Wireless Routers

[XxSephirothxX]

And wireless stuff in general. Okay, here's the deal: I have a Linksys WRT54G and I think it's a total piece of , and I want a new router. I want it to be stable--there are four people in my apartment, and I'm torrenting pretty frequently. I want it to be able to handle plenty of connections. If that can be obtained through custom firmware with a particular router, that's fine. I just want some recommendations on what's the best wireless router out there.

Price range is anything under $100, unless there's something that costs more than that because it's so awesome it can dance a little jig on my desk or something.

I've been looking at the Linksys WRT54GL which seems to be much better than the non-Linux version, but I'm also a bit hesitant to go for one that seems so similar to my own.

On related wireless notes: What could explain my wireless router's speed being crippled last night, when it still works at my full 5mbps wired (and is still smurfed up after powercycling)? And my roommate's laptop picks up full signal from downstairs, but can barely load pages; it also does this very bizarre thing where it makes my computer disconnect every time he signs on the same network. I automatically reconnect, but it's damn weird and I'd like to know why it happens.

[Rostum]

I've found over the last few years of using wireless and going through many routers, that the stability is still way too random sometimes. Especially for torrenting and having more than two connections.

Seriously, if you want to torrent and download large files, just go wired and let the non-hardcore users use wireless. I have a Netgear DG834G at the moment and it is really great for casual Internet users, but I have it wired to my main PC to download a lot of stuff (because it was just too random on torrents).

Who knows, maybe someone has some godly new router that is extremely stable and everything, and I certainly haven't tried any of the N wireless.

[o_O]

Linksys routers are kind of known for dropping when a large number of connections is present. I hacked HyperWRT onto a WRT54GL a while ago and it made things fair bit better. Then I bought a WAG54G (router + modem) and that's been pretty good with the Linksys firmware. I haven't reset it in months, and over that period I've had several torrents with 200+ connections. The wireless signal is decent (makes it from one end of my house to the other without trouble) and the stability is better than it ever was on the Linksys firmware of the WRT54GL.

If a router is dropping due to having too many connections, switching to ethernet or USB won't make a difference. The 'number of connections' refers to the incoming TCP/IP connections the router has to deal with, not the number of wireless clients connected to the router.

Your wireless dropping out was probably caused by some kind of temporary radio interference. Like a phone/microwave/large solenoid that sits near your router. Try doing a factory reset on the router to give the firmware a good kick.
Do you have concrete floors/walls, or lots of wires running between the router and where your roommate can't load pages? There is probably something electrical or very solid killing the data in transit. The strength that the laptop says the signal is isn't always accurate, so don't trust it (or its wireless card). Can you get it to work when it's closer to the router?
When the laptop kicks you off of the network, it's almost certainly due to an IP address conflict, or more specifically that no two computers are allowed to have the same IP address on a network and both computers are trying to lease the same address. What you need to do is set static IPs on each computer, Google will tell you how, very smartly if you need to find out.

[Flying Mullet]

Your wireless dropping out was probably caused by some kind of temporary radio interference. Like a phone/microwave/large solenoid that sits near your router. Try doing a factory reset on the router to give the firmware a good kick.
Do you have concrete floors/walls, or lots of wires running between the router and where your roommate can't load pages? There is probably something electrical or very solid killing the data in transit. The strength that the laptop says the signal is isn't always accurate, so don't trust it (or its wireless card). Can you get it to work when it's closer to the router?

These would be good things to check. Wireless routers run on a 2.4 GHz frequency, which is what most modern wireless items, like cordless phones, run on today. I know that if I take a phone call at the other end of the house from my router that my laptop gets a very weak wireless signal because the cordless phone "overtakes" the 2.4 GHz frequency, but after I hang up the laptop gets a strong signal again.

[Baloki]

Also try changing the channel you output on and see if that helps, finally check you have no leechers stealing your bandwidth or blasting your router with tons of connection requests.

[Flying Mullet]

Also try changing the channel you output on and see if that helps, finally check you have no leechers stealing your bandwidth or blasting your router with tons of connection requests.

If you do have leachers you can password protect your router, and as a last resort, add the MAC addresses of the allowed computers to the router.

