what do you guys think about this router? (No more dlink.. they suck… LINKSYS is good right?)

(supports 802.11n)
Looks good to me. But you know what they say about assholes and opinions.
I had mucho problems with my Linksys WRTs until I went with a D-Link DIR-655 and have never had issues since.
I like my ZyXEL X-550. Had it for only 6 months or so and haven’t had a single low strength or dropped connection, absolutely no issues with it so far.

I’m using it in a 2 bedroom 920 sq ft apartment and have 2 hard-wired computers, 2 wireless computers, 1 wireless Wii, and occasionally 1 wireless phone.
I was going to buy that model, but went with the WRT100 since I have nothing that uses 802.11n. No problems with it so far.
so you had the router for 8 years before it started failing you and you think that sucks? sounds pretty good to me.

. same here

linksys would disconnect me 4-8 times a day, and wouldn’t work again via wireless until I cycled the power.

Returned it, bought a D-link for $50 and had no problems

That problem has been fixed.. although it took them 3 generations to fix.

in any case, I still will strongly recommend D-Link over linksys any day at this point in time
I went from linksys to the D-Link DIR-655. Great choice. 802.11n, GB Ethernet, decent control panel. Never drops, can cover my whole house and has zero interference from microwaves or cordless phones.

Was there ever a good one?

Over 3 billion people believe in something that can’t be proved….
Lately I’ve been using Catalyst::Rose::Controller::CRUD at work. You know it CAN’T DO CRUD on a table with a compound primary key? I began to empathize with the RAILS haters when that happened, as hacking around that limitation was so much harder than no framework at all.
Rails is great in theory, if it was able to do what is says. Active Record pattern is not implemented 100% and breaks a lot of shit when people want to run CRUD with more complex relationships.

Good god if you want to scale, it’s gonna pound you in the ass.

Sounds a lot like communism to me, great in theory too but fails epically!

no there arn’t that many mac users.
NetGear ProSafe firewall/vpn/router in the blue metal box. I think you can get one with a built-in wireless access point, but there’s no reason (cost aside) not to just get a separate ProSafe WAP. They have some nice auto-tuning features that make it easy to drown out all other wireless signals within your space, but not outside your space.
the netgear units WERE good, but i don’t recommend them any more. They don’t have the power to keep up with modern high-speed connections.
I use them in my office on a dual business DSL setup. The DSL is definitely the bottleneck. Their gigabit switches are particularly good.

The DSL would be the bottleneck compared to almost any ethernet device made this decade.

No, not the WRTs. They crap out.

not with dd::wrt

Supposedly. But I wouldn’t know, DD::wrt wouldn’t load on any of my revision WRTs.

what versions?
Fucked if I know, I threw the WRTs in teh garbage a long time ago.

Believe it or not, DD::WRT is not supported on all WRTs. It is not flawless limitless magical software any more than OS X is.
I used to be a huge linksys sackrider.. but they have failed me a few times now.. 4 of them, I believe.

Now I have an airport extreme and wouldn’t buy anything different.

and yet you couldn’t aswer a simple question such as "what was the version #?" so I’m gonna have to go with pebkac as the most likely issue.

most people have lives and don’t memorize the version numbers of their gear

That goes for anything short of a direct fiber connection, sparky. Even a T3 is slower than a gigabit switch.

I’m not defending my office’s cheap internet connection, but your point is still moot.

Look at the underside of the damn box already. It’s printed on a sticker.

after they’ve thrown it out?

Look at the insurance photos then.

(j/k)
I admit it. The fact that I don’t know the version number of a router I haven’t had for years indicates that I’m a fraud, and that even though DD::WRT didn’t work with that hardware because it didn’t work with that hardware, it was actually ALL MY FAULT.

Jolly’s got to win sometimes.

i had a WRT54G but it was like a version 6 or something so it would only allow DD-WRT micro. it was ok, but then I got a WRT54GL which is the linksys router built for custom firmware and I put tomato on it, it has worked great. these are the only two routers i’ve owned and neither has crapped out yet.
p.s., if you’re interested in a WRT54GL there’s a slickdeal going for them right now:
I object to having to mess with a router to get it to work. I just want them to work. So I got one that does.

