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Hey guys, I just moved into a new house and signed up with a smaller regional cable ISP. They confirmed I can use any old cable modem, and while currently I'm at 50 down/5 up they hinted that may at least double in the near future. Not amazing, but a hell of a lot better than I'm used to. Either way, I'm looking to ditch their modem/router rental and save the $10/mo. Given that speeds are likely to stay modest here until we wind up with gigabit fiber in a few years, what's a pretty bland, reliable standard option for a modem? Some random flavor of Surfboard? I'm willing to go pretty fancy on a router too, if there's something that's going to serve me well into when I get gigabit service. I'm flexible about price and not at all shy about flashing it with some third party stuff, so it doesn't necessarily need good firmware out of the box. Top concerns here are longevity, quality, and reliability. Anything stand out based on that?
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Apr 9, 2015 03:09
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How much packet loss is 'acceptable' over wifi? I am thinking "none" and that my few-years-old Airport Express is hot hot garbage. Pinging the router I average 3% packet loss over a few hours. It generally comes in bursts, as high as 32% loss in a 5 minute period. I've got it configured with separate 5G and 2.4G networks, and I exclusively use the 5G. I live in the city and of the 45 access points I can see 41 are in the 2.4G band. My 5G network is on channel 44, the rest of the 5G networks visible to me are all on 149. I live in a tiny apartment, with a single wall between me and the access point. My laptop doesn't support AC, just b/g/n dual band. What can I do to improve this? Buy a newer router? Knock down the wall? Stop being a big baby and live with a lot of packet loss?
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Apr 9, 2015 03:19
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Meldonox posted:Hey guys, I just moved into a new house and signed up with a smaller regional cable ISP. They confirmed I can use any old cable modem, and while currently I'm at 50 down/5 up they hinted that may at least double in the near future. Not amazing, but a hell of a lot better than I'm used to. Either way, I'm looking to ditch their modem/router rental and save the $10/mo. For cable modems the SB6121 and SB6141 are both reasonable with the SB6141 supporting higher speeds. The SB6183 is pricey but reasonably future proof with support for up to 16 bonded downstream channels, which your theoretical future higher speed service may need. However I would check with your ISP before buying a modem and see which ones they allow on their network. Sometimes certain modems are only approved for certain speeds. For example. For routers the ASUS RT-N66U is a good wireless N option and the ASUS RT-AC66U is a good wireless AC choice. However it is very hard to beat the Archer C7 which is not only cheaper, but one of the fastest consumer routers on the market today, easily able to handle gigabit speeds. Antillie fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Apr 9, 2015 |
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Apr 9, 2015 04:14
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More bonded channels has a bigger effect than just higher speed, it has better load balancing.
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Apr 9, 2015 04:31
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horse_ebookmarklet posted:How much packet loss is 'acceptable' over wifi? I am thinking "none" and that my few-years-old Airport Express is hot hot garbage. Your packet loss may be caused by the router being old, or it may be the result of interference from some other wireless device like a baby monitor or cordless phone. Other wifi systems will cause slowdowns but wifi is a collision avoidance system so while a million APs in a small area will cause terrible performance it won't cause packet loss in the strict definition of the term. Baby monitors and cordless phones however aren't so civil about their spectrum usage and being in an apartment can make it hard to nail down the cause. Fortunately the 5ghz range doesn't penetrate walls very well so it would be hard for anyone other than your immediate neighbors to be the source of the problem here. The 2.4ghz band however tends to get though walls pretty well so it can be much harder to identify the offending device in this frequency range. Before spending money on a new router I would try running the network in 2.4ghz only mode and in 5ghz only mode and see if either one helps at all. From the way you describe the packet loss, I am thinking cordless phone. Antillie fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Apr 9, 2015 |
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Apr 9, 2015 04:45
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Don Lapre posted:More bonded channels has a bigger effect than just higher speed, it has better load balancing. While you are technically correct, unless someone has a very detailed understanding of how the DOCSIS 3.0 spec handles frequency spectrum usage, especially in a mixed DOCSIS 1.x, 2.0, and 3.0 network, this statement is only going to confuse them. I think that most of the time you aren't going to notice any difference unless your ISP's network is very oversubscribed. Antillie fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Apr 9, 2015 |
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Apr 9, 2015 04:57
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lethial posted:Speaking of cable modems, what would you guys recommend for replacing FIOS router (As I understand it, it is not a modem right?) ? I recommended some routers in a previous post. Using one of them shouldn't be any different than using an Airport Extreme (also a good router) like this guy did.
