C
Char Jackson
I stand corrected. ;-)
J
J. P. Gilliver (John)
Ah: I think in UK one is pronounced rooter, and the other row- (as inGene E. Bloch said:
now or cow, not what you do with oars) ter. I can't remember which is
which, but it's probably the opposite way round to the US way! Rather
like tomato - which is mentioned in another post in this thread! (Also
what one does is route, and the other rout; I think the one that routes
signals routes, since it is helping them on their way.) [Though a rout
in the military sense could be said to do that too - isn't our language
wonderful!]
(I also think a "profiling tool" is something that should not be used by
a journalist/market researcher/etc., but by a woodworker.)
W
Wolf K
It's a wi-fi router, right? Wi-fi needs drivers.
Payu attention to context, please.
S
Stewart
I have a fairly large house (3100 sq ft) and my router works wellAntares 531 said:
throughout (upstairs and down) as well as outside by the pool and in
the driveway. Router is downstairs, off to one end of the house
(TP-Link WR700n). Coverage appears to be the same as the previous
Linksys WRT54G.
Or why not add just a repeater?
P
Paul
(Router has its own processor,Wolf said:
firmware, Wifi MAC and radio, and
needs no external help.)
Router
/ \
/ \
Wifi Card Wifi Card
Wifi Driver Wifi Driver
OS OS
Computer #1 Computer #2
Each computer, with a Wifi card or device, has a driver
so that the OS can use it. The drivers are considered
to be a user installable part on the computer end.
On the router, you can change the firmware if you want, to
either a later version of the manufacturer firmware, or
you can use one of the open-source replacement firmwares.
If you were to hack into the router (add a console port and
serial cable), yes, there's a Linux OS inside the router. And
the Linux OS uses a driver to control the Wifi MAC. But that
is not normally considered a "user serviceable part". If you're
a regular end-user of the router, you just turn it on, it boots
on its own and is ready to use.
The computer side, on the other hand, typically requires the user
to do something, to prepare for the Wifi Card they just bought.
Perhaps using the CD that came in the Wifi box.
HTH,
Paul
S
Stan Brown
Before trying yet another one, you might want to look at How-To Geek
for methods to boost signal strength.
https://www.google.com/search?q=router+signal+site:howtogeek.com
P
Paul
My opinion is, investigate first, before buying more hardware.Stewart said:
If you have a client computer that works well with the router,
walk that client computer around the house, and investigate
reception conditions. If the working client computer has
reception problems somewhere in the house, try to figure out
why. Does the house use steel beams ? Does it have a metal door
frame between rooms ?
If one client computer works well, no matter where in the house
you are using it, then there is nothing wrong with the router,
or the router antennas. Then, it's a question of why the other
client computer(s) aren't working. Bad card ? Incompatible version
of standard ? Etc. Don't throw away the card from the bad client
computer, because that card may turn out to work well with some
other router.
Paul
S
Stan Brown
I'll be charitable and assume you're trying to help.
But if that's true, then please be a little more careful about what
you say. (I believe others have suggested this to you in the past.)
There is no "router driver" on a Windows computer, because the router
is an external device that is not connected to or configured by
Windows.
There is probably some sort of wireless driver, at least in a broad
sense, that controls the *computer's* wireless but again has nothing
to do with the router. But that's irrelevant here because we already
know that the computer is able to talk to wireless.
S
Stephen Wolstenholme
There are two wi-fi routers on my system. They don't need routers.
Steve
S
s|b
The Linksys E2000 I suggested supports DD-WRT (which I have installed).
It should also support Tomato and OpenWRT.
A
Antares 531
Can this be done with only one phone DSL service? I have our household
phone/Internet DSL service set up in my one router but I didn't think
it would be possible to set up another router to the same DSL server.
Gordon
S
s|b
Also, the E2000 has 3 internal antennas and with the help of DD-WRT, the
signal can be boosted:
<http://www.howtogeek.com/56810/how-to-extend-your-wireless-network-with-dd-wrt/>
A
Antares 531
Followup:
I bought a Cisco/Linksys Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit with two
adapters and the necessary Ethernet cables but the setup instructions
are so minimal that I haven't been able to get it all figured out,
yet. I used the CD and went through the setup process but my desktop
computer doesn't seem to recognize the adapter that is attached to it.
