Recommend me a new Router

Cron job capabilities, an actual physical power switch - stuff like that.

Also, after a bit of tinkering, I'm using one of the USB ports to power my Raspberry Pi webserver - kind of awesome

w00t w00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LinkSys is bringing the WRT line back from the dead with the new WRT 1900AC. I loved my WRT54G and that thing was rock solid for years and years.

Sure, JUST after I finally get a new router Linksys/Cisco brings it. Of course I haven't been happy with Linksys products for a long time (since the Cisco acquisition ironically), so I'd be giving this one a wait-and-see anyway.

Belkin owns the Linksys brand now so it isn't Cisco anymore. According to the Ars article on it:

Ars wrote:

Linksys is also providing early hardware along with SDKs and APIs to the developers of the third-party OpenWRT firmware, with plans to have custom open source firmware available for download when the router becomes commercially available. The Linux-based firmware supports dozens of routers, including the WRT54G and its successors.

From Belkin? Wow, I'm used to thinking of them as the Sidam of electronics -- everything they touch turns to sh*t.

Malor wrote:

From Belkin? Wow, I'm used to thinking of them as the Sidam of electronics -- everything they touch turns to sh*t.

I'm actually very happy with my Belkin N750. It is lacking a few features that I would like but it does a great job with what I need.

I was recently setting up a Network for a relative who bought the cheapo wireless N Belkin at staples (around $30). Wirless N would slow to a crawl after a few hours. The solution on a huge thread on their forums was to turn off wireless N, and leave it on G, because its a firmware issue. Also the thing got stuck in a firmware upgrade loop. This is the latest in a series of problems I have run into on Belkin crap. Yeah, I'll be staying away from everything they make with the exception of the WRT line (maybe) due to open source firmware.

Malor wrote:

Do you have any pointers to info on how the DVR function works? If you've got Ethernet available, I'm thinking maybe you could use the new router as your external connection, and forward one or more TCP ports to the Actiontec, but that really depends on how it talks to Verizon. If it's a layer 2 thing (underneath TCP/IP), where it's talking directly on the fiber to the central office, then that won't work.

I assume, to connect to your DVR, you talk with some Verizon server? You don't just connect directly to your house or something? It seems like they'd almost have to offer some kind of lookup service, but if you're lucky, it'll all run over TCP, which would let you put another router in between. If it's a wire protocol, then the Actiontec would have to be connected to the outside.

Another thought: if you have Ethernet, you might be able to pay Verizon a few extra bucks to have both ports live at the same time. One is just purely the Actiontec, and that's how you do your DVR -- it just keeps working the way it always does. And then the other router has a separate IP. This would mean that streaming from the Actiontec would probably always be 'remote viewing', going through the Verizon forwarding service, but depending on how you use it, that might be all right.

In that version, you could also run two separate wireless networks, one for video and one for normal use, and then just switch back and forth if you wanted to stream to your laptop(s).

edit to add: You might also be able to get tricky, and have them BOTH think they're routing for the same network, but you simply configure your local clients to talk to the Internet through the new router. In other words, they'd each have different external IPs, but they'd both connect to your internal network, say 192.168.0.X. The new router would be on .1, and the Actiontec would be on .2. You'd set your default route to be .1, so all your Internet traffic would go out the new router, but any internal functions you're using now should still work, just the same as they already do.

But all that's dependent on whether or not you have Ethernet. If the connection comes in on coax or something else nonstandard, you'll have to have the Actiontec as your external router.

edit to add: and it also depends on whether Verizon is willing to light up both port types at once.

Verizon makes it challenging..but not impossible to remove their POS Actiontec Router from the equation. The biggest issue is that all the Verizon set top boxes use MOCA to communicate to the Actiontec and thus back to the FIOS NOC. Over MOCA you get all your Guide info and On Demand/DVR functionality. If your boxes go dark..then you lose all that and can only decode channels.. (less of an issue if you have an Xbox One since that has its own guide..yay! MS... but still no on demand which my wife loves..sigh). I pondered following the below guide which describes how to circumvent the Actiontec..but in the end it honestly didnt seem worth it.. I live with the crappy routing..and bought an AMP Wireless AP for wifi.

