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Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
Updated for the gay agenda in 2018.

Originally this megathread was self-evident in its purpose, you were here because you were having serious problems with your home network. Some things have changed since then, and some haven't.

The thread has been restructured for 2016 and (hopefully) answers all the commonly asked home networking questions. While some of our hardware suggestions (Ubiquiti) are more oriented for the “Enterprise," the primary focus of this thread is for equipment that doesn’t require things like managing licenses or subscriptions. There are other threads (Cisco, Mikrotik) that cover this. Support in this thread is limited to whoever can help.

:smithfrog: I’m primarily an Apple user/my Apple devices are really picky.

Just stick with the Apple ecosystem. You pay the Apple-tax in comparison to what else is suggested in this thread but then again that’s part and parcel of buying Apple. On the plus side Apple stuff is high quality and really likes other Apple stuff in an almost creepy sort of way. Apple released a patch for their routers that addresses the Krack WPA2 vulnerability so make sure you use the airport utility to update (this also shows as a flashing yellow light on your router).

Airport Express (MC414LL/A) ($105).

The LAN and WAN ports only support 100 Mbit/s, and it only has 802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless. It also has a niche use by being an Airplay output that you can plug your own speakers into, which is a role filled by some expensive wireless AV solutions. Not recommended if your internet speeds exceed 100 Mbit/s or if you need 802.11AC.

Airport Extreme Base Station (ME918LL/A) ($180).

Gigabit ethernet (3 ports), 802.11AC wireless, USB port for printers or storage. Add a USB hub to use multiple devices. If you connect a USB hard drive it can be a Time Machine target just like the Time Capsule.

AirPort Time Capsule 2TB ($280) or 3TB ($400)

Similar to the Extreme, except with a built-in hard drive that can be used as a Time Machine target.

If you need more ethernet ports check out the Switches section below for recommendations.

:smithfrog: I don’t want / use Apple devices. Is the WRT54GL still the suggested router?

Oh, jeez, no. Throw that poo poo in the river. Here's a short list of routers in various price ranges, but first:

Beware of older devices that are known to have large security vulnerabilities (Google the model and “vulnerability") that aren’t being patched by the manufacturers.

Always check for the latest firmware updates before setting up and deploying your networking equipment.

ROUTERS

You live in a small home/apartment/trailer/cardboard box and just need wireless and a few ethernet ports:


The TP-LINK Archer series (C5/C7/C9)

TP-LINK Archer C5 (AC1200) $75-$120
The go-to recommendation for your typical home network. Features four Gigabit switch ports, two USB ports for storage devices or printers, 802.11AC wireless with guest network. The C5 is plenty fast enough for most internet connections, able to push ~800mpbs WAN <-> LAN when dealing with wired connections.

TP-LINK Archer C7 (AC1750) $90-$140
Almost identical to the C5, but features three antennas and a AC1750 chip instead of the AC1200. The C7 is capable of drat near gigabit WAN <-> LAN speeds when dealing with wired connections. (800-900mbps)

TP-LINK Archer C9 (AC1900) $120-$170
Similar to the previous entries, this features a USB3 port, three antennas, wireless beamforming, a dual core processor, and a AC1900 chip. The C9 is capable of gigabit WAN <-> LAN speeds when dealing with wired connections. (900mbps+)

Don’t bother with the Archer C8. Its very close to the C7 in performance and very close to the C9 in price. Other high end routers like the OnHub, ASUS RT-AC66U/RT-AC68U, and Netgear Nighthawk are nice but expensive. They don’t really offer much over the Archer line.

AC2600 routers are out there but very few client devices support the 4x4 MIMO these routers use to reach the advertised theoretical speeds. AC3200 routers are out there as well but they are more about providing AC1300 speeds to more than one device at a time than giving one device the full AC3200 rate, and still suffer from sparse client support for 4x4 MIMO. They use many channels simultaneously to achieve this and this makes them very susceptible to interference from other nearby wifi networks.

I'm cheap and don't mind taking a risk flashing new firmware on a refurb

T-Mobile (AC-1900) By ASUS $48
These are refurbished units of quite decent RT-AC68U's. From experience quite a nice router with plenty of features. The link below explains how to flash the firmware. Do this at your own risk, flashing firmware and buying a unit like this risks bricking the device. You are responsible for your own poor life choices by blowing money on routers instead of buying Lowtax a new spinal cord.
http://www.bayareatechpros.com/ac1900-to-ac68u/

You live in a larger home/you’re a power user/need more advanced routing features/have a fiber connection:

Take a look at what Ubiquiti has to offer. Never heard of it? Ubiquiti has made a name for itself for its relatively powerful networking equipment with rock-bottom prices compared to the traditional “Enterprise" providers. This means they have a range of products that you wouldn’t typically see at a big-box store, but blow away anything you’d find in one for very similar (or lower) prices. Take note, since they’re aimed more for the enterprise, additional knowledge is required to get them up and running. They do offer setup wizards in recent firmwares, however. Their routers do not include built-in wireless so you’ll also need to pick up an access point if necessary.

Edgerouter X $55
Has four wire-speed gigabit switch ports so you won’t need a seperate switch if don’t have more than four wired devices on the LAN. Also supports advanced routing protocols, VPNs (IPSec, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP (insecure), and OpenVPN), VLANs, QoS, has a full web GUI, and a full command line interface (CLI) based on the Vyatta routing platform. It can be powered via a PoE adapter and can also power a Ubiquiti access point through its 24V PoE passthrough port. Most people should use the WAN+2LAN2 wizard and check the box for "Only use one LAN" when setting the thing up. Guide here. Routing performance usually tops out somewhere around 500-650mbps depending on your traffic patterns.

Edgerouter X SFP $65-$80
Same as above with one additional SFP cage on port eth5. The SFP is not part of the 5-port switch-on-chip. There isn’t any reason for most people to bother with this model unless you can find it for less than the base ERX.

Edgerouter Lite $92
Features three routing ports, wire-speed (gigabit) routing, advanced routing protocols, VPNs (IPSec, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP (insecure), and OpenVPN), VLANs, QoS, web GUI, and a full command line interface (CLI) based on the Vyatta routing platform. Most people should use the WAN+2LAN2 wizard and not check the box for "Bridge LAN interfaces into a single network" when setting the thing up. Guide here. Instead of bridging the LAN interfaces like the guy in the video connect an appropriate switch (either unmanaged or managed if you need VLANs) to eth1 on the ERL for your wired devices.

