Naughty Netgear

My 2 year old daughter recently took a dislike to my netgear router, placing it on the floor, stamping on it's little blue flashing led and shouting naughty. She wasn't wrong. For 100 odd quid it was a bad router and deserved everything it got.

I'm currently running on my 15 quid in the sales Linksys emergency router. The model number escapes me at present but it is fairly low budget and the wifi signal is terrible.

I'm looking for something economically priced, simple, reliable and seem to remember the Buffalo Airstation being recommended in the past. Anybody know the best price to be had and which model exactly, or has opinion since shifted to something else?
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Use one of those netgears and not too bad, doesn't like a lot of users though.

Run a Netgear DGN2200 as a slightly dodgy line (star wiring under eaves) and run www.farina1.com behind it.
The wireless of lots of kit if going beyond G still seems hit and miss.

If buying now I would recommend getting something with both ADSL2+ WAN port, and Ethernet WAN port, add a little future proofing.

Love the Buffalo NAS drives but had issues with one of their routers. Could I recommend these little beauties as an alternative. I've a Time Capsule version which plays nice with MACs for backup purposes but doesn't work for that purpose on PCs. They both have a wifi signal to die for and are easily extended with the inexpensive Airport Express

Any router will be at the mercy of your daughter, so cannot recommend one to withstand her

I use this one

http://www.dabs.com/products/buffalo-wireless-n-nfin...

Which is £26 and Robertos uses the previous model.

It has a nice wireless N range over 2.4 GHz but it only as 10/100 ethernet, but hey what do you expect for under £30

Tempting, but I was looking at something cheaper until Bratfink is a little bit older.
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Perhaps I was expecting too much, "but 8 internal antennae for unbeatable wireless range" is not how it played out for mine!

Bathroom is at top the of the stairs, router is by lounge door at the bottom of the stairs. Both doors open, 15-20 ft as the crow flies and continually dropped back to 3G from the mast on the roundabout half a mile away.

Must be all the lead paint on the walls.
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In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Perhaps I was expecting too much, "but 8 internal antennae for unbeatable wireless range" is not how it played out for mine!

8 antennae are the problem - stolen from insects. It would be better if they had used 8 antennas!

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Any router will be at the mercy of your daughter, so cannot recommend one to withstand her

One without a Belisha Beacon on the top would be a start, lol!

I didn't think that one through too well when I bought it. Something wall mounted is probably the way to go, which I seem to recall the Buffalo is.
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In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Perhaps I was expecting too much, "but 8 internal antennae for unbeatable wireless range" is not how it played out for mine!

8 antennae are the problem - stolen from insects. It would be better if they had used 8 antennas!

Perhaps mine had a "bug" in the firmware?
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Might I suggest one of the metal-cased Netgear prosafe boxes, given the harsh operating environment?

Only problem is I think they are all blue. Was it the colour or the lashing that she disliked?

I'm still waiting for my three year old to do something similar, but I suspect he might leave it to his 8 month old sister who already thinks "pull the laptop off the sofa" is a great game...

In reply to a post by ionic:

Only problem is I think they are all blue. Was it the colour or the lashing that she disliked?

Is that the lashing she got after stamping on the router?

I bought a dual band so 5Ghz as well as the normal wireless is rubbish here. Too many people, is a area of flats. On 5Ghz only I have and works ok.

Point being is a black plastic netgear something or another about just over £100 and has the blue lights flashing on the big button. This is given a visual idea of what anntenna is going, How good who knows but says it is doing something I guess. Designer thought a good idea. No unless stuck in a cupboard out of sight!.

By pressing the button a certain way, a lenght og time if I remember right this flashing can be turned off, mine is and now just the dim lights on the front do theire thing like any router.

It does flash while doing the linking up wiless clients by pressing the button then link the computer or phone, gives the 2 minutes to do then stops. It does not need to do the flashing thing all the time, but what you say it was not a good router for other reasons I guess. Mine is good, never drops wireless and linked to the BT home hub on 1 of the 1 to 4 ports, so 2 routers, BT one my laptop will drop out on as 2.4Ghz and the nice (for me) 5Ghz netgear

Noticed the range was not good, I had mine sat on its bottom so flat to start with, read in the manual or somewhere it should be on it;s side with the 2 clip on plastic feet, if to do with airflow or the way the signal goes out the thing, can't remember.

Our signal goes to granny downstairs as flats up and down and a nice thick concreate floor in between and then still goes while out router is by the telly as this dvd/ freeview recorder and blu-ray plug into as well for internet, updates and stuff, into her kitchen so as far as it can get, more distance than yours and two properties.

When family visit her and use for laptop or phone with no problem once that horrible flashing light is been used to log them on for the first time, maybe you had a duff one.

Have you googled inSSIDer 2.0 and looked at that to see what wireless is around you. Mine can go upto 20 networks outside, less in but on 2.4 GHx, rubbish (polite way). Might have been that but with the £15 one going I guess not.

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by ionic:

Only problem is I think they are all blue. Was it the colour or the lashing that she disliked?

Is that the lashing she got after stamping on the router?

Don't tempt me!
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Get hold of a 2wire2701 from ebay ...

They are designed to be mounted upright on a desk but with some mirror clips they sit nicely on a wall. I can provide pictures if needed.