Agreed
you guys talking about third party firmware? i mean cause the router works out of the box and linksys actually has a pretty decent default firmware, it’s just if you want some of those extra features that don’t usually come standard. the QoS in Tomato is freakin amazing.
WRTs for about a decade DID NOT WORK. They overheated and dropped connectons. Linksys did NOTHING to fix that for 10 years. I’m supposed to give them my business?

Fuck that.

i’m not saying you should… just speaking from my own personal experience, i’ve only owned more recent models of linksys products and they’ve done everything i’ve expected them to

well maybe they don’t trust you
I never did understand what was so bloody difficult about adding a small, low-speed fan to the design of the case. All the pro hardware has them, maybe there’s a reason for it.

or a bigger fucking heatsink?

Whats more… if DD::WRT fixed the problem, why the fuck didn’t they use that fix? This went on for a decade.

Heatsinks don’t do any good if there’s nothing to carry the heat out of the case. Since it’s a plastic case, there’s no way to conduct the heat, so that leaves convection as the only option.

Well, they could mold the case so the heatsink can protrude, then it could radiate heat out of the case, but they’ll never do that, so really, convection is the only way to make it work. Remove case, insert fan, connect wires, reinstall case, profit.

Bigger holes for heatsink to vent. The point being that a 3rd grader could have solved this problem in 10 years, and they couldn’t.

I solved it in ten minutes on mine.

Also, right now I’m using one of the new shiny black Linksys routers at home, and it’s been working nicely despite BT downloads and online gaming and multiple installs of Service Pack 3, so I’m content with it for now. If I had it to do over again, I’d still buy NetGear ProSafe hardware, though. Metal > Plastic.
you guys talking about third party firmware? i mean cause the router works out of the box and linksys actually has a pretty decent default firmware, it’s just if you want some of those extra features that don’t usually come standard. the QoS in Tomato is freakin amazing.
WRTs for about a decade DID NOT WORK. They overheated and dropped connectons. Linksys did NOTHING to fix that for 10 years. I’m supposed to give them my business?

Fuck that.

i’m not saying you should… just speaking from my own personal experience, i’ve only owned more recent models of linksys products and they’ve done everything i’ve expected them to

well maybe they don’t trust you
I never did understand what was so bloody difficult about adding a small, low-speed fan to the design of the case. All the pro hardware has them, maybe there’s a reason for it.

or a bigger fucking heatsink?

Whats more… if DD::WRT fixed the problem, why the fuck didn’t they use that fix? This went on for a decade.

Heatsinks don’t do any good if there’s nothing to carry the heat out of the case. Since it’s a plastic case, there’s no way to conduct the heat, so that leaves convection as the only option.

Well, they could mold the case so the heatsink can protrude, then it could radiate heat out of the case, but they’ll never do that, so really, convection is the only way to make it work. Remove case, insert fan, connect wires, reinstall case, profit.

Bigger holes for heatsink to vent. The point being that a 3rd grader could have solved this problem in 10 years, and they couldn’t.

I solved it in ten minutes on mine.

Also, right now I’m using one of the new shiny black Linksys routers at home, and it’s been working nicely despite BT downloads and online gaming and multiple installs of Service Pack 3, so I’m content with it for now. If I had it to do over again, I’d still buy NetGear ProSafe hardware, though. Metal > Plastic.

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The router is upstairs and needs to be so I don’t have to run wires behind walls so moving the router is out. I was thinking of extending the antenna via ( I think rg-174) out the window and around the house to the patio where I want the signal strength boosted. The run would be around 50 feet. I’ve talked to a colleague of mine who is big into ham radios (been doing it 50+ years) and he said running the coax that far would negate any signal strength you would get. Don’t know though. Would ohm cable do I need? Rg-174 is tiny and there are thicker coax cables used for wireless signals. (maybe a solid copper wire if I could find it in the right size) Also, I’ve heard you can setup a router as a repeater like the Linksys boosters work. Thought this would probably be the best option. If I have a Linksys ws54g then which router would work with it? Does anyone know? Which is the best option do you think?

You could pick up another WRT54G, install DD-WRT and use that as a repeater.

