by WebKeyDesign | Feb 17, 2011 | Networking
Recently, my home network has managed to grow significantly. Between a couple of file servers, three client machines, and a printer, I thought my Linksys WRT350N was handling the load fine, but then it was all the other non-computing devices that are starting to eat away at the network. There are smart phones, the Playstation 3, Nintendo DS and Wii, a new Blu-ray Player that I got that has network capabilities, and the home theater receiver now too has a wired network connection. When you add up all these network devices, the typical wireless router is no longer a good fit.
Expanding The Network
The first problem I ran into is that the network must support both wireless G and N devices. Putting devices on the same radio signal causes slowdowns for N devices. Separate radio signals can be had by purchasing the latest dual radio routers, but these are usually expensive. If only some company would make an 8 port Gigabit Ethernet wireless router that would also help me out a bit, but there is not at this time a perfect router. The best solution that I could come up with is to have a main wireless N router manage the network, with a switch and another access point connected to the router. Adding the switch and access point brings up another problem. Namely that you want to maintain Gigabit Ethernet connections between the router, switch and access point. Most wireless routers and cheap switches are 100 Fast Ethernet and since the purpose of building out the home network is to deliver HD video and other multimedia services, it is best to go with Gigabit Ethernet as much as possible.
What Works?
What I ended up with right now is using the Netgear WNR3500L as my main router. This is a moderately priced router that can be had for around $70 or less. You can find the specifications on Newegg. Other than the price, the 480MHz CPU and 64MB of memory are good selling points, add open firmware support and you have a great bargain. I ended up purchasing two WNR3500L units from the local BestBuy; utilizing BestBuy’s rewardzone coupons, I was able to save 12% off the regular price.
Once at home, I went through the process of upgrading the WNR3500L to use DD-WRT instead of the default Netgear firmware. Netgear considers the WNR3500L an open router, so you can upgrade to opensource firmware packages; Netgear even has a website for you to reference: MyOpenRouter.com. For upgrading specifically to DD-WRT reference: Upgrading to DD-WRT: Demystified first, then go to the DD-WRT Router Database to download the .chk firmware file: Netgear WNR3500L Firmware: Special File for initial flashing. You will need to flash to this firmware first in order to install a full DD-WRT firmware. Next download the actual firmware you will want to use from MyOpenRouter.com. I went with a version of the King Mod DD-WRT that does not have miniDLNA. At this point you should be ready to start flashing, just follow the specific instructions for the WNR3500L, that DD-WRT provides.
Add A Switch & Access Point
Next comes adding the switch and access point to the network. At this time the main router does the Wireless N radio only. I hooked up my old Linksys WRT350N as a Wireless G access point. The second WNR3500L is being used only as a switch at this time. In the future I may switch the Wireless G signal to the second WNR3500L and replace the WRT350N with an actual 8 port Gigabit Ethernet switch. To turn any DD-WRT router into an access point or switch follow these instructions. The hard part is figuring out which port to plug into on the access point or switch. For the WNR3500L all ports are Gigabit Ethernet, so you can use the Uplink port, but for an older router like the WRT350N, I used one of the regular ports, since the Uplink port on that router is not Gigabit.
Conclusion
As usual, once it is all setup, I had some problems with my Blu-ray Player, but after a couple of resets, everything worked as designed. The Playstation 3 likes having a wired connection and it plays media files from my Windows Server now without problems. Of course having more boxes, is more complicated and the electric bill will definitely be higher after all, but the speed is well worth it and it cost me less than buying an expensive cutting edge router.
by WebKeyDesign | Feb 13, 2009 | Networking
It is possible to setup dynamic DNS with your router. DD-WRT, a free Linux-based firmware for several wireless routers, offers multiple dynamic DNS setups. In this example I have chosen to use DD-WRT with the free dynamic DNS service EveryDNS. Although DD-WRT does not specifically list EveryDNS as an option under the Setup – DDNS section, you can easily add it in the following manner:
- Login into the DD-WRT control panel for your router and choose Setup – DDNS.
- Fill in the following values:
- DDNS Service = Custom
- DYNDNS Server = dyn.everydns.net
- User name = your username
- Password = password for you account
- Host Name = your domain name
- URL = /index.php?ver=0.1&domain=your_domain_name
- Save and Apply your settings.
If you are not using EveryDNS, you can find instructions for other dynamic DNS providers on the DD-WRT Wiki.
by WebKeyDesign | Jan 29, 2009 | Networking
You ever work on something for so long that you start to think someone must be playing a joke on you, or at least laughing at you? This is the exact feeling I have when dealing with wireless networking. On the one hand, not having to run wires through your house and worrying about your dog or children tripping over them is nice, I am not sure the trade off is worth it. Let us begin with a simple home wireless network router and how the labyrinth gets complicated so easily can sometimes amaze you. Immediately you are encountered with a list of concerns that you never had with wired Ethernet, such as to secure the router or not? Any technical person would tell you that you need to secure it to prevent your neighbor’s kid from downloading all sorts of naughty things, because if you do not do this, ultimately you are legally responsible for anything that gets downloaded through your $50 router! Next you have to worry about signal interference, cause you do not want your wireless router to interfere with any cordless phone or other wireless router that your neighbor may have. Did I mention your microwave hates your router too?