Wireless is good and it has the necessary WAN input.


editted to remove reference to 2700 which is not really suitable for FTTC

Edited by MHC (Thu 17-Nov-11 10:51:50)

oops!

I take you have cable or FTTC posting in this section about your router, if that is the case I would highly recommend this router..

Asus RT-N56U Black Diamond Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid...

Only problem is I think they are all blue. Was it the colour or the lashing that she disliked?

No. She is just the most mischievous destructive two year old on the planet. She is akin to evil Sid in Toy Story as far as my gadgets are concerned.
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In reply to a post by Anonymous:

I use this one

http://www.dabs.com/products/buffalo-wireless-n-nfin...

Which is £26 and Robertos uses the previous model.

It has a nice wireless N range over 2.4 GHz but it only as 10/100 ethernet, but hey what do you expect for under £30

Ok, so I've decided to go for this one. If RobertoS uses it then that will do for me. I looked into the Asus with it's "amplified reception" or whatever, but I would rather buy two Buffalos for less than the Asus price. That gives me a spare and in the meantime I can use the other as a repeater station?

Which brings me to my next question. I am going to hard wire some points around the house. Modem downstairs with main router providing wireless coverage to same.

Then etherne cable to 2nd router upstairs covering wireless to same.

I then intend to hard wire 4 points (via loft and externalwall) to up and downstairs rooms, connected to 2nd router via patch leads. Does this complicate the repeater set up of the 2nd router or will it remain pretty much plug and play? if so I can reverse the situation and make the upstairs router the main one, but as the modem is downstairs it would be simpler the other way round.

And what is the big disadvantage of 10/100? I don't move info around the home, I just want wired connectivity to the net in each of the rooms. I assume I will be able to connect at 100 internally and at my current 40 Mbps externally? If FTTC jumps to 80 Mbps will this setup still suffice?

Thanks.
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Use Cat5e cable, terminate the cable in either patch panels or wall mounted boxes with 2 or 4 RJ45 sockets and then patch from those to te router/hub/switch. DO NOT try to terminate infrastructure cable into RJ45 plugs - it is not designed for that. Buy ready made patch leads - designed for flexibility.

But a decent punch down tool and you will be sorted.

Do everything right and you should, over those distances, be capable of supporting 1Gbit.

However, I would suggest running all infrastructure cable back to a single point and putting a small patch panel and switch at that point. Cable a pair of connections from your Modem/router location to the switch location. This allows the router to work as a modem, DHCP server and WAP without the additional loading of switching traffic and could always be a point of contention - whereas a dedicated switch can deal with routing and PC to PC transfers ...

My router has just a single cable coming off - straight into a switch and from there to all of the 40+ sockets. I have Wireless still working but nothing connects to it - just there if it is needed and there are 3 other WAPs

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I'm no router expert, so don't go by what I do, though I have recommended it as a cheap router for attaching to the Openreach modem on FTTC, and its wireless does seem better to me than a Linksys something54GS and any Netgear I have had. BUT!!!!! It is a router, not an ADSL router. It doesn't have a modem in it!

Re what I had on ADSL2+, a Netgear 834PN, that (has ) had a setting in the GUI to turn off the flashing dome completely.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 20-Nov-11 13:35:02)

So will this work without complicating the setting up of the routers?

FTTC modem > buffalo > ethernet > buffalo > patch leads > new data outlets/patch panel.

My intention was to use the wireless repeater function on the secondary router AND connect the network points to the same. I can add a switch later if I feel Gbit is required internally. I was just more concerned on the configuration side of things.

I completed structured cabling training quite a few years ago and understand the possibilities of Gbit over CAT5e (90m max run, no more than 13mm untwisted at terminations etc.). I'm reasonably confident on that side of things. It's the configuration that I have no experience with and want the simplest solution from that perspective. If it works without the switch, can I add one later between the secondary router and patch panel/outlets, or would it need to be downstream of the main router that is plugged into the modem?

In other words does the repeater function setting of the secondary router complicate the issue?

Yours faithfully,

Rank Amateur.
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you also need one of these

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=safe+heav...

to keep the router safe from the 2 year old.

In reply to a post by iand:

you also need one of these

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=safe+heav...

to keep the router safe from the 2 year old.

Which one of those has the best wireless reception, lol!

Actually, trying to gain entry to that might keep her quiet for a while.
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In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Actually, trying to gain entry to that might keep her quiet for a while.

Trying to gain exit could be useful?

Aha, even better!
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Dear mrnelster...the poster is after a wireless router, and hasn't even mentioned MACs..IO wish everyone should stop promoting overpriced Apple rubbish

You do know that the poster your replying to is not mrnelster?

The Airport extreme is a wireless router

Yes it is made by Apple, but it is useable by any device that can use Ethernet or b/g/n wireless networking

overpriced Apple rubbish

Must have something about it, or the promoters must be highly effective . Current Market Value:-

Microsoft - $206.
IBM - $210.
Apple - $341.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 24-Nov-11 13:19:02)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

it is useable by any device that can use Ethernet or b/g/n wireless networking

It's dual-band too, it's nice to have a whole wireless band all to yourself

In reply to a post by billford:

It's dual-band too, it's nice to have a whole wireless band all to yourself

Yes it is. I've not seen anyone around me on the 5GHz band

So will this work without complicating the setting up of the routers?

FTTC modem > buffalo > ethernet > buffalo > patch leads > new data outlets/patch panel.

PC World it is then.
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