Edgerouter Lite PoE $175
Same as above, but connects the third hardware port to a 3-port switch chip, so ports eth0 and eth1 are discreet, and ports eth2, eth3, eth4 are on a switch chip. You can bridge these three ports to do wire-speed LAN switching, and route wire-speed over the other two ports. This means that, unlike the base ERL, you don’t need a seperate switch if you have three or less wired devices. It can also provide PoE power to Ubiquiti APs.

You just want something cheap

Be aware that cheap routers compromise hardware features and should only be selected if you cannot afford something better. While they’re promised to work as advertised, do not be surprised if they crap out on you within two years.

Cheap routers tend to be 802.11n instead of the newer AC standard. While this isn't a huge deal it will leave you maybe needing/wanting to get an AC model at some point in the future. Most of them are also 2.4ghz only. Which is a real drawback these days. In many places the 2.4ghz spectrum is so crowded with APs it's almost unusable. Routers that support the 5ghz band address this issue pretty well so no 2.4ghz only routers are recommended here, even though some of them can be had for as little as $20.

TL-WDR3500 $45
Dual band N for under $50 but its switch ports are only 100mbps, so it’s going to leave your wired network slower than you may want it. May leave you wanting/needing to upgrade to an AC router at some point in the future.

TL-WDR3600 $60
Like the above but has gigabit switch ports. May leave you wanting/needing to upgrade to an AC router at some point in the future. Not much cheaper than the far superior Archer C5.

DIR-818LW $48
Has gigabit ports and AC wifi for under $50 but its range is less than most other routers and its basic AC implementation isn't much faster than N.

ACCESS POINTS

A separate device that provides wireless to your network. By having a separate device this allows you to place the AP in an ideal location and stash away the rest of your networking gear in a closet or basement that would otherwise give you spotty coverage. To cover larger areas you can have multiple access points on your network, just ensure your wireless channels are not overlapping.

Any consumer wifi router can be used as an access point if you disable its DHCP server and ignore its WAN port. However;

Ubiquiti is once again the recommended manufacturer with their recently released Unifi AC lineup. You can mix and match different Unifi APs on the same network seamlessly, even older non AC ones, and they will all play nicely together in the controller.

Ubiquiti Unifi AC Lite $100

Features 2x2 MIMO 802.11AC, multi-SSID, VLANs, Guest Network with captive portal, and powered via 24V passive PoE (included adapter). It’s configured via the Unifi controller software which has to be installed and running on a computer to use. Note that if you want to use the captive portal you have to have the controller software running. If you don’t have a local server or computer running 24/7 you can install it onto a Raspberry Pi or pick up Ubiquiti’s Unifi Cloud Key ($80). If you are not using the captive portal feature you do not need to have the controller running 24/7, you can use it once to setup the wifi and then never run it again.

Ubiquiti Unifi AC Pro $180

Similar to the AC Lite, except it features 3x3 MIMO for more wifi speed (if your wifi clients support it) and is powered by the industry standard 48V 802.3af PoE (also comes with the proper adapter included). Note that you cannot power this using an ERX’s passthrough since it uses a different PoE standard. Also uses the Unifi controller software.

Ubiquiti Unifi AC-LR $120 (?)

There is some debate as to whether or not the UAP-AC-LR is worth getting. It ties with the Lite for 5ghz wifi speeds (with 2x2 MIMO on 5ghz) but ties with the Pro for 2.4ghz wifi speeds (with 3x3 MIMO on 2.4ghz). It has a fancy internal antenna that is supposed to offer superior range but it isn’t clear if it actually does. A longer range antenna could actually hurt performance in an area with lots of other APs. With the older LR models some people reported that while the AP signal could reach the client devices the return signals couldn’t get back. This would often prevent client devices from roaming between APs properly. The AC-LR does not appear to have this issue and several people have reported that it works great in a home setting. However nobody is sure if the AC-LR really does offer longer range than the Lite or Pro models. Like the Lite it is powered by 24V passive PoE and includes the necessary adapter.

:smithfrog: I ran out of ethernet ports on my router, do I have to buy one with more?

No, just plug in a switch with the amount of ports you need into your router. Just remember that connecting it to your router uses up a port.

SWITCHES

Recommended Unmanaged Gigabit switches:
Basic 8 Ports:


TP-LINK TL-SG108 $25-$50
Netgear ProSafe GS108 $40-$60
D-Link DGS-108 $40-$90

All metal, fanless, and Gigabit. They’re all identical in performance, so just pick the cheapest one.

Recommended Managed/Smart Gigabit switches:

Managed switches support things like VLANs, port security, QoS, Link Aggregation, and web/network interfaces. If you have to ask if you need a managed switch then the answer is almost certainly no.

Managed 8 Ports:

TP-LINK TL-SG108E $35-$50
D-Link DGS-1100-08 $45-$75
Netgear ProSafe GS108E-300NAS $50-105

All metal, fanless, and Gigabit. Identical performance but may offer different advanced features, so pay attention to what you need. They all support VLANs.

You hate wall warts and have a few Ubiquiti 24V APs:

Ubiquiti ToughSwitch 5 Port TS-5-POE ($90)
Full web interface, Gigabit. Provides a max of 11.5W 24V per port. Supports VLANs and other advanced features.

Ubiquiti ToughSwitch 8 Port TS-8-PRO ($180)
Mostly an 8 port version of the previous switch. But adds support for standard 48V PoE with a maximum of 150W output. Nice if you have a mix of 24V Ubiquiti gear and standard 48V gear, or Lite and Pro APs.

Advanced, 16+ Ports:

Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch Lite ES-24-LITE $240 (Also comes in 48Port)
Full web interface, CLI, Gigabit, SFP, and a slew of advanced features for the price.

Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch ES-24-250W $420 (Also comes in 16Port-150W, 24Port-500W, 48Port-500W, 48Port 750W)
Similar to the Lite, except that it supports PoE+ 802.3af on each port for a maximum of 250W total output and 10gigabit SFP+ on the 48-port versions.

:techno: Flashing Your Firmware :techno:

This has fallen out of style recently due to the recommended consumer routers being fairly reliable and some third-party firmwares may not be as maintained as others. On certain devices using third-party firmware may disable hardware offloading, dramatically reducing its speed. Some manufacturers are even disabling the ability to flash your firmware due to pressure from the FCC over possible wireless interference.

With that said, if you have an older router and want to breathe some new life into it you can check and see if it’s supported by one of the third-party firmwares:

DD-WRT
Supported devices / Lookup Tool

Pros: Supports many, many devices, has a completely original interface, a shitload of customization options, and is updated regularly.
Cons: Depending on the device can present some weird stability issues.
Notes: DD-WRT has a micro version that can be installed on late model Linksys WRT54G devices with gimped memory.

