Router/Wireless Router nightmares please help me with a solution.

[sxr7171]

Okay, I'm sure I'm not alone in this boat but I've been through a few routers in my time and I have never found any of the consumer wireless routers to be reliable. I have bought different routers and every upgrade is just to see if a reliable router has been designed yet.

I won't bore you with a history and stick with my last 2 routers. But keep in mind that the last 3 routers before it all needed a regular reboot to keep working.

The last router is a DLink DIR-655. It has excellent reviews in general and on Smallnetbuilder. It is considered one of the best routers out there. It started needing a weekly reboot, and now needs one every day.

So I bought the current flavor of the month the Netgear WNDR3700. At $150 and being highly favorably reviewed everywhere with a new faster processor and more RAM and what not I thought this would work without needing a regular reboot. It turns out I was wrong. In fact it needs one so often that I returned to the DIR-655.

I'm sick and tired of these things. I've just about had it with these things, I've spent over $270 in the last year looking for a solution that works. None of them do.

I'm at this point now where I don't see the point in all the investment I made in my network and the devices on it if my router can't reliably deliver a network connection to my devices.

I realize its time to maybe think of enterprise products and I know those are expensive and I am willing to throw some money into the solution but I'd like to keep it under $500 if that is possible.

Please suggest anything. I'll just about try anything at this point.

EDIT: Just for informational purposes I do not use Bit-torrent at all.

 

[Emulex]

so you have a separate switch in front of the router?

why not just use a router and an AP and a switch? segregation of these roles helps alot.

 

[sxr7171]

so you have a separate switch in front of the router?

why not just use a router and an AP and a switch? segregation of these roles helps alot.

I have 2 switches behind(?) the router. The wireless router only has connected to it the WAN cable and a HDHomeRun TV Tuner and a 8 port switch. The HDHomeRun is there since it is close to cable/cable modem.

My problem tends not to be loss of wireless but rather loss of WAN connection and sometimes even loss of wired connections to my machines. All of my machines except for 2 laptops are connected by wired connections since I want to minimize my use of wireless.

I'm desperate enough to look into building a PFSense machine at this point. Just sick and tired of home/SOHO equipment.

 

[JackMDS]

While End-user Wireless Routers performance is Not devices that we should be proud of, they work for regular Internet use.

Your problem is Not the Routers per-se but the way your devices are connected at the WAN port.

I am not familiar with what you have there, but something is not connected as it should.


😎

 

[JimKiler]

I remember seeing a lot of N router reviews on newegg complaining of A heat and B issues and I assumed the technology was running too hot and A caused B.

I just got a Asus RT-N16 and have no issues. They have a cheaper N12 model but the reviews are terrible on newegg for this cheaper model.

 

[notposting]

Building your own pfsense box isn't a bad idea. It's what I use now (rocking an old P3-450) having migrated from BrazilFW (originally Coyote). Have you tried flashing any alternate firmwares? I know it won't cure something like insufficient cooling but some of the stock firmwares are supposed to be pretty bad.

 

[sxr7171]

While End-user Wireless Routers performance is Not devices that we should be proud of, they work for regular Internet use.

Your problem is Not the Routers per-se but the way your devices are connected at the WAN port.

I am not familiar with what you have there, but something is not connected as it should.


😎

There's only one cable going to a cable modem. The other devices are connected via a switch with the exception of the HDHomeRun.

 

[Emulex]

its the hdhomerun. it takes out my mighty wrt600n.

The hdhomerun really should be on a separate lan segment as it can push 60+ meg and cripple any router of that price range. move it!

 

[sxr7171]

its the hdhomerun. it takes out my mighty wrt600n.

The hdhomerun really should be on a separate lan segment as it can push 60+ meg and cripple any router of that price range. move it!

Ahh! I suspected this. I heard some reports about it doing that. It's kind of bad because well my cable connection is right next to my well cable internet connection. I guess I have to run a coax cable clear across the room to my switch or run a long ethernet back from my switch. All PITA solutions, but hey if it works it's all worth it!

EDIT: I wonder how a router with a gigabit switch would have such a poor gigabit switch to be crippled by the HDHomeRun. I always thought the router and internal switch are separate. Any $40 switch should be fine right? Perhaps I could just connect one such 5 port switch to the router and then connect the HDHomeRun to that switch? Would that work?

 

[Emulex]

yeah you want nothing but a switch plugged into your router lan segment. $19 asus 8 port gigabit is what i have now.

 

[sxr7171]

So I got myself a Cisco 16 port gigabit switch. It seems a lot more reliable, until this morning when I had to power cycle the router again. When this happens it won't let me access the web interface until I power cycle it.

This is the DIR-655.

 

[PUN]

So I got myself a Cisco 16 port gigabit switch. It seems a lot more reliable, until this morning when I had to power cycle the router again. When this happens it won't let me access the web interface until I power cycle it.

This is the DIR-655.

Change your AC. Make sure you are not using ur old DIR655 AC with WDR3700.
They degrade over time and does not provide enough juice to make ur router stable.