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Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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JumboJetDreams posted:

I'm forced to use wireless for the next 6 months from the next house over. My wife and I are living in her grandparents guest house which has no cable line, so we get our internet from their house (I'm paying for it). Right now I have a monoprice n router set up at their house with a poorly crafted windsurfer pointing out the window to the closest window of the guest house where I have a WRTGS v3 runnind DDWRT in bridge mode.

General internet usage is fine, but I get random lag spikes in games from what I assume is packet loss. What is the cheapest way for me fix the spikes without just running conduit with ethernet over here (not happening)?

If it's just connection strength you could get or make a better directional antenna. There's dozens of youtube videos on making your own with a can, a colander and a pigtail or some thick paper and aluminum foil for improving an existing antenna. If it's the routers themselves, then you may need better routers. I'd try antennas first and see if that helps, since it's cheaper than purchasing a new router, and if it is related to signal strength, then a new router wouldn't help much to begin with.

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Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Boxman posted:

This isn't really a home networking question per se, but hopefully it's close enough.

I have latency problems. I live in a ~70 unit apartment building (the network is courtesy of the landlord) and always blamed it on internal network congestion. But I'm here in the middle of the day and things are still lovely. I ran a trace route to Google, and lo and behold:



Brown Dog Networking is the network/ISP for the building. Would it be completely unreasonable to ask them to get their poo poo in order so that I can get a decent ping? Am I reading the trace route wrong? It looks like things get lovely as soon as they have to deal with their machines.

It's between the router at hop 2 and brown dog networks router at hop 3. So, it may not be on their end exactly, it could be the external interface on the router at hop 2, or the incoming interface on the router at hop 3, or the physical lines in between. You should try to find out which NAT router is hop 2, it's using the 10.x private network range while the router at hop 1 (I'm assuming this is yours) is using 192.168.x. It may be that there's not enough bandwidth for the whole building for the connection between routers 2 and 3, which would support what your landlord is saying, but if that's the case then it might be time to get more bandwidth.

To sum up, there's not enough information to definitively say that it is their fault, but there is enough evidence to show where the problem is.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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frogbs posted:

I'm switching from DSL (Fairpoint) to Comcast, as Fairpoint is giving me about 2Mbs right now for the same price that 20Mb/s would be from comcast. I think i've settled on buying a modem vs renting, the question now is which one!? From what i've read the Motorola SB6120 seems like a safe bet. Anyone out there in New Hampshire that has had any luck with it and Comcast? Is there another model I should be looking at?

I'm not in your state but I use that modem with comcast and it has fixed or lessened a lot of the signal issues I was having previously with comcast provided modems manufactured by other companies. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Tapedump posted:

Do I really need a punch down tool if I'm only installing a small handful of keystone jacks? $20-odd bucks isn't bad for a cheap, decent one, but I'd like to think there's something else that will do the job (other than a disposable tool).

Leviton used to include these plastic ones with their punchdown blocks but I guess they've decided it's more profit to sell them separately:
http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-40865-Plastic-Punch-Down/dp/B003O84R7C/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hi_26

I've been using the one on my Paladin Tools datacomm multitool, but that's a bit of an investment if you don't also need a new multitool.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Grimes posted:

Can the OP please state that the Netgear 3700/37AV isn't compatible with DD-WRT? I just bought it and found this out and I'm really disappointed. :smith:

Are you sure? It's listed on the DD-WRT supported devices list, at least v1 and v2 are:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Netgear

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Gyshall posted:

I just moved into a new apartment which has FIOS. I'm pretty happy with it, coming from Comcast. The only major gripe I have is that I have to use the poo poo Actiontech router Verizon gives you. I've had to reboot the thing more than once, if I'm torrenting/useneting/streaming media and try to do other crap like VPN/SSH into my work computer - the thing just takes a crap.