Or there’s the cheap (and fairly ghetto) way, which is to use a tinfoil parabola to direct the signal towards your patio.
Or just buy new antenna. Fuck the FCC/CRTC! Like they’ll ever notice. Oh, get your HAM operators license and it’s 100% legit, even if you boot others off their wifi

Getting it soon. Is it legal with a tech license or do you need a general/operators license. (operators license is a bit more than what I’m willing to commit too.)

Do you infer that extending the antenna is only legal if you have your ham license? If I do this what is the best way to go about it? *refers to the post above*

edit: Talked to a longtime friend who has been in Ham for over 30 years the other day and he said he’d give me a radio. Meant to pickup a tech book today but forgot.

The FCC isn’t going to give a shit about an antenna that lets you get WiFi on your patio. Hell, you can get bigger antennas for certain routers from Wal Mart.

Now if you buy an amplifier and giant antenna so you can blast WiFi to your entire neighborhood, they might start to look your way.
WRT54G + HyperWRT (bumped up radio power) + upsized antennas = wifi reception through three walls and across the yard about 80 feet to my garage.

What type of antennas and cabling did you use?

Also: Can you use HyperWRT with dd-wrt?

No cabling, just cheapie antennas I found on eBay. What do you mean by using HyperWRT "with" dd-wrt? As in a wireless bridge setup? The only wireless bridge I’ve ever set up was two WRT54G routers with OpenWRT, but I can’t see there being that much a difference between flavors…I could be way off base there, though.

Yea, I guess it’s called a ‘wirless bridge’. Would want my main router running dd-wrt and another router in repeater mode running HyperWRT.

Can’t find anywhere where anyone has done this yet and confirmed it’s ability. Haven’t searched real hard yet but will have to.

btw: if you don’t know what HyperWRT does it’s below. (for those cruzing through)

HyperWRT is a power boost firmware for the Linksys WRT54G and
 WRT54GS router. The goal of this project is to add a limited set of features
 to the last Linksys firmware, extending its possibilities but staying close to
 the official firmware.

HyperWRT is based on Linksys 3.03.6 firmware for the WRT54G and Linksys
 3.37.6 firmware for the WRT54GS.

HyperWRT has these added features :

    * Adjustable Transmit Power & Antenna Select
    * 13 Wireless Channels
    * 'Boot Wait' flash protection
    * Increased Port Forwarding & Triggering Fields
    * Increased Qos Device & Application Fields
    * Increased Access Restrictions Policies & Blocked Services Fields
    * Command Shell
    * Telnet Daemon
    * Startup & Firewall Scripts
    * Uptime
    * ...

Changes in HyperWRT 2.1b1 are :
- Updated codebase to 3.03.6 for WRT54G and 3.37.6 for WRT54GS 

Download for WRT54G:

Download for WRT54GS:

as some people said you can boost your antenna strength with custom firmwares or get special antennas. whatever you do i’d really try to avoid wireless repeaters as that could have a huge impact on your internet performance.

Didn’t know this.

"huge impact" ?

a repeater theoretically cuts your throughput by half (but really it’s not half). so with a G you’re send/receive to the router is 54 (but really it’s about 30) so half that is 27 (but really it’ll be about 15)…………… does your ISP let you download at 15meg?

if your ISP lets you hit 15meg for download then a repeater will throttle you. if they don’t then you won’t notice a difference.

Except that you don’t actually get 54 if you’re far enough away to need a repeater. The simple solution here is an antenna.

wireless has a lot more performance characteristics than bandwidth.

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I use OpenDNS, Comodo Firewall pro, DD-WRT V24, and I have DSL broadband. For some reason the website will not load on any of my computers in any browser (IE7, Opera 9.5, FF3) I turned off the Firewall, hunted through my router for any setting it might be (I just reflashed it), I tried TOR and several proxies (in country and out), nothing works.

This is the error Privoxy returns:

No such domain

Your request for could not be fulfilled, because the domain name could not be resolved.
This is often a temporary failure, so you might just .

Is it something with the DNS? I’m confused. It is probably something stupid, I have a feeling I am going to make a fool of myself.
NVM, I just made an idiot of myself, it was the freaking DNS. I added the ISP’s servers to the OpenDNS list and now it works. I knew it should have been the DNS if it wasn’t resolving.
And for future reference we do not help with illegal activites

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Work computer – it loads
Phone – it loads
Other people – it loads
My laptop – ‘Internet Explorer cannot display this webpage.’ Won’t load in FireFox either.

