Wireless router questions.

The wife and I think we should upgrade the router. Had ours for about 10 years now--currently we have Linksys Wireless -G 2.4Ghz 54Mbps. We have been experiencing drops from the internet more frequently. I think part of the problem is the provider (DSL over the phone line), but would like to stream Netflix, NHL gamecenter, and other stuff with less freezing. We have a Mac, a PC-based laptop, a Nook tablet, iPad, iPhone, and an LG smart phone, and wireless printer. We watch a lot of TV through the laptop, and the wife will use the iPad to watch stuff when I take over the TV on Sundays (football).

Spent about 20 minutes talking to an associate at Radioshack and another hour or so online learning, but could use the collective's advice. Not a gamer so not a concern there.

Thanks

Any chance of an upgrade from your DSL provider?

In my experience as someone who installs internet everyday, I would first ask what speed are you being provided through your service provider?

If you are getting anything above 3 Mbps, you should be ok with getting a Wireless-N router. If it's under that, you are going to have problems no matter what router you have.

Most of my internet issues in the past have been from the modem, how old is that?

No upgrade from DSL in the foreseeable future. Modem is probably as old as the current router. Don't know what speeds we're seeing from the phone company. Does something like that need to be measured at the house or is it common to the line from the provider?

A router/modem upgrade, not an upgrade from DSL. I'll presume you're running what they gave you. If it's a few years old, they might well replace it with a newer one. Especially if you complain that it's not working right.

I really should follow my own advise. My years old whatever keeps disconnecting the computer and ipad. Like several times a day.

Our most popular package is great for web surfing, e-mail, uploading photos, downloading video, and all of your home or business needs. Speeds up to 6Mbps downstream, 1Mbps upstream.** Dial-up account. Up to 5 e-mail accounts. AntiVirus Scanning and e-mail Spam Filtering. 10MB of personal web space. Local, toll-free technical support.

I think this is the package we have.

like mentioned, contact your provider and at LEAST have the replace the modem. if its truly 10yrs old, its a dinosaur. they change/upgrade the internals of those almost monthly it seems. once that is sorted out, and you have a reliable modem capapble of dealing with the service your paying for, then id look into an upgrade of you wireless router. i agree wireless-N is the way to go, even if its a little overkill for your application.

-J0N

Yep +1 to the above.

The modem can be E36 M3 and that will impact your overall speed and connectivity (your connection outside will make a drastic impact as well)

The other thing with wireless connectivity is connection strength and range. For some homes you'll need more than one wireless hotspot to get enough range and strength.

First step though is the router/modem and then the wireless router. If you need more connectivity/range then you can add another wireless router/range extender closer to where you need the connectivity.

So after talking to the Telecom they decided to give us a new router/modem combo to replace the individual ones we had. How bout that? And no charge to boot! We'll see if things get better. They were blaming the router for the drops.

Until you have 50+mb/s download speeds from your provider, your router is fully capable of handling those speeds over wireless.

This comes from a guy that modifies his routers, both hardware and firmware, and has deployed quite a few large (hotel wifi) networks.

My guess is you have a WRT-54G router. I've owned about 10 of them myself, and it was my go-to router for home installs.

If you call your provider, they're going to want you to have a computer connected directly to the modem. Make sure you have that ability before you call them. If it takes you 20 minutes to hook it up, the CSA on the other end is going to put you on mute and bullE36 M3 with everyone around him/her instead of caring what you're doing. This is coming from a former escalations agent for Verizon Business DSL.

By the way, those combo devices suck. I was stuck with one when we were on ATT U-Verse, and I still used my own router.

Any recommendations of good routers? I recently upgraded my modem, and would like to eventually upgrade my router.

Depends on what you're looking for.

Netgear are pretty descent and are user friendly, i.e. They are easy to set up and access diagnostics.

Linksys (Cisco) routers are good too, but IMO aren't user friendly. I've had customers set them up and then when their internet stops working, they have no clue how to get into the diagnostics.

Belkin are cheap, but look to be getting more reliable than they one were.