My parents gave me an old Motorola NIM100 unit a while back that I have been holding onto for a while - at their old house, I used it to bypass the Actiontech router on their FIOS connection. They had an ONT box that had CAT5 run straight to the router, which was nice, because I could use any router I wanted (DD-WRT, etc.)

I'd love to be able to do the same thing at my apartment. The problem being that I don't have direct access to the ONT box in the building. My current setup looks like:

code:
                        Coaxial => DVR boxes
Coaxial => Splitter => 
                        Coaxial => Actiontech => Cat5 to PS3/switches/computers/etc.
Is it possible to utilize the NIM100 to ditch the Actiontech in favor of a Linksys running DD-WRT? Or am I screwed?

I haven't worked with those specific routers, but you could always set up the NIM100 as a DMZ host on the actiontech, so that it passes all incoming data to it, and then use the NIM100 as your router. That would be giving your connection double NAT routing, which is technically fraught with double the possible failures, but I've done it to use VPN routers before on FIOS. It's not without a couple of issues. The main one is to make sure the internal addressing on the actiontech is different than on the NIM100. So set up one as 192.168.x.1 and the other as 10.x.x.1 or somesuch (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network). Configure a DMZ host on the actiontech to be like, 10.1.1.5 (where the actiontech is 10.1.1.1) and then on the nim100, make its wan IP static as 10.1.1.5 with 10.1.1.1 as the gateway, then make the internal network on the nim100 all 192.168.1.x.

Yeah, it's an ugly workaround. Maybe someone with more experience with FIOS combo modem/routers has a better solution.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Arrath posted:

Welp, I'm having a case of network magic and I don't know what the gently caress.

I have a desktop running Win7 SP1 and an old computer running FreeNAS. After coming back home from being out of town and powering everything back up, my desktop can no longer access the NAS through 'normal' means.

By normal I mean the shortcut I added that goes right to the root share, which pops up an error window saying the specified network name is no longer available. Or by typing the network address right into an explorer window, which gives out a Network Error with an oh so helpful "Unspecified Error" Trying to diagnose the issue with the troubleshooter gives me nothing, of course.

Now, the weird thing is that if I go to the network devices window and let it populate, the NAS will pop up. I can access it just fine. If I type the device name into an explorer window, it'll also work.

So

\\192.168.1.103\data Doesn't work
\\FREENAS\data Does work

The NAS is still the same old IP address. The NAS comes right up on all other computers and devices in the house via the usual shortcut, only my desktop is having trouble.

The hell is going on here?
Maybe the DHCP server gave your FreeNAS box a new IP address? If it's set statically then I don't know. You can hook a monitor up to the FreeNAS box to see what IP it's running on, and also to configure the network card if you need to.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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MMD3 posted:

so... I configured my network like this, I turned on the Wireless G router first and hardwired into it with my laptop to disable the wireless radio and WEP (assuming it's safe to disable wireless security if the wireless radio is turned off?)

Then I plugged my Wireless-N router in upstairs and turned it on. I'm on the internet on my PC fine connected through the Wireless-N router so I must've done something right... At first when I went to 192.168.1.1 it gave me a message that my computer was managing the connection or something along those lines. Then a few minutes later I tried connecting again and it gave me my Wireless-N router, the first thing I did was disable DHCP and restart the router. After it started back up I'm able to connect to the web again but when I try to go to 192.168.1.1 now it connects me to the Wireless-G router. Is this correct? If so how do I connect to my Wireless-N router if I want to change anything?

I checked under attached devices on the Wireless-G and I see my PC listed as 192.168.1.102, it has my iphone which is connected through the Wireless-N router, and then it has two unnamed devices on 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 but I can't connect to either of those through the browser.

Am I doing this right? I have the radio disabled on the Wireless G and DHCP disabled on the Wireless N, what else do I need to configure?
You should probably tell the Wireless G router to change its LAN IP address to 192.168.1.2 or something instead of conflicting 192.168.1.1 with the other router.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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MMD3 posted:

So now i can't connect again (posting from my phone). I changed the starting ip range to 192.168.1.3 and them change the router IP to 192.168.1.2 and that took, them I lost connection. Now I can connect to N consistently at 192.168.1.1 and G intermittently at 192.168.1.2 and I can't get online.