Tomato
Tomato USB (fork for newer routers)

Pros: Easy to use, completely original, intuitive interface, many customization options, great QOS, and helpful real time graphs.
Cons: Does not support the multitude of devices like DD-WRT, only supports routers on the broadcom chipset.

Open-WRT
Lookup Tool

Pros: Linux for your modem or router. Extremely customizable, very stable, supports a plethora of devices.
Cons: This firmware has come a pretty long way to becoming more user friendly. However, less advanced users should stick with the DD-WRT/Tomato.
There is also a fork of this project DebWrt which allows Debian style package management using apt-get install. If it can run OpenWRT then it may be possible to install DebWrt with some technical knowledge.

Gargoyle Router Management UI
Supported devices

For those that don't have a computer janitor license and would like openWRT but it's too technical.

Linux/BSD as routers:
These are serious :goonsay: routers.
Monowall ceased development in February 2015. pfSense is the new standard bearer. It turns your x86/x86-64 hardware into a dedicated enterprise grade router. Has a nice web GUI, tons of advanced features like VPNs and VLANs, supports 3rd party packages to extend its feature set, and is very moddable. Performance depends on the hardware you install it on. (Gigabit+ speeds are rather easy to achieve.)
Mikrotik Mikrotik's RouterOS is Linux based and can run on either standard computer hardware, or Mikrotik's own RouterBOARDs. The hAP AC is similar to the EdgerouterX but offers built in AC wifi and is a good place to start if you are looking at a Mikrotik box for your home network, not as user friendly as the ERX though. Neckbeard Mikrotik chat
Soekris is a manufacturer of low power x86 (AMD Geode) boards, suitable for running Linux and BSD distros, such as pfsense, monowall, along with x86 versions of Open-WRT.
PC Engines sells hardware similar to Soekris' offerings, but at a generally lower price.
ClearOS provides a number of open source solutions with ClearOS being a router with a lot of features. Under the software tab there is a live demo you can log into to check out the features. It appears to have a similar feature set to pfsense.

I NEED INTERNET IN MY BARN/OUTHOUSE/DOWN BY THE RIVER.

Ubiquiti has what you need. The Nanostations provide 150Mbp/s (claimed) over extremely long distances (5 to 15 km depending on the device) by point to point connection. The different devices average between $50-$90 each (you will need two). They come with built-in antennas and ethernet. For your basic point to point link we believe the Nanostations give the best performance value and ease of setup.

If you need a longer link, the Ubiquiti Rocket is also an option. It can reach distances of 50km, but requires an external antenna, just make sure you select the right one for your use. The Rocket operates on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, allowing you to use it without obtaining a license.

TROUBLESHOOTING / NETWORKING FAQs

My roommate won't quit torrenting Linux ISOs, how do I limit his connection so I can get sweet sweet pings? Also, I can't talk to him like a normal human being.

QoS will let you prioritize traffic to certain applications or computers. However, don't be passive aggressive and just talk to your roommate.

TP-LINK Archer C5/C7/C9 QoS Guide

Edgerouter Lite QoS Guide
Note that in this guide VoIP traffic is specified, but this can be changed to MAC addresses as needed.

This goon has a case for being passive aggressive, with a step-by-step guide for dd-wrt. Passive aggressiveness to new heights! Seems justified here.

DD-WRT QoS Guide

Tomato QoS Guide

As far as torrents are concerned, just use Speedtest to find your max upload speed, and set your client to limit to half of that. With this set, you should have zero ping impact from downloads.

Which Modem should I buy?

This is increasingly complicated and is very dependent on your local provider. Check with your ISP to see what modems they support on their network before you go out and buy one. However, you should buy instead of rent because rentals are generally always more expensive over the long term.

As a rule, try to get the latest Motorola Surfboard modem supported by your ISP. These kits are generally rock-solid compared to other manufacturers and are designed to last a long time. The SB6141 and SB6183 are the go to models at the moment with the SB6190 on the high end. What’s the difference? Channel bonding. What the hell is that? In a word, speed. The more channels a modem can bond to the higher the speeds it can achieve. Some ISPs only offer their higher speed tiers with modems that can bond a minimum number of channels. In addition to making higher raw speeds possible the ability to bond more channels (8 for the 6141, 16 for the 6183, and 32 for the 6190) allows the modem to load balance your traffic across multiple channels more effectively and better avoid congested channels on the ISP's network. So even if you aren't paying for a higher speed tier you will get whatever speed you are paying for more consistently and more often with a modem that can bind to more channels.

The 6141, 6183, and 6190 are all pretty much the same but each one can bond to more channels than the previous one while also costing more. It’s hard to say if getting a more expensive modem is objectively worth the extra money without actually hooking up each modem in turn and testing them on your specific ISP in your specific area. The more people there are on the cable system in the area the more being able to bond to more channels helps out.

Now that price of the SB6183 has come down a bit it may be the better overall choice unless you live in an area with relatively few other cable internet subscribers where you would be just fine with the SB6141. The SB6190 is the king of channel bonding but it’s expensive. If you live in a dense apartment block/highrise with a ton of other cable internet subscribers the SB6190 may be worth it if your ISP supports it.

If you get stuck with a combo modem (Modem+Router+Wireless) and you want to run your own equipment behind it, then you must put the combo modem into bridge mode, or else you’ll suffer from issues like double NAT and another wireless network causing congestion.

CAT5e vs CAT6
Both are able to run Gigabit ethernet. If you're running new lines in your walls or along your property, it'd be best to just run CAT6 and be ready for 10Gbit. Performance between CAT5e and CAT6 is identical in a Gbit environment, even if you are streaming intensive media like Blurays.

Weak Wireless Signal / Poor Throughput
Wireless is not the magical process it used to be and wireless devices have become increasingly common. However, wireless problems are a pain to deal with. Generally wireless should be considered functional where there is direct line of sight between the device and router. You will have problems with range or interference especially where there are walls or other obstructions that will block the signal.

If you're having problems with wireless do some testing first before posting. You can use inSSIDer 2 to see what frequencies are in use. It may be possible that your network is clashing with your neighbours network. On the 2.4GHz band Channels 1, 6, and 11 are non-overlapping, so set your wireless to one that is the least congested.

If you live in an area where you have a lot of dwellings, such as an apartment building, in most cases the 2.4GHz band will be completely saturated. Either get your devices onto 5GHz or try to find a 2.4GHz channel with the least congestion.

If your wireless signal is weak or does not cover enough distance consider getting another access point and move it to where you need the coverage. If that’s not an option you can also try a wireless repeater. Ensure you are buying the correct frequency that you need to boost, usually 2.4 GHz, as there are 5GHz-only repeaters available. Just remember they only repeat the signal they receive, so if it’s receiving a poor signal then its output will be just as bad.

