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looking to buy a nwe wireless router 1

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Dre313

Dre313

Technical User
Jun 4, 2003
219
US
Hi,

I'm looking for help on buying a new wireless home router.. basically I just want some feedback on which router you guys think are hot now and how far will they travel... looking to spend in the range of 1-2 hundred give or take.

THanks looking forward to the response...
 
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kewl nice info.. how far are you able to get it to reach?
 
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In my three story home + basement the WRT54G is located in the basement. The farthest connection I make is to the third floor on the other end of the house from the router to a linksys WUSB11 adapter. The signal strength shows 'Very Good.'

 
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bcastner:
Which of the two rubbed duck antennas at rangeextender.com fit the WRT54G? The SMA, RPSMA, or RPTNC connector?

I have to find a way to strengthen the signal of my WRT54G router. I tried to play UT with my niece today... I was less than two rooms away and my laptop kept disconnecting from the network (the signal was reported by the WPC55AG as "Weak").

Your post here sounds encouraging, and I'd like to but one of those antennas, but I'm not sure which connector the router uses.

Ed
 
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I should note that Radio Shack carries the things. $29.95 for a two-pack. They started carrying the antennas a couple of months ago.

 
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Radio Shack? Now that's a pleasant surprise. I'll check it out, thanks (again) :)

Hmm, wait, you said "two-pack"... you mean the Pacifc Wireless antennas are $22.95 *each*? Another reason to check Radio Shack first then...
 
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P.S. Although I love the Linksys router and PC card I bought, I'm really disappointed by the actual range of the signal (much less than advertised... I don't know if I'm an isolated case...). I do hope this helps to remedy the situation... :-(

Edwin
 
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Edwin,

I have found moving the router even a short distince horizontally or verticly makes a big difference.

I usually load NetStumbler on a laptop and walk around taking readings throught the site.

I then fiddle the the physical location of the router and observe changes.

http:\\

The antennas did help, and my link above to the Michael Erskine trick should be researched by your.

I, hacker at heart, would be remiss if I did not mention was is usually called the "ping hack."

The output power of your WRT54G can be adjusted from its default setting of 16, to a value as high as 84.

See:
And for all the possible uses, including implementing the ping hack again when Linksys removes it from the firmware:
Do a keyword search on "wrt54g"
 
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Something tells me I'll be playing with the router all day today :)

Since you mention the firmware, the documentation says one should only update it if one experiences issues that the new version resolves. Now, I'm the kind of person that likes to have all the latest drivers and patches installed for all my hardware... I feel as if I haven't bathed in a week if I don't do that. Is it OK to keep the tradition with the router as well?

Thanks again...

Edwin
 
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Drat, forget about the firmware thing... I forgot you answered that already way up there. :p
 
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Edwin,

For wireless routers/AP moving them around to find the right location is pretty normal stuff. Since in the main you are going to be taking advantage of multipath (the signal is bouncing around, the the antenna is hearing the same thing from all sorts of directions and timings) the notion of fiddling with the physical location of the router makes sense.

Office settings are usually easier than residential sites. But a first step is to use NetStumbler on a laptop so that you have some sort of measurements to compare any changes you make.

Second step is to physicly move the router/AP around. I have one site that if I move the WRT54G one inch to the left horizontally, and 1.5 inches verticly, my longest shot goes for "poor" to very good. Go figure. I took a small wooden block, attached velcro tabs, and "locked" the router into position 8 months ago and have not had a poor connection report from that site since.

Which leads to a discussion of antennas. You should bump the base 2.2 dbi antenna to the 5.5 antenna in poor situations. This does help. Anything fancier suggests to me the need to add a second AP.

As a next step I make certain my firmware: both router and AP are up to date. If you want to ping hack the WRT54G, (I do, but that is just me) follow every discussion on a Forum that people actively share information on firmware releases. You want to be one-version behind this crazy hackers. The BroadBand Reports Linksys Forum is a must site, as is reading their Linksys FAQ: Do a site search on "wrt54g"

The Michael Erskine trick I mention above does work. I recommend it as the next step.

Finally there are setting where you cannot move the DSL or cable interface to the modem very far, and running long lengths of CAT-5 to make a connection to the router are ugly or impossible.

Use powerline adapters. Leave the cable modem/DSL modem where you must, and use powerline bridge adapters. The notion of powerline causes shudders in the hearts of old-time networking guys. Throw out your old prejudices. The newer powerline standards just flat out work great. You can with no fiddling make a powerline adapter connction between the modem and your router/AP so as to put that router/AP in the best possible location. I have used tons of these from Netgear and Siemans and swear by them. See a very experienced network hands view of the newer powerline adapters in such uses:

A week ago I used to powerline adapters to resolve an WRT54G issue exactly like you describe: cable broadband access, the only place the cable could come in was in the attic. WRT54G, poor reception in spots, generally weak signal. I powerlined to the WRT54G which I moved to the top of a china cabinet on the first floor. You cannot see the thing, but signal strength now excellent at every point where a user could likely roam.

Cost: 89.99 for 2 powerline adapters.
 
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The SteattleWireless and Broadband Report links are great :) I downloaded a hacked firmware from a Broadband Report poster, WiFi ( ). He has hacks for both the 2.0.08 and 1.4.23 firmware, but I'll follow your advice and use 1.4.23 and wait a bit until I'm sure there are no major bugs in the new one.

I'll go this afternoon to Radio Shack and see if they have the antennas. Regardless if I find them there or not, I'll start moving the router around and monitoring the signal with Netstumbler. Michael Erskine's parabolic antenna template is extremely cool, I just *have to* make a pair of those sleek-looking black reflectors... :)

Powerline adapters are worth a look... I'll check them out...

This is going to be a fun weekend :) I'll post my results later...
 
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If you're using the "WiFi" user's hack, don't forget to telnet into your router, which is running what I assume is an embedded linux system (it uses busybox, and what I'd consider a standard unix shell, as well as ifconfig and a few other programs I recognize). PuTTY is a great, free telnet client.


I'm definitely enjoying the 'hacking' aspect of all this.


Pete
 
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foolio12:

I have read some people at Broadbandreports.com talking about "Telnetting" to the router. Forgive my ignorance, but what are the advantages of doing that? To be able to tweak the router even further?

BTW, I purchased 5.5dBi antenna set at Radio Shack and noticed a moderate increase in signal, but not enough to avoid being cut off in middle be useful. Once I upgraded the firmware to WiFi Box's hacked version 1.4.23, I applied the ping hack (whith some help from WiFi Box), and the change was more dramatic. Tomorrow I'll play with Michael Erskine's parabolic antenna template and see if I can make that router really fly.

I really hope there are no typos here... too sleepy to spellcheck....
 
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The advantage is that you can play around. Like, for example, you can do the ping hack from the command-line itself.


My current obsession is figuring out how it uses ifconfig and udhcpc, and browsing all the admin *.asp scripts.

Basically, for fun only.


Pete
 
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foolio12:

I have read some people at Broadbandreports.com talking about "Telnetting" to the router. Forgive my ignorance, but what are the advantages of doing that? To be able to tweak the router even further?

BTW, I purchased 5.5dBi antenna set at Radio Shack and noticed a moderate increase in signal. Once I upgraded the firmware to WiFi Box's hacked version 1.4.23, I applied the ping hack (whith some help from WiFi Box), and the change was more dramatic. Tomorrow I'll play with Michael Erskine's parabolic antenna template and see if I can make that router really fly.

Ed
 
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