I think I see the issue. Your wireless G router is connected directly to your modem, making it the gateway for the local network. It should remain configured as 192.168.1.1, and should probably also host the DHCP server. The wireless N router which is essentially acting as a Wireless Access Point needs wireless on, DHCP off, and should be configured as 192.168.1.2 or some other low IP number that doesn't conflict with .1.

When the DHCP on your G router gives out addresses it will tell the PCs on your network to use 192.168.1.1 as their gateway (where to send traffic that's off the network through). Sorry for the mix up, I didn't realize which router was which from your initial post until I re-read it.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Hiyoshi posted:

I learned something too. I thought a Gateway IP address of 192.168.1.2 would work just as well as 192.168.1.1. Glad it's working! Let us know what the speeds are like on your PC.

Technically it would, although it's common to put the gateway router on .1 on a /24 subnet, it's not required. The main issue would be running the DHCP server on the N router means that it would've had to been configured to have the other router as a gateway, and some (cheap) routers lack the ability to tell clients to use anyone but themselves as a gateway. If you were using DD-WRT or a firmware that had the capability (and it's probable that the internal one did have it), the DHCP server could tell clients to use any gateway. However, some consumer level routers have limited firmware options and their DHCP server will usually only give out their own address as the gateway.

It's an uncommon problem, but just to get MMD3 going right away instead of looking up manuals for his routers, I figured just using the G router as the gateway and DHCP server would be the simplest solution. This relegates the N router to being a glorified WAP, but that seems to be the goal of his setup anyway, so I think that should work. I have a similar setup at home, but with a m0n0wall PC as the primary router and a little Asus WL520GU for wireless access. It's not great but the wireless is hardly used at all but both routers seem to be rock solid for what they do.

Rexxed fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Apr 7, 2012

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Inspector_71 posted:

It seems like most dedicated WAPs are still more expensive than a router anyway.

Yeah, I had a client who needed wifi in a basement office lately, so I just had them get a WRT54GL, put DD-WRT on it, set it up as a WAP, and it works great. Now they can use their iPhone in cinderblock subterrania.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Postal posted:

Anyone used one of these to build a router?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856107104

Not that one specifically, but I run a mini-itx system as a router. Mine's an old VIA EPIA 933mhz with 512 megs of ram I got on ebay. I boot off a CF card on a CF to IDE adapter. The processor never gets over about 3% usage (often less) and memory sits around 6%, so it's kind of overkill, but it works great, and it's rock solid. I've had up to about 4-5 months of uptime (interrupted due to power outages). I run m0n0wall but there's several router packages available, as well as just homebrewing a linux/bsd system with NATD and a firewall.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Devian666 posted:

What connection speed are you running through it? I have an old 1GHz epia board laying around that I wouldn't mind testing.

Mine just has two 10/100 cards in it running at 100 megabit. My broadband connect is 4/24, and I often get slightly more than that on speed tests so I'm pretty happy with the performance.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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MMD3 posted:

what notable settings improvements would I be gaining with DD-WRT though? I feel like TP-Links firmware is pretty decent, definitely better than what I'm used to from Linksys. Are there some configuration settings I'll be enabling that I wouldn't otherwise have access to?

In a lot of routers it's just more stable than the stock firmware. I think it's being suggested because you said you're having your connect drop.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Mozi posted:

I'm using a friend's Airport Express as a router at the moment and suffer from wildly variable connectivity. For no apparent reason it often swings from 70% down to 20%, generally hovering at around 60%. Web browsing works fine but it's annoying when gaming and suchlike. I'm on the least-interfered with channel and it's located in the middle of the room, away from any intermittently operating electronic devices, so I think it's probably just fritzy. One odd thing is, despite generally having a higher signal strength, I'm often unable to smoothly stream video to an iPad with Air Video Player, but if I hop on a different floor's lower signal strength, unsecured network it works fine, with no problems. Should I be looking for a new router?