Reset my router. Cleared history, temp files, cookies. Restarted multiple times.

It still doesn’t work. Any idea why?

any firewall or internet security installed? it could be blocking it.

Can you try another machine on the same internet connection?
Try going to it by IP, instead of name. See if it goes through.

No

I just noticed today that the status bar at the bottom of the screen says something along the lines of ‘dnsstatus’. It’s just a blip when I refresh the page, so I can’t read it all.

It should be said, that I didn’t build the site (had a guy do it for me) and I’m pretty dumb when it comes to things like this.

What’s a lookup?

Yep. Still doesn’t work.

Edit – Found it:

72.167.131.9

Still doesn’t work.
I remember a post on one of my Jeep BB’s where someone who had Comcast cable wasn’t able to access a specific site. He put up a poll and most of the local Comcast users couldn’t access it either. I’m not sure if he got it resolved or not.

I would say to try and call your ISP, but good luck with that.

that happened to me once with comcast, couldn’t access google. contacted comcast and they said it was a problem on their (comcast’s) end.

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My question is, how do I find the computer name/ip address of the computer?
Is it the IPv6 address in ipconfig?

that’s your address as it’s visible to the outside.
Does that change each time I reboot my computer or router?
Cable internet doesn’t use static IP addresses anymore, right?

it’s not static but mine hasn’t changed in a while (but it could without warning)

if you need to be sure, use this

Some routers come with built in updating of the Dynamic DNS entry. Don’t know how well it works though.

On the other hand, mine changes about once a year.
You’ll also need to tell the router to redirect incoming traffic on the RDP port (I don’t know the number) to the internal IP address of the computer you want to connect to.

The better option, though, is to use a router with a built-in VPN.

Port 3389

nice lookin’ out
forward port 3389 to your internal ip address of your computer
set up dyndns.com
most modern router will have dynamic dns settings for popular services such as dyndns.com…..my 5 yo linksys router does
set up remote desktop on your computer
done

forget that. disable windows firewall and set your computer to DMZ on the the router!!

jk. don’t do that.

While he’s at it, he should disable NAT and turn off the router’s firewall too. Firewalls only degrade connection speed anyway.

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I was thinking maybe I could grab a VMware virtual appliance and test that too, but that opens up a whole new can of worms, in that there’s about 20 of them and I can’t set up 20 damn VPNs just to see which one’s good. Then again, maybe I’m better off getting a hardware box, but that’s what the SonicWALL is, and it’s slow too.

Can anybody recommend a VPN solution they’ve used before, that can connect to LDAP for user logins, can support at least 20 users without bogging down, and can sustain at least 512kB/s throughput per user? I’m getting near the end of my rope with this project.

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Basically, all of my programs that require an internet connection for a task simply cannot find a connection. Browsers work just fine, no problems there. Programs like AIM, Winamp, WMP, Zune software etc. None of them can find a connection. Programs that don’t require a connection to run work but when a task requires the internet, eg finding album art, it cannot find a connection.

I’m really stuck on this. This has happened on a campus connection and on a local cable connection of my own, same computer. I’m stuck.
Negative on both. Took everything down trying to solve the issue.
win firewall?
some like Zonealarm and other Internet Security suites still has some sort of influence even if disabled.

any proxies?
Just an update in case anyone else was having this issue. After searching for months and trying countless options over and over again that didn’t work I decided to just wipe everything clean and start over.

Still have no clue what caused it or how to fix it.

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So, no matter what port I try to set for uTorrent, it will not let me and gives me that error. Any idea what the fuck I’m doing wrong here? I have a netgear wireless router.

How and where are you trying to set up the port forwarding. More information please. If the name is the problem, try calling it torrent2 or something.
In my wireless router settings.

I’ve tried 800 combinations of names/ports, they all give the same error.

Whatever info you guys need I can try and post
Not sure about your DSL modem, but mine came preconfigured in "routing" mode…so the modem itself serves as a router/firewall and DHCP server…overkill if you’re using an external router already. See if there’s an option to swap the modem to bridge mode.

