OT Wireless Router.....

[TommyS]

Hi to all. Very off topic,but would anyone have any insight on a wireless router? Our cell phone reception( mostly internet)is lousy inside the condo.Any input is greatly appreciated. Thx!!!!

 

 

 

 

[J. Dan]

I'm partial to Cisco. What do you have now? Sometimes slight changes in location can make a big difference. I have my router sitting on the floor of my 3rd floor in the middle of the house, and get great reception everywhere in the house, including streaming Netflix over wifi to my PS3 on the first floor.

[The Real MC]

I bought NetGear per my satellite installer's recommendation. Works well.

[Delaware Dave]

I bought a Cisco router that would constantly lose the 'handshake' to my modem. I would constantly have to reboot the router (almost daily). It finally bit the dust and I purchased a reconditioned Belkin router and it's worked perfectly for three years.

[JeffLearman]

I've used a bunch of different ones. Some had to be rebooted now and then, others didn't. No particular correlation to brand. Newer ones seem better than older ones.

 

For most folks, just get an inexpensive one. The only reason to need the highest speeds is if you have a home network and are distributing video by wireless. Even then, "N" should be good enough, and it's been around long enough that it's not expensive.

 

Seems that Cisco sold off the Linksys arm, so maybe they're not Cisco any more, or soon won't be. Back to Linksys? Idunno. It probably won't make much difference.

[J. Dan]

I'm pretty sure Linksys is gone and it's just Cisco now. I used to go through routers every 1-2 years it seemed like. I've had everything - Linksys, belkin, netgear. This last Cisco one I got has worked flawlessly. Cable Modems are another story. I've had lots of those die as well. usually they'll just start getting flakey dropping the connection a lot. Call the cable company and they do a test from their end and determine it's the modem. Buy a new one, call with the MAC address, back in business.

[TommyS]

Thanks to everyone.

[Steve Nathan]

I just bought one of these and after a bit of finding the best channel, it seems to be working quite well. Good signal strength from every floor & corner of the house

 

SBG6580 SURFboard® eXtreme Wireless Cable Modem

 

http://www.frontstreetnetworks.com/store/images/mot-modem-router.jpg

[MuzikTeechur]

Using a NetGear Wireless N here. It's been trouble-free for 2+ years now, with MANY wireless devices (at least 3 and sometimes many more cellphones, 3 laptops, two iPads, an Apple TV, Nintendo Wii, wireless printer, and several other devices all competing for bandwidth).

[ksoper]

I've also got the Motorola Surfboard gateway/router. No problems streaming video wirelessly in most rooms. Signal is spotty in my studio, but then again the studio is several walls and flights of stairs away. It needs the occasional reboot--not nearly as often as the Linksys it replaced.

[RABid]

Most of my house is wired for network but I still have wireless for the abundance of smart phones, tables and notebooks. I've found that drops can sometimes be caused by the neighbors wireless system or having the base of your wireless phone close to the wireless router.

 

Over the years it seems like I have been through most every brand. Right now I have settled on a combo of Apple Airport and Airport Express. The Airport is upstairs. Downstairs I have the Airport express connected by Ethernet to boost the coverage in every corner of the house plus front and back porches. The two work together quite well.

 

I will not use the Airport Extreme anymore. The transformer of mine burned out a few years ago. Searching the net I found this to be a common problem due to design. Too much heat generating stuff shoved into a small area without adequate ventilation.

[SpaceNorman]

Hi to all. Very off topic,but would anyone have any insight on a wireless router? Our cell phone reception( mostly internet)is lousy inside the condo.Any input is greatly appreciated. Thx!!!!

 

I'm curious as to how a router (wireless or otherwise) is going to fix an issue with your cell phone reception. Is the router needed to support another piece of hardware?

 

[RABid]

I know that AT&T will give you a MicroCell to let you use your cellphone over Internet. The MicroCell drops calls and service more often than the worst wireless router.

[MoodyBluesKeys]

I've always had best results (for myself and clients), at least in the home-oriented price range, with the upper end of Linksys wireless routers (and switches). Cisco bought Linksys a while back, and began selling their lower priced gear as Cisco with Linksys as a secondary name. Later, the companies separated again.

General rule of thumb: the lowest priced devices from most companies are that way for a reason. The very highest priced devices frequently have added features that are of very little use to most users. Somewhere in the upper mid-range price from a particular company is usually the best price/performance/quality.

 

My home has a wired network, with a 24 port Linksys switch plus a fiber link to my shop, where there is another 24 port Linksys switch. All non-mobile devices are wired. For phones, tablets, notebooks, I have a system using three Cisco/Linksys Access Points (my Internet connection is based on a Motorola Cable Modem feeding a SonicWall hardware Firewall, feeding the local network). Two of these are located in the home, at each end, the third is located in the shop. All three are set to the same SSID, same form of encryption, and same encryption key; but are set on different 2.4 gHz channels (channel 1 and 11 in the home, channel 6 in the shop). The three Access Points talk to each other using a Cisco protocol, and switch the wireless devices automatically to the strongest wireless signal, giving results like a small cellular network.