Do you want to plan your next wireless expansion then maybe you should try HeatMapper as this will allow you to map out wireless strength inside your house/apartment without requiring GPS reception.

You want to check out wireless networks in the area without looking like an idiot walking around with a laptop? You can use WiFi Analyzer on your Android phone.

If you are serious business about playing games and getting the best performance you should seriously consider having a wired connection to your PC or console. Daisy chaining a series of wireless repeaters because your modem is installed in the outhouse will give you poor performance.

Wifi Range Extenders / Repeaters

Most sales people (and even some product packaging) get the two confused but they are not the same thing and each type of device has its own special way of sucking.

A range extender will connect to your existing wifi network as a client and then relay that connectivity onto its own separate SSID. So you will end up with two separate wifi networks running on different channels. This is nice for avoiding channel interference in the 2.4ghz band if you are able to pick channels that are at least 5 apart. (1 and 6, 4 and 9, etc.) However it also means that if you are in a crowded area it might be very hard to find two channels that are far enough apart and not already crowded with other people's networks.

Since the range extender will be splitting its antenna time between the two networks it literally cuts your bandwidth in half for the clients on the second SSID (unless you get one with two antennas). Wifi also never actually gets anywhere near its rated speeds this can easily put you into poo poo bandwidth territory. You also might have issues getting client devices to roam between the networks in a sane manner since some devices really really like to stay on the same SSID even if a stronger one is available.Also, when a client device does roam to the other network it will renew its DHCP lease. This will cause an interruption in connectivity that will be much more noticeable than simply hopping between two APs with the same SSID.

A repeater will simply parrot whatever wifi signals is receives back out at full strength. This means that it will not have its own SSID, it will just repeat whatever SSID it picks up from the main AP as well as repeating the transmissions of any nearby wifi clients. And this is the problem. It will be on the same channel as the original AP and by repeating everything it hears, even from clients that can already reach the AP just fine, it will introduce a lot of interference into the network. This will have a negative effect on the throughput of the entire network. The more traffic there is on the network the worse this detrimental effect will be.

If you absolutely must use a range extender or repeater you certainty can. However I would consider it a last resort. Wiring in a second AP on its own channel with the same SSID will give you much better results and (soon-to-be-mentioned) powerline adapters are fairly inexpensive if running a wire to the new AP isn’t an option.

The Ubiquiti APs mentioned earlier and the Eero system are both capable of running a wireless distribution system where one or more APs provide wireless uplinks to the other APs. Note that this takes at least two Ubiquiti/Eero units and you can’t mix and match. Both of these options will be superior to a range extender or repeater if neither running a cable or powerline networking is feasible for increasing network coverage.

5GHz vs 2.4GHz
5GHz was introduced to the masses with 802.11n. It was previously only available to 802.11a devices. 5GHz offers better connectivity in situations where AP density is high. If you're having trouble finding an uncongested 2.4GHz channel then 5GHz will help. It will NOT help, however, for increasing range. Due to being a higher frequency 5GHz does not penetrate walls as easily as 2.4GHz, so don't count on better range.

Wifi encryption / security: How do I keep the neighbors off my interwebs?
For most people WPA2 Personal in AES/CCMP only mode (TKIP is broken and shouldn’t be used) with a nice long password (20+ characters recommended) is just fine. Don’t forget to change your device’s management page password (and admin username if possible). This will prevent unauthorized users from changing your settings, as default username/password lists are available for virtually every single device.

The things you can do relating to wifi security can be roughly broken down by who they will be effective against:

I am a nice person who would like to offer my network to others because I trust everyone.
- Disable wifi encryption.
*facepalm*

I want to keep the old lady next door from borrowing my wifi.
- Hide the SSID.
- Enable WEP.
- Filter by MAC address.
This crap is worthless against any attacker with half a brain.

I want to keep the teenagers who hang out down the street off of my wifi.
- Enable WPA with a reasonable password.
- Enable WPA2 in TKIP or mixed mode with a reasonable password.
- Use the Wi-Fi Protected Setup button on your router.
Any of these things will keep most people off of your wifi. However WPA and TKIP still suck and should be avoided if possible. Use WPA2 with AES/CCMP instead if you can.

The local 2600 meeting is taking place across the street and I don't want them on my wifi.
- Enable WPA2 in AES/CCMP mode with a very long password.
- Disable Wi-Fi Protected Setup on your router.
This will keep fairly serious attackers out.

I am running a business and need to pass PCI, HIPAA, or similar compliance audits.
- Setup a RADIUS server.
- Enable WPA2 Enterprise with EAP-PEAP.
This keeps out serious attackers and is a step towards meeting compliance requirements and adds auditing.

I am involved in international intrigue and there is an unmarked van parked outside my place an awful lot these days.
- Setup a RADIUS server and your own internal CA.
- Enable WPA2 Enterprise with EAP-TLS and client certificate validation with 4096 bit RSA keys.
I like pissing off the NSA.

Dad's tesla coil is jamming the wireless and Mom won't let me drill holes in the basement
Or
Wireless won’t cut it, I rent, and I don’t want wires everywhere.


:science: Powerline Networking :science:

This uses your power lines within your house as a network cable. The quality of the connection depends on the distance (length of wire) and the age of the wiring. Old dodgy wiring, like knob-and-tube, tends to give bad speeds-if it hasn’t burned your house down already. A house with new wiring will ideally give good speeds, unless you have noisy electrical devices operating on the circuit. This technology is very situational, so it’s recommended to purchase from a retailer that allows for hassle-free returns. These devices are improving rapidly, with speeds advertised up to 2Gbps.

Up to 1.2Gbps Kits:

TP-LINK TL-PA8010P Starter Kit $70-$80
Netgear PLP1200-100PAS Starter Kit $80-$90


Up to 2Gbps Kits:

D-Link Powerline AV2 2000 Starter Kit DHP-701AV $85-$140


MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance)

MoCA uses coax cables to carry data instead of ethernet cables. It can be an alternative to powerline networking or ethernet cables where those two options aren’t feasible or don’t work very well. However most people have other things using their coax cables, things like cable/satellite TV and DVRs. MoCA tends to get along well with broadcast TV, Tivos, Fios, and cable modems. Things like TWC's whole home DVR and digital cable service, Dish and DirecTV and their whole home DVR offerings, AT&T U-verse, and other cable providers are harder to find compatibility information on.

There is a basic guide on setting up a MoCA network here. Just make sure you do your research before trying this stuff so you don’t break your TV/DVR service (unless you’ve cancelled your cable and have dormant coax in your walls).