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Apr 9, 2015 15:24
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Cable modem question - I've occasionally gotten errors like this, maybe about once or twice a day: 2015-04-08 03:16:41 3-Critical Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out 2015-01-27 03:15:34 3-Critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out Are these kinds of occasional errors "normal" on a cable line? My head unit is inside my apartment complex about a hundred feet from my apartment, so I am not dealing with a massive run. Also my SNR and power levels are well within acceptable ranges.
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Apr 9, 2015 21:05
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No that is not normal. If you are seeing drops in internet connectivity then this is probably the cause. Unless you are comfortable with accessing your modem directly and reading and partially understanding DOCSIS channel signal strengths there isn't much you can do about this aside from replacing your cable modem with one that doesn't have a crappy and/or old transceiver, assuming the issue is the modem. You will almost certainty need to have a tech from your ISP come out and look at the modem, the head end unit, and the line between them. It might be the modem or it could be the head end unit. You don't have a splitter or powered amp on the cable line do you? This is the sort of issue that the front line guys will probably have no clue how to fix and even the higher ups will probably have a hard time with it. So you are probably going to be in for a bit of an ordeal to get this fixed. Antillie fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Apr 9, 2015 |
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Apr 9, 2015 21:43
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Is there any way, on a SOHO network running a RT-N66U, to set up some sort of DNS system that allows devices to connect to one address and automatically recognize whether the connection is coming from inside the network or from the Internet? IE: I want out softphones to connect to 192.168.1.1 when I'm at the office, and to myofficeip.com when I'm off-site. If it was just PCs I would edit the hosts file, but some of these are mobile apps as well so I'm guessing I need something more complex.
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Apr 10, 2015 04:57
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The only way to do that is with a VPN. You can setup the soft phone app to always connect to 192.168.1.1 or whatever private IP and then have the VPN client app tunnel that IP range. OpenVPN is probably going to be the easiest way to do this without spending a lot of money and it supports PCs, iOS, and Android. A pfSense box on the edge of your SOHO network would work great for this and you would be getting a great firewall at the same time. It also makes your remote soft phone system much more secure. I think the RT-N66U might be able to do OpenVPN, with DD-WRT I know it could, but I don't think the performance is going to be all that great. If you only have two or three VPN clients it will probably be fine but if you have a bunch of them I wouldn't expect great results. Running an OpenVPN server on your own pfSense box is a bit beyond home networking but it sounds like we are talking about a small business network and there are lots of guides and documentation on on both pfSense and OpenVPN out there. Each project also has forums where you can ask questions. If you do decide to go with pfSense make sure you use a CPU with AES-NI (ie: a rather modern Intel CPU) so you will have hardware encryption acceleration. Personally I am a fan of the Atom C2000 line, especially the C2558 and C2758. There are also commercial VPN solutions such as Cisco AnyConnect on the ASA series of firewalls but that involves expensive hardware, expensive licenses, even more expensive support contracts, and a UI that only a network engineer has any hope of understanding. Antillie fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Apr 10, 2015 |
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Apr 10, 2015 13:48
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:Is there any way, on a SOHO network running a RT-N66U, to set up some sort of DNS system that allows devices to connect to one address and automatically recognize whether the connection is coming from inside the network or from the Internet? Edit^: Don't necessarily need VPN. Don't use any Cisco UI... It's just a giant clusterfuck. Some gateway devices let you set static A records for the 'inside'(Mikrotik). May only work if you're using DHCP and then using the gateway as the DNS resolver, though. Another solution would be a device that supports DNS doctoring. Prescription Combs fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Apr 10, 2015 |
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Apr 10, 2015 13:54
