Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, mac_h8r1, Nemesis
DairyCreamer wrote:Is the venerable WRT54GL too old now? Should I spend extra $$$ on an N router? Does dual band make a lot of difference?
Router will be upstairs in office to hard wire to PCs. Will feed numerous wireless devices downstairs though.
Ethyriel wrote:You know, it's quite possible they had to improve their design for the throughput FiOS offers. I don't know, I'm nowhere near FiOS availability, so I've never seen one of those in the wild. But I've never seen an Actiontec DSL router perform reliably until the routing is moved off of it, just speed and stability issues left and right. But every time, you set them up as a bridge and all is well.
Captain Ned wrote:Those of us advocating turning the Actiontec into a modem/bridge passing through to a full-functioned router are not doing so based on the routing implementation on the Actiontec, but instead for the possibilities that come from a full router and open-source firmware implementation. We're also the belt & suspenders types who believe that combining too many functions into one box leads to single point of failure problems.
Ethyriel wrote:Captain Ned wrote:Those of us advocating turning the Actiontec into a modem/bridge passing through to a full-functioned router are not doing so based on the routing implementation on the Actiontec, but instead for the possibilities that come from a full router and open-source firmware implementation. We're also the belt & suspenders types who believe that combining too many functions into one box leads to single point of failure problems.
Well, I'm advocating it because I've never had an Actiontec be stable until I move the routing off of it. You throw too many TCP/UDP connections at them and they choke pretty universally across the DSL models I've been encountering for the last dozen years. Even if you don't hit them hard with connections, they tend to need power cycles way too often. The specific problem the OP is concerned with can probably be cured with an AP (unless it's a DHCP issue), but that doesn't mean there won't be more issues beyond that. My experiences tell me that there more than likely will be.
You could hook a couple devices up to it by wire and see how it performs, that will tell you how it's handling your load. Personally, I'd get the most Linksys or Asus router you can afford, and be done with it. If you get an AP and run into routing issues down the road, you need a router. If you get a wireless router and want a wireless upgrade down the road, you can more reasonably weigh cost to performance.
Well, that's not entirely true, because personally I have a little Atom machine running PFSense and an Ubiquiti AP behind a GT701d. But if I didn't enjoy geeking out and/or had a limited budget, that's what I'd do. The only other issue is configuration, but if you aren't using a Century Link model already, you've already setup the DSL settings manually. You just need to make sure the IP addresses don't conflict, make the Actiontec a bridge, and setup the PPPoE on the router.
DairyCreamer wrote:So I've gottem two stories in this thread, I think. Pardon as I think aloud in this post, because I want to make sure to have this right before I pull the trigger on anything.
1.) C1000A (Actiontec on the whole) WiFi is bad. Fix with dedicated AP.
2.) C1000A (Actiontec on the whole) router is bad. Fix with dedicated router.
This requires:
1.) Disable WiFi antenna on C1000A -> Plug in AP to a LAN slot -> Configure appropriately.
Or
2.) Disable router function (transparent bridge) -> Plug in wireless router to a LAN slot -> Configure appropriately
Configuring #1 seems extremely simple. #2 would require a bit more, like transferring PPPoE login to new router, and perhaps giving modem an IP so I can get to it.
So... This sounds like a question of trust. Trust in C1000A's routing capability.
I hate decisions like this... Doesn't look like it would cost much more to get a full fledged router and not worry about it anymore. But of course spending more money to fix a problem that might not be sucks too.
Is there any way I can evaluate if it's strictly the Wifi connectivity, or if the internal router is playing a role?
Thanks!