For years, I have paid my monthly fee to get my Internet connection through my cable provider. We had a wired cable modem and a Linksys WRT54GL router for our networking needs. The router was kept in a back bedroom on top of a dresser between a fishtank housing a lizard and a large window. We have always had intermittent interrupted service and the signal would drag at most times. At first, our network wasn't secured, but a good computer savvy friend came over and fixed that. He taught me how to setup the security settings and assign a WEP key. This was fine for a little while, but eventually the signal crapped out on us once again. It got so bad, we would disconnect the router at night in case anyone was somehow still managing to piggy back on our signal. We were stumped as to why the signal still had not improved.
When the router was first turned on, it would work like a charm, but in a matter of minutes, it would begging to degrade and crawl. Over this past holiday season, I decided to subscribe to Netflix. As luck would have it, we watched some really idiotic movie at 2:00 am, and everything worked just fine. Armed with this false sense of security, the next day, we decided to watch a family movie with my 7 year old....talk about latency issues!
In order to get through the first half hour, we had to reboot the router about 5 separate times. It was beyond frustrating. I immediately began researching on the net to find a solution and decided to get a newer, more powerful router. I had no idea that G routers had been replaced by N ones, and no clue as to how exactly having a dual band router would benefit me. After much research, I decided on the Linksys E4200...why? I was going to settle for the E3200, but since we often have 3 laptops running at one time, 2 may be streaming video, and now we have the movie streaming service, as well as a wireless printer, and we are planning to get an additional desktop early this Spring, I figured I could not go wrong with the best possible router of this line.
The installation of the router itself in the same old physical location was pretty easy. Going from WEP to WPA required simply changing the key / password and I was ready to go. Since both products were Linksys, the installation CD was able to detect and import all my previous settings. I did go in and tweak a few minor things, but out of the box, the security settings were what most people would need, and it even sets up a password protected guest account with an auto-generated password in case you need it.
So now the router was all set up, I rebooted everything, and my connection was working. But guess what? It was just as slow as before! You can just imagine my frustration at having shelled out about $200 on this new router and everything was exactly the same as it was before.
Now, by this time, I had read a few articles on optimal router placement, but to be honest, I didn't think much of it. But, as a last resort, I decided to move the router from that bedroom into a more centrallized location. I chose a hallway at the halfway point of the entire apartment, and sat the router on top of a large closet about a foot shy of the ceiling.
Of course, it goes without saying, I had to quickly get a 50 ft Ethernet cable, and daisy chain about 3 extension chords to reach the new location of the router since my apartment is wired rather oddly. After giving the system one last reboot, the lights came on the router and all lights were on on the cable modem. I began doing some light surfing to test the speed. All I can say is wow!!! I had no idea my connection could actually be that fast. I am now connecting at 450 Mbit/s and my oldest daughter's 2008 Macbook is coming in at 130 Mbit/s...oh yeah! As glad as I am, I want to kick myself for not thinking of this solution sooner. All those years wasted with a dragging signal, and all those repeatedly dropped connections; just because we had never given a second thought to where the router was physically located.
About an hour later, we were able to watch our first Netflix flick without any interruptions. We were even able to pause, prep snacks, and not have to hold off going to the bathroom; and all without those dreaded red loading bars popping up, and then praying against hope that the movie would pick up where it left off. Best of all, I was surfing during the movie, so was my oldest daughter, and my 7 year old was in her room streaming You Tube. It was so wonderful, and the best part is that is now what we can expect on a regular basis...so was this new router worth the added expense? Abso-freakin'-lutely!!!
When the router was first turned on, it would work like a charm, but in a matter of minutes, it would begging to degrade and crawl. Over this past holiday season, I decided to subscribe to Netflix. As luck would have it, we watched some really idiotic movie at 2:00 am, and everything worked just fine. Armed with this false sense of security, the next day, we decided to watch a family movie with my 7 year old....talk about latency issues!
In order to get through the first half hour, we had to reboot the router about 5 separate times. It was beyond frustrating. I immediately began researching on the net to find a solution and decided to get a newer, more powerful router. I had no idea that G routers had been replaced by N ones, and no clue as to how exactly having a dual band router would benefit me. After much research, I decided on the Linksys E4200...why? I was going to settle for the E3200, but since we often have 3 laptops running at one time, 2 may be streaming video, and now we have the movie streaming service, as well as a wireless printer, and we are planning to get an additional desktop early this Spring, I figured I could not go wrong with the best possible router of this line.
The installation of the router itself in the same old physical location was pretty easy. Going from WEP to WPA required simply changing the key / password and I was ready to go. Since both products were Linksys, the installation CD was able to detect and import all my previous settings. I did go in and tweak a few minor things, but out of the box, the security settings were what most people would need, and it even sets up a password protected guest account with an auto-generated password in case you need it.
So now the router was all set up, I rebooted everything, and my connection was working. But guess what? It was just as slow as before! You can just imagine my frustration at having shelled out about $200 on this new router and everything was exactly the same as it was before.
Now, by this time, I had read a few articles on optimal router placement, but to be honest, I didn't think much of it. But, as a last resort, I decided to move the router from that bedroom into a more centrallized location. I chose a hallway at the halfway point of the entire apartment, and sat the router on top of a large closet about a foot shy of the ceiling.
Of course, it goes without saying, I had to quickly get a 50 ft Ethernet cable, and daisy chain about 3 extension chords to reach the new location of the router since my apartment is wired rather oddly. After giving the system one last reboot, the lights came on the router and all lights were on on the cable modem. I began doing some light surfing to test the speed. All I can say is wow!!! I had no idea my connection could actually be that fast. I am now connecting at 450 Mbit/s and my oldest daughter's 2008 Macbook is coming in at 130 Mbit/s...oh yeah! As glad as I am, I want to kick myself for not thinking of this solution sooner. All those years wasted with a dragging signal, and all those repeatedly dropped connections; just because we had never given a second thought to where the router was physically located.
About an hour later, we were able to watch our first Netflix flick without any interruptions. We were even able to pause, prep snacks, and not have to hold off going to the bathroom; and all without those dreaded red loading bars popping up, and then praying against hope that the movie would pick up where it left off. Best of all, I was surfing during the movie, so was my oldest daughter, and my 7 year old was in her room streaming You Tube. It was so wonderful, and the best part is that is now what we can expect on a regular basis...so was this new router worth the added expense? Abso-freakin'-lutely!!!
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