I am presently using a Linksys wireless B router BEFW11S4 which I wish to replace. My main problem is frequent loss of the internet which is corrected by unplugging and replugging the router.
I have a desktop XP SP2 directly wired to the router, a desktop ME wireless, a notebook XP SP2 wireless and a Vtech IP 8100-2 (Vonage wireless telephone system) wired to the router.
I want to upgrade to wireless G. I am not to happy with Linksys and I would like advice as to what wireless router would best suit my needs.
I have the same router (BEFW11S4 v4) with exactly the same problem. I got lazy and "solved" it by putting a Radio Shack timer on the AC power and just having it turn the router power on and off twice per day.
Well, you'll find that just about all manufacturers have their lemons. The BEFW11S4 v4 is one of the losers. I wouldn't give up on Linksys quite yet. I've been using Linksys WRT54G routers with DD-WRT replacement firmware, quite successfully. However, even the stock Linksys firmware has QoS. See:
Correct. The WRT54G and WRT54GS hardware versions V1 through V4 work just fine with alternative firmware. V5 does not use Linux and cannot be used. There's also a WRT54GL, which is identical to the V4 version, but sells for about $20 more.
It's a bit tricky trying to determine which DD-WRT version to install. I suggest you get the latest from the SP1 (service pack 1) releases at:
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the instructions at:
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If you decide to tweak the transmit power up, I suggest you go no higher than perhaps 100 or 150mw as there have been reports of meltdowns at 250mw.
Utterly brilliant. I wish I had hand that little brainstorm not long ago. A Kludgey fix, but what a clever way to force a reboot now and again. Thanks!!! and I really mean that. I can't beleive this hasn't dawned on me before reading it. (in this case not a misbehaving AP, but some other gadgets that would cost even more to replace)
I've used other schemes in the past. In the bad old days of early ISP's, I would constantly have to drive to the server farm to punch the reset button. I had more servers hung by garbage from the UPS power than from anything delivered by the local power company. Sometimes, I had to beg the ISP staff to reboot the servers. No fun at 3AM.
My initial implimentation was a garage door opener and remote. I would drive by the ISP, punch the button, and drive off. At 3AM, that's about all the thinking I was capeable of doing.
Later, I installed a pager reboot scheme. I wired a Motorola Bravo pager to recognize a specific "phone number" code and close a relay momentarily. Later, I built them using a solid state switch instead of a relay. All my pagers were setup on the same cap code (I have a programmer). Send the magic number and a server reboots.
These days, we have SSH, PC Anywhere, VNC, and such, so such pager reboots are no longer required. Or so I thought. Recently, I'm getting involved in remote weather stations. Hangs and crashes seem are epidemic, so I resurrected the pager reboot scheme. However, several of the mountain top have 100watt+ 930MHz paging transmitters nearby, which makes the pager scheme useless. So, I resorted to the usual clock AC timer scheme to just reboot the beast every day and be done with it.
I think I have about a dozen different timers. Some are X10 based. Others are integrated. A few are just digital clocks with a relay wired to the alarm. Whatever works.
Drivel: I accidentally found this item on the Radio Shock web pile. PathLock® E100 NETimer
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another internet security contraption. Hmmm... Discontinued.
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