Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Wireless Router Recommendation

Wait, I'm not done, yet.

Newegg discounted the Refurb Linksys E3000 to $54 today, so I just went ahead and ordered that.

Couple more questions, please.

1. DirecTV has this new device I'm considering called a Nomad. It sits on your network and allows you to transfer material recorded on your networked HD DVR to other devices (like iPad, laptop, etc.). The instructions specify that it needs to be plugged into your ROUTER. Is there some legitimate networky reason why it should prefer being plugged into a router rather than a switch? My guess is that DTV is just speaking to the lowest common user denominator, but I wanted to check with y'all.

2. I am working on a graphic representation of our home network to better explain this, but... I currently have two switches downstream from the router (one in the living room, and one in the family room). They are the cheapest switches I could buy, and I'm sure they are not "gigabit". Would I benefit from replacing them with better, faster switches?

3. Should I care about DD-WRT or Tomato?

Since I'm NOT a "network guy", I'm really starting to become overwhelmed by the number of networked devices in my home. All this stuff is cool and great, right up until something that you've come to depend on doesn't work.

Thanks, gentlemen.

1. Maybe, and I quote "maybe" they are just trying to avoid the lower bandwidth capabilities of some wireless systems. Uncompressed video is HUGE and even compressed video can stress out some older wireless systems. This would also fit into your "speaking to the lowest common user denominator" theory.

2. While faster is always better, you have to ask yourself, what will you be using that will create such big bandwidth. I routinely run into businesses that run gigabit to all the desktops and would never come close to even 100 Mb/sec. Then, of course, there are those that I have to argue with to convince them to upgrade.

In short, I would grab some freeware for testing bandwidth (sorry, I have our corporate stuff so I'm not familiar with a good freeware one.) do some video streaming, data transfers, etc. and see what you are pushing. If you are pushing 80 Mb/sec or more while stressing things out, then an upgrade might be in order. Assuming whatever you do to stress the network is something that happens often.

or..................
Just go with MORE POWER !!!!!!! It just feels better knowing its there.

#3
I know almost nothing about them but seem to get along fine without them.

Tom I have a Linksys E3000 and it works great for us, it does get darn warm though so I cut a couple of small pieces of 1"x 1" to use as stands so that the router gets air circulation for cooling and I may suggest something similar for you. Reading from a couple of forums the heat issue with the E3000 seems to be quite common.

Excellent. Thanks, Rick and Andy!

The only reason aside from "avoid the wireless" I can think of is that it might be speaking some kind of router-ese that wouldn't be going over the switches. Perhaps UPnP is like that? I don't know, I've never used it. However, I don't think it SHOULD be that--a proper network protocol design shouldn't REQUIRE something to be directly attached to a router, it's simply not feasible in many circumstances.

As far as the GigE goes, if you're doing transfers over Wireless N or to GigE equipped devices of large files, upgrade. If you're just streaming stuff, don't. Remember that the pipe coming into your house is smaller than the pipes IN your house, and if you're only streaming online or playing music, you don't need GigE.

Right on, Ken. Muchas Gracias.

Oh yeah, if you're not a network guy, don't do DD-WRT. World o' pain. I'm still working up the courage to do it to a router that I don't care about. Of course, I don't really want to do heavy lifting computer stuff when I get home any more.

Gigabit switches are so cheap these days. While my main 24-port switch was a couple hundred, if I remember right, the most recent 8-port switches were only $30-something, and the 5-ports were mid-twenties if I remember right. I went with the 8-ports just because. I have Cat6 and gigabit throughout the house. It adds up if you're doing a big home network all at once, but if you're just talking smaller switches, I see no reason to not go gigabit. Of course, I've never budgeted for a family, as you can tell when I talk about my purchases. Ha ha.

the signal coverage of Linksys are a lot weaker compared to my fried D-Link.

Am using the WAG120N (150MB 802.11b/g/n) now, can only get 1 bar in my upstairs bedroom when my old 54M 802.11b/g d-link gives me full bar.

Oh..and the Linksys run darn hot too.