Thanks, yeah I’ve heard that sometimes it’s the wiring and sometimes it’s just a cheap product (or both) when they don’t work. I never buy anything online from a place without decent returns, or at least never anything more than a few dollars.
NO.
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What I did was soak my Linksys in de-ionized water, and then I filtered that water X number of times, where X = my ISP’s name converted into a number using kaballah alpha-numeric methods.
Then I poured the water down the sink, threw out the Linksys, and bought an Archer C7, loaded OpenWRT onto it, and things just magically worked!
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Wifi is both a bane and boon, obviously convenient, but not nearly as effective in anything but the simplest setups.
Wireless devices are multiplying, but most routers haven’t advanced much beyond where they were ten years ago.
I had Cat5 installed in my house, but even that was a chore that required finding some dudes on Craigslist who did an okay (but not great) installation job.
This was after calling a dozen electricians, home media “specialists”, and spending a far too much time trying to learn if I could do it myself (short answer, probably not without a visit to the ER–I know my limits).
All of the electricians wanted to charge more than they do for actual electrical work and the home media services refused to take jobs in houses less than 3000 sq ft (this was in Northern Virginia, so there’s a lot of people with more money than sense).
I’m actually a little shocked that there aren’t more services that do this type of cabling, especially as it’s a generally simple task with more than one person and the right tools.
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Part of the issue is that 802.11 was not designed for the level of deployment it currently sees. It actually uses the same packet collision avoidance system that ether net uses, but without the ability to ensure 100% connectivity to other clients on the network. Basically, where there is a lot of wireless clients on the same channel, they constantly are humping heads.
It is called the “hidden node” problem and is tough to fix without having a GPS chip for packet scheduling (that also can work indoors).
Wireless is hard. It is a miracle it works as well as it does.
However, a perspective not mentioned yet on this thread is the quality of your wireless chipset.
The chipset is not listed on the box, but has more to do with performing well. I have a vanilla Cisco Air one 802.11b card that is more rock solid with my (somewhat slow) home Internet than other newer wireless adapters. How do you figure out your chipset? Try here:
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Wireless_adapters/Chipset_table
Good luck finding documentation on reliability and throughput of various wireless routers and adapters. “Good” is relative, and the Linux nuts that document this stuff talk about “good” more in terms of adapter features and available kernel modules. Also a great chipset can suck with a bad driver. Oy.
This thread is a great example of how maddening it is:
I will say: if you buy the more expensive business Netopia router from your dsl company, your coverage and Internet browsing will likely be better and more reliable. If it lacks the latest 802.11n features, large file transfers between local machines may suffer. But let’s be honest, you probably should not have to copy 100gb of data off your laptop in a hurry even over ethernet.
If you want a truly great and reliable router, drop the half a G and get a Cisco. (A real Cisco, not this rebranded linksys stuff. Although, rebranded linksys is still good hardware to put DD-WRT or similar replacement firmware on).
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However, a perspective not mentioned yet on this thread is the quality of your wireless chipset.
Agreed. Had one el-cheap-o generic made in Asia Pacific tablet which has the most horrible wireless connection timing. Takes 1-5 minutes to connect and hold connection to my old netgear 655 router. I don’t have any other problems with other wifi devices, video game systems, laptops, phones, etc,. Fortunately that tablet’s main task is to display photos not intended for streaming videos.
If you want a truly great and reliable router, drop the half a G and get a Cisco. (A real Cisco, not this rebranded linksys stuff.
I have some problems with some older(2000s) commercial Cisco gear. Radio still broadcasts even when software says radio off… FCC non compliance, device leaks more radio than it should (either I got a bad batch or something, +5 units) I no longer do commercial work on networks, so I have no idea how the newer Cisco stuff performs. Just didn’t had a good time with them in the early 2000s. Their older equipment, non wifi gear was awesome though.
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For sheer good looks it is hard to beat the Xiaomi routers.
It might be a regional thing(I assume that northern Virginia has a number of networking contractors that won’t even bother to call you back unless you are looking to build out a big SCIF or something); but we use an outfit at work (in MA) who will do fairly big stuff(wire up a full datacenter, including switch config and such); but will also handle our periodic maintenance needs when a bunch of damaged wall jacks need to have some parts replaced and be re-punched.
