[Tech] It's time for a new Router.

[Traxata]

So, Once again I am in the place for a new router.

The last time we did this, after Vibs and myself sat here poking the D-link I bought, it turned out that D-link had neutered their routers, and decided that they needed less memory, which wasn't capable of handing the network traffic in my house.


So.... People!

Suggestions on a new home router, I think I remember Haven having said something about this recently, and as I can't have BE broadband here, I'm stuck to ADSL(8mb) but will be having ADSL2+ installed in the exchange next spring ...

 

[Ronin Storm]

After my D-link router died a few months back, I replaced it with a Netgear DG834G. Big mistake. Poor wireless reception, kept dropping connections (even on wired) and generally entirely unimpressive. Gave up, bought a real router. Now I use the BeBox as an ADSL modem that passes straight back to Draytek Vigor 2910VG. Great router, but no ADSL modem (hence the need for the BeBox coverted to bridging mode). Also expensive but I don't anticipate I'll need a new router for years, now.

 

[Traxata]

Well, I have no problems doing that per sé, I could use the windows server as a router, and just have a modem connected to it...

 

[Haven]

Old thread discussing some modem/routers here.

Not entirely sure if you really mean router or you mean modem/router ?

I'll wait on that confirmation before I write a wall of text

 

[Traxata]

Well, currently I have a Belkin Modem Router combo, only 4 port ethernet.

That leads to a 5 port netgear switch in the living room, and a 16port netgear switch upstairs.

I do however, need to do some re-cabling as home improvments have damaged some of them...

 

[Traxata]

So, to expand on this, a Netgear (BT) wifi router / modem was purchased and so far has been worse than the belkin.

WE have changed from Pipex ISP to O2 (essentially Be broadband) but not n the unbundled as our exchange isn't capable of dealing with it. So, I have 'Standard' ADSL (8MB) with o2 sending us their new router / modem. (version II).

I am wondering if I will need a router and use the O2 device as a WiFi modem? Or if it should be able to cope.

The Netgear thing we got (£85) is going back as it is utterly dreadful.

 

[Haven]

My personal preferences are Zyxel which I used for many years without any issues, the old model I used had a really good telnet interface as well as the web one. Currently using Cisco 877 which will set you back anywhere from 110 - 150 on ebay but not recommended for the faint of heart as there is no web interface and cisco syntax is tricksy. That being said its a serious bit of kit and had solid reliability.

Outside of that I've bought my parents a DLink that continues to work well for several years and the in-laws were bought a Linksys that continues to do the same.

Netgear are cheap and fast but not reliable as I'm guessing you've already found.

Whatever you get make sure its ADSL2+ compatible as you will eventually need it even if you don't currently. Finally the usual rule applies, you get what you pay for ... spend a little extra to avoid hassle if thats a concern.

 

[Traxata]

This is what we were using (and have temporarily gone back to) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Modem-Built-Wireless-Router/dp/B0006Z8JZW/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_3

This is the Netgear thing we bought, but for routing, the DHCP / DNS (not sure which as I tried setting every machine up on a static IP) would just lock up and keel over while under any sort of demand. I couldn't narrow it down to any specific thing causing the lock ups, but they managed to throw the entire internal network into disarray. Even with machines set up on static IP's, I would get (in Win XP terms) Limited or No Connectivity, lost access to my server and any other machine
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/netge...adsl-router-and-usb-adapter-01565642-pdt.html

So, that's going back this weekend and I'll switch over to the o2 modem.

 

[Haven]

Such a confusion of terms in your last post that my head kinda sploded

Routing - happens at the Network (ip) layer and is totally independant of DHCP/DNS
DNS - happens at the application layer as does DHCP

So to break your problem down, firstly look at routing (layer 3) and switching (layer 2) i.e. connectivity to internal hosts and then connectivity to external hosts using only ip addresses! Look at both wired and wireless connectivity separately and hopefully you'll identify any suspect devices that need some attention.

For packet monitoring whilst you are doing this use Wireshark, it works on both windows and linux and does everything you are likely to want.

Once you've done the above move onto DNS using static ip's and check for external domain lookups and whether that is working.

Finally do DHCP as its the hardest of the lot to debug, it uses broadcast packets and sometimes gets caught up in weird wireless broadcast blocking issues (usually driver related).

 

[Traxata]

It may have been confusing, hmm.


What was happening, was both the Wifi and the wired were locking up. All machines wired up have static IP addresses.

Netgear was 192.168.0.1
Desktops went from 192.168.0.101 onwards.
Server was 192.168.0.100

DHCP was limited to range 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.99

Nothing on the WiFi was manually configured.

When the router locked up and keeled over, it was as though (if the desktop and server were using automatic IP assignment from DHCP on the router) it lost the router and windows started generating its own IP's (even though I had manually configured all network adaptors).

Has that helped you at all?

 

[Haven]

Netmasks and default gateways are important too ya know If mis-configured it might explain some of the issues.

As for windows grabbing random ip's definitely odd.

 

[Traxata]

I configured the gateways

Primary = Router 192.168.0.1
Secondary = Server (intranet) 192.168.0.100

Netmask is the same