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/15990

Part 2,3,4 have the relevant info

People using ASUS routers with non-custom firmware should read this article.

Rykin wrote:

People using ASUS routers with non-custom firmware should read this article.

Does the Merlin firmware address this?

Well, that's a bummer. I'm not using that feature and don't have a hard drive connected. I'll definitely still upgrade the firmware now, though.

Edit: I upgraded. It had to update once which wiped all of my settings. After that, I checked again for an update and it found a new one. For whatever reason, it had to update to an intermediate firmware. Anyways, be aware of that if you're using the default firmware. Glad I did not use the router features for backup.

Thanks for the heads up - what a mess. Updated mine as well tonight, it took an intermediate version in between, but I didn't have to wipe settings.

trueheart78 wrote:
Rykin wrote:

People using ASUS routers with non-custom firmware should read this article.

Does the Merlin firmware address this?

Sounds like it is only an issue with the default firmware but you may want to look into it on Merlin's support forums if there are any.

Rykin wrote:

People using ASUS routers with non-custom firmware should read this article.

I have an RT-AC66U, and went to update the firmware after reading this. Once done, I can't connect to the router any more! I thought the firmware update broke (I updated over wifi from my phone), and tried using ASUS's utilities to roll back. When that didn't work, I picked up a new unit, and still can't connect! I can get it to connect for a few seconds, not even long enough to complete the new router setup. I'm wired from my laptop to the router's LAN port as directed in the manual, and tried to ping the router ('ping 192.168.1.1 /t') during the process. After restarting the router, it gives a slew of "destination host unreachable" or "connection timed out" errors before connecting for the transmission of 10-15 packets, then going back to the host unreachable/timed out errors. Any ideas? I'm pulling my hair out here! I will add, I've tried a few different network cables, including the one that came brand new with the router.

Try setting your laptop manually to 192.168.1.50; if it's set to DHCP, it may not be getting an address from the router. Don't forget to set it back to DHCP once you're finished.

All else fails, factory reset.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I had tried a factory reset on the old router with no success, I'll try the new one today.

So last year I bought a Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router.

Within the past month or so I've been having problems with it disconnecting my phones at fairly frequent random intervals. I'll be looking at things on the internet when suddenly I'm on 3G. Usually I can just turn the wifi on and off on the phone and it reconnects but sometimes I have to do this every 15 minutes or so.

Any recommendations on what I can do to diagnose this problem?

Norfair wrote:

Any recommendations on what I can do to diagnose this problem?

Gooble-gobble. Ahem.

Norfair wrote:

So last year I bought a Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router.

Within the past month or so I've been having problems with it disconnecting my phones at fairly frequent random intervals. I'll be looking at things on the internet when suddenly I'm on 3G. Usually I can just turn the wifi on and off on the phone and it reconnects but sometimes I have to do this every 15 minutes or so.

Any recommendations on what I can do to diagnose this problem?

I have the same router, but I can't say I've ever had this problem. Do you use the default firmware? If so, you might consider switching to Tomato or DD-WRT and see if that fixes things. (I prefer Tomato myself, but YMMV.)

It could also be due to interference from other devices owned by you or your neighbors. Phones don't have the greatest wifi antennas, and it's easier to interfere with them than most laptops or other wifi devices.

How clear is the channel spectrum around the one your router uses? Perhaps switching channels would help.

My wife had that problem, and it was not the router but the phone dying on her.

MyBrainHz wrote:
Norfair wrote:

So last year I bought a Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router.

