HD Tivo is currently enroute. Not sure how that one will work.) Someday I'd like to add a wireless printer.

Other wireless devices in the house: Iphone, another cell phone, one cordless phone with three handsets, and a baby monitor.

What kind of wireless router should I get? How much should I spend? Will these devices talk nice to one another or should I use my parents old Belkin (I forget the number, I think it was pre-N?) router? Help me please.

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?

wireless router SLOW

cg2 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:07:42 -0800

I just put in a new router (cisco wireless n broadband router wrt160N) and it is totally fast when the ethernet cable is plugged into my computer. When I try to use it wirelessly, it works but is VERY slow. any ideas? thanks!!!!!

Wireless router that can connect to a printer and external hard drive?

Dasein — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:23:12 -0800

Please help me find a router to make my parents' lives easier. I am looking for a wireless router that will allow me to connect to a printer and an external hard drive via USB. It doesn’t need to be wireless N (G is fine), but if it’s N it needs to be dual-band. Other than the Apple Airport Extreme with a USB hub attached, what wireless routers can do this? The models from Linksys with Storage Link and D-Link with Shareport seem to be able to connect to either a printer or a USB drive, but not both simultaneously. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'd like my parents to be able to wirelessly print and back up data to a RAID drive. They run Windows, and while I'll install Bonjour to run the Airport Extreme if necessary, I know they will be a little suspicious about the comptability of Apple products. If the Airport Extreme is the only way to do this, anything you could say that would allow me to reassure them that printing will be seamless with Bonjour would also be appreciated.

My servos are seizing

cabbages — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:14:37 -0800

Posting for a Roommate: His 802.11b USB adapter is unable to connect to our 801.11n network. According to him, this adapter worked for him previously but as soon as he moved into our house it stopped working. The adapter sees the network but when you try to connect it fails.

His laptop is on the other side of the house so I tried it on my laptop (which is in the same room as the router) and ran into the same issue so I'm thinking it might be a hardware problem but I have very little knowledge when it comes to networks.

Some more details:
Driver obtained from Windows Update (Current)
Adapter only recognizes the network as 801.11g
Network is encrypted with WPA-PSK

If he's going to need to buy a new adapter I'd appreciate suggestions as well. Currently he is running a Ethernet cord through our hallway and into my room which is kind of tacky.

Imac has lost its once strong wireless signal

ranunculus — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:25:41 -0800

My girlfriend's imac keeps losing its wireless signal, despite having functioned perfectly for over a year at its present location. How can I remedy this? The wireless router - a linksys wrt 54g - is located at my desk about 50 feet and one wall away, where it is hardwired to my pc. For the past year, her imac received the signal perfectly. And now it's extremely weak. Rebooting her computer, my computer, the router, or the cable modem does nothing to improve her signal. Yet my other computer - a pc laptop - receives a perfectly good signal next to her imac.

She is running osx 10.4.11
I'm on vista

Tomato Wireless Bridge + forgetfulness = ???

xla76 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:15:58 -0800

Tomato Wireless Bridge + forgetfulness = ??? I have a linksys wrt54gl router with tomato firmware configured as a wireless bridge. This makes the router 'invisible' on the network. My problem - I have no recollection of the device ip address. It is still functioning correctly but I want to reconfigure.
In theory I should be able to connect via ethernet port and go to admin webpage but without knowing the ip - or even the subnet - I am stuck!
If anyone has a solution then I'm all ears.

How do I learn how to use a Cisco Router?

talkingmuffin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:26:02 -0800

How do I learn how to use a Cisco Router? I arrived at my new job as a sysadmin for a small non-profit just after they had paid a consultant to upgrade their basic network infrastructure. One of the results of this upgrade is a Cisco 1812 Integrated Services Router that acts as our router/firewall/vpn. The router has been working fine since the install.

The problem is that I don't really understand the device and how to properly configure/troubleshoot it should changes need to be made. Of course I can pay the original consultant to come in any time I need a change but at $100/hour things get expensive very quickly. I have the user manual but it's seems to be written for someone who already knows how to use a Cisco product.

So, on to my question. How do I best go about learning how to use this device and leverage all of its bells and whistles? I'm not interested in learning how to configure an Enterprise Data Center (which seems to be how most Cisco documentation is directed) I just need to make this black box a little more transparent.

Show me your naming convention

togdon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:28:46 -0800

After approximately 10 years of using the same equipment naming convention at work we're thinking about changing, I'm curious what other people have used. Our current convention was decided with much frustration by committee about 10 years ago. Roughly we use this for the FQDN:

[network interface].[device class].[pop].[organization].[domain]

A better example might be:

hme0.sun457.pdx1.acme.domain.tld

This gets used as the reverse pointer for the primary IP on the box, and as a business rule we've never re-used names (so once sun457 is assigned to a piece of equipment it never gets another name and any replacement will have a new name). In addition to that name we create a minimum of two others (as CNAMEs to the A record), a nodename that's essentially the shortened version of the FQDN (eg. sun457.domain.tld) and a friendly name that better describes the function of the piece of equipment (eg. staff.domain.tld).