I believe the thread consensus is that the airport express is pretty bad, while its big brother is decent (the airport extreme I think?) There were some recent posts about it in the last couple of weeks. A better router would probably help a lot, being in the same room and having connection issues is indicative of a problem.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Avian Pneumonia posted:

My SO just moved into a small new apartment and needs a wireless router for her macbook pro for (hopefully) under $60. What should I tell her to get?

The routers in the OP are pretty decent. Depending how willing you are to tinker, I'd try the monoprice one, then look into more expensive options if it doesn't pan out. If you don't want to have any possibility of problems, go for the mid range ones right off the bat. The E2000 is right at your price range on Amazon at the moment.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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albear posted:

So, I ordered a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH and got a G300NH2 from Newegg. Does this version still work with DD-WRT or Gargoyle?

You probably already looked at this, but it is listed on the Supported Devices list for DD-WRT, however the dd-wrt version number and additional install notes are blank, so I'm not sure which you'd use:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Buffalo

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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lovely Treat posted:

Had a play with my Asus rt-n12b1 over the last couple of days.

Managed to get various versions of both tomato and ddwrt installed but cant get the router working properly with either of them installed.

I have it running fine with the Asus firmware on the router but neither of the others will get an internet connection even when i use the same settings the Asus was working with.

I have my old router/modem set up with DHCP disabled and a DMZ to the Asus router (bridge mode wont work with my ISP it seems :argh:). Other settings are:
lan
ip 192.168.1.254
subnet mask 255.255.255.0

DMZ Host IP Address 192.168.0.1

All i configured in the Asus firmware was DHCP enabled and:
lan
ip 192.168.0.1
subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Wan
static ip 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Default gateway 192.168.1.254

I can access both the Asus and my other modem/router with this config in tomato or ddwrt just no dice with internet.

This is working fine on the Asus firmware yet wont on tomato or ddwrt so i think there must be something im missing that needs configuring in those firmwares that the Asus does not, any ideas?

You've sort of got your network numbers all confused if I read this post right. The first router should send data to a dmz host on its own lan subnet, like 192.168.1.x (pick a number not in use). Then the second router should have that address as its WAN IP, and the gateway as the first router's IP. Then the second router's LAN setup should be on an entirely different subnet like 192.168.2.x (or 192.168.0.x if you must, 10.10.10.x if you're cool) for everything, with its own settings and DHCP server.

You're essentially doing double-nat here, but your second router will control all the traffic since the first is just a pass-through with the DMZ setup.

edit:
To further clarify, try a setup like this.

Router 1 (connected to the internet with its wan port, and router 2 with a lan port)
WAN: whatever your ISP wants (usually DHCP)
LAN: 192.168.1.1
DMZ host: 192.168.1.2
no need to turn DHCP off but you won't be using it

Router 2 (connected to Router 1 with its wan port, running your computers/devices on its lan ports)
WAN: 192.168.1.2 with a gateway of 192.168.1.1 and dns as whatever (either 192.168.1.1 if Router 1 will forward, or use DNS hosts from your ISP or use google at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
LAN: 192.168.0.1
Turn on DHCP server, all computers in the house will get addresses in the 192.168.0.x subnet with 192.168.0.1 as their gateway.

Rexxed fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Apr 24, 2012

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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MMD3 posted:

So my internet connection has been dropping out regularly for the last couple of hours tonight... did a power cycle and that didn't seem to solve anything, trying to determine what my modem's logs are telling me. Can anyone figure out what might be causing this at a glance? My desktop PC is connected wirelessly to a wireless-N router which is hardwired through the house to a wireless-G router then to the cable modem. I can ping both the routers when the connection drops.




