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Jimlad
Jan 8, 2005

Devian666 posted:

For example the 3500L runs fine and is in the $75USD category which is well within your budget.

Does that come in an ADSL modem variety? I'm totally confused since are those all just routers or cable modems or ADSL modems or what? If I just get a router, does that mean I need to get a modem as well?

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fagalicious
Jan 15, 2004

WHAT FAG

Jimlad posted:

Does that come in an ADSL modem variety? I'm totally confused since are those all just routers or cable modems or ADSL modems or what? If I just get a router, does that mean I need to get a modem as well?
you need a separate modem. Those all in one things are pieces of poo poo and crash if you even think of doing more than check your email.

Jimlad
Jan 8, 2005

fagalicious posted:

you need a separate modem. Those all in one things are pieces of poo poo and crash if you even think of doing more than check your email.

Ahah, so uhm... is there anything to look out for from an ADSL modem, or are they all basically the same? I assume I can get one fairly cheap. Is it especially difficult getting a modem to work with a separate router? I have no idea how these things work.

Would it be possible to use my existing modem/router as just a modem - and if I did, would I be any better off?

Jimlad fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Oct 30, 2011

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Jimlad posted:

Ahah, so uhm... is there anything to look out for from an ADSL modem, or are they all basically the same? I assume I can get one fairly cheap. Is it especially difficult getting a modem to work with a separate router? I have no idea how these things work.

Would it be possible to use my existing modem/router as just a modem - and if I did, would I be any better off?

ADSL modems are all pretty similar unless you need ADSL 2+ (which I don't know if that is available to you). You could use something as simple as an ADSL modem with a single wired port out, or you could use your current modem but switch off any unneeded features.

I was in a similar situation to you with a an all in one modem and it would lose connection and have other strange things go on (including lovely speeds). Now it is just a modem passing everything through to my router. I don't get any of the problems I used to get and rarely need to reset them (maybe once every 3 or 4 months).

The main thing I noticed is I could stream without streams crapping out part way through, and torrents would run at full speed.

Jimlad
Jan 8, 2005
Great, thanks guys. I'll go out and get a router and use my existing one as a pure modem. Then hopefully everything will magically work! Fingers crossed...

Jinnigan
Feb 12, 2007

We shall pay him a visit. There will be a picnic. Tea shall be served.
Is there a recommended card I can buy to give my desktop wireless internet?

Manky
Mar 20, 2007


Fun Shoe
Is the Netgear WNDR3400 on Woot right now dd-wrt compatible/worth picking up?

e: Looks like dd-wrt is still a work in progress. Before I spend money, can anyone tell me if it would be possible to change the MAC address on this, specifically so it reports a different manufacturer code?

e2: Sorry for my ignorance, I've only ever used/configured Airports for wireless networking. I guess changing the WAN MAC is a pretty standard feature outside of the Mac bubble? I'm going to get a refurbed Linksys E1000 and get dd-wrt on it. I'm pretty sure that's what I want to do, right?

Manky fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Nov 1, 2011

Shit Fuckasaurus
Oct 14, 2005

i think right angles might be an abomination against nature you guys
Lipstick Apathy
I have a question about general networking that you guys might have an answer to.

On my enterprise network we're having a small problem. DHCP is having troubles getting through one of our Cisco switches. I need documentation of this fact, and it isn't easy to come by. Is there a program I can use that will release and renew my IP lease, say once every 15 minutes? It doesn't have to tell me if the DHCP calls succeeded, I have Wireshark for that, but I need something that will automatically try to renew the IP lease frequently so I can get good documentation on when it is failing.

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

MJP posted:

I'm looking at setting up three rooms with Cat6 drops. Does anyone have a recommendation on good bulk cable? I'm looking at http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10234&cs_id=1023401&p_id=8107&seq=1&format=2 but I didn't know if there was any significant difference between riser and in-wall rated.

In-wall is just boring normal CAT6 generally. Plenum rated is more expensive and is meant to be used in air handling spaces (run through air ducts); it does not give off much in the way of toxic fumes. Riser rated is basically fire-retardant in-wall, it is not certified to be run through ducts but can be run between floors.

Plenum is overkill, but classy.

Also, is there a reason you're using cat6? 10gigE access ports are still like five, ten years off, as is the technology to take advantage of them. Furthermore, cat6 is larger and more delicate/bitchy than cat5e.

For gigabit, assuming correct termination and length limits, there is no difference.

devmd01
Mar 7, 2006

Elektronik
Supersonik

Plastik posted:

I need something that will automatically try to renew the IP lease frequently so I can get good documentation on when it is failing.

:START
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
sleep 900
GOTO START

sleep.exe can be found in the server 2003 resource kit. Adjust the value after sleep to reflect the number of seconds you wish to wait.

Jonny 290 posted:

Also, is there a reason you're using cat6?