 

Home, shop, and yard are all covered quite well with no dropouts. There are numerous other systems operated by neighbors, but no interference is found (at least on my end, and I have not received any complaints from any neighbors.

 

Cellphone over Wi-Fi - my BlackBerry switches to Wi-Fi if available automatically for all Internet use (email, browsing, and various apps). I don't think the phone itself switches over from the cellular network. However, this phone is several years old and only supports 3G, I'm not sure if more recent phones that support 4G work differently when Wi-Fi is available.

[JeffLearman]

I'm pretty sure Linksys is gone and it's just Cisco now.

Cisco bought Linksys and it got rebranded as Cisco, but the same engineering team designed the products. Cisco has pretty consistently shown that it hasn't quite mastered the consumer segment, and recently decided to just get the heck out. It sold the unit to Belkin, and the Linksys brand has returned to the market.

 

I've used gear by Linksys/Cisco, Netgear, and a couple other brands I don't recall right now, and all have had great products and a few warts. I hate the fact that they all went to "swoopy" product shapes.

 

I see the beginning of a return to nice little rectangular boxes that we can stack or mount on a cabinet wall. Folks, please buy the nice little rectangles and send a signal to makers that we don't need routers to look like jet airplanes!

[JeffLearman]

Hi to all. Very off topic,but would anyone have any insight on a wireless router? Our cell phone reception( mostly internet)is lousy inside the condo.Any input is greatly appreciated. Thx!!!!

 

I'm curious as to how a router (wireless or otherwise) is going to fix an issue with your cell phone reception. Is the router needed to support another piece of hardware?

It's for using apps like browsers, facebook, google sky, etc. Phone calls still go through the phone network.

[SpaceNorman]

I hate the fact that they all went to "swoopy" product shapes.

 

+1 to this sentiment. Give me something that's rack mountable - or at least "stackable" !!!!!

 

[SpaceNorman]

It's for using apps like browsers, facebook, google sky, etc. Phone calls still go through the phone network.

 

Many of the cellular providers offer a hardware device to address the problem of weak cell coverage inside your home. Basically it's a "mini cell tower" that receives the CDMA communication from your cell phone - and converts it to VoIP traffic that's then sent to the cell provider via your high speed internet connection.

 

I'm using Sprint - and just installed their offering (Airave) on Monday. Without the Airave device - I typical saw 1-2 "bars" of reception (depending on which room of my house I was in) - and all sorts of problems with dropped calls. I now see 4-5 "bars" of reception throughout the house and haven't dropped a call yet.

[TommyS]

Our cell phones are now on the wi fi from the modem- router setup. Works great.

[JeffLearman]

Many of the cellular providers offer a hardware device to address the problem of weak cell coverage inside your home. Basically it's a "mini cell tower" that receives the CDMA communication from your cell phone - and converts it to VoIP traffic that's then sent to the cell provider via your high speed internet connection.

Yup. I was tempted to get one in my last house, connections were so bad. In the new house it's good, so I'm glad I didn't bother. They're not cheap, or weren't at the time ($250?).

 

In any case, I still use wifi at home so my phone won't rack up phone network bandwidth usage when I'm there. Folks with unlimited service wouldn't care about that, but wifi is also (usually) faster than through the phone network.

[SpaceNorman]

Yup. I was tempted to get one in my last house, connections were so bad. In the new house it's good, so I'm glad I didn't bother. They're not cheap, or weren't at the time ($250?).

 

I was pleasantly surprised when the folks at Sprint informed me that there's no charge for the Airave hardware. The Airave agreement is such that Sprint retains ownership of the hardware - and that if I take it offline for more than 30 days and fail to return it - they'll hit me with a $140 fee. It will be treated like an additional line - so I'll have to pay the monthly taxes and excise charges associated with a line. So while it isn't "free" - there isn't a cost to purchase the hardware per se.

 

In any case, I still use wifi at home so my phone won't rack up phone network bandwidth usage when I'm there. Folks with unlimited service wouldn't care about that, but wifi is also (usually) faster than through the phone network.

 

Agreed, a WiFi connection virtually always provides faster data service than a CDMA connection to the cell tower will. However, for the sake of clarity - I think it's important to make the distinction that WiFi only supports the "data connection" facet of a cell phone - and that a WiFi connected phone still uses a CDMA connection to the local cell tower for voice calls.

 

[JeffLearman]

Yup, which is why I said "Phone calls still go through the phone network" earlier. You're required to read EVERY POST! CAREFULLY!

 

 

That's a good deal from Sprint. I don't think Verizon offered that -- if they did, I'd have jumped.