It's probably a signal problem with your ISP. After a thunderstorm rolled by last week, most of my street had TV but no internet. The cable modem got constant ranging response timeouts. A technician had to come out and replace some of the equipment to get everything going again, but in your case it might just be signal strength issues.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Frozen-Solid posted:

Updating the firmware on my router didn't make a difference. It's still disconnecting every 12 hours on the dot, which seems to be when it renews DHCP.

Looking further I finally found a few events that happen in the event logs every time:

The IP Address lease 192.168.1.4 for the network card with network address 0x<blah> has been denied by the DHCP server 192.168.1.1 (The DHCP Server sent a DHCPNACK message).

It does this twice before it finishes connecting.

Can you screenshot the DHCP settings on your router for the DHCP server that's running on your LAN? I'm running m0n0wall so it'll look totally different but this is the kind of thing we'd like to see:

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Gothmog1065 posted:

Still looking for an answer.

Sometimes windows will auto-detect a particular "network" and use the configuration it has stored for network 2, 3, 4, etc. It's possible you have multiple configs for the same network and need to eliminate some of them or prevent them from becoming active just because the PC thinks that that's the network that it's on. I don't have PC in front of me that's exhibiting the multi network issues to point to, but I believe that if you go to the networking and connections control panel and look at the active network on the left side there may be options to switch which network the computer thinks you're on. I'm not sure how to eliminate the other networks it might think it has, but this is the only thing I can think of that might change you from a static IP to dynamically assigned without doing anything except rebooting the PC.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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ilc23 posted:

Are cantennas still a thing?

Yes, there's plenty of equipment that can still take external antennas and lots of neat directional antennas like cantennas being sold (or made).

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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chumpchous posted:

Well, I have to buy a modem for comcast and can't decide what to go with. Should I trust the user reviews between the motorola/cisco? People seem to complain about the cisco modem dropping service/rebooting a lot, so I'm leaning towards the motorola.

Linksys:

http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-DOCSIS-Cable-Modem-DPC3008-CC/dp/B006IJHK96/ref=pd_cp_pc_1

Motorola:
http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SB6121-SURFboard-DOCSIS-Cable/dp/B004XC6GJ0/ref=pd_cp_pc_0

I only have anecdotal evidence but my Motorola 6120 has been stellar. I used to get tons of drop outs with the rental modems (usually some brand I've never heard of) but the Motorola seems to handle a wider range of signal strengths and keep trucking along.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Devian666 posted:

I understand why they block IRC for security reasons but I'd find it weird not being able to use IRC at all. That said I could do without IRC for a cheaper connection.

Some of the trojans that turn your PC into a zombie for doing botnet/ddos stuff connect to IRC servers to report in to their owners and take commands. It is weird that they'd block the IRC ports entirely because of that, but it's probably just incoming, not outgoing, so you should still be able to connect as a client.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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BusinessWallet posted:

Is this normal? I have Comcast and as usual, have to reboot my cable modem every half hour. It's crazy this poo poo is allowed, I had FiOS for a year and I had to reboot my modem once, this has gone down 5 or 6 times in the few weeks I've had it.



No this is not normal, Comcast is a pretty bad ISP, but they can be okay if you have a good connection already. It's mostly when it breaks that things go badly because they won't come and fix it reliably without multiple visits from techs until a line tech comes out and actually fixes the signal problem on the street. If you can get a line tech to come out then it should be fixed, but it took three weeks when I first had Comcast installed to be fixed.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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BusinessWallet posted:

What levels am I looking for here?

I'm not actually sure; when I meant that it's not normal, I was speaking to having to reset your modem all of the time. My modem shows downstream of 35-36dB of signal to noise ratio, and upstream power level of 44dBmV. Generally having the modem be unstable means that there's signal problems or the modem needs to be replaced.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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pseudorandom posted:

I hope this is the best place to ask this question. I can't find a better mega-thread for it.

