Home Wireless Router question

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Figured I'd pick the brains of the wireless whiz kids here. At home, I use a Linksys Wireless-G 2.4GHz router to feed our cable modem to our wireless-N capable laptops and printer. Have been for several years. We also have a desktop PC that still has only wireless-G capability. Lately, we've been dropping signal or getting really crappy response on the internet. I'm wondering if the old router is giving up the ghost and if there's any benefit in speed and reliability going to a newer dual 2.4/5.0 GHz wireless-N router.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
It may be your cable modem. Unless you have upgraded it, it may not be working to the full capacity of the cable system.
Contact your cable provider and ask what docis (Data Over Cable Interface Specification)you need. If your modem is docis2 you probably should get a docis3.
I was dropping connections left and right till I got a new modem.

Peace
Dave
 

rgwilliams69

Well-known member
John if your wireless devices are dropping signal then it is likely the wireless router and not the cable modem. Generally depending on your service provider you can call them and they can look at logs to see if the modem has been losing connection or going up/down. In my experience I have seen Linksys equipment fail slowly in the past, which is likely what you are experiencing. Also depending on how many of your neighbors have adopted wireless networking the channel space these G 2.4GHz routers use could be getting quite crowded. I'd recommend that you upgrade to one of the new N routers, especially if you have devices that can connect at 5.0 and use the N 5.0 Ghz bandwidth space. Lots of improvements in the last few years that will help with both stability and wireless range (from the router to your devices). Don't let anyone talk you into one of the high priced models either, just a standard capability set will do. If you shop on Amazon, probably something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-E1200-L...=1359430586&sr=1-3&keywords=wireless+n+router

You could probably even go with one of the factory refurbished ones and be just fine, and get all the way down to spending less than $20 and still be good to go for several years. The price drop in devices like this over the past 10 years has been fantastic.

Good luck!
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Thanks for the replies, guys. But right now, I'm thinking it just might be the Comcast modem that's the culprit. It doesn't want to connect at all. My computer says it's connecting to the router OK, but the modem isn't passing the cable signals. At the moment, I'm using our Verizon 4510L MiFi device, and not having any problems. IPhones, the wireless printer and the three computers are able to access it (not all at once). I'd consider dropping the cable internet completely, but sometimes I take the MiFi with me and the wife is at home. No internet for her and the web sales economy would collapse.

Think I'll just pack up the modem and exchange it (again) for another one.

Hours later: WAHOOO! I finally got the new modem to connect. Seems there was a service outage in the area, possibly due to the storm last night. At first, the new one wouldn't work, but it's suddenly come to life. Have to cross my fingers & toes that I don't start getting IE lockup again.
 
Last edited:

scottyb

Well-known member
John, I went through almost exactly the same thing. I was convinced it was my cable provider since we are way out in the sticks, but they kept saying no. I finally replaced my 5 year old router and voila. I couldn't believe I had put up with it for so long, blaming the cable company.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
John, I went through almost exactly the same thing. I was convinced it was my cable provider since we are way out in the sticks, but they kept saying no. I finally replaced my 5 year old router and voila. I couldn't believe I had put up with it for so long, blaming the cable company.

I'll probably replace the router before too long, as well. I know I've had it at least 6 years, but it seems to be working fine at the moment. Overall speed, with the new modem, seems to be a tad faster, too. It's hard to pin down electronic gremlins.
 

Silverado23

Iowa Chapter Leaders
I'm wondering if the old router is giving up the ghost and if there's any benefit in speed and reliability going to a newer dual 2.4/5.0 GHz wireless-N router.

As far as moving to a dual band router, The biggest advantage is more bandwidth that is not overlapping. 2.4 GHz has three channels that do not overlap. 5 GHz has many more that do not overlap. This means that you and your neighbors will not be fighting over the same space and that the speed will more likely be close to the advertised speed limited to other environmental factors. Many times, there is little to no traffic on the 5GHz channels.

I use a free wireless scanner app called inSSIDer, http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/, that checks the area for known and potentially unknown wireless networks. It tells me the signal strength, channel and names of those networks. It is very useful in picking a channel and diagnosing weak signals or conflicting wireless routers.
 

JohnD

Moved on to the next thing...
I know this topic thread is a little old, but thought I'd chime in!

I was having the same issues a few months back . . .

My Motorola cable modem was 10 years old and it just kept dropping me all the time.

I bought a new one at Office Max and all problems solved!

Now I'm looking at Wifi range extenders as our new trailer sits further away in our yard than the old one did (due to size) from the hotspot and the Wifi doesn't reach the new trailer.

I have a Belkin N300 Wireless N router . . . maybe a couple of years old.

When the weather is decent we like to hang out in the camper sometimes when not on the road, plus we also use it as a guest house when we have visitors, so having Wifi out there is often handy!
 

greg7140

Member
John, although a little expensive I have used this hi-gain repeater (see LINK) for the past 2.5 years and it works fantastic.

Now that 4G LTE is more available nation wide I don't use it very much anymore (use the built in hotspot on my iPad now) when on the road, but when I was using it all the time it certainly did the job well! I mostly used it during the summer at the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) national flying site in Muncie, IN. They have Wireless around their 1200 acres of flying sites, but it wasn't always the most reliable at the campground. The most reliable wireless was coming from the omni-directional antenna on the roof of their Headquarters building about 3/4 of a mile away across open field. This Hawkins Tech unit could latch on to this signal from the HQ building easily! I just would mount the unit on the ladder of the Camper and point towards the HQ building.

Now, I mostly use it like you are suggesting, I have mounted it on the Barn where the camper is parked and point towards the house a few hundred feet away. I have perfect internet from my wireless router in the center of our house to the barn. This may be a little overkill for you application, but if you stay in camp grounds that have wireless "only" at the clubhouse or you are parked in a site that wireless is "iffy" putting this unit even on a desk pointed towards the source will help bring in those week signals to a usable level.

This repeater/extender uses a PoE injector to power the unit so the only connection to the unit on the camper ladder was a normal Ethernet cable, the injector was plugged in to 110v inside the camper. I had a ToyHauler at the time I was using it a lot, so I just ran the Ethernet cable out the ramp door and then closed the ramp door on the cable. It may be a little trickier in a normal coach to get the cable outside if that is what you wanted to do. I looked a long time for a outside weatherproof Ethernet jack I could install so I didn't have to run cable out the ramp door but never did found one...

anyway...sort of a long post to say this Hawkings Tech outside repeater/extender worked great for me! :)
 

JohnD

Moved on to the next thing...
John, although a little expensive I have used this hi-gain repeater (see LINK) for the past 2.5 years and it works fantastic.

That is a cool unit, although it might be a little overkill for my use.

That looks like the kind of Wifi amp that the campgrounds should have spread about to boost their signal around the grounds.

My camper is only about 80 feet from the Wifi, but it is in the basement on the opposite side of the garage and house from the camper and doesn't seem to make it through all of those walls (and the kRap I've got in my garage :rolleyes: ).
 
Top