I want to set up VoIP but I hate my provider more than Bitcoins

VoIP is very easy to setup and you’ll wish you’ve done it sooner. All you need to do is decide which provider you want based on their rates and your calling habits, then pick out a compatible ATA (analog telephone adapter) to connect your analog phone to the network. Most offer number porting so you can keep your current landline number.

Big Providers

Voip.ms

No monthly fees, only billed what you use. Ported numbers can be configured to pay a flat-rate per month.

Anveo

Offers custom call-flow software, which can be configured to stop robo-calls, forward calls to another number, not ring during certain hours, and more.

Callcentric

Flexible plans, offers your basic services.

ATAs

Obihai OBi200 $48-$90

Grandstream GS-HT702 2-FXS $35-40

Cisco Small Business SPA112 $32-$70

Note that not all of these are necessarily supported by every single provider, but are popular among most providers and are priced fairly.

General Troubleshooting
Here's some things to ensure router reliability:

-Keep your router cool. Consumer routers rarely have active cooling (fans), so it's important they're kept in a cool place. Overheating can cause your router to reset or lockup. Avoid stacking your equipment or blocking their air vents. If you have to stick them somewhere with little passive airflow, look into getting a PC fan with a molex adapter and plugging it into an AC to DC Molex Adapter.

-Stop killing power to your devices all the time. The above suggested devices, when properly configured, will have uptimes of months without issue. Gone are the days of restarting your equipment every other week. More often than not, sudden power interruptions are the cause of further issues and should be avoided.

-If you’re in an area with spotty power then it’s highly suggested you get a UPS battery backup and plug all your networking equipment into it. Recommended brands are Cyberpower and Eaton. Wattages required and runtimes depend on your equipment (if you’re running large switches/ if you have PoE), but a 250-400W unit will provide power to your common household network for an hour or so.

-If you need help with your Ubiquiti products (other than asking in this thread) Ubiquiti has a great support wiki and active forums that are frequented by their developers.

I need to ask you guys because my network problems aren't listed here
By all means ask as there's a lot of people that can help. For us to help you you need to help us.

-Tell us what you network setup is.
-Tell us how you use the network.
-If you have a specific situation where there is a problem please describe it in detail.

If you have 3-5 people watching netflix and youtube while you're running a bittorrent server farm you may find that your 300/300 baud modem isn't really cut out for this use.

This is all great stuff but what is a network?

This article covers networking basics through to how to set up a network. It contains a lot of information on terminology, some older networking technologies and theory, along with current information and recommendations.


This megathread is an evolution of the previous two threads.

Thanks Triikan.
Original thread. Thanks Calculon!

Devian666 fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jun 8, 2018

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Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
Reserving this for future information where it is needed.

IPv6

What is this mysterious thing? IPv6 is basically the new address standard now that IPv4 addresses have run out.

Oh poo poo do I need to do something about this? Not yet everything is designed for phased transition. IPv6 went live on 6 June 2012 and you probably haven't noticed any change (you shouldn't).

How do I know if I have IPv6? Try the following link to test your connection. Unless your ISP, modem and router all support IPv6 it will probably have some failures.
http://test-ipv6.com/

How do I fix <x> problem? If your ISP doesn't support IPv6 that's an issue you would need to raise with them as they should support it currently since we are past the IPv6 switchover date. If your modem doesn't support IPv6 you may need to check for updated firmware, or more likely you may need to replace it. If your router does not support IPv6 flashing with dd-wrt will (should) fix this issue.

Any other problems just ask. I don't think we have any IPv6 experts in the thread but you never know.

Devian666 fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Oct 6, 2012

Nitr0
Aug 17, 2005

IT'S FREE REAL ESTATE

Devian666 posted:

Dad's tesla coil is jamming the wireless and Mom won't let me drill holes in the basement
Truely the networking option of last resort is powerline networking. Products on the market will not be listed here as they are universally terrible. This is not something that you use if you want more speed than your 100mbit/s wireless is currently giving you. A recent review demonstrated the speed is very dependent on range and interference. In fact the speeds in a three storey house ranged between 30 to 50 mbit/s. The top speed was achieved with powerline network adapters rated at 200 mbit/s.

This is pretty much wrong. Powerline networking can work fine but it is entirely dependant on the quality of the wiring in your house. Old house with poor wiring == poor speeds. Anything made in the last 10 years should be decent enough to run at high speed.

serebralassazin
Feb 20, 2004
I wish I had something clever to say.
Yea with decent wiring you should be fine. I have a powerline kit from zyxel (200mbps) connected from the second floor of my house to my basement and it gets me the full speed of my Fios connection without issue (3.6-3.8 MBps).

therunningman
Jun 28, 2005
...'e 'ad to spleet.
Any tips for planning a network layout for a new house?
So far I am thinking of two Cat5e and two RG6 to two points in each room. All going to a rack in the utility room.
I am debating if it is worth it to run conduits for everything.

Methylethylaldehyde
Oct 23, 2004

BAKA BAKA

therunningman posted:

Any tips for planning a network layout for a new house?
So far I am thinking of two Cat5e and two RG6 to two points in each room. All going to a rack in the utility room.
I am debating if it is worth it to run conduits for everything.

Having just done this, not really. Once it's up in the attic, it's not a big deal to just zip tie the bundle to a nail or something. In areas where you can actually trip or fall onto the wires, conduit is a good idea. So the area from the attic or crawlspace to the rack would be a good idea.

I did two cat5, one cat5, one RG6, and one telephone to each room in the house, and terminated them using those keystone jacks.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Nitr0 posted:

This is pretty much wrong. Powerline networking can work fine but it is entirely dependant on the quality of the wiring in your house. Old house with poor wiring == poor speeds. Anything made in the last 10 years should be decent enough to run at high speed.

This is a your mileage may vary situation. If you have any bandwidth through puts that you could give me I can update the op.

kapinga
Oct 12, 2005

I am not a number
Thanks for starting a new thread!

Devian666 posted:

To start, if you want
Sub $50:
Linksys WRT400n
Atheros chipset 680mhz processor, 32mb, 8mb flash. Simultaneous dual band (2.4/5ghz), meaning you can support a network in each of the bands at the same time.
Linksys E1000
Broadcom 300MHz processor, 32mb, 4mb flash.

This seems to still be out of date, unfortunately. The first link is out-of-stock with no expected restocking date, and the second is $80, not sub $50.

I'm looking to get a wireless bridge going between the wireless router we have in our apt. common room and the desktops I have in my bedroom. The current router is an WRT54Gv6 (yeah, I know what you're thinking) flashed with DD-WRT micro - I'm thinking of getting a nicer 802.11n capable router and demoting the WRT54G to bridge status. Since the product list seems a little out of date, does anyone have recommendations for a b/g/n router that will support an apartment of 5 (~10-12 wifi capable devices, no torrenters)?