I'm trying to build a simple media server for my dorm; just something to use for backups, and streaming videos/music to other devices on my local network. As it is, because of the limitations of my dorm's networking, the only feasible way I can see to do this is to have the server connect to the dorm network via wifi for Internet, and then set up an ad-hoc network to make the local network between my computers and this server.

I'm confused what hardware requirements would be necessary for this. Since every computer would need to both connect to the building wifi for Internet, and to the ad-hoc network for LAN, could this be done with only one network card on each device (or two on only the server)? If this is possible, could anyone give me a basic idea of what I would need to do to get this to work?

It's been a while since I used a dorm network, but can't you just setup access to your files with SFTP, NFS or anything else? The internet connection you're describing is just a TCP/IP network, and the LAN you're describing is also another TCP/IP network (well it could include other protocols but if it's in the same dorm you can probably use those anyway on the local subnet). So, setup a secure fileshare on your PC and then access it from the streaming server with their normal connections. It should all be possible in software unless you really want to have some kind of dual network setup. A VPN would be easier than some kind of dual network setup, but it's still kind of overkill for what you're describing.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Signal strength is a result of the amount of stuff (walls and floors) between the router and the blu ray player. There can also be interference from other devices on the same 2.4ghz band, as well as microwaves if they're running.

First, see if the router's wireless configuration lets you turn up the signal strength. Some do this and some don't. If that isn't an option you could try another wireless channel in case of interference. There's no external antenna on that model of router so unfortunately it won't be able to be upgraded beyond those options.

If none of the configuration options helped, you need to move the router closer, add another wireless access point to the network to extend the wireless signal (and it will need a cord to the current router), or run a cable to the blu-ray and forgo wireless. There are also wireless repeaters for extending signals, but I've never used them or heard anything good about them, so I can't really say if they'd be a solution or not. In my house I went with two access points, one on each end of the building, just due to not being able to get wifi right in the middle. With the same wireless security, SSID, passphrase but different channels, wireless devices just pick whichever is strongest near them.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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FlyingCheese posted:

This seemed to work. Thanks. I wonder why it won't let both routers use my ISP's DNS.

Some routers like to set themselves up as the DNS for the local machines via DHCP, then some completely poo poo the bed on actually forwarding DNS requests. I've had it happen on a number of crappy routers so I usually turn that poo poo off. It could also just be your ISP having a hiccup with its DNS service which is rare but can happen.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Feenix posted:

Going to go get an AirPort Extreme tomorrow to " go with" my (this gen.) Airport Express.
Gonna make the extreme my wireless router and keep the express to boost signal/expand coverage.

This can be do e moderately easy, right?

Yeah, if they're both configured with the same wifi settings except for different channels, one will just extend the network and your devices should hop between them seamlessly. Just make sure to turn off DHCP and routing on whichever one is just going to be a wireless access point and not a router (probably the express).

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

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Minidust posted:

My fancy APC surge protector has a couple of ethernet passthrough ports on it. Should I actually be using that? I'd rather not add things to the chain that might slow my wired connections down.

I usually only hook up surge protection for phone lines (I had to replace a lot of modems back when I was on dial-up thanks to lightning). I figure if my wiring is all indoors and all of the switches and computers are surge protected, there's not going to be a need to surge protect my network unless Zeus is visiting.

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May 1, 2010

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Farecoal posted:

I was playing an online game, and the little internet speed statistics in the lower left corner of the screen showed that I had packet loss of up to 75% (which went down to 50%, then to zero, than it jumped up and down). What exactly is packet loss, and how can I fix it?

It means that there's data not getting from you to their server and/or vice-versa. It's pretty much the most debilitating internet problem since it will gently caress up everything, although the 50-75% number is very high and may not be entirely correct. To fix it you generally need to determine where the packet loss is starting (which can be somewhat difficult). In general I haven't found a new/better version of the old UOTrace utility around anywhere, though I'm sure there is one that hopefully someone can recommend. What it would do is run a traceroute to the Ultima Online servers, then it could ping the routers on the route to see where the packet loss started.

