wireless router help

[Stickjiggler]

Our netgear n600 wireless router is not cutting it any more. Any advice on a new one. We have 4 tablets on the net at the same time once in awhile. When I am at the opposite end of the house, I have a tough time getting signal. The router is in the basement but up high on a shelf near the floor trusses. Used to work good when I first got it 2 years ago. Not so much lately.

[delcecchi]

When you say it used to work good and not now, are you talking about bandwidth or coverage? Bandwidth could be due to the modem/isp/incoming line. Coverage is probably the router.

[Whoaru99]

  Stickjiggler said:

Our netgear n600 wireless router is not cutting it any more. Any advice on a new one. We have 4 tablets on the net at the same time once in awhile. When I am at the opposite end of the house, I have a tough time getting signal. The router is in the basement but up high on a shelf near the floor trusses. Used to work good when I first got it 2 years ago. Not so much lately.

Play with the orientation or move it if signal strength is weak.

[jmd1]

so here is what i found out about my router. I had it for about 5-6 years, running laptops, iPads, and i mac. along with Xbox and whatever else was connected. Talking with an IT guy at a very large company where my wife works, he suggested that the router was taking a dump. Reason for it, was the firmware upgrades that are done by the router, the junk that it has in it over time, just makes it slow and come to a stop. I put in a motorola surfboard as that was the only one at the time supported by my provider. I bought it at a big box and installed then called the ip host and had them put in place of the old one. It was night and day compared to what we were using. The only thing that stinks is that you have to go to each device and change the encryption so it will connect. If and when i have to change it again, i will go the fastest and largest available for my service. Good luck, i hate dealing with it issues.

[jmd1]

The other thing you could do would be get a range extender and move that part to the up stairs. It is a wireless device that just increases the distance.

[Stickjiggler]

Thanks everybody. I will try to move it a little bit to see if that helps.

[fishingstar]

We had the same router it craped out after 4 years. I don't think it could handle the increasing demand of more tablets and the laptops.

[delcecchi]

  jmd1 said:

so here is what i found out about my router. I had it for about 5-6 years, running laptops, iPads, and i mac. along with Xbox and whatever else was connected. Talking with an IT guy at a very large company where my wife works, he suggested that the router was taking a dump. Reason for it, was the firmware upgrades that are done by the router, the junk that it has in it over time, just makes it slow and come to a stop. I put in a motorola surfboard as that was the only one at the time supported by my provider. I bought it at a big box and installed then called the ip host and had them put in place of the old one. It was night and day compared to what we were using. The only thing that stinks is that you have to go to each device and change the encryption so it will connect. If and when i have to change it again, i will go the fastest and largest available for my service. Good luck, i hate dealing with it issues.

You can also change the encryption key in the router to be what the old one in all the devices is.

[Stickjiggler]

Fishingstar what router did you end up with. I dont know much about them and I am looking for advice on what to buy

[jmd1]

I totally agree with Del about changing or setting up the code when you put the new router in. I just felt when i replaced mine that it might be better to go with the 26 key just for tighter control. I also put a password on my router rather than the standard one that comes with the machine. good luck.

[upnorth]

  Stickjiggler said:

Fishingstar what router did you end up with. I dont know much about them and I am looking for advice on what to buy

Big thing to do is think about what you would like to do with it. 1 -3, devices and short ranges behind a wireless router and up to a medium speed internet connection most anything will handle it OK. You get past that and you need to think of a higher end model. B/G is probably good for up to 54 megabits per second(that is not mega Bytes) Most things a person is going to will work fine with that speed in fact it will most likely outperform all but the very fastest home internet connections. The drawback is that is you internal network speed too. Wireless N is much faster running up to about 300 mbs and there are very few internet connection short of high end business connections running that fast. N would be a better choice if you are doing a lot of large internal data transfers or if you have longer ranges you need to be concerned with. Most wireless routers should make it about 40 feet depending on the wall structure. Heck my neighbor across the street can get my signal on a standard B/G wireless router.

Brands, same as the Ford/Chevy/Dodge thing. I somewhat prefer linksys as they are owned and by Cisco and for the most part Cisco is company that stays leading edge, that is the business end, but hard to think they would pee all over their reputation on the home end too.

[aanderud]

  Stickjiggler said:

Fishingstar what router did you end up with. I dont know much about them and I am looking for advice on what to buy

[delcecchi]

And many of the wired ethernet connections are 100 Mb/second, although gigabit is coming on.

[upnorth]

And network backbones of 10 gig is common 100 gig available.

[delcecchi]

  upnorth said:

And network backbones of 10 gig is common 100 gig available.

Yep, but not in my house. And not on copper.

Besides those single mode fibers are sort of hard to work with for the homeowner.

[upnorth]

They now have 10 Gig copper. And I think they are working on 100 Gig copper. Stuff is moving forward pretty fast. But I will say fiber is still standard for network backbone.

[Stickjiggler]

Thanks all. I got a signal booster and it works awesome, so far

[fishingstar]

we bought a ASUS RT-N66U. we have had it for almost a year know and has been work good so far.

[Whoaru99]

  delcecchi said:

And many of the wired ethernet connections are 100 Mb/second, although gigabit is coming on.

Gigabit is pretty common these days.

While the ISP isnt delivering this sort of speed to me, the last three cable modems I've had were 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN side connection. My router and switch are all 100/1000 compatible as are my wired computer NICs. A couple things I have, such as a Marantz HT pre/pro are only 100 Mbps interfaces but it's plenty for what it's for.