Which Route(r) Should I Take?

The wireless age.  It is a fantastic time to live in when it comes to networking several computers together.  It is also a wonderful invention when your cable connection is on the exact opposite side of your home, so your options are: 1. drill holes in your ceilings and walls, crawl through your attic and run 100 feet of Ethernet cable or, option 2: go wireless.

This is the story of option 2.

In every place that I have lived, at least one computer was wireless, and therefore I have probably used every router in existence, especially at my current home.  You see, in the 1950’s, when my house was built, a personal computer wasn’t even a thought in most people’s head, let alone wireless connections. Therefore building a house to accommodate a wireless connection was not something that anyone considered.  Another thing to remember about the 50’s is that people knew how to build a house. My house could probably survive a nuclear strike, if it had to.  The exterior walls are block construction with vinyl siding, and the interior walls use 6” x 12” stud construction with lathe board, dry wall and chicken wire (which is key to this story) with a thick hand plaster coating.  Yep, they knew how to build ‘em.

Enter into the arena, the first router, a Belkin Play “N” series router with a 300mb/s transfer rate antennae. 

This router worked great at my last apartment, which was only 800 square feet, and the computer sat about 20 feet away from the router with a clear line of sight, so the connection and speed was fantastic. Not so much in the new home.  The distance from the router to the computer is roughly 50 feet, which is not a great distance. However, the line of sight is apparently far more incredibly important then I originally thought.  Going in a straight line from the router to my computer, the signal must pass through 4 of those heavy duty plaster lined walls.  The Belkin failed to achieve this feat.

Next up on deck was the Apple Airport Extreme. 

I figured, why screw around with anything in the Belkin Play category, let’s get right into the big leagues.  So, off to Best Buy to purchase the Apple router. 

Before I continue, I feel it is necessary to inform you that another major disadvantage going for me is my internet service provider – Cox Communications.  Simply put, they stink on ice.  On most days, two tin cans and a string work better then anything Cox can offer.  As a matter of fact, if you have an alternative service provider in your area, then use it. 

Unfortunately, Cox Communications has somewhat of a monopoly in the area, so I have to use them. Cox’s modem of choice is the Motorola SURFboard SBV5422 Digital Voice Modem and Integrated DECT Cordless Phone System.

 

This thing sucks, too. I have been through 3 of them.  I mention all of this because while all of the routers that I will be discussing have had issues in one form or another, there is a good chance that my ISP and modem are to blame as well, so take all my reviews with a grain of Cox Communications’ provided salt.

Anyway, back to the router. The set up was fairly simple – my PC recognized it right away. My Mac, on the other hand, did not, due to the fact that I am still using Mac OS X v 10.4 operating system.  I know, I need to upgrade.  The Airport Extreme requires Leopard at least to operate with maximum efficiency.  However, the Mac was able to connect despite the lack of a software upgrade with the existing built in wireless card, it just had a weaker signal. I noticed that my signal on the PC was still very weak, and my connection was extremely poor, with a transfer rate of 13.5mb/s.  Unacceptable.  So, I went back to Best Buy and purchased the Airport Express – a device that is supposed to extend the range of the Apple Extreme router.

This did not happen.  My computer wanted to recognize the Express as the router, as opposed to the Extreme.  There was constant conflict between the two devices, and one would cancel out the other.  In addition to that, my signal was still extremely poor. Nope, Apple cannot contend with Cold War Era construction.

Next up: the Cisco Systems Linksys E3000.

 

Fail.  I mean all the way around, fail.  My computers could not connect with the router at all.  The signal was so weak that it could not get past the initial set up connection during the installation process.

Finally, we come to the winner, a Netgear N300 wireless router. 

 

Surprisingly, this is a middle of the road unit.  The reach of the signal is not as far as the Apple Airport and the E3000, but is markedly stronger.  I have to say, the installation process was a pain in the neck.  Not particularly hard or anything, just a pain in the neck.  I had to take my tower, monitor, keyboard and mouse to the router and run a hard-line Ethernet connection between the tower and the router to establish communication.  Once communication had been established, the rest was easy.  However, even though the signal quality was stronger, the router still had issues penetrating the walls of my house.  The signal was still hit or miss. 

Then, my tech savior, Rusty, gave me this handy little device called a Rosewill RNX-G1 antennae.

The installation of the antennae was extremely simple, and this ended up being the missing link, the solution to the problem.  The down side is that the maximum transfer rate is 54mb/s.  However, since the signal is strongest with this setup, I am able to use every bit of the 54mb/s.  Even though the other routers had a 300mb/s rating, the signal was so weak, I was lucky to get 20mb/s. 

With the stronger signal from both the router and the antennae, my signal has been strong, steady and interruption free.

Remember at the beginning of this post, I mentioned the chicken wire that supports the plaster?  Apparently, the chicken wire was dispersing the signal from the other routers to the computer; after all, the router’s broadcast frequency is just a radio signal.  Every router uses a different frequency to broadcast their signal.  Apparently, the Netgear Router uses a frequency that can penetrate the inner structure of my 1950’s walls.

For anyone trying to select a wireless router for their homes or office, I hope this blog helped. Something to remember that I did not in the beginning of my search for a router is the construction of the space around you and most importantly, the construction of any walls that may be between the router and the computer that it is serving.