At the time the convention was put in place we had three geographically separated data centers, no good systems for tracking inventory, and a needed to provide as much information as possible via the reverse pointer on the IP alone.

Fast forward a few months from when the convention was put in place and we'd managed to get a database with a nice web front end in place to track all of the pieces that were part of the name along with a whole lot more. Fast forward a few more years and we managed to get a good tracking system in place for inventory. Fast forward to today and we've got in the neighborhood of 1000 pieces of equipment (servers, routers, switches, load balancers, virtual machines, desktops, etc). We're working to consolidate our various ad-hoc tools into a unified portal, and we're shifting to a new monitoring system for the third time since the convention was put in place.

I'm one of the only folks that remembers the initial arguments over the naming convention, most new people think it's bloated and gives away too much information in the hostname. I tend to agree. The current system works fine for our purposes, and probably always will, it just seems like we could do better and that now is the best time to make a change.

Simply cutting the name down to the nodename (eg. sun457.domain.tld) seems like the easiest thing, but there are a variety of arguments about keeping other pieces. On top of that, after 10 years it seems like if we're going to make a change we might as well either make a drastic one or no change at all.

So, with the caveat that these are going in DNS (so they need to conform to the RFCs) and that cutesy names are out (there aren't enough Simpsons characters to cover the number of devices we have and remembering that itchy and scratchy are DNS servers and that moe, lenny, and carl are border routers simply isn't an option), what have you used?

The sky is the limit, so outside of the DNS/cutesy limits don't try to fit with any of the above.

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!

Netgear Wireless-G Router WGR614 & AIM

twiggy32 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:30:14 -0800

How do I get my new Netgear Wireless-G Router WGR614 to play nice with AIM? I just installed a new Netgear wireless router and everything seems like it is working fine. However, I have to use AIM at home for work stuff, and I cannot connect. It tries to connect several times without success, and then AIM tells me I tried to log on too many times. I tried using AIM, iChat, and Adium, so it seems to be a problem with AIM not the chat program. I think this may have something to do with opening the right port, but I am at the limit of my technical abilities and my IT guy at work told me it was probably just because Macs suck, so no help there. Any advice?

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).

Enough is enough! Help me buy the perfect cable router!

tumples — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:52:07 -0800

Please recommend me your cable router. I need to buy a replacement and want one that doesn't suck, slow the internet down, and basically does everything it should without interfering. I currently have a D-Link DIR-655 and while it is great when it works, it has got to the point where we rarely have fast internet anymore and it needs restarting at least once a day. When I reset it it works fine for a while, sometimes for days, but it has just broken the internet far too many times. I know it is a router problem through extensive attempts at a fix, and the internet works flawlessly when I just use the modem.

I want a router that can handle intense internet use by four addicted students with too much time on their hands, this includes streaming, downloading and online gaming. I bought the D-Link on good recommendations for these very criteria but this huge problem snuck up on us.

What shall I buy?

File access to router without wget

alby — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:01:21 -0800

How do I copy files to a Netgear DG834G router without using wget? I'm trying to install openwrt on an old Netgear DG834Gv3 router (mainly using these instructions). The instructions recommend to telnet into the router and then copy over the new firmware from the internet using wget.

Unfortunately, wget isn't playing ball. Telnetting into the router works fine and I can execute commands but whether I use http or ftp and whether I use the hostname or IP wget cannot see the internet at all. Ping isn't successful for anything either.

So how do I copy over the firmware without using wget? Or alternatively, how do I get wget to work? The router's bootloader does not allow FTP connections.

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.

my dsl works fine but I can't reach one website that I know is not down. what can I do?

krautland — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:57:41 -0800

my dsl works fine but I can't reach one website that I know is not down. what can I do? I'm with crappy provider x and they have given me their no-name crappy wireless router y. I set it all up and it pretty much works aside from them filtering gnutella (thankyouverymuch, grrr) with one exception:

a certain website I am trying to access times out all the time. no response. now I have my iphone right next to me and I know this site is up. I can see it from my office no problem. I even spoke to its owner, who was very interested but couldn't figure out why I had this problem. enable a proxy like hotspot shield and again no problem whatsoever. alas, the proxies I know are too slow to be of any use for me.

I have tried to ping the site without success and a recent traceroute kind of dropped off around step seventeen at oakland1.level3.net, which I presume to be some kind of backbone.

so I'm lost. what can I do here?

also: what kind of halloween costume should I wear?