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

kapinga posted:

Thanks for starting a new thread!


This seems to still be out of date, unfortunately. The first link is out-of-stock with no expected restocking date, and the second is $80, not sub $50.

I'm looking to get a wireless bridge going between the wireless router we have in our apt. common room and the desktops I have in my bedroom. The current router is an WRT54Gv6 (yeah, I know what you're thinking) flashed with DD-WRT micro - I'm thinking of getting a nicer 802.11n capable router and demoting the WRT54G to bridge status. Since the product list seems a little out of date, does anyone have recommendations for a b/g/n router that will support an apartment of 5 (~10-12 wifi capable devices, no torrenters)?

There were bound to be a few price issues as I drafted this a few weeks ago. Which means prices and stock were a bit different. I'll fix this when I get home.

Next up on the price list is the Netgear WNR 3500L. That gives gigabit ports, 2.4 GHz wireless N. According to http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar the throughput is limited to 255 mbit/s. This throughput rate may or may not be an issue depending on the use of your devices.

To get faster throughput it generally takes more money. If cost is an issue you could try the sub $50 routers second hand.

Devian666 fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Oct 10, 2011

kapinga
Oct 12, 2005

I am not a number

Devian666 posted:

There were bound to be a few price issues as I drafted this a few weeks ago. Which means prices and stock were a bit different. I'll fix this when I get home.

Next up on the price list is the Netgear WNR 3500L. That gives gigabit ports, 2.4 GHz wireless N. According to http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar the throughput is limited to 255 mbit/s. This throughput rate may or may not be an issue depending on the use of your devices.

To get faster throughput it generally takes more money. If cost is an issue you could try the sub $50 routers second hand.

Maybe I was slightly premature with the previous post, it looks like the E1000 is available on Amazon for around $50 new, and less than that if you want a "new refurbished" model, whatever that means. You'll probably want to update your links, but that might be it.

Thanks for the advice though. My roommates aren't too intensive on the network so these cheaper routers will hopefully do the trick.

Mantle
May 15, 2004

Thanks for the update.

A small wish though, in the future when starting a new thread, could you please arrange to have it linked in the last post of the old thread before the old thread is locked?

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Mantle posted:

Thanks for the update.

A small wish though, in the future when starting a new thread, could you please arrange to have it linked in the last post of the old thread before the old thread is locked?

My bad. It was my first thread, let alone it being a megathread. I'll try to keep this op reasonably well updated.

Methylethylaldehyde
Oct 23, 2004

BAKA BAKA
Chiming in that Mikrotik stuff is awesome if you want a ISP style router/ap without all the poo poo that comes with using Cisco. The downside is you have other poo poo that comes with Mikrotik, but the fancy GUI configuration and monitoring software of pretty loving nice. If you don't instantly go cross-eyed or run in horror from serial interfaces, putty, and CLI stuff, and need more than Tomato can offer you, I recommend Mikrotik.

Having a 250mW A/B/G/N that supports 40Mhz channels and 5ghz, plus can use any N-type antenna is loving nice. My AP can hear my crappy underpowered laptop signal from anywhere on the block, and if I wanted to be a dickhead, blast my signal at ~20dBm, which is loving retarded for an omnidirectional antenna.

Additionally, you can do stupid poo poo like multipath weighted round robin load balancing, with stateful routing and the ability to force specific macs, ips, or ports through different internet links. Comedy route all the counterstrike gameplay (port 7086) traffic on your network via your backup satellite link!

movax
Aug 30, 2008

If the E3000 is the renamed WRT610N, I've had 0 issues with them. I had some initial issues with two models, but that was due to some very :downs: settings on my part, causing frequent disconnects. I'm "responsible" for 4 of them right now (not in any official capacity, just my apartment + family members/friends) and they've been great, even the refurb ones.

Performance as a NAS/FTP for drives attached via USB blows though, I was hoping it would be at least "decent", but IMO not worth using for anything save perhaps a printer.

code:
Firmware: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (08/07/10) mega
Time: 10:01:45 up 98 days, 19:42, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
WAN: Disable

Oddhair
Mar 21, 2004

I've been using an old Dell tower (PIII) as a m0n0wall box for many years, but it was always a bit power-hungry for what it did. Worked wonderfully for 200+ days of uptime, even. I finally got a used Soekris net 4801-60 (233MHz, 128MB RAM embedded box) and am also running m0n0wall on it. Occasionally it just falls over, the error light comes on, and my connection dies. My house is a bit warm during the summer months, and since it's been cooling off it hasn't happened in a while.

What else can I use the Soekris box for if I want to move away from it? If I only wanted it to provide wireless, which distro should I use? DD-WRT requires a license since the embedded box is considered semi-pro. I suppose I could make it a VPN device, maybe just a wireless AP.

Current setup:
code:
Cable Modem -> m0n0wall -> LAN -> lovely Belkin wireless used as AP/switch 
                        -> DMZ -> Xbox 360, since m0n0 doesn't support UPnP
I don't really want to go back to a full computer for routing, but I'd like to use this for something.

Star War Sex Parrot
Oct 2, 2003

I posted about it in the recently-closed thread, but I just wanna throw out some love for the AirPort Extreme Base Station. It's pricey, but it's got dual-band 802.11n, guest network support, disk sharing, printer sharing, and has never locked up or crashed on me. Mine typically serves over a dozen devices (a mix of desktops, laptops, phones, tablets, and game systems) with clients surfing, gaming, torrenting, Usenet downloading, and Netflix streaming all at once during peak hours and I've literally never seen it go down.

Its biggest downsides are lack of QoS, and no web interface. You have to use a separate application installed to a machine to configure it. If you can live with that, I consider it the best consumer router on the market.

I've set up Tomato and DD-WRT on routers for family and friends and used some of D-Link's higher-end consumer stuff, but the AEBS serves my needs better than any of them.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
I'll look at adding both the Airport Extreme Base Station and Airport Express to the op. I know that for a number of people they will be preferred products. I also favour anything easy to configure as the "flash your routers" methodology will not suit everyone.

CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

Devian666 posted:

Airport Express

No.

No no no no. This is poo poo. poo poo poo poo poo poo.

Retarded poo poo. Donkey poo poo. Retarded donkey poo poo. Keep it out of your OP or you'll get the :downs: yourself.

On the other hand, the Airport Extreme Base Station is a nice router and I'll back Star Wars Sex Parrot's recommendation 100%.

Oh hey, here's something for all you cheap shitheads who have to have 802.11N gear but run a mix of b/g/n poo poo and whine about how nothing works and I hate you. Stick this $25 router up your rear end!