Say you figured out all of that stuff and you are happy with your router security and your router’s placement. Now comes the fun part, which is having to one by one connect all your devices to your router and make them all play nice with each other. First come the desktop machines, then the laptops, and if you have mixed Windows and Macs it makes it more challenging. On older Windows XP machines, you end up cursing Microsoft for making this harder than running a marathon, and on the Apple side, you wonder if Apple documents anything at all with industry terms, it is as if Apple has to rename everything to an Apple friendly name just for the sake of being different!
If you survive all of this configuration and troubleshooting, you then are confronted with your son or daughter asking you if you can fix it so their Nintendo DS and Sony PSP can access the Internet. Oh, you probably need to fix it too so that the Playstation 3 can connect too. Overall, by this time you figured out that the easiest of all was the network printer, but for whatever reason the PS3 still can’t see your printer.
Lessons Learned
I am sure the Steve Jobs digital lifestyle works, if all you have are Apple products, but in reality wireless networking is a test of patience. What you suddenly discover is that networking is too complicated for normal people to do. With every device you add to the network, the security model tends to suffer and you see that inexpensive products like the Nintendo DS just do not support the latest security methods such as WPA2 and AES. You almost need two wireless networks, a highly secure one and a very open one that has limited functionality for all those devices that cannot connect to anything secure.
by WebKeyDesign | Sep 18, 2006 | Networking
This week I have been looking at how to detect TCP/IP ports on a local area network to see if an application was setup correctly. And while using ping and tracert from a DOS prompt works well for somethings, I was looking at what else I could use. For Mac OS X users, the Network Utility tool features ping and traceroute options, or you can always use a terminal window directly to ping and traceroute. To verify that you have a listening port, the command line utility netstat -a comes in handy on both Windows and Mac OS X. With this you can verify that a particular port number is listening. You can still use the website CanYouSeeMe.org, if you want to verify that your particular computer is open to the Internet, but this only works if your router is setup to forward requests for this port. In the case where you want to run a VNC or some other service for only local network connections, netstat works much better to verify that the port is in fact listening.
Another tool which Windows users might find handy is Microsoft’s PortQryUI tool. This utility reports the port status of TCP and UDP ports on a computer that you select.
by WebKeyDesign | Jul 19, 2006 | Networking
This week, I planned on putting out another guide. Last time I tackled optimizing WindowsXP, this time around, I looked at how I configure my wireless router. Instead of focusing on speed, I thought it would be a good idea to cover security. This is a topic that most consumers don’t understand and while manufacturers have tried to make networking easier, the truth is that networking is quite complicated. While I’m sure my guide on Securing Wireless Networks is not at all definitive, it does cover the basic measures you need to implement to have a somewhat secure wireless network in your house.
If you do one thing, make sure you enable WPA and use a random generated password. This alone is absolutely essential.
Feel free to add any comments and let me know what you do to secure your wireless network.
by WebKeyDesign | Jun 28, 2006 | Networking
This week, I set out to improve my wireless reception for my home network. The wireless local area network (WLAN) is powered by a Linksys WRT54GS router. This is a pretty standard wireless G router. The WRT54G router series are pretty affordable and if you have an older version of the WRT54G or WRT54GS model, you can even install a third party firmware to enable more features. If you are thinking of getting a new router, then I suggest you purchase the WRT54GL, since this is the only model that makes it easy to install third party firmware.
As always, installing a third party firmware on your Linksys router does void your warranty and Linksys will not support your router if you are running third party firmware. Do not attempt this if you do not want to void your warranty and support!
HyperWRT
Although there are a variety of different third party firmwares, I chose HyperWRT because it features a powerboosting feature and at the same time strives to stay as close as possible to the original Linksys firmware. Once installed HyperWRT looks almost identical to the Linksys interface. The main difference is the Transmit Power option found under Advanced Wireless Settings:
This will effectively boost the range and power of your WLAN. It is best to not boost the signal all the way to 100%, as this will make the router run hotter than normal.
TNC Antennas
Besides firmware changes the other way to boost wireless range is by using a better antenna. The WRT54G routers have TNC connectors to which the antennas connect to. You can purchase a third party antenna from sites like HyperLink Technologies, like this huge Hyper Gain 2.4 GHz 9 dBi Rubber Duck.
If you prefer to have the antennas match your router, then you want the Linksys HGA7T antennas. These replacement antennas are exactly twice as long as the original antennas on the WRT54G router and are rated at 7dBi.
Replacing the original antennas will increase the wireless range and signal strength, depending on your location from the router. These antennas work best when you are located horizontally to the router. If your main objective is to get better wireless reception on a floor directly above from the router, you are better off installing another access point router. In my experience, the HGA7T antennas improved wireless signal by 12% when I setup my laptop one floor above the router. Overall the improvement was not overwhelmingly better, but was an improvement. Like I said these antennas work best when you and the router are on the same floor. I did experience less signal drops though and was able to use my laptop in my upstairs living room where I had been having problems staying connected before.
As for installing the new TNC antennas, all you have to do is squeeze and turn counterclockwise the antenna to remove it. If you are having trouble getting one off, squeeze tighter and pull the plastic bushing (cover) away from the router to get to the actual antenna TNC connector. Once you remove both, slide the original bushings on to the new antennas and connect them. The router will look a bit stranger with the new larger antennas, but hey looks are not what we are after, it’s a better wireless signal that we want.
Corrections:
The original HyperWRT site may no longer be up. You can still find a copy of HyperWRT Thibor, which is the last version of HyperWRT to be worked on: Thibor’s HyperWRT.