That’s actually just what a friend told me as-well after I told her that my IP that is shown in my wireless router settings is different than the static IP I was assigned by my internet service. Only problem is, I have no idea how to swap my modem to bridge mode, cliffs?
The modem is a ComTrend CT-5621 if that helps any.

edit: Just got off live help with my provider and this is what they told me:

dsl support : If you have a static IP from us, then the modem isn’t in any router mode (some modems are, some aren’t so that’s why I wasn’t sure at first.) You would simply need to set the computer to use DHCP and set the static IP in the router.
if you dont have tons of stuff setup on the router do a software reset on it and try to forward then. what router is it?
Netgear WGR614 v6

I’ve tried the software reset before, same bullshit problems. Now I’m hard-wired into my modem on my other laptop trying to access my modem IP and it’s telling me wrong un/pw on it. Tried admin/admin admin/pass admin/password and my login un/pw, nothing.
ah yes the netgear. i used to have the same problem with those. youd type something in for port forwarding and it wouldnt show up on the list but if you tried to enter it again it would give you a naming error. complete garbage, id get a linksys wrt54g which should fix your problems. i dont think getting into your modem is going to be fix anything if they already said its bridged. also on portforwarding.com they have admin/admin as the user/pass for the comtrend so if its not the isp must have something special in there.

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2. Why do IPSEC VPNs cost money per user, while SSL VPNs are free? What’s so special about IPSEC that every VPN manufacturer charges extra for user licenses, on top of the cost of the box itself?

You set it up the same way as a PPTP VPN Server (actually you do it at the same time). The wizards are dead simple to follow – you only need to ensure that you forward port 1723 on the router to the server and allow pass through tunneling.

Well, I set up a policy on the firewall that allows ALL ports to communicate, but I didn’t enable NAT. Unless I need NAT enabled, that should be enough, even if it’s not as secure as I’d like.

The problem I have, specifically, is that encryption and domain logins keep failing. The VPN server relays DHCP requests to the domain controller, which is also the DHCP server for that network, but it’s not processing domain logins when I try to connect from a non-domain machine. Even if I use a domain machine, it still craps out when negotiating encryption, even though I’ve set up a certificate authority and all machines involved have certificates from it.

It’s really bugging the shit out of me.

EDIT: I should add that I’m not trying to use the VPN server as a gateway, so I just have one ethernet connection on it, which (theoretically) should be all I need.
Not yet. I was kinda scared of transmitting unencrypted data to my office network. I suppose I should give it a shot, though.

Just what I read online. As far as I could tell, you had to add IPSEC to the PPTP connection before it would be encrypted, either through a preshared key or a PKI certificate. Are you saying this is incorrect?
PPTP uses PPP encryption. This is an old doc, but it still applies:

Damn, and I thought I’d already read everything VPN-related on TechNet. I’ll give this a look.

In any event, is there anything special I have to do to run the VPN through a single ethernet port? Since I don’t need it to be a gateway, that’s how I’m trying to set it up, but the wizard forces me to use custom mode if I don’t have two ethernet ports connected to different subnets. Of course, as soon as I choose custom mode, it throws me to the proverbial wolves and gives me no further guidance whatsoever. In fact, ALL of the documentation I’ve seen abandons me when it comes to setting up the VPN server as anything but a gateway, despite the fact that it’s obviously a valid option.
Hmm don’t remember – my server at home only has one ethernet port, but I installed it years ago. I thought it just warned you about it, but it’s been a long time – I don’t remember.
Think about OpenVPN – we’ve used it across many OS’s across many continents – often with shit net access – and it is totally painless, really reliable – and utterly FREE.
I’m sure it has its merrits, but nothing beats something that’s already built into the OS for ease of use. It has the aded advantage of being able to log into the network with the same credentials at the same time, thus being able to apply policies prior to logging into the computer.
Sure – we use them between servers to create one big seamless network – so there are no sessions/logins to worry about.
We just use hardware IPSEC boxes to connect offices. Expensive little buggers, but they do alright.
There’s something to be said for a hardware solution, but I really like OpenVPN. I’ve used it on Windows, OS X, Linux and Solaris. Whenever the computer boots/user logs in, it just connects and works. The VPN connection is a virtual network device. Wherever I go on teh macbook (or any notebook… even a windows notebook) I am just on the company network. We have a central OpenVPN server at a colo, and everyone connects to that, as do the offices. It works out pretty well. To the point that I actually forget that I have openvpn running for long periods.