Sorry, I've been hurt before. The linked router is $25. I have only tested it in basic office conditions with 10+ wifi devices blasting away signal in the area and it worked just fine here. We didn't have any N gear to use so I turned that all off and made it a g-only router. It runs PPPoE well, vpn's went through it without a hitch and there's a bunch of esoteric settings in the web interface that you can sperg over.

Frankly, for the price, I don't think you can get anything better. Even if it's glitchy it's still something to get you limping along until you can afford the sleek beauty of an AEBS or a Mikrotik RB751.

CuddleChunks fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Oct 12, 2011

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

CuddleChunks posted:

No.

No no no no. This is poo poo. poo poo poo poo poo poo.

Retarded poo poo. Donkey poo poo. Retarded donkey poo poo. Keep it out of your OP or you'll get the :downs: yourself.

I had a look at the specification and see that it's still 100 mbit/s wired which doesn't stack up versus anything else in that category. I assume there's other problems as well given your response.

e: $25 router added for the financially retarded.

Devian666 fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Oct 12, 2011

Laserface
Dec 24, 2004

Im using Ethernet over Power in a 130 year old house and im maxing out my 100mbps cable connection. Netgear 200mbit kit.

the only time I have ever set them up and have them NOT work is in a doctors office, who had filtered mains power to all rooms due to the operating theater equipment.

I have done a lot of home-setups that require them and they are always rock solid.

pram
Jun 10, 2001
I'm planning on wiring my place with ethernet, what face plates do you guys use?

CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

Pram posted:

I'm planning on wiring my place with ethernet, what face plates do you guys use?

Leviton gear all the way. Dual-gang faceplates with covers for most rooms, quads for media centers. Dual-runs to each plate, labeled on each end, terminated in a patch panel at some central spot. I don't like the structured wiring cabinets as much anymore because they are always too small for all the poo poo I want to stuff in them. 19" rackmount kits just kicks so much more rear end.

Then you can light up your rooms with cheap little gigabit switches, feed those into a mikrotik RB750G for head-end routing duties and somewhere in one of the other rooms you can put a wireless router in bridge mode to give you coverage for convenience. If the coverage is poor, place it nearer to an end of the house, then put another nearer the other end. Change to opposite ends of the spectrum and off you go.

movax
Aug 30, 2008

Pram posted:

I'm planning on wiring my place with ethernet, what face plates do you guys use?

I like the Leviton (or clone) keystone plates. When we finished our basement, I ran 2 or 3 Cat5E to each plate and thanks the magic of patch panels, I could make them data or phone at will. You can get a real nice quad-port going that sports ethernet, CATV and even HDMI and some other jacks if you wanted. Only downside is that single gang-boxes can get real crowded, real fast.

The_Franz
Aug 8, 2003

Pram posted:

I'm planning on wiring my place with ethernet, what face plates do you guys use?

I just did this last year and here is what I did:

Patch panel and cat6 from Monoprice.

Leviton Decora inserts and wallplates. Personally I like these because, like electrical outlets and switches, you can remove the surrounding plate for painting without pulling out the whole bundle of wires and connectors.

Leviton quickport connectors (I used the eXtreme 6+ QuickPort jacks for ethernet). Personally I found that tselectronic.com had the best prices on Leviton stuff either online or locally, especially once you get into the 10+ unit discounts. Graybar also carries the good stuff if you have a location local to you, but their prices are slightly higher and their selection tends to be a little more restrictive.

Everything runs through an HP Procurve switch (I went with the 16 port v1410). They are fanless, perform flawlessly, were a little cheaper than the Cisco models and, unlike the Cisco, the reviews weren't filled with reports of them dying after one year.

I had an old Zyxel 2X router but I recently ditched it for a Mikrotik 750GL since the Zyxel was hitting it's limits and throttling my connection. Mikrotik routers are fantastic although you need to have some idea of what you are doing before you dive into them. CuddleChunks' Mikrotik thread has a lot of good info and a basic setup guide if you are interested. You can't beat sub-$100 hardware that gives you enterprise level configuration options.

In general I ran 3 cat6 lines to each room (2 ethernet and 1 voice) except behind the media center where I put 4 ethernet jacks for the HTPC and consoles. I also ran 1x RG6 to each room (Belden tri-shield cable and Holland connectors and splitters).

I got a small 4u wall mount rack and mounted the patch panel and switch in the top two spaces along with a small cantilever shelf on the bottom to hold the router and cable modem. This was all mounted to a board on the the basement wall along with a Leviton 110 punchdown block for the phones and the splitters for the cable. The whole thing is fairly modular and makes it very easy to switch between any combination of TV, phone and internet providers by just switching a few plugs around.

The_Franz fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Oct 12, 2011

BlackMK4
Aug 23, 2006

wat.
Megamarm
Does Untangle support WiFi running from the server yet? pfSense is loving pissing me off with getting wireless to work.
edit: loving pfSense :suicide: Here I am sitting on the floor at 2:30am after figuring out that running adhoc or ap mode in pfSense causes kernel panics and it won't let the loving thing boot 24 out of 25 times.

BlackMK4 fucked around with this message at 10:28 on Oct 12, 2011

fryzoy
Sep 21, 2005
What.
This is probably going to end up being a dumb question, but I am out of ideas:

The situation is that I want to connect to multiple OpenVPN servers and then be able to open sockets going through any of the VPN connections by bind()-ing on the TUN-device's local IP address.
The thing is I can't let OpenVPN add routes, because the server is PUSHing a request to set up a default route - I don't want normal traffic to go through any of the VPNs/TUN devices.
So let's say OpenVPN sets up a TUN POINTOPOINT device with the local IP of 10.10.11.6 and a remote IP of 10.10.11.5. Aside from the default route the following routes would be added:
code:
route add -net <the public IP of the OpenVPN server> netmask 255.255.255.255 gw <my network's router>
route add -net 10.10.11.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 10.10.11.5
the default route(s) would have been going out over 10.10.11.5, too:
code:
route add -net 0.0.0.0 netmask 128.0.0.0 gw 10.10.11.5
route add -net 128.0.0.0 netmask 128.0.0.0 gw 10.10.11.5
Now my understanding is that I would not need any of the routes if I were to bind() my socket to the TUN device's local ip (.6).

As a testcase I have a "netcat -v -v -l -p 12345" running on a remote server and try to connect to it with "telnet -b 10.10.11.6 <server> 12345".

The first case is the above two routes plus the default route(s) and everything works, the server receives the connection from the VPN's endpoint. But I wouldn't need the bind() for that due to the default routes.