My cat6, keystone jacks, and wallplates were all free. :pervert:

Smudgie Buggler
Feb 27, 2005

SET PHASERS TO "GRINDING TEDIUM"
I have two computers running Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate in a homegroup, connected via a 100mbit switch which is in turn connected to an ADSL modem/router from which they share an internet connection. Call the computers One and Two.

I have a problem where transfer speeds from One to Two over the network are terrible (~100kB/s), but transfers from Two to One are fine. I can put files into One's shared libraries from Two no problem, and take files from Two using One. But trying to put anything into any of Two's shares from One, or taking anything from One is murder. Slow as poo poo, and crashes explorer more often than not.

This is not a network hardware problem, and I'm pretty sure it's not a driver problem. I'm expecting it to be a weird settings/permissions things of some kind. Both are running Microsoft Security Essentials, and have Windows Firewall turned off. As far as I can tell, sharing settings are the same on both. What could be causing this?

I'm also having a smaller problem where I can't access a second internal hard-drive on Two from One. It shows up as a share, but says I don't have permission to access it. I can access all of Two's other shares just fine, but it won't let me browse this other drive, and I don't know how to make it.

I hate this loving crap so much. I had an easier time getting poo poo like this to work in Windows 2000. In 2011, in two PCs running near-identical hardware, with the same OS, these things should just goddamn work.

Thanks for any advice.

edit: It was a hardware problem. My P.O.S cheapo switch is dying. I didn't think it could be that at first, because internet speeds are fine, but it's One's uploads it seems to having a hard time with :downs:. Everything works at expected speed over wireless, or if I hard-wire One to the router, bypassing the switch. Thanks anyway :).

Smudgie Buggler fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Nov 2, 2011

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Manky posted:

Is the Netgear WNDR3400 on Woot right now dd-wrt compatible/worth picking up?

e: Looks like dd-wrt is still a work in progress. Before I spend money, can anyone tell me if it would be possible to change the MAC address on this, specifically so it reports a different manufacturer code?

e2: Sorry for my ignorance, I've only ever used/configured Airports for wireless networking. I guess changing the WAN MAC is a pretty standard feature outside of the Mac bubble? I'm going to get a refurbed Linksys E1000 and get dd-wrt on it. I'm pretty sure that's what I want to do, right?

An E1000 running dd-wrt should be fine.

As you've discovered being able to change the MAC address is pretty standard on routers.

Manky
Mar 20, 2007


Fun Shoe

Devian666 posted:

An E1000 running dd-wrt should be fine.

As you've discovered being able to change the MAC address is pretty standard on routers.

Thanks for allaying my concerns. With any luck this means I can stop using my laptop as a wireless router for the rest of the apartment.

abuimak
Sep 7, 2006
Hi I have a weird problem.

My wired network runs fine and I'm getting the download speeds I paid for from my ISP(3MB down). However my wireless network is suffering significant degradation of speed. The signal strength is fine.

I upgraded my router to a Linksys e1200 then to a dual band e2500. Throughout all 3 routers, I've had the same effect on my wireless devices. They all get no more then 1.5mps down with an average of .5mps

I used Inssider to see the 2.4ghz networks and there was a lot of them since I'm doing all of this from my business. Thats why I got the dual-band but my wireless devices don't seem to be able to use 5Ghz :suicide:

My wireless devices include 5 iphones 2 laptops and just 1 wired desktop. The network is secured and I always change the password on the router. I've used the devices at home and their speed is great so I know it the problem isn't them.

What is my next option? It seems like my troubles are out of my hands, something seems to be interfering with my devices and I don't know what!

Here is the requested graph. I am the Heff network


There are also 6 motorola networks that don't appear on this graph for some reason

abuimak fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Nov 2, 2011

devmd01
Mar 7, 2006

Elektronik
Supersonik

abuimak posted:

I used Inssider to see the 2.4ghz networks and there was a lot of them since I'm doing all of this from my business.

Post the spectrum graph.

abuimak
Sep 7, 2006

devmd01 posted:

Post the spectrum graph.

Any thoughts? Could it be my 5 iphone 4s's conflict or something? I changed all their network names as soon as I got them.

Shaocaholica
Oct 29, 2002

Fig. 5E
I hope this is the right thread for this. Here's how my house looks:

WRT54GS on latest tomato
Mac mini on G
Dell laptop on G

The mac mini is basically a torrent workhorse. I can usually get 1.3mb/s down running a bunch of torrents. What bothers me is that when I go to copy a file from the mini to the dell over SMB, the transfer starts at 100kb/s and slowly ramps up to 500kb/s. I can't move the mini into a better reception position but I know it can do 1.3mb/s down and I think 800-900kb/s up. I have the dell laptop right up to the router antennae. I'm also use an antenna relocator for the router with ~15.5" aftermarket antennas.

