So, it appears that the Cisco Linksys router at the G. homestead is starting a death spiral. Spent a good deal of time last night trying to locate the source of the poor internet connection, going over the various "refresh" procedures with the Comcast rep and going through the stages. No idea if the events are related or not, but the wireless signal strength got *much* worse last night, to the point where the PC in the kitchen was basically rendered off the grid.
Took the laptop into the office on the second floor with the intention of physically plugging it into the cable model (to rule out the router as a source of issues) only to find that the signal strength - and the internet connection - were excellent right in the office. Definitely not the cable connection here - this is a wireless issue. The router is a $50 Linksys I picked up four years ago when we brought home our first laptop, so it's not exactly surprising - it's been sitting in the office for four years, with temperature variations (the office is at the very end of both the heating and cooling systems) and such.
So I'm in the market for a new wireless router. I'm guessing that some signifcant advances have been made in router technology, such that putting the new one in the office (located on the second floor at the opposite end of the house from where we do most of our surfing) shouldn't pose the same logistical problems as it did four years ago (there are dead spots in the house, natch). I'm not looking forward to having to set up a new wireless system (although at least this time it's on a newish computer rather than a five year old relic...) and re-keying all of my wireless devices, but it will be nice to have increased signal strength.
So, the $64,000 question is, what's a good, relatively inexpensive wireless router?
That is all.
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I used to be a Linksys guy before Cisco bought them, but they seem to have suffered since the buy out. Which is weird given that Cisco is, well, Cisco.
I've been happy with my Netgear N router. One of the big things is that I can actually reserve IP addresses on it vs newer Linksys (whose idea was it to get rid of that feature?!).
As for the coverage, I'm afraid it's going to be about the same. You could always get a repeater or two. They wouldn't need a hard network connection.
Another vote for NetGear. I tried a Belkin and ended up returning it two days later since it would never connect right; the NetGear (n150? 300?) has been rock-solid since day 1.
Short answer: another one that says Linksys on the front. Netgear has served me well too. Belkin, well, I'd sooner use smoke signals.
Have you introduced any new electronics into the house or neighborhood that might interfere with the Wifi signal? A sudden drop in signal strength can actually be caused by a sudden increase in radio noise. If that's the cause of your problem, a new router might not solve it. However, radios do go bad after a while so the odds are you need a new one.
Having the router in a part of the house where the temperature isn't perfectly controlled isn't usually a problem. Electronics can handle wider temperature swings than humans without complaining. Most consumer products are rated to operate from 0 to 40C (32 to 104F). Just don't put it in the attic, and you won't have a problem with temperature.
Yet another vote for Netgear, specifically the WNR1000. Ours is on Comcast, too.
Here it supports a Roxio for the Netflix & assorted TV stuff, a few Iphones, two laptops and the desktop.
Have sold of all of the brands to customers & the Cisco/Linksys have been the most consistent & less problematic of all brands. Netgear's work fine, but usually just stop working with no warning & tend to run hot.
Given you got 4 years from from one of the lower quality ones, that's like $12.50 per year. None of them will last as long as as older ones, cheaper components are being used, etc. Regardless of what you get, I'd treat it as an item that will won;t be around for more than a couple of years.
What Dave said. Got a new neighbor? Or maybe one of your existing neighbors got a new wirelessw router and it's on the same channel.
I got a Cisco/Linksys E3000 not long ago - was on sale for $70, though it seems to be much higher than that now. Has great coverage - it's in the basement of a 2-story house, over on one end - and I get strong signal upstairs, on the other end of the house. In fact, I can get good signal from across the street. It has some setup options that let me control when the various devices that connect to it wirelessly can actually connect, which is helpful in controlling when the kids have internet on their devices. It also gives me the ability to set up two levels of access - basic internet, and access to the home network. Says it can do network-attached storage, but haven't played with that. The only drawback is that it seems to run a little warm, and the current pricing - seems to be around $130-170 out there.
Netgear does okay, and won't serve you too badly.
(Me, I've gotten to the point where I say "screw cheap" and use the Apple ones [and AP Extreme and a Time Capsule].