If someone can suggest a decent utility for this it should let you see where you're losing packets. If it starts happening in the first couple of hops, it'll be your internet provider having issues. Somewhere in the middle will usually be some routers on a backbone somewhere, and towards the end usually means it's an issue with the game server or their provider. Once you know where the packet loss starts you know who to email about it (or what to fix if it's happening on your own equipment).

Sorry I don't have more detailed advice but fortunately I haven't had too much packet loss in the last few years.

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Dareon posted:

I'm setting up my first network. The OP and some links and articles have told me what I'll need in general terms, but I could use some help with specifics.

I want to connect:
  • A desktop (Old, 10/100 Ethernet card onboard)
  • A laptop (IBM ThinkPad, otherwise a pig in a poke. I don't know what I'm getting yet, and I don't trust the person getting it for me to relay accurate information about it. Just looking up the series, if it actually is IBM, the best-case scenario is a contemporary with my desktop)
  • An XBox 360 (Optional, but apparently possible)
  • All to a DSL modem. I don't have the modem yet, either.

I know I need a router and some cables. My cable setup is going to be simple, because everything is going to be in one 20-foot line in a single room: Desktop > couch where the laptop could be > XBox > bed where the laptop could be. Not 'one cable' simple, but I won't be needing to drill holes or run conduit.

First off, should I even be considering this setup now, or should I wait until I actually have the laptop and modem in hand? Otherwise:

Do I need anything else? One of the articles left me with the feeling like I might need an extra NIC or some sort of adapter for the XBox.

Do I really need something with Wi-Fi capability? I only have a DS and no real plans to get more Wi-Fi things.

Is there going to be any drawback to just having a loose CAT5 cable stuffed in the couch cushions, so I can transfer the laptop between the bed and the couch without navigating a cable through the potted plants every time?

And finally, is this going to be easy enough that I won't be in danger of setting things on fire when I plug them in? :ohdear:

It sounds like a very simple set up and should be very straight forward. If you want to wait and see if the modem comes with a router built in, it might. I had a client's new DSL2 modem include a little router inside it recently, but even if it does you'd then need a switch, and if you're doing that it might be worthwhile just to get your own router anyway so you have better control over it. Nothing should catch on fire, ethernet cables don't run much power and shouldn't have issues lying around disconnected (well don't get the end wet). Most modern routers have wifi so it doesn't hurt to get it with the router just to avoid having to buy a wireless access point or another router later. I didn't have it set up until I got a smartphone so I could use it without data plan use at home.

The main thing to check is that the router you buy has enough ethernet lan ports for everything you're plugging into it. Some only have one LAN port that you need to hook to a switch, but most home routers will have 4-8 ports to plug your devices into.

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May 1, 2010

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hobbesmaster posted:

Is there an easy way to tell why a cat5e cable cannot negotiate at 1Gbit/s? I have a multimeter and did a continuity test for each wire and saw resistances of less than 8 ohms on each connector. The built in diagnostics for the Intel PRO/1000 GT reported that a pair is disconnected, but theres continuity and the wiring on both ends matches. Any ideas?

EDIT: One pair was backwards, I'm going to assume that'll do it.

There can be interference if it's wired incorrectly even if the conductors match, but if a pair was backwards that was probably it. Both ends should be the same for a straight through cable, and the B wiring is used most often (A is fine, however). A cable with A on one end and B on the other is a crossover cable.

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SeaborneClink posted:

If I'm going to run two AP's, same SSID, one upstairs and one downstairs, is it better to use the same channel or two different ones? Assume there will be some overlap in coverage area.

5GHz N if it matters.

Different channels, the wifi devices attached will switch to the stronger one automatically.