[o_O]

With WPA/WPA2/WEP encryption, each packet must be encrypted before transmission and that takes time, so for that reason I use a MAC address whitelist to define who is allowed to access my network. I gain a small "latency" decrease (not strictly latency, but ostensibly is). I also have SSID broadcasting off so that it decreases the chances of somebody detecting my network.
It's not a failsafe system, but it works well enough (I've never had my network hacked or leeched off of ). If someone really wanted to gain access, they'd have to somehow discover the existence of the network, then somehow gain a list of MAC addresses which are allowed access, so that they can spoof their MAC. There is a WEP encrypted wifi network in my area, so I'd just crack that instead if I wanted free internet.

Most wireless Linksys routers have quite a wide band of frequencies they are capable of transmitting on, so you had better use one that is legal in your location, or watch out for the FCC! But seriously, my 2.4GHz cordless phone interfered with the wireless when it was running at 2.447GHz. All it took was a change to 2.462GHz to fix the problem.

[XxSephirothxX]

Linksys routers are kind of known for dropping when a large number of connections is present. I hacked HyperWRT onto a WRT54GL a while ago and it made things fair bit better. Then I bought a WAG54G (router + modem) and that's been pretty good with the Linksys firmware. I haven't reset it in months, and over that period I've had several torrents with 200+ connections. The wireless signal is decent (makes it from one end of my house to the other without trouble) and the stability is better than it ever was on the Linksys firmware of the WRT54GL.

One of my friends had very good experience with a custom firmware in the past, so that's probably what I'll end up doing. Which means I need to make sure that the version I get allows for custom firmware--my version of the WRT54G doesn't. Are there any routers you know of that are more stable out of the box, like a D-Link or a high-end Netgear?

Your wireless dropping out was probably caused by some kind of temporary radio interference. Like a phone/microwave/large solenoid that sits near your router. Try doing a factory reset on the router to give the firmware a good kick.

I do have a ton of sitting on my desk and we all have cell phones, so that sounds like it might be the problem. I'll try fully resetting it today and see if that helps.

Do you have concrete floors/walls, or lots of wires running between the router and where your roommate can't load pages? There is probably something electrical or very solid killing the data in transit. The strength that the laptop says the signal is isn't always accurate, so don't trust it (or its wireless card). Can you get it to work when it's closer to the router?

I believe when he was in my room it did actually work better. I don't think we have concrete floors, but it seems like something must be blocking the transmission. Weird thing is one of my other roommates could access it just fine from downstairs with a far older computer; my roommate who's having the trouble has a Vaio with extremely good wireless range. It can detect networks that are way further away than my own computer can, for instance.

When the laptop kicks you off of the network, it's almost certainly due to an IP address conflict, or more specifically that no two computers are allowed to have the same IP address on a network and both computers are trying to lease the same address. What you need to do is set static IPs on each computer, Google will tell you how, very smartly if you need to find out.

Kind of what I assumed, except it happens no matter what IP I'm automatically set to and never gives me a IP conflict error. I've gotten those before, so I assumed it would happen if that was the problem in this case, but I guess not. I know how to set up a static IP but I'm lazy. Guess I'll try it and see if it stops the problem though.

I actually had it on 2.4662 and changed it to 2.442 last night. Anyway, it's definitely not leechers, because it works perfectly fine wired, just not wireless at the moment. I use WEP anyway, and as tempting as a bit more speed is, I don't think I'm ready to switch to a MAC address based system. I'd barely know what I was doing and my roommates would be even more confused.

[Flying Mullet]

I don't think I'm ready to switch to a MAC address based system. I'd barely know what I was doing and my roommates would be even more confused.

Aww, where's your sense of adventure?

[XxSephirothxX]

The only thing I've experienced to be more annoying than messing with networking settings is working with drivers. I just get pissed when it doesn't work and feel like destroying my computer.

[XxSephirothxX]

lol double post

So I'm looking at the D-Link DGL-4300 Wireless 108G Gaming Router [link][link] even though it's a bit pricey.

Thoughts? Is it really worth the 120 bucks compared to other routers that are cheaper?

Most everything sounds very good, but it doesn't brag about having awesome signal strength or range, which could be important for the downstairs of our apartment.

[Baloki]

Switch to a system of semaphore and dots then?

[Rostum]

I've only ever heard bad things about D-Link. Also, my girlfriend's dad got a D-Link wireless router (even though I highly advised against it) and all he has is troubles with it.

[Fatal Impurity]

ZyXEL aren't bad routers the only problem with them is that they have crap range...