Now the second case, the one I want, is just the first two routes without the default route. Nothing arrives at the server and checking with wireshark tells me that the packets are not going through the TUN device but instead get sent directly through the default ethernet device, with a source IP of 10.10.11.6. Obviously that won't work because 10.10.11.6 is not a public IP.

It's as if the bind() is completely ignored and I have no idea anymore how to accomplish this without the default routes (in which case I can't have multiple VPN connections). This is my understanding of things:
- the routing table is only used for outgoing packets
- OpenVPN handles the "wire-side" of the TUN device, rewriting and packaging packets in the SSL VPN stream and then sending them off over the public ethernet device, and also receiving responses and unpackaging them and then writing them into the TUN device
- bind()-ing a socket to a IP should make the packets go through the associated network device (in this case the TUN device) if it is successful.

I hope these are all the necessary details. I must be misunderstanding some things about the effect of the routing rules, hopefully someone can figure out where my path of thought goes wrong and enlighten me or if there is some other way to accomplish what I want.

wwb
Aug 17, 2004

quote:

Netgear WNR3500L
NOT DD-WRT COMPATIBLE, 64mb, 8mb flash, Broadcom 480 MHz processor, gigabit, external USB DLNA server.

This might be a bit dated -- I'm posting this behind a WNR3500L running DD-WRT. Now, I'm not sure if the USB stuff works, but the router itself is solid.

Ninja Rope
Oct 22, 2005

Wee.

fryzoy posted:

routing table stuff

On FreeBSD I'd use pf to set next-hop and reply-to based on source IP. On Linux I'd do the same thing with iptables marking packets and ip rule matching them and assigning them a different routing table with a different default gateway set.

movax
Aug 30, 2008

The_Franz posted:

Leviton quickport connectors (I used the eXtreme 6+ QuickPort jacks for ethernet). Personally I found that tselectronic.com had the best prices on Leviton stuff either online or locally, especially once you get into the 10+ unit discounts. Graybar also carries the good stuff if you have a location local to you, but there prices are slightly higher and their selection tends to be a little more restrictive.

Huh, how are those different from the "Regular" Leviton modular connectors, or have they just always been called QuickPort? :downs:

The_Franz
Aug 8, 2003

movax posted:

Huh, how are those different from the "Regular" Leviton modular connectors, or have they just always been called QuickPort? :downs:

They use the term QuickPort for all of their modular stuff.

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.
The Asus RT-N56u is also a good router in the same class as the 3700/37AV. I have it and it's been great so far.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

wwb posted:

This might be a bit dated -- I'm posting this behind a WNR3500L running DD-WRT. Now, I'm not sure if the USB stuff works, but the router itself is solid.

I've just gone by the official support page. I don't want to suggest that something works if it doesn't work 100%. This would lead to potential complaints.

Cicero posted:

The Asus RT-N56u is also a good router in the same class as the 3700/37AV. I have it and it's been great so far.

I've been looking at adding this when I add the Airport Extreme as well. According to smallnetbuilder the RT-N56U has the highest WAN to LAN throughput out of any consumer router, in fact almost twice that of the 3700.

Devian666 fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Oct 12, 2011

DJ Commie
Feb 29, 2004

Stupid drivers always breaking car, Gronk fix car...
Another vote for powerline networking. I'm using a pair of the Belkin VideoLink 200Mbps sets on a 600 foot combo of buried Romex and extension cords to a Compaw Armada 1GHz PIII laptop and 3G CDMA modem running as a router. Oddly, it doesn't work without the UPS connected on the supply side, it must reflect the signal up the cable or limit noise.

It has no problems with the 3/1Mb connection :v:, though I can easily max out the 15MB/s of the laptop drive copying over the network.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

DJ Commie posted:

Another vote for powerline networking. I'm using a pair of the Belkin VideoLink 200Mbps sets on a 600 foot combo of buried Romex and extension cords to a Compaw Armada 1GHz PIII laptop and 3G CDMA modem running as a router. Oddly, it doesn't work without the UPS connected on the supply side, it must reflect the signal up the cable or limit noise.

It has no problems with the 3/1Mb connection :v:, though I can easily max out the 15MB/s of the laptop drive copying over the network.

The UPS is probably eliminating a lot of electrical noise from whichever device is plugging into it. The copy speed is impressive though.

fryzoy
Sep 21, 2005
What.

Ninja Rope posted:

On FreeBSD I'd use pf to set next-hop and reply-to based on source IP. On Linux I'd do the same thing with iptables marking packets and ip rule matching them and assigning them a different routing table with a different default gateway set.

Thank you so much! source-based routing was the keyword and using a different routing table works perfectly! This was driving me crazy, thanks again!

CancerStick
Jun 3, 2011
Possibly noob question. Please dont yell at me :smith:


I just ordered this about five minutes ago.

http://www.amazon.com/RT-N16-Wireless-N-Maximum-Performance-single/dp/B00387G6R8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top


Will my PS3 work with that?

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

CancerStick posted:

Possibly noob question. Please dont yell at me :smith:


I just ordered this about five minutes ago.

http://www.amazon.com/RT-N16-Wireless-N-Maximum-Performance-single/dp/B00387G6R8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top


Will my PS3 work with that?

It should do.

If you want to stream media to the ps3 install ps3mediaserver on a pc and it will do live conversion. The ps3 is a bit picky about the file types that it will play.

CancerStick
Jun 3, 2011
The only thing the PS3 will be is a Battlefield 3 machine and possibly netflix.

I did a little google-fu and I had seen old posts about the PS3 and N routers not working? Not sure as I know jack poo poo about networking. Then I would come across posts that said it worked..

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

CancerStick posted:

The only thing the PS3 will be is a Battlefield 3 machine and possibly netflix.

I did a little google-fu and I had seen old posts about the PS3 and N routers not working? Not sure as I know jack poo poo about networking. Then I would come across posts that said it worked..

It depends on the type of N wireless router. You get N wireless at 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The PS3 only does 2.4GHz and lower speeds B/G. You just need to make sure the router is set up for mixed modes or 54 mbit G wireless.

I have my ps3 running on a Netgear 3700 which supports N wireless and I've had no issues.

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blackjack
May 22, 2004

The World's Mightiest Puppet!
I hope this is the right place to ask my retarded questions.

I'm running a WRT54GL with Tomato (don't judge me, I installed it nearly 3 years ago and went away to grad school).

I'm moving to a different room and our router is located in the basement of a 1 and a half floor house. Will I need a better router to keep my sweet gaming ping and "Excellent" Wi-Fi connection?

Second question. I'm also going to need to switch to a wire-less connection on my desktop. What's a good way to get a signal? I've seen disasters strike with USB adapter solutions before, but that was many moons ago and I can only assume the technology has improved.

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