Within the past month or so I've been having problems with it disconnecting my phones at fairly frequent random intervals. I'll be looking at things on the internet when suddenly I'm on 3G. Usually I can just turn the wifi on and off on the phone and it reconnects but sometimes I have to do this every 15 minutes or so.

Any recommendations on what I can do to diagnose this problem?

I have the same router, but I can't say I've ever had this problem. Do you use the default firmware? If so, you might consider switching to Tomato or DD-WRT and see if that fixes things. (I prefer Tomato myself, but YMMV.)

Does this router support Ethernet over USB?

My router is dying, the wireless constantly drops out ad the router needs rebooting several times a day. At the moment the only way to get any stability out of it for any length of time is to chuck it in the freezer for 5 minutes.

It is a D-link DSL-2730B.

I need a solid wireless router for 2 computers and 2 android phones and reccommendations from the GWJ brains trust would be greatly appreciated.

Awesome, Thanks Malor.

Well, if you want something strong that won't break the bank, the ASUS RT-N56U is a good choice, at about $80 US. (not sure how that translates to OzBucks.) It's N wireless only, but of the N-class routers, it's probably the single strongest.... it has amazingly good wired routing performance (800ish megabits either up or down, and about 1.2 gigabits combined), and it will keep an N network pretty thoroughly saturated. It's also a really solid NAS server, if you plug in a USB3 drive.

If you're looking for something in the newer AC class, the Netgear R7000 is about the fastest unit you can buy, at ~$185 or so. It's also a very strong NAS unit, at ~35 megs/sec write, ~60megs/sec read.

The ASUS RT68U is an R7000 competitor with similar wired and wireless routing performance, and similar price, but its NAS performance is about half the R7000's, apparently due to a design flaw that really messes up its USB3 port. The older RT-N56U is actually a stronger NAS server than the newer 68, nearly as good as the R7000.

So I'd probably do one of those, if I were buying one now.... the 56 if I wanted a really strong N-class router, or an R7000 if I wanted to get AC wireless going.

edit: fixed an annoying punctuation typo.

As this is the router thread - a few episode back, someone on the Conference Call podcast had mentioned getting some new router - a brand of which I can't recall - and everyone else was talking about how good that router was (allegedly) for gaming and the like.

As someone who works in IT, does video game streaming, and occasionally hosts servers for games for my friends - I'd like to get a better router (especially since I'm still running a device that only supports 802.11 g, I think).

Anyone happen to know what the brand was that the guys discussed?

wolfstar76 wrote:

As this is the router thread - a few episode back, someone on the Conference Call podcast had mentioned getting some new router - a brand of which I can't recall - and everyone else was talking about how good that router was (allegedly) for gaming and the like.

As someone who works in IT, does video game streaming, and occasionally hosts servers for games for my friends - I'd like to get a better router (especially since I'm still running a device that only supports 802.11 g, I think).

Anyone happen to know what the brand was that the guys discussed?

No but I would guess ASUS or a NetGear Nighthawk.

Anyone have any experience with Medialink equipment? I have never heard of them but just ordered it because a relative of mine needs something cheap and reliable. It has the best reviews out of the cheap routers I could find. The Belkin that they bought a few months ago is complete crap.

Rykin wrote:
wolfstar76 wrote:

As this is the router thread - a few episode back, someone on the Conference Call podcast had mentioned getting some new router - a brand of which I can't recall - and everyone else was talking about how good that router was (allegedly) for gaming and the like.

As someone who works in IT, does video game streaming, and occasionally hosts servers for games for my friends - I'd like to get a better router (especially since I'm still running a device that only supports 802.11 g, I think).

Anyone happen to know what the brand was that the guys discussed?

No but I would guess ASUS or a NetGear Nighthawk.

Yep! He was talking about one of those models. I've had the Nighthawk on my Amazon wishlist for ages and just haven't been able to pull the trigger. The Asus RT-AC68R actually seems to test faster in most benchmarks, but it's even more expensive and the difference so marginal I can't see it ever having any effect on me.