Be Excellent To Each Other

The other week I had to reset my router. I did this by sticking a pin in the rest button rather than unplug it. It's the first time in ages and ages that I've done that but ever since then I've had problems.

My internet works fine on all the stuff that is hard wired through it (My Pc, Xbox360, PS3) but for some reason the wireless keeps cutting out. If I try going on internet on my phone it recognises that the router is there, but more often than not.. isn't able to connect. It's the same with the girlfriends phone.

This is only fixed by unplugging the router and plugging it back in something which I've had to do pretty much every day since the reset.

I've checked the router settings and apart from not knowing what I'm looking at, it all looks the same as it's ever looked.

Is my router broken?

Is it a Netgear? Fucking abysmal when it comes to wireless in my experience. For example, whenever I connect up my netbook to my DG834N router via wireless, 5 minutes after I turn off the netbook, the router will kill the wired ethernet connection and need a hard reset. Happens every single time...

But then that was better than my Thompson speedtouch, which locked up every single day and needed a hard reset, extremely handy when I was working away from home for weeks at a time and I needed to pull something from the home PC.

Or what about my Lynksys, that completely wiped itself of all software and firmware after it locked up one day and needed a hard reset. So much so that it was actually bricked to the extent that there wasn't any software left on it to accept a firmware re-install.

Then there was the Belkin, that couldn't hold on to an adsl connection for more than an hour at a time...

All cheap "home" routers are shit, no exception. I've just bought a Draytek Vigor and it is so nice in comparison, should have spent the £150 on that in the first place, rather than wasting money trying all the other pieces of crap.

Really? Weird - I have the DG834G v3 and the wireless side of it is rock solid - in fact the whole thing is rock solid, I've not needed to reboot it since.. well, I don't think I've *needed* to since I got it a year ago, and it's on 24/7.

I've been through several others that were almost unusably bad, belkin, 3com, even a fairly expensive one, D-link something or other.

So, get one of those TheVision, they're only 20 quid

Ah, I've had the G version too! But that started to fail after a year or so, it cooked itself. (Started to play up, when I looked on the underside it was a lovely shade of burnt brown) Up till then it was rock solid, hence why I thought I would go for the N version next time round. The N is total shite.

The cheapy routers are just luck as to whether you get one that has been built well enough, and works well enough in your environment. i.e. who else is running what on which channel, how close is your microwave to it, how thick are your walls, what you have connected up to it etc...

If there's one thing I've learned about routers in my time, it's that even if you buy one with glowing recommendation of others, it's absolutely pot luck whether or not it'll be a complete arse for you. I hate networking stuff.

I had a Belkin wireless router and it was the worst fucking thing I have ever used, ever.

If my mate's kids went for a pee and opened the bathroom door it would cut the signal.

Seriously, if you stepped in the path of the wireless between it and my computer it would drop the signal. Absolutely hateful router.

Gimme Dlink all day long.

As regular readers will be aware, I am a huge fan of the Draytek 2820, and have one at home as well as at the office. It is not a cheap router though but I got fed up with niggly problems on the cheaper units. The one issue I had with the Drayteks (occasional DHCP problems with Snow Leopard) was already fixed by the time I noticed it so was simply a quick flash update.

However I have also taken the precaution of having a spare new Netgear which is set up for hot swap just in case. I think it's a sensible precaution when you might be relying on your ADSL for work purposes. No matter how good your router may be, a power surge down the line can still kill it. I remember a friend once showing me his modem that had obviously been a victim of a lighting strike surge. The insides didn't look good!

I completely agree. Even the Draytek I ended up buying has it's foibles. Sure, it is rock solid hardware wise, but it is a real bitch to setup, it isn't intended for the home user at all really. If you have some moderate knowledge about networking then you'll be ok with some playing around and trial and error (hmm... do I need to go for the 1483 direct LLC or the 1483 bridged LLC? There isn't a single word of "1483 direct LLC" I understand, but apparently, that wasn't the one I wanted, certainly not with my PPPoA connection, whatever the fuck that is!), but for the average guy in the street who just wants to plug it in and have it work, then I wouldn't recommend it!

That is exactly my situation too, Draytek Vigor 2820 as my main router, Netgear DG834N as the backup in case that ever dies...

In my opinion, it depends. You see I come form a time when all ADSL routers were a bitch to setup, so its business as usual for me. It's only recently routers have been simplified.