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Prescription Combs posted:Edit^: Don't necessarily need VPN. I don't see how an internal DNS resolver for DHCP client names or static internal A records is going to help when the client devices are out on the internet somewhere. I like the DNS doctoring idea. I hadn't though of that. But that requires buying a domain name and forwarding ports on the edge device. While those things are easy forwarding ports to any sort of internal system makes me very nervous. Most phone systems aren't designed with security in mind and exposing one to the internet like that is just asking for trouble. Antillie fucked around with this message at 14:03 on Apr 10, 2015 |
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Apr 10, 2015 13:59
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Antillie posted:I don't see how an internal DNS resolver for DHCP client names is going to help when the client devices are out on the internet somewhere. Especially when the server for the phone system is almost certainly going to be on a static IP. The internal server w/ a static A record set would have to rely on there being an external A record, of course. But if your phones were setup with DHCP and you used the gateway as a 'cache' server, you could do something like this with a static internal entry: code:But yeah, I agree on the security thing. VPN would be ideal.
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Apr 10, 2015 14:04
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So that just goes back to DNS doctoring (or something that imitates it) and port forwarding. I don't think an RT-N66U is going to be up to the task of internal A records without DD-WRT and some hacking. If you have a MikroTik box you already have VPN capable hardware anyway. Although it looks like you don't get a "real" VPN box until you get to the higher end models. Still, the DNS idea is a very interesting solution.
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Apr 10, 2015 14:23
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Yeah, I suppose the VPN solution is the simplest although I have 0 faith in users actually figuring out the two extra actions involved in enabling the VPN before opening the softphones. Thanks for the suggestions!
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Apr 10, 2015 14:45
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Looks like DD-WRT can do it. It's called DNSMasq in their terms. address=/machine_or_domain_name/ip_address address=/phones.buttes.lol/192.168.1.1
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Apr 10, 2015 14:46
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I think the method Prescription Combs proposed with DD-WRT and DNSMasq is the simplest way to do it. My only reservation about it is that it provides no security. Going with OpenVPN on DD-WRT is doable but the RT-N66U isn't going to have much VPN performance and it might be a real pain to set up. Users can learn to log in to a VPN before trying to use company resources. Its a very normal thing in the corporate world. I support tens of thousands that do it every day. Once they learn the routine its not so bad. Antillie fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Apr 10, 2015 |
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Apr 10, 2015 15:19
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If you absolutely cannot get SOHO/SMB hardware, you can setup OpenVPN on DD-WRT. The client is free and runs on tons of platforms  Setting it up looks... interesting  http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/OpenVPN
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Apr 10, 2015 16:05
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Even if you can live with the terrible VPN throughput of a consumer router I think the OpenVPN Setup Wizard and Client Configuration Export Utility on pfSense alone make it worth investing some money in a pfSense box. Being able to hand out a Windows installer .exe file that is completely preconfiguired for your specific VPN setup to your users and say "install this" is priceless.
Antillie fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Apr 10, 2015 |
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Apr 10, 2015 16:44
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Simple question: I have this repeater in my parents house, the fast ethernet port is currently being used in their smart TV, and they now want to get netflix into their home theatre room. However, since there is concrete in the walls of the theatre room, no wifi signals will pass through it. The closest AP is that repeater next to the smart TV. So here is my question: Could I plug an unmanaged switch into the fast ethernet port on that repeater, and then use one port on the switch to run to the smart TV, and another port on the switch to run a cat5/6 into the theatre room? It makes sense to me that it would work, but I'm not sure how that repeater does DHCP. I don't know if the repeater itself will dole out IP's to clients connected to it, or if it will pass through to the main router, or if it'll just not work at all. Can anybody give some advice?