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EC posted:

Just want to check something: I'm having some range issues with my current dual band router. Instead of loving around with it, I figured I could plug an older 2.4ghz access point I have laying around into the switch in my living room. I'll make sure it has a unique IP, the same SSID/key, different channels, and have the same security type in place. Devices should be able to seamlessly move from one to he next, right?

As for my 5ghz devices, will they be smart enough to utilize the stronger 2.4 signal from the access point, or will they stick to the 5? They're both iPads/iPhones, if that matters.

The first paragraph is on the money, if the SSID/pass and security are the same but the routers/WAP are on different channels it will work seamlessly to extend your wireless network. As for the 5ghz question, I can't say for sure since I've never done it.

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BRB MAKIN BACON posted:

Posting from a friends ihone. My roomie mopped the floor and may have touched the router with it. The internet reads 5 green bars and excellent strength. Yet the old password no longer seems to work. Did the pw get reset or something?

There's no way to be sure over the internet but if the old password isn't working it could've been reset to default. Often it's admin/admin or admin/password or admin/brand name or something similar. You can often google for the default password of routers.

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JediTalentAgent posted:

I know this is an ignorant question and it's been so long since I've actually had to do any networking stuff that I'm uncertain...

For the last several years I used an old DSL modem that I think has been starting to act up a bit. It acted ONLY as a modem. My connections for my set-up went Modem-->Router-->Switch and other devices.

My newest modem (1 port), though, has two options: Modem + Router or Modem Only.

Setting it to only Modem Only let me not have to configure anything else and just reconnect the router and everything was fine and I was online again in seconds.

But I'm really not sure if this is the best thing to do or not, but it worked. I'm sort of wondering if I should let the newer modem also do the router work, too, and just try to configure a router to just be there for ports.

Overall, I guess my question boils down to: When a modem does both, is it better to let it, or is better to let the modem be just a modem and let a router be the router?

If you're happy with your current router, set the modem to modem only. Often the router implementations that get built in to combo devices aren't very good, but if you dislike your router you could try the included one and see if it meets your needs.

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Minidust posted:

Well yeah. Just clarifying that it's not a device that's already on the network. Basically I'm asking, what's the least amount of work it'll take to just turn something off on the unused router? Kind of a pain if I have to run the whole setup and add it to the network first, but I'll do it if I must.

This is all assuming that the guy who said I needed to turn off DHCP to use it as a switch was correct in the first place.

Plug the linksys in for power. Plug a computer into the linksys. From that computer, open the configuration web page. Change the linksys' IP address so it doesn't conflict with the LAN address of the router you're using (make it like .2 instead of .1). Turn off DHCP. It may restart after these changes, it may not, but make sure they're saved. Then plug it into your main router, LAN port to LAN port. Now the Linksys is a switch with a bunch of fancy hardware you're not using.

If you don't turn off DHCP or change the IP then both routers will be trying to tell all the computers on the network to send traffic to them and it will cause everything to be hosed up.

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May 1, 2010

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reading posted:

I have my beaglebone connected over ethernet directly into my wifi router (everything else in the house just uses wifi). I can log on to it from my desktop computer just fine over the LAN, but I want to be able to connect to the BB over the internet from my office. I got the IP for the beaglebone as seen by the internet by using
$ echo `curl http://ipecho.net/plain`

but when I tried to log in to username@<that IP address> over ssh from my office, it just times out with no response. What do I need to change? Is this an issue with static IP vs. DHCP? It confuses me because the BB can access the internet just fine.

Your router is acting as a firewall so that everyone on the internet can't connect to the various equipment in your home. Additionally, it's probably providing network address translation so that your home network can use multiple IP addresses and all connect to the internet with only one address from your internet provider. What you'll need to do is use the port forwarding feature of your router and forward the SSH port (usually port 22) to the LAN address of your Beaglebone. Beware that this will make the SSH port on your Beaglebone available to everyone on the internet so use a decent password.

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