I attached the adapter's Ethernet cable to the existing Netgear router
and plugged the adapter into a wall outlet with no surge protector, as
recommended. The setup process seems to have gone well but I still
can't get any form of connection to my wife's computer.
I'm wondering if this setup requires that both adapters be plugged
into the same power circuit that is served by the same breaker in the
power panel. That is, maybe it can't communicate through the power
breaker box from one household power circuit to another.
I'll keep working with it and maybe I'll get it figured out. It does
seem strange that there was such a miniscule amount of information
available in the package.
Any ideas or suggestion?
Thanks, Gordon
S
Stephen Wolstenholme
Sorry, my mistake, I didn't mean to imply that routers need routers. I
meant the routers don't need 'drivers'. I have two phone lines as well
so I probably could have two DSL services but I don't. One line was
for work. Now I could have one line disconnected but I'm moving house
soon so it's not my decision.
Steve
S
Stephen Wolstenholme
Is there a problem setting up security with Linksys? I ask because
when I look at the list of wireless connections in my area there is
often two Linksys listed. Neither need a security key.
Steve
C
Char Jackson
A repeater should be the very last choice, only to be used in an act
of desperation. In theory, a repeater halves the available wireless
throughput because it has to spend half of its time dealing with the
access point and the other half of its time talking (repeating). In
practice, however, the performance hit is usually much greater than
50%, frequently leaving you with 20% to 30% of what you had. If you
must deploy a repeater, use two radios, connected back to back, and
configure them to use non-overlapping channels (1, 6, or 11). Most
people won't go to that extra trouble and expense, however, making
single radio repeaters a very bad proposition.
A second access point is the better way to go, but only after doing a
complete site survey to see where the problem areas are. The solution
could be as simple as relocating the primary wireless access unit.
C
Char Jackson
Your clarification didn't help, but I see that a couple of folks have
gently guided you back onto the path, so I think we're ok.
C
Char Jackson
No problem with setting up security, but keep a couple of things in
mind.
First, all wireless routers and access points used to come with
security disabled. This makes setup much easier, since it's basically
just plug and play, but of course it's not secure. Many people would
just take the stuff out of the box, plug it in, and find that they
have a wireless connection. It's working, so they must be done, right?
Not so fast. Things like wireless encryption should be enabled, the
SSID should be changed, the router's password should be changed, the
wireless channel should possibly be changed, etc. (On a good day, I
can see 34 wireless networks from where I sit. Fully half are
operating on channel 6, a common default.)
Second, recent wireless hardware from the known brands are arriving
with a 'guest network' feature. This is a second SSID, separate from
the main SSID, that allows your guests to access your Internet
connection without being able to access your LAN. These guest networks
appear to be unencrypted, but when you connect and fire up a web
browser, you're prompted to enter a PIN to continue. So they aren't
really open, after all.
I suspect you're seeing one of those situations, probably the former.
C
Char Jackson
I've deployed several Powerline units from Zyxel and Netgear and they
worked fine across different circuits.
No, not without a model number to go on. With the ones I've used, (and
currently have in my house, although not Linksys brand), you plug both
units into their respective outlets. Next, you press a button on the
side of the first unit, then within a certain time (like a minute or
two) you press the corresponding button on the second unit. They find
each other and agree on an encryption key, and it's done. There's a
small utility that comes with them that allows you to see their
connection status, power and noise levels, and allows you to change
the encryption key if you don't like the random key they've used. That
utility program, and indeed the entire CD, is optional, but it may
contain a user manual so it's worth checking out.
C
Char Jackson
Multiple routers aren't a problem, but you should have a clear idea of
what problem you're trying to solve before you go down that road. In
most cases, one router will be the gateway router and the other
routers will connect to the LAN side of the gateway router. This
breaks up your network into multiple logically-separate networks,
however, so that's why I say you should only do this if you have a
specific problem in mind and think this is the way to solve it.