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Apr 10, 2015 18:30
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MustardFacial posted:Simple question: I have this repeater in my parents house, the fast ethernet port is currently being used in their smart TV, and they now want to get netflix into their home theatre room. However, since there is concrete in the walls of the theatre room, no wifi signals will pass through it. The closest AP is that repeater next to the smart TV. The repeater is just extending the network so all the TCP/IP addressing is handled by the router. You should be able to hook up a switch to it and plug in multiple devices, just beware that it may not be a stellar connection for netflix. It's definitely worth trying as a first step, though. Next step would probably be to do the same setup but with powerline networking boxes instead of wireless range extenders (if the wireless signal isn't solid enough for netflix streaming, definitely try it with a $20 switch first though).
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Apr 10, 2015 19:39
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Keep in mind with Asus routers, ddwrt doesn't have access to the proprietary hardware acceleration, and you'll see decreased performance across the board, not just through the VPN (you don't want to do VPNing on a SOHO router though, seriously though, tried it for a client on a RTN66U, caps at maybe 15Mbps). You're much better off using merlin's fork of the stock firmware which still included the proprietary driver blobs and has support for exactly what you want to do. Firmware: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin Pertenant docs: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Custom-config-files John Capslocke fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Apr 10, 2015 |
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Apr 10, 2015 19:54
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Rexxed posted:The repeater is just extending the network so all the TCP/IP addressing is handled by the router. You should be able to hook up a switch to it and plug in multiple devices, just beware that it may not be a stellar connection for netflix. It's definitely worth trying as a first step, though. Next step would probably be to do the same setup but with powerline networking boxes instead of wireless range extenders (if the wireless signal isn't solid enough for netflix streaming, definitely try it with a $20 switch first though). Thanks for the help! I was going to go powerline adapters if this didn't work anyways, I was just curious if I could do it with the hardware I had laying around. [edit] can you plug a powerline adapter into a power strip? I may have to get slightly creative with placement otherwise. MustardFacial fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Apr 10, 2015 |
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Apr 10, 2015 20:34
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MustardFacial posted:[edit] can you plug a powerline adapter into a power strip? I may have to get slightly creative with placement otherwise. Most powerline kits recommend a dedicated outlet for highest possible sync speeds.
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Apr 10, 2015 20:43
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Generally no, they'll filter the data portion out. They have them with pass through outlets though that might work better in your situation.
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Apr 10, 2015 20:44
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My sister called with a strange issue. Apparently her laptop's internet connection works "fine" at school (I gather the school's service isn't great) and her boyfriend's laptop and their phones all work fine at home, but her laptop's internet doesn't work well at home. She's on Windows 8 (the 8.1 update apparently doesn't actually complete, but that's another matter). I spitballed and told her to remove the connection and try adding it again. If that doesn't work, what else can we try? I've never heard of a thing where only one specific combination of computer and router is a problem; usually changing one or the other fixes things.
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Apr 10, 2015 23:51
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hooah posted:My sister called with a strange issue. Apparently her laptop's internet connection works "fine" at school (I gather the school's service isn't great) and her boyfriend's laptop and their phones all work fine at home, but her laptop's internet doesn't work well at home. She's on Windows 8 (the 8.1 update apparently doesn't actually complete, but that's another matter). I spitballed and told her to remove the connection and try adding it again. If that doesn't work, what else can we try? I've never heard of a thing where only one specific combination of computer and router is a problem; usually changing one or the other fixes things. This wouldn't happen to be a very old laptop that didn't originally ship with Windows 8 would it? The fact that the 8.1 update won't install makes me think this is an older machine that got upgraded to Windows 8 quite some time after it was purchased. If this is the case, does the wifi network at home only use WPA2/AES and no TKIP? If so, try turning on WPA or TKIP or mixed mode. This will hurt security, but it is compatible with older hardware, specifically old wifi card drivers. But yeah, that's really strange.
