The wireless router at my mom’s house and sisters house quite simply- stink. Constantly dropping signal and resetting.
Has anyone upgraded their wireless router and did it make a noticeable difference?
From the very little research I’ve done the newest routers are capable of doing way more throughput than ones available just a couple years ago.
What are your best bang-for-your buck home computer upgrade suggestions? ram is always cheap, better wireless router, cheap plug and play speakers with subwoofers?
One of the cheapest and best upgrades I did probably over 10 years ago was a sub $50 Cambridge Soundworks speaker upgrade. Two tiny speakers which sit on either side of my monitor and a subwoofer that sits under my desk. Literally plug in two wires and the wall outlet and the sound from my desktop PC is at least 10 times better than what you get from a monitor that might have a couple small tinny speakers built in.
Share if you will your experiences with wireless routers or other computer peripherals that dollar for dollar made your system much better.
Good Morning Gloucester 
What kind of Router is it and who is your internet provider. I had a problem early this year with routers and access points connected to comcast with wireless n turned on. They would constantly drop and reboot. You can check pretty easily by turning n off and seeing if it works consistently.
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My first Router was a NETGEAR. I don’t remember the cost but it was not expensive and it lasted me three years until I moved from Florida to So. Carolina last July – then it was useless. My son in law had an extra one, an ARRIS5402 which he said coast about $150 new and was a year old. I connected it and, it works fine, so far.
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Have you tested the throughput? There are a bunch of websites that can do it like speedtest.net. if that is okay, look into a power cycle adapter. You can pick one up for $20 or so. It will automatically power cycle your router and modem in the middle of the night. I thought my router was the issue too but it just needed to be power cycled.
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never even heard of a power cycle adapter. guess i need to look into it
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OK, I’ve done searches and I can’t even find the device you’re talking about. A ‘lil help?
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http://smile.amazon.com/NetReset-NR-1000US-Automated-Cycler-Routers/dp/B00HUEU9H8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419972906&sr=8-1&keywords=power+cycle
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I’ve dealt with many routers on my own and through my computer business here in Gloucester. Personally, my issues were that I was a very heavy user – torrents for Linux installation can bring down some consumer routers, and things only get worse with multiple torrents at the same time. I bought a Netgear years ago as it was rated to “survive” this, but it really didn’t do that well. At the time, the best one I could use was a Linksys WRT54GL router, running a third-party firmware (I used Tomato firmware, as it was far easier than DD-WRT or other similar ones). This router ran perfectly for years, until I simply got the upgrade itch and replaced it recently for one that can do wireless N or better. In fact, I currently have a friend who continues to run these routers ONLY as they are dead reliable with a third-party firmware.
My replacement (upgrade itch) router is an Asus RT-AC68U. This is a very well rated router, and even with the stock firmware it runs wonderfully. I don’t do as much torrenting these days, but it has been flawless when I have run a torrent… and nowadays I stream video and use its on-board USB port as a cheap NAS, and it works wonderfully in that regard as well. From what I’ve read, all of the newer Asus routers are equally capable. Another strong contender in this realm is the Netgear R7000 router, which was designed to target the Asus line directly… I hear it’s very capable as well. I simply chose the Asus as I got it on sale about a year ago for $110 (heck of a deal at the time!)
On the flipside, the newer Cisco (Linksys) routers are not great. These are the ones without antennas on the outside. A few of the E-series are good, but the rest are junk. Belkin routers are terrible. Dlink have been decent, but nothing amazing.
The bigger question I would ask is what sort of issues you are facing. If it’s really resetting itself, it may need a firmware update or something is causing a problem. Apple computers are notorious to bring down routers, because of there non-standard Wifi usage. I had a school come to me about this problem, where their router would stop serving their windows machines when an Apple laptop was on the network… crazy. They ended up dumping the Apple device, resolving their problem… but that’s not a viable solution for everyone, I know. I also had some customers who would lose signal with their microwave or cordless phone ringing (both can be on the same frequency, if you didn’t know). Lastly, you may want to check to ensure you are on a “clear” channel rather than one used by everyone in your neighborhood – too many routers on the same channel can cause disconnects too. Even just being 1 or 2 channels away isn’t enough (sideband issues)… you may need to switch FAR from the heavy frequencies…
Let me know if I can help further 🙂
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Well its not so much resetting but only working if I’m in the same exact room. Just one room over with thin walls and my devices just hang trying to load pages.