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?

Why won't my router route?

Dasein — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:15:22 -0800

Last week, I unplugged and plugged back in my Linksys WRT54GX4 wireless router. Since then, I haven't been able to connect to the internet through it, either wirelessly or through a wired connection through the router. The internet works fine if I plug the ethernet cable from the modem directly into my computer. I can also access the router's settings through my browser when I'm plugged into it. In the settings, it shows the internet as unavailable. But all the little status (including the internet one) on the front of router seem to indicate that everything is working fine. Firmware is up-to-date. Help! I called Linksys support, and the tech guy I spoke to seemed to think that all I needed to do was reset the router properly, but because I'm a month out of warranty, he wouldn't tell me how to do that. I've unplugged it, I've held the reset button for more than a minute, I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Need help with multiple routers

tjbarrett — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:04:11 -0800

Looking for help with multiple routers on network. I'm with a small company that has 3 routers on its network; 1 open wireless for the public to use in the deli, 1 secured for employee laptops, and 1 commercial non-wireless that has a firewall for the office computers. The printers are inside the office and all of the wired computers talk just fine together. The problem is that we'd like to give some of the departments laptops to use on the floor, but since they're coming off of a different router, I'm not sure how to get them to see the computers and printers. Any helpful comments or links to networking resources pertinent to my situation would be very helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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 frag my boyfriend...

WidgetAlley — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:48:58 -0800

For the love of sweet holy Moses, how can I find out what router I'm using? But wait! There's a catch. I can't see it. Backstory: I am currently in an LDR and one of the things my boyfriend and I like to do to relax is frag each other mercilessly, preferably in Sauerbraten.

Towards this end, I am attempting to host a private server with a game just for the two of us. I am, however, having some serious trouble with configuring my ports to do this. Currently, according to WhatsMyIP, all attempts to connect with the most-often used gaming ports are timing out, and when I try to set up my own server, it does not receive a ping response. I know that PortForward can help me out with this, but first I need to know what router I have!

Here where it gets interesting: the router is locked in a giant metal box down the hall. There is no way I can get inside to see what kind it is short of calling an IT dude. Is there another way to get this information without actually seeing the brand name stamped on the side?

I have tried using ipconfig/all to get this information, but the name it gives me (Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet) is not a router. Despite that, my default gateway is 10.101.100.1, which according to my Google-fu means I am connecting to a router. An attempt to access the router's information through http:/10.101.100.1 leads only to a timed-out connection.

Thanking you in advance, hive-mind!

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.

I swear, I don't know how I killed your internet

Decimask — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:03:40 -0800

Please help me unb0rk my cousin's router. Partly, I'm just trying to figure out what the hell happened.

I just landed at my cousin's place temporarily. I pulled out my laptop (running Windows Vista), pulled up the network connections to hook up to the wireless. Everything seemed to be going normally, when it asked me for the PIN number on the Router. I had the WEP key in front of me, so this was surprising.

Got the PIN, continued in what I thought was an otherwise normal connection set up, and clicked "OK". BAM! Cousin on another computer loses internet access, and the connection is now named after my computer. I spend a bit of fiddlig trying to undo it, then get pissed off and hold in the "RESET" button on the back

Now:

I can't connect to the generic "Linksys" connection

She can't connect to it either.

I can't access the router's settings using 192.168.0.1 (conection times out) from the computer that's directly connected to the router--yet I can access the modem's settings just fine.

What the hell happened?

Router's a WRT54G2, if it matters.

Help me find a rangy router!

jckll — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:51:38 -0800

Help me buy a Wireless (WiFi) router with exceptional signal/range for not a boatload of cash. I am, right now, using a cheapie Netgear b/g refurbished router I bought about 6 months ago. It has no external antenna. It disconnects randomly, seems to have terrible range, and needs to be recycled all the time. I only get about 2Mbits download when connected to it from about 2 feet away (20Mbits cable connection). It sucks.

I live in a dense apartment building with about 20 wireless connections, lots of walls, etc. Help me find a wireless router that will break through all that without breaking the bank (ha!)

I have been looking at this one, and it seems OK. Pretty good reviews, but it's hard to know with those things.

Am I under the right impression that an 802.11n router is going to give me better signal? Especially if most (if not all) of the "competing" routers around me are a/b/g?

If anyone has personal experience with a router with great range, that's bonus points! Or if there is a website/page with comparisons of a bunch of available consumer routers, that would be great too.

PS, I don't have any plans to use enhanced (Linux) firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato as I don't have much use for it. Don't want to run a server or a PBX or anything like that. If that would help me with range/power, I definitely would, but it's far from a requirement.

Thanks!