Should I be happy with 500kb/s or is that really lovely? It makes streaming SD movies a chore sometimes when the variable bitrate jumps.

Bunk Rogers
Mar 14, 2002

Never mind me!

Bunk Rogers fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Nov 2, 2011

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

abuimak posted:

Here is the requested graph. I am the Heff network


There are also 6 motorola networks that don't appear on this graph for some reason

Looking at this you're overlapping two reasonably strong network signals. Probably best to move your channel lower or high to avoid interference from them.

Here's my network which I've set to avoid other networks in the area (or more likely they're trying to avoid mine).

Left Ventricle
Feb 24, 2006

Right aorta
I have the downs when it comes to networking, it seems.

I have two computers and one printer. My box in my room is running Vista, and the living room is on XP and has the printer (HP Deskjet 1000 if it makes a difference). I tried setting up a workgroup or whatever but somehow only succeeded in renaming the living room computer something dumb. It seems like the two can't communicate. I just wanna print stuff without having to either move the printer to my box or email the document to myself then access it in the other room. My router is a D-Link DIR-601, and both boxes are plugged into it. Help please :saddowns:

tadashi
Feb 20, 2006

I need some recommendations for access points that might be able to penetrate the thick as gently caress walls of our board chairman's house. We're helping them add access points across a pretty big house but it sounds like I have to choose between penetration and range. I honestly didn't realize that 802.11N wasn't very good at penetrating thick walls. We are running Cat5 to all of the access points rather than risking that NanoStations wouldn't be able to find each other.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Left Ventricle posted:

I have the downs when it comes to networking, it seems.

I have two computers and one printer. My box in my room is running Vista, and the living room is on XP and has the printer (HP Deskjet 1000 if it makes a difference). I tried setting up a workgroup or whatever but somehow only succeeded in renaming the living room computer something dumb. It seems like the two can't communicate. I just wanna print stuff without having to either move the printer to my box or email the document to myself then access it in the other room. My router is a D-Link DIR-601, and both boxes are plugged into it. Help please :saddowns:

Try setting up a homegroup as described in the following link. Microsoft claim it should be easy to set up to share your printer, hopefully they are correct.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/home-sweet-homegroup-networking-the-easy-way

Jimlad
Jan 8, 2005
My router arrived! I ended up going with an Asus RT-N16 since that one had the bigger numbers in the specs. I flashed Tomato USB on it and everything seems to be working just about.

I have it hooked up to my Netgear DGN1000 modem/router and access to the internet and wifi and all that seem ok. So far I'm just running on "default" settings, so it would be nice if someone could offer some advice on how my setup is supposed to be configured. Am I supposed to disable NAT and DHCP on the modem and have the Asus router handle everything?

I'm under the impression I'm supposed to make my Netgear act as a "pure modem" somehow and have the router do everything else, but I'm not quite sure how I should go about doing that. Anyone have any ideas?

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
I tend to leave DHCP on with my modem in case emergency administration is needed. NAT can go off. Make sure you disable any wireless on the modem as this will only cause problems if left on.

The router will just do the job that the modem used to do. Just make sure all devices connect to the router, and this will take the load off of the modem. The modem itself will just be a gateway for the internet only.

Jimlad
Jan 8, 2005
For some reason when I turn NAT off on my modem, I can no longer connect to anything on the internet. I can access the modem itself though. Shouldn't it just work, or is there some obvious setting I'm missing?

Vaginal Engineer
Jan 23, 2007

Devian666 posted:

spectrum pic

Did you change the name of your neighbour's wireless network? I hope you did, because that rules. Alternatively, it could be your neighbour providing the area with a PSA about router security.

Shaocaholica
Oct 29, 2002

Fig. 5E
Why is nobody on channel 14?

Edit: Oh...

I switched to channel 14 and my laptop still worked making me think it was best thing since no one else was on it but then I checked my other machines and they all can't use it :(

Shaocaholica fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Nov 3, 2011

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Shaocaholica posted:

Why is nobody on channel 14?

:iiam:

Given the quality of network security in the area I doubt anyone is running any other than junk wireless routers.

e: I did a check and it turns out it's illegal to use channel 14 in New Zealand.

Devian666 fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Nov 3, 2011

Shaocaholica
Oct 29, 2002

Fig. 5E
So what exactly happens when a channel gets too crowded?

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Shaocaholica posted:

So what exactly happens when a channel gets too crowded?

When the channels get crowded the channels will tend to jam each other. If I copy large files over wireless I can easily jam 80% of the available wireless spectrum. All this means is that everyone's wireless tends to get significantly slower.

So the poor guy above with his wireless on the same channel with two other wireless networks is getting slowed down by their activity and slowing theirs as well.

Shaocaholica
Oct 29, 2002

Fig. 5E

Devian666 posted:

When the channels get crowded the channels will tend to jam each other. If I copy large files over wireless I can easily jam 80% of the available wireless spectrum. All this means is that everyone's wireless tends to get significantly slower.