To me, it doesn’t get any more convenient than that. But I don’t do much windows networking.
I actually looked at OpenVPN at one point, but I need something that users can configure in five minutes or less, without having a single goddamned clue what they’re doing.

Any chance you can post a list of what the settings are on your VPN server? If I could just get any functional configuration, then I could modify it as needed.

There are GUIs that achieve that. However, its just a single config file and a key or two. You can easily script the setup, then its right click to connect.

Damn dude, that’s awesome. Thanks.

- – -

Okay, in this screenshot:

My "internal" connection isn’t configured, and it’s screwing up everything else that uses the "internal" connection. What is yours connected to? What is that "192.168.1.59" IP address for? I assume the "Local Area Connection" goes to your router, right?
.254 is the static IP address of the server. .59 was created when I created RRAS – it resolves to the same address. The only thing in the properties checked off is the first item.

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repost… but yeah. kinda scary how fast that can happen. i’ve always done internet updates and typically don’t have too many virus/spyware issues. that’s just the risk you take.
Yeah I remember installing W2K on an open network – it was compromised before I had a chance to install updates
Huh…

When I reformat our W2k and XP mahcines at work, I usually have a local copy of the latest service packs installed before the network cable gets plugged in.
Meh, there’s no real need if you’re behind a firewall. I just let WSUS do its thing.
if you’re connecting a machine (patched or otherwise) directly to the internet, you’re an idiot.
Service pack "Network Installs" extracted to CD > windows update
How can you tell if a computer has been "compromised?" I run my computer without AV, windows firewall off, and the router DMZ’d to my static IP, but I don’t experience any troubles.

If that were the case…you deserve what you get.

Try a few virus and malware scanners. Your pc could be part of a bot net without you knowing.

HE’S BACK!

.

.

*big collective sigh*

linux sucks just as much if you look at the patch lists.
And the almighty Firefox just released some major flaws in 3.0 this week.
"almighty" is a fairly loose term, then. suckmaster9000 is more what I’d call it.

yeah, but there is significantly more you can do with Linux in order to protect it than you can with windows out of the box… or at least they make it much easier. it is incredibly easy to turn everything off on a fresh install of any UNIX operating system so that no one can get onto your system remotely.

Its really easy to keep a linux box up longer than 4 minutes on a default install. But lets pretend thats not the case just so you don’t feel like a windows moop, ok? I get it.

same with windows
that’s funny, I’ve been running windows for 15 years and I’ve never had my computer attacked or exploited. that’s a lot longer than four minutes.

We’re talking about a brand new install of Windows (XP) without any patches or a/v software…

I sure hope you have the latest service packs and updates + A/V on your systems…

sorry moop, it’s not as easy.

anti-virus is for noobs

Since XP SP2, it has been that easy.

The problem being that unless you have a router to protect your PC… you don’t have TIME to get the patches you need before you get rootored.

I haven’t used an antivirus in like 10 years. you only need antivirus if you’re an idiot.

Ummm. No. The built in firewall to XP in SP2 is sufficient to keep directed attacks out. You can use Windows Update which communicates with MS’s servers to get the patches.

Most of the security patches to SP2 revolve around protecting you once you go out into the dangerous interweb.

What OS do you use?

I guess I’m an idiot then… I think it’s completely stupid to not have antivirus software.

"i’ll never need a seatbelt, I’ll never crash."

for personal use there’s nothing stupid about not using antivirus, i’ve never had a virus and never used antivirus and i’ve been using a computer since ms-dos. albeit i do have AVG installed on my laptop now, but it’s disabled and its only there so the cisco clean access agent will let me on the school wireless.

some virus scanners are probably more detrimental to computer performance than actually having a virus
I have found Avast to be less intrusive than AVG. Regardless, I have most of the real-time scanners turned off…. I know when to right click and do a manual scan.

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