They're not cheap - though the AirPort is pretty much in line with others at their high-end feature point - but by God I've gotten bridging to "just work" with mine, which is something I never, ever got to be reliable with anyone else's hardware.)
I hate to say this, but I think that they're all essentially equivalent. I had a high end Linksys that went Tango Uniform as soon as the warranty expired, and I ran FOB Borepatch happily off of a Belkin.
Shop price.
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks.
I just talked to the Mrs., and she was surprised to hear I had issues - she's been on the computer all afternoon with no problems...
I still think I'm going to investigate a new router, and I'm also going to keep the laptop in the office ready to go...
Will keep the above suggestions in mind though!
This may not be relevant, but I had sporadic and increasingly frequent bouts of low speed from my cable internet service (Roadrunner) up until 4 months ago. Roadrunner's own speed test site showed I was getting anywhere from 9 Mbps (normal) down to 300 kbps (dismal). It seemed to be worse when weather was rainy.
Their support operators tried their magic bullets and then gave up, saying I needed to schedule a home visit from a tech. We assumed it was an issue with my cable drop, since it seemed susceptible to weather.
I wasn't in a position to take a day off from work so I let it drop. (I also have DSL so I could still get my MArooned fix.) On a whim I bought a new cable modem on eBay, hooked it up, and had Roadrunner activate it. Problem solved. The old modem was about 4 years old and apparently its firmware wasn't keeping up with Roadrunner's system upgrades.
Never had either Linksys last an entire year. On the other hand, the cheapest WalMart Belkins generally last me about 4 yrs before they just "up and quit".
My 2¢ worth: Few months back - less than a year, anyway - I replaced an old and worn out Linksys router with a Netgear WNR3500L. Gigabit Ethernet. Four cable ports (did I mention my primary desktop machine is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS connected by a cable?) plus wireless. Works well. Among other features it has a USB port that can make an external hard drive into a network drive, accessible from any machine on the network. Add in my standard security of highest-possible encryption and MAC filtering, and anybody who wants to get onto my network had better have some damn good cracking skills.
Uh first a few things, when was the last time you vacuumed the router? Seriously, every few months my connectivity goes down on my old linksys router and I have to shut it down and use the shop vac on it, then take it apart and vacuum out the inside. Also remove the antennas and with a tooth pick dipped in alcohol clean the antenna contacts on the router and the antenna. Let alcohol dry up and put it all back together then turn it on. My router has been going 8 years now, just have to clean it up every 3-4 months.
D-Link DIR 825 or 855. Low price circa $50. 4 gigabit ports. Wirelss up to 300mbps. Area covered 330+ feet. IPv6 capable. Very secure.
Airport Extreme, hands down the best.
I suggest a Buffalo router. They have many different makes and models. You can read a lot of reviews of these and other brands on newegg.com. I also agree with Mark that keeping the router (and all electronics) clean and free from dust can make a huge difference. Using a compressed air can with brief bursts typically does the trick. Just don't do it for too long or hold the can upside down while doing it. You may also want to unplug the router and make sure it warms up to room temperature before plugging it back in.
If it's just the one laptop that is having issues, you may also want to check the heat with that as well. Some brands are known to have notoriously bad soldering on the circuitry that can impact things like wireless connectivity. You mentioned that there was a difference when you took the laptop into office. It's possible that the act of you getting up caused airflow for the laptop that alleviated a heat problem, or if the laptop was on a surface for an extended time, lifting it up and carrying it may have allowed some heat that had built up to dissipate through the bottom.
Finally, a nice tool to use in monitoring and troubleshooting wireless connectivity is inSSIDer. You can find it with a quick Google search. It's free and easy to use.
I was using the cheap wireless that Qwest provided on their DSL modem/router for years without any problem. Then every neighbor suddenly seemed to have a poorly configured wireless router (I see at least 4 g-band right now) and service went to hell.
I bought a dual band linksys router and only enabled A band on it. I haven't had ANY issues since then, as nobody else seems to thought of this. Then again, cheap laptops only have G band cards. ...
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