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Apr 10, 2015 23:57
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Antillie posted:This wouldn't happen to be a very old laptop that didn't originally ship with Windows 8 would it? The fact that the 8.1 update won't install makes me think this is an older machine that got upgraded to Windows 8 quite some time after it was purchased. If this is the case, does the wifi network at home only use WPA2/AES and no TKIP? If so, try turning on WPA or TKIP or mixed mode. This will hurt security, but it is compatible with older hardware, specifically old wifi card drivers. She says it did ship with 8.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:10
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hooah posted:My sister called with a strange issue. Apparently her laptop's internet connection works "fine" at school (I gather the school's service isn't great) and her boyfriend's laptop and their phones all work fine at home, but her laptop's internet doesn't work well at home. She's on Windows 8 (the 8.1 update apparently doesn't actually complete, but that's another matter). I spitballed and told her to remove the connection and try adding it again. If that doesn't work, what else can we try? I've never heard of a thing where only one specific combination of computer and router is a problem; usually changing one or the other fixes things. Could we get more details on the symptoms? "Doesn't work well" is not very useful for troubleshooting a problem.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:12
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isndl posted:Could we get more details on the symptoms? "Doesn't work well" is not very useful for troubleshooting a problem. IIRC, she said that the loading spinner will just go, for at least a long time; I don't remember if she said it would ever load, but she's supposed to call me back to tell me what, specifically, the problem with the 8.1 update is, so we'll see.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:18
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Its also possible that the laptop has a wireless G card but the network is set to N mode only. Or Windows has the SSID saved with different encryption settings and is just failing to connect repeatedly.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:26
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Would either of those things have caused it to gradually decline in level of "working"? I'm sorry, but I forgot to mention that this wasn't a sudden change - she said it's been getting worse over the last while.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:29
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The antenna in the laptop may be going out. The school network probably has enterprise grade APs with really nice antennas and an overlapping channel coverage layout that helps to disguise the issue. Do you have an external WiFi adapter that you can test with? As for the Windows 8.1 update, either the CPU doesn't support it or the current Windows install is hosed up.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:40
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If I change the LAN IP address of my Archer C7 v2 to 192.168.1.1 instead of 0.1 it no longer accepts login credentials at the admin page. Anyone else see this bug? It does this on the most recent firmware, but not with stock.
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Apr 11, 2015 00:43
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I don't have any personal experience with the Archer C7. But maybe resetting the router by unplugging it and plugging it back in after you have made the IP changes will make it come to its senses and work with the new IP settings?
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Apr 11, 2015 03:52
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I'm kind of confused as to why the OP still recommends the Airport Extreme. You cannot change any settings really, even basic ones, because Apple removed the ability to do that in the newest versions of the Airport Utility. You can't even use the older versions of the software to make the changes because the firmware automatically reverts the settings back to automatic (I think). I have it split into 5 and 2.4 GHz networks, but I'm experiencing bizarre gaming latency on the 5 Ghz network (but not the 2.4 Ghz one). I feel like I could probably fix it if I could access the settings, but I am literally locked out from doing so. I also note that the OP says it is the router for people that don't really want to mess with settings but not being able to change *any* settings borders on the absurd. Anyways, just my two cents. Debating on returning it for a Batman-looking router.
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Apr 11, 2015 08:30
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beergod posted:I'm kind of confused as to why the OP still recommends the Airport Extreme. The OP also hasn't been updated since 2012, so all of its recommendations are out of date really.
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Apr 11, 2015 08:45
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Any idea why I'm getting gaming latency on the 5 Ghz network but not the other one? What more information can I provide so you guys can help me troubleshoot it?
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Apr 11, 2015 08:52
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Are you sure it's latency? Maybe you're just hitting packet loss, since 5ghz signals don't penetrate walls as well. Do you still get it when the client is closer to the router? Also try running some ping and tracert commands to see if you can isolate a pattern.
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Apr 11, 2015 08:58
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