So the poor guy above with his wireless on the same channel with two other wireless networks is getting slowed down by their activity and slowing theirs as well.

So inSSIDer graphs the channels as overlapping. Does that mean that if channel 4 and channel 6 are super crowded, channel 5, in the middle, will be affected despite it being pretty open?

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Shaocaholica posted:

So inSSIDer graphs the channels as overlapping. Does that mean that if channel 4 and channel 6 are super crowded, channel 5, in the middle, will be affected despite it being pretty open?

If someone is using N wireless speeds all the channels will be in use at the same time. For the overlap channels 4 to 8 would be cluttered (which is N wireless set to channel 6). Shifting wireless to channels 1 or 11 would avoid the clutter.

Say for your example that people were using single channel wireless and were in between channels 4 and 6 they would get some interference from the adjacent channels. The cause of this is that the channels are very close together in the 2.4 GHz range. This differs for the 5.0 GHz channels. There's a lot more space between each channel, so much that interference is unlikely unless there is an actual channel overlap.

Walked
Apr 14, 2003



I hate my apartment complex. I am AIRPLANESYEAH

Going to pick up a 5ghz router (switched to channel 1 after seeing this graph, and seems to be an improvement).

Sigh.

CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

Jimlad posted:

For some reason when I turn NAT off on my modem, I can no longer connect to anything on the internet. I can access the modem itself though. Shouldn't it just work, or is there some obvious setting I'm missing?

How does your modem connect to the network? Have you duplicated those types of settings in your PC? Why are you turning off NAT are you trying to set this modem up as a bridge?

Jimlad
Jan 8, 2005

CuddleChunks posted:

How does your modem connect to the network? Have you duplicated those types of settings in your PC? Why are you turning off NAT are you trying to set this modem up as a bridge?

My modem is a crappy Netgear modem/router that I want to use only as an ADSL modem. It connects to my nice new Asus router's WAN port, which connects all the other devices on my LAN.

I don't know what duplicate settings I'm supposed to set up on my PC?

I'm turning off NAT on the modem because Devian666 suggested that I should. I know that something might be up with the modem because I have a game that connects fine on my phone's wireless hotspot but won't connect through the modem, so I'm hoping that if I avoid using the modem as much as possible, there's a better chance things will work more reliably.

I only got the router yesterday, but wireless performance on all my connected devices has improved by miles, and I'm not noticing any more issues with needing to reboot the router at random. At this point I want to make sure I have all the settings as they "should" be so that everything just works without me having to worry about it.

Triikan
Feb 23, 2007
Most Loved

Walked posted:



I hate my apartment complex. I am AIRPLANESYEAH

Going to pick up a 5ghz router (switched to channel 1 after seeing this graph, and seems to be an improvement).

Sigh.

Virginia Girl is a giant rear end in a top hat.

Walked
Apr 14, 2003

Triikan posted:

Virginia Girl is a giant rear end in a top hat.

I said the same thing to myself. I have no idea who it is; my apartment complex is ridiculously dense.

I'm just gonna move to the 5ghz band I think. Completely void of signals here.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Jimlad posted:

My modem is a crappy Netgear modem/router that I want to use only as an ADSL modem. It connects to my nice new Asus router's WAN port, which connects all the other devices on my LAN.

I don't know what duplicate settings I'm supposed to set up on my PC?

I'm turning off NAT on the modem because Devian666 suggested that I should. I know that something might be up with the modem because I have a game that connects fine on my phone's wireless hotspot but won't connect through the modem, so I'm hoping that if I avoid using the modem as much as possible, there's a better chance things will work more reliably.

I only got the router yesterday, but wireless performance on all my connected devices has improved by miles, and I'm not noticing any more issues with needing to reboot the router at random. At this point I want to make sure I have all the settings as they "should" be so that everything just works without me having to worry about it.

I was hoping you could avoid having a NAT table on the modem but that's not going to make your network function at all (I am an idiot). I was going to double check my own settings at home last night but I didn't get home until midnight, so that didn't work out. Just leave NAT enabled as all it's going to do is forward everything to your router.

Your experience so far is the same as mine when I first moved to a separate router.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Triikan posted:

Virginia Girl is a giant rear end in a top hat.

I like how my 2.4GHz wireless connection is the same as Virginia Girl. Also, that is what a 300 mbit/s connection looks like.

Moving to 5 GHz will be the best move ever as for the foreseeable future that band will remain mostly empty.

Devian666 fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Nov 3, 2011

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Bob Morales
Aug 18, 2006


Just wear the fucking mask, Bob

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Tom's Hardware put out a pretty decent article about networking that's a pretty good read for new and intermediate people:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/local-area-network-gigabit-ethernet,3035.html

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