Those are just what I have dealt with at my job, some people may know better stuff.

The cheapest router that can run the full version of DD-WRT.

Derick Freese wrote: Until you have 50+mb/s download speeds from your provider, your router is fully capable of handling those speeds over wireless. This comes from a guy that modifies his routers, both hardware and firmware, and has deployed quite a few large (hotel wifi) networks. My guess is you have a WRT-54G router. I've owned about 10 of them myself, and it was my go-to router for home installs. If you call your provider, they're going to want you to have a computer connected directly to the modem. Make sure you have that ability before you call them. If it takes you 20 minutes to hook it up, the CSA on the other end is going to put you on mute and bullE36 M3 with everyone around him/her instead of caring what you're doing. This is coming from a former escalations agent for Verizon Business DSL. By the way, those combo devices suck. I was stuck with one when we were on ATT U-Verse, and I still used my own router.

Do this to learn the Mb/s?

Derick Freese wrote: The cheapest router that can run the full version of DD-WRT.

These guys sound like they know what they are doing but I'll just mention what recently has helped me somewhat. I downloaded a program called InSSIDer, if you find an older version it is freeware, the newer version is pay I believe. This will show you what channel is being used by people around you and how many people in your area you are sharing your 2.4GHZ or 5GHZ signal with. Using that I found that no matter what channel on 2.4 I would switch to I would have signal loss due to congestion, but no one in my area was using 5 so I bought a 5GHZ capable router and it seems to have helped. I am getting about 50Mbps download through WiFi.

I bought a Linksys EA6500 to use for my Canadian internet and a Linksys E3200 running DD-WRT for my American internet (better Netflix).

Cody_D wrote:

Derick Freese wrote: The cheapest router that can run the full version of DD-WRT.

These guys sound like they know what they are doing but I'll just mention what recently has helped me somewhat. I downloaded a program called InSSIDer, if you find an older version it is freeware, the newer version is pay I believe. This will show you what channel is being used by people around you and how many people in your area you are sharing your 2.4GHZ or 5GHZ signal with. Using that I found that no matter what channel on 2.4 I would switch to I would have signal loss due to congestion, but no one in my area was using 5 so I bought a 5GHZ capable router and it seems to have helped. I am getting about 50Mbps download through WiFi. I bought a Linksys EA6500 to use for my Canadian internet and a Linksys E3200 running DD-WRT for my American internet (better Netflix).

So I down loaded InSSIDer. I live out in the boonies. No overlap. The combo modem router is 802. 11n. Signal at my laptop shows fewer bars than previous. Thinking you guys are right about the combo unit. Also only using the 2.4Ghz signal. Don't know if 5 is available here. Guess I should findout.

I used to love Linksys but their stuff got really crappy in the generations after the WRT-54g. When my router started to get flaky, I followed the recommendation from thewirecutter.com and got the Asus RT-N66u. It is pricey compared to the average home wireless router at around $125. But I went from barely getting reception in the sunroom to full bars. It can easily give me full bandwidth of my cable modem connection (15mbps) over wireless.

I liked it so much I got one for work, too, and the coverage is spectacular.

I'm a convert. No more Linksys for me. Unless they shape up in the future, of course.

I prefer apple time machines personally......I came from belkin/Linksys.

is the linksys N750 decent?

Looks good in terms of specs and price (although it's not the latest 802.11ac wireless that's coming out now), dunno about reliability, and there's no "aftermarket" firmware support yet so you don't have any options if it isn't reliable...linksys gear is usually pretty reliable though.

Any recommendations in that price range?

Buffalo WZR-600DHP:

http://www.amazon.com/BUFFALO-AirStation-HighPower-Wireless-WZR-600DHP/dp/B0096239G0

This one can run DD-WRT & OpenWRT if you have any reliability problems with the stock firmware (in fact it runs a DD-WRT variant out of the box)

In reply to GameboyRMH:

Thanks for the tip I bought it.

http://www.speedtest.net/

Go there to check your speed.