It could be that they just do that to keep us happy, since we also call them for medium sized jobs(nontrivial number of new copper runs when needs change in a given building, some fiber work); but unless it is all because of that, they are much more willing to do teeny little jobs than I ever would have expected from looking at their website, sales material, and the like. Not necessarily as cheap as I’d like for home use; but especially if you are going Cat6, having somebody who knows how to do a proper punchdown and has access to test equipment(and doesn’t call the job done until the connection passes) is rather nice.
My home’s coax install was done by a…value oriented… provider(not my choice, I arrived on the scene some time later) and we actually ended up having to disconnect all the coax and remove the nightmare tangle of splitters, leaving only a direct run from the street to the cable modem, to get a link that would remain stable for more than about five minutes. Luckily, nobody was planning on watching TV, so the rooms with now-dead coax drops don’t matter; but bad wiring is the worst.
I realized I had not gotten a new router since I got in the house 8 years ago, so a couple of years back I called Verizon (I have FIOS) and ordered up a new one. For a few extra bucks I got one that was better than the standard version.
I supposedly just got a speed upgrade from Verizon, too; honestly, I can’t tell a big difference from either of these supposed upgrades. It does seem my wifi is less dicey but the connection is nothing to write home about.
In my experience, here in the suburbs of Toronto, there are so few people going into the trades that you can’t get ANY contractor to come out to do a job unless it’s a full-bore remodel. Need an electrician to put in a couple of pot lights, or run a new electrical line for an outdoor light fixture? Pfft, good luck. A tiler to come and replace a handful of cracked floor tiles? Yeah right. Carpenter to repair a small part of a broken wooden fence? Lol. A plumber to put in a new tub faucet? No way. Well, actually, plumbers are usually the only ones that you can get to come out for small jobs, but that’s because they charge you something like $250 just to walk in the door.
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This. We have a dozen of small jobs to be done around the house, been looking for a contractor for a year. Seriously thinking it would be easier to sell & buy a new house, or gut this one than just do the small jobs we want done…
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I’ve just learned to do all the shit I need to do myself. There are still some jobs I’m not really ready to tackle (tiling, in particular), but the rest I’m just figuring out on my own.
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Dammit! I am a downtown bike riding latte drinking urban elite! I should be able to hire someone!
Truth: all the power tools are mine MrPants is not allowed to use them, and I made a lovely shelf on the weekend for my window plants. But seriously, I don’t have the time to take down walls and re-route duct work. I sure I could cludge my through it if I tried but I’d also have to take time off work to do so and thats where we stop. 
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Yeah, I try to limit myself to (fairly) simple stuff like basic repairs, and to get back to the topic at hand I’ve run ethernet to various rooms in the house (one of the benefits of having an unfinished basement, makes it MUCH easier at least when running cables to the first floor). If anything more difficult comes up, I’m fucked. Though I have an Italian brother-in-law, so surely he must know somebody who’s a contractor. 
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HFS. H. F. S. My tub overflow drain was leaky, so I went ahead and pulled the old crappy drain shoe and called a plumber to redo the drain to the drain stack. I figured $300-500.
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…
…wait…wait…$300…to…$500!!!..
…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA…
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At least you can blame your government instead of greedy corporations.
Yeah. We had what turned out to be a pinhole leak in the water pipe leading to our kitchen sink (right in the section of cupboard below the “floor” of the cupboard, and the actual kitchen floor)… Leading to water leaking out from under the counter and dishwasher. We thought it was an issue with the dishwasher, as it coincidentally started when the dishwasher was running. Called a plumber, and first off he couldn’t come till the next day. Awesome. His first recommendation was to replace the dishwasher, because it’s about 10 years old, and “sometimes they just leak, and it’s not worth the cost of repairing”. But when I pointed out before he left (after we’d turned the water back on, and the dishwasher had drained itself) that it was still leaking… He decided to actually look a little bit closer, and heard the pinhole leak spraying under the counter. He was at our house for… About 2.5 hours. The actual repair was just fixing that tiny bit of copper pipe going from the basement to the kitchen sink. Thanks to the unfinished basement, this required only that he disconnect it on the kitchen side pull the copper pipe down into the basement, and fix that little hole (I think he cut it out, and just joined it with another 6" piece of pipe?). Total cost… $750. Ow.
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I am becoming all too familiar with that train of events. The worst part is when the plumber finished and I gave him the thousand godamn fucking dollars [insert weeping GIF pouting and flushed g here], he proceeded to point out the other stuff needing repairs with a low-low-TV-only estimate of $3500. Oh, wait, I mean $3495 BECAUSE THAT’S SO MUCH BETTER.
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A not-very-good computer stand?
