Home Networks

popowich

Hello,

What switch or routers do you use for your home network?

What features does it have that you need?

What features does it have that you don't need?

I have an older Linksys VPN Router.

It would be nice if it did wireless too, but I don't mind running cables.

-Raymond

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yukon

I fit 2 laptops and 4 desktops on two wireless routers. They both have 4 port switches built in. One is a linksys w54rtg (something like that) the other is the default ActionTek provided by verizon for my FiOS. As far as vendor provided routers go, the actiontek is surprisingly good. I get full admin rights, and its at least as stable as any other soho router. The only thing it really lacks is good logging, which for my home I don't really care about anyhow. The ui is a little clunky but seems simple enough to use as a simple user or a more advanced engineer.

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Big Dan

2 Laptops, 2 Desktops, and 3 guest laptops on a simple Linksys - WRT something or other. It's about 3 years old and a nice solid router. Although I had bought a Belkin router for use at a friends house and file transfers between wired computers went much much faster. I don't do much on the home networking end mostly just use it as an internet gateway. I'm currently looking for sync apps to have changes made on my laptop display on my desktop and vice versa.

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Raven

Linksys wireless router from Comcast. One desktop for Mr. Raven I put him wired because it wasn't staying online. Each of us have a linksys aircard on our laptop.

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Raven

Right now I am using a wireless Netgear that comcast has supplied and my laptops have linksys aircards. I just got in the mail today a Dynex Enhanced Wireless Modem .

Someone donated it to my organization. Has anyone ever heard of this router. And if it is easy to set up. I never set up a wireless modem before. I know with previous modems after I am done I had to call comcast and give them the info. I just wonder if this modem was any good.

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popowich

I'm under the impression from past years that Netgears are not so great, and Linksys is the way to go, but if it works for you then I guess that doesn't matter. Did they give you the manual for it? You should be able to configure the wireless settings using your web browser. Try going to http://192.168.0.1 and http://192.168.1.1 in your web browser and see if you can find the configuration page there. If not do a start -> run -> command (OK) and run ipconfig /all to get your ip address and try .1 in that network keeping the first three parts the same. If you don't know the user/pass the default is usually username: admin and password: password.

-Raymond

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yukon

from the IP config output you will find a "Default Gateway" such as:
Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : nyc2.attens.com
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.102
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

In this case 192.168.1.1 is my default gateway. This will be INSIDE (LAN) facing interface on your router (assuming you are directly connected to it via cable or wireless). This is the address you will use to connect to your router on. Again, assuming you are using any SOHO SOHO = small office / home office) level router produced within last 5-10 years, it will have a web interface and you simply put into your web browser http://192.168.1.1 or https://192.168.1.1. The default username and password can change based on what hardware / firmware / manufacturer you have and you should check with the manufacturer's website. Most usually its admin / password or admin / admin or some variation there of. Linksys for years was no username, admin for passowrd -> I believe they recently went to admin/password.

If you are one of the hundreds of thousands or millions of users that have the typical Linksys WRT54g series of routers, many of you don't know that the firmware is actually open source. The rumor I heard was it was the first thing Cisco did when Linksys a few years ago . . . open the firmware. The neat thing about it is you can download and install alternatitive firmewares giving your router far more capabilites, and in some instances significant performance enhancements. MaximumPC did a nice little writeup on two of the more common choices in a reasonably recent issue, these are the two it compared:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD-WRT
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware
http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

I honestly forget which one won the rounds of tests, and am still looking for the article it was in . . . if I find it, I'll post a link later.

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Raven

I can't stand Netgear. It is terrible. I feel like I am on a slow boat to China half the time. No it did not come with a manual but they are always downloadable on the website. I will try and configure it when I am not so busy. I have alot of students starting with the organization this school year, college and high school so I need to be online. Thats all I need is to mess something up and not be able to get online. Oh, and if Mr. Raven couldn't get online to play WOW, YIKES. Thanks for tips.

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yukon

not the article I was looking for, but this one shows you how to install Tomato:
http://dl.maximumpc.com/Archives/MPC0708-web.pdf (goto page 19)
I think the one I'm looking for is in a current issue and won't be available in PDF for another month or two.

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