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Joey, I have a couple of things you could try. First I have an airport express idown in my office that I am not using andyou are welcome to borrow to see if the problem is your router, it would support up to 5 devices. I also have 2 access points you could try. Personally i gave up on combo routers a couple of years ago and now have a standalone Cisco 180 vpn router with 3 cisco 321 WAPs which give me the coverage i need to support the smart tv’s streaming netflix the streaming music in the house. Let me know and I will run the equipment down to you.
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Totally agree with Mr. Harvey – the combo units are terrible. I just had my parents rid themselves of their combo setup as well. You’re better off getting a Motorola cable modem (assuming you’re on Comcast) and a separate router. I’ve had my Motorola router since back in the Adelphia days… and it’s flawless. I used to have Adelphia change cable modems every few months, but I got tired of the loss of connection, the waiting for service, etc. The new ones are just as good. Then plug in a quality router and you should be good to go.
Note, for those seeing signal strength issues, again, check for interference from other devices (or neighbors on the same channel). And don’t bother with any of those “integrated antenna” routers – you need a good antenna to get the signal out properly. The Asus I mentioned, for example, has 3 antennas. In addition, the Asus ones have been noted to have excellent signal strength in general… which should help as well. For example, the RT-N66U was actually the router I had planned to get, but I ended up with the AC simply because it was on sale (cheaper than the N66 at the time)… and, of course, the AC is based on the N, which doesn’t hurt!
There are excellent comparison reviews and charts (for geeks like myself) at http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/ if you want to dig deeper. Again, I can highly recommend a Motorola Surfboard modem (SB6121/SB6141 are the current models) and a good router…
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Great discussion. My wireless access at home drops like five times a day. The little yellow exclamation point appears above the Internet access bars at the bottom right of my screen and I have to restart the laptop for the 17th time that day. We called Comcast and they came out to fix it but it’s still lousy. I’ll try some of these suggestions in the comments section above. Thanks to all the smart people who posted.
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Have you plugged the computer directly into the modem to see if it is the router? I would do the speed test connected to modem, hardwired to router and over wireless. See where your issues really are before spending any money.
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So I did a speed test yesterday and it was perfectly fine on my laptop and my cell phone. Which leads me to believe it may be an interference thing at times.
In room where modem is- download 40.39 Mbps upload 12.69
Next room over- download 29.15 Mbps upload 12.83
That sound normal?
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Who is the ISP, Comcast? Have had Verizon DSL in my home for 10 years with no issues, I dumped COMCAST as their service was not reliable. I work from home and I am on a Verizon Router with a built in WAP, no issues at all.
There is no need to reset a router or any network device on a regular basis, if you have to there are bigger issues.
Ask the IPS for the Service IP address for the current router and you check the logs and see if there are issues facing the ISP or WAP service. That will point you in the right direction. COMBATS has been know to throttle their speeds, especially if your a big bandwidth user.
Try http://www.speedtest.net: cable a computer directly to the COMCAST router and run the test then disconnect it and connect the computer via wireless and run the same test. Compare the results.
9 out 10 times the ISP is the issue, not the WAP device.
One of the better home routers: Pricy but worth it.
Asus AC2400 RT-AC87U Dual-band Wireless Gigabit Router 802.11ac
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Yes, thank you to the smart people replying! My Netgear/Comcast setup has been a fail since Thanksgiving or so. These are good suggestions!
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I set up pfsense on an old laptop and never looked back. It never crashes and is many times more powerful then any consumer grade router. In a nutshell take an old computer and load this custom Linux or BSD distribution. I also have an Aerohive WAP that I got for free and works great to handle the wireless part. http://www.pfsense.org http://www.aerohive.com
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I use a Linksys AC router (with antennas) and Linksys WUMC710 media connectors assigned to static IPs. I also use the WiFi Analyzer app to find any channel congestion and best router orientation. The Roku, Playstations, Tivo, TV, etc all running fine. And that equipment is spread over 3 floors in the house.
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Another good reason to get your own modem, instead of renting Comcast’s: http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/31/on-comcast-buy-your-own-modem/
Remember, the cost of the rental has never gone down… even though the equipment is getting cheaper and cheaper.
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In fact, Woot (one of the many deal-a-day sites) is having a sale on the Motorola cable modems today. Looks like the 6141 is sold out already, but the 6121 is still an excellent modem!
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Sorry – forgot to include the link: http://www.woot.com/plus/motorola-surfboard-cable-modems-1
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