Sure there are a plethora of menus available but you won't need to go most of them. Also there is a quick start option in the menus as well. I really don't recall either router being a challenge to set up. At least it is fairly intuitive and there are walkthroughs provided on CD unlike my first ADSL router in 2002 which was a right bitch.

Indeed, had the quick start wizard worked for me, I'm sure it would have been easy peasy. BeThere do things slightly different than your average ISP apparently, after about 20 mins of playing I wasn't getting anywhere, so I had to plug my netgear back in and search for the right settings. Once I had those it was another few minutes of hunting around for the right place to put various things in etc... Not awful by any means, but in comparison to the noddy routers it is certainly more complex

I hadn't taken into account the fact I use a business ISP who give you a setup email with lots of settings that the Netgear didn't want when I was setting it up. Might have been different if I hadn't had all those details to hand.

For a while, GJ and I had the same model of router and while mine has been near-perfect for me, she had nothing but problems. I blame her more than the router, obviously.

I've recently "upgraded" from a Netgear DG834G to a Netgear Rangemax DG834PN. The former providing many years of outstanding service and was only replaced so that I could get the extra range to reach the boy's 360 upstairs.

The Rangemax causes hassles on all the iPod touches and my iPhone as well as a 30% success rate on signing into PSN. I'm going back to BNC me.

So it sounds like it's broken then.. yes? And if I buy a new one.. that will be broken too.

Rubbish isn't it?

You can have my old DG834G if you want - works a treat just the wireless aerial is a bit wobbly.

Oooh just a thought - Have you tried the latest firmware? Worth a try I suppose.

I was thinking about getting another one of them to cure my parents' flakey wireless problem...

Without wishing to hijack the thread - does anyone have an old router lying about which can be re-purposed as a repeater, so I can get wifi in my garage? I see they are only about 30+ quid new but would prefer to reuse something.

That’s very kind thanks Trousers!

Would you mind if I had it and tried it to see if it fixes my problem? I’ll send my address in a PM and let me know what the postage is and I’ll cover it through paypal if you like.

Kalmar – By this it seems like I’ll have two routers, I’m more than happy to send you mine if Trousers fixes my problems. It used to work fine for me so maybe you’ll get lucky?

Edit - Yes. I have tried the latest firmware but it's still doing the same.

Aye no worries - it's just sat in the loft doing nothing so it may as well get some use.

Send me your details and I'll get it posted out.

I would recommend charity shops, I have seen several of the older G type in them on my travels and they always seem to price them at £2 (charity shop code for we have no idea what this is).

If you need me to look out for one on my travels I can do that as well. I tour the local charity shops every week in my obsession for glass.

Electrical stuff doesn't seem to appear in charity shops in Scotland. I could try freecycle but being lazy thought I'd start here

What model was yours anyway TheVision, I don't think you said? For turning into a repeater you have to load a different firmware and there's only specific models that will work for, if I understand correctly.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices
http://oldwiki.openwrt.org/CompleteTableOfHardware.html

You're right.. I didn't say!

I'll have to have a look when I get home. I can't remember off the top of my head but it's nowt fancy.

Am I missing something here? If you've reset the router with the reset button, then all the settings will have gone back to default. I'm surprised the wireless is even turned on at all, are you sure your phones aren't trying to connect to someone elses router with a similar name?
Try and have a look at the wireless settings and see if it's even turned on, what the SSID is and whether it's set to broadcast the SSID.

The reset button just resets it (i.e., reboot, same as powering off and on).
If you hold that button down for 20 seconds, *then* it clears all the settings, and you'd have to set it up again.
But I'm sure he's done the former or as you say it wouldn't be working now.

When I reset it I had to set it up on my computer again which included naming it and setting the wireless password. It's a specific name so it is broadcasting and I am connecting to it.. but only for a little while it seems.

Sorry Kalmar.. I forgot to look at what sort it is last night!

TheVision - sorry didn't get chance to send it out yesterday was too busy playing Mass Effect 2 working. Deffo out this morning though so will send off.

I saw on mine that the DHCP managed to give the same IP address to my iPhone and Laptop. Quality - not like it's got 250 odd addresses to choose from or anything.

I recommend locking the Mac address to specific IP's that you may not want to change. Saves the iPhone making a land grab for whatever the router feels like allocating.

Funnily enough I tried that and it's still coming back with 192.168.0.3 rather than the 23 I told it to use. Fucking thing.

Edit - no wait it's worked now. Needed a sleep obviously. Cheers Chinny as I would have just given up on that if you hadn't prodded me about it.