Topic: Wireless networking blows - NEW router firmware

[scottws]

Our Belkin router has been acting flaky, so I finally sprung for a WRT54GL router so I could give the DD-WRT firmware a shot.  So the thing arrives today, and I'm kind of excited.  It's something I've been wanting to mess with for a year or so now.  I get it out of the box, and I'm kind of dicking around a little.  I start chatting w/ some people on Google Talk, and I decide to download the new driver version for my gigabit Ethernet card which I haven't used in awhile due to the fact I'm kind of stuck on a wireless link.

Suddenly, I lose connection to the wireless network.  I'm not sure why that happened.  Shortly after, a bubble pops up saying there is a wireless network available to connect to.  I click it, and it's my network.  So I type in the WEP key and press "Connect."  Nothing.  I uninstall the wireless card, reinstall it, and install the driver.  Still not working.  After doing this a few times, suddenly it starts working.  I'm like, "Phew, it's fixed."

Nope.  Disconnected just a few minutes later.  At this point, I'm having a great deal getting connected at all, and usually am not.  So I figured I'd try ordering a new wireless card and hopefully that is the problem.

I did get a chance to set up the router though.  Holy crap there are options galore!  I wouldn't say it's all totally necessary, but some of them, like QoS, are pretty nice.  If you have a WRT54GL or a WRT54G pre v5.0, you owe it to yourself to check out some third party firmware.

[gpw11]

Yeah, it really does kind of blow.  I've had my pc set up on 2 different wireless networks and for whatever reason there gets to be points where it will just kick out occasionally.  It's not interference with portable phones and I'm pretty sure it's not a problem with the configuration.  Maybe it's D-link....and Linksys.

[iPPi]

It's not a reliable connection.  I have wireless at home and on campus, but I rarely use it since it's so flaky.

[shock]

That's no fun.  I used Wireless at home for my desktop and laptop and I never have any problems.  Ever.  I use a Linksys Wireless Router with Speedbooster.  I hear the other Linksys ones have problems with the firmware, so I got that one instead.  I don't think it has ever cut out.  I played all kinds of online games with no problems.

[Cobra951]

There's a WRT54G upstairs.  My PCs (and I) are in the basement.  When I first attempted wireless, I got a Netgear USB adapter.  Scott's experiences remind me very much of my trials and tribulations with that POS.  After a couple of weeks of "it sucks", "oh, phew, it's fixed", "no, it really does SUCK!", etc., I returned the Netgear thingie, and bought a Linksys WUSB54G (USB adapter).  Not a lick of trouble since.  It's been every bit as reliable as wired networking since about Christmas.  Blazing internet speeds too, including many-connection torrents.

[scottws]

My adapter is an internal WPCI810G from Motorola, based on the Broadcom chipset.  I've had a fair amount of problems when I was trying to get it running in Linux.  After messing with it in Linux and booting back into Windows, it would be as if I just installed the card... the Add Hardware Wizard would open and prompt me to install it.  And then I'd have a nightmare trying to get it installed and working again.  But then I left it alone and it's been pretty much fine ever since until yesterday.

The new one I ordered is by Gigabyte, based on the RALink chipset (light-years better Linux compatibility), and is also internal.

I'm crossing my fingers that the Motorola adapter is just having some sort of malfunction and it's not some PCI bus problem or corruption in the Windows installation.

[Antares]

I've got that same router.  I had the same problem when I set it up, but it was because I hadn't set up the router properly and every time my cable company rolled me a new IP address I  had to reconfigure.

[scottws]

I've got that same router.  I had the same problem when I set it up, but it was because I hadn't set up the router properly and every time my cable company rolled me a new IP address I  had to reconfigure.

Actually, the problem occurred before I even set the Linksys up.  My wireless card is malfunctioning.  My brother's wireless was fine before the Linksys and it's fine after the Linksys.

Did you ever get DD-WRT?  It's sweet.  Took all of like 10 minutes to set up.

[scottws]

Got the Gigabyte GN-WP01GS adapter today (well really on the 3rd, but I wasn't home until today).  I just finished installing it and I love it already.  I get a 100% signal strength out of the unit, and even pick up another network (open... idiots) that I never knew existed.  It's got all kinds of tweaking functions in the driver utility as well.  Sweetness.

Definately the old Motorola unit was faulty, because this one connected immediately.

[scottws]

Ow man!  I'm loving the QoS!  I have uTorrent running and while it is affecting the speed of my web browsing a little, it isn't nearly as much as it was pre-DD-WRT.

Oh, another thing, if anyone is interested in DD-WRT at all and is thinking about getting new router hardware to play with it, get a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 instead.  Not that the Linksys WRT54GL is a bad piece of hardware, because it's not.  But the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 is the same cost as the WRT54GL and is a better piece of hardware overall.  And DD-WRT is 100% compatible with it.

Wish I knew that two weeks ago.  Oh well.

[scottws]

I know no one cares all that much, but I'm running uTorrent and my brother is running Limewire and I can hardly tell while browsing this forum.  Simply awesome.

[Cobra951]

Sure I care.  I just don't have anything too meaningful to say about it.  I did read every one of your posts, and I will try to keep the info in mind for future reference.

[Antares]

I care.  I never really had the opportunity to strain my network.  Currently I only have my PC connected, and at my old house my roommates never downloaded anything.

[scottws]

Well, the choice of the wireless card paid off.  Here I am, currently running the Linux distribution Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake) typing this.  It was a lot easier to work with than my Broadcom-based Motorola WPCI810G.

Not easy easy, but not hard either.

Looks like NTFS compatibility is improved in Linux.  By default, it mounted my Windows partition to a media location, which appears on my desktop.  I can browse my Windows partition with Nautilus (similar to Windows Explorer) just like it was any other file system location in Linux.  Haven't tried saving anything though.

[scottws]

I was having troubles with DD-WRT's admin web page, so I switched router firmwares.  Now I'm using Tomato 1.06.

Tomato is supposed to be a lot more stable, a lot faster, and have a QoS feature that works better in comparison to DD-WRT v23 SP2.  It doesn't have as many available goodies as DD-WRT, but it has all the ones that I used in DD-WRT (QoS, static DHCP leases).  You lose out on the Sputnik/Chilispot hotspot feature and some rflow management feature, neither of which I was using before anyway.

I've only been using it a short while but it seems to work well enough.

[scottws]

Oh yeah, I also wanted to point out that both the DD-WRT and Tomato router firmware work on the Buffalo WHR-G54/WHR-G54S.  This is actually the more popular unit than the WRT54G/WRT54GS/WRT54GL at this time because the WHR-G54S is $40, while the cheapest I've seen a WRT54GL (the only Linksys unit that can be bought new and still have capability for the full versions of these firmwares) is $52.  When I got my WRT54GL, it was $70.

So just wanted to let you guys know in case you're interested.  The Buffalo is supposedly the better unit from a hardware perspective as well.

[Pugnate]

I never have any issues, except maybe when the comp is restarted. Aside from that I never ever had any problems and love the whole wireless network thing. It is so awesome, I love the ease of a wireless network.