How (and why) to Ramble on your goat sideways
12-01-2013, 05:11 PM
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Not hard to do really. It's been 16 hours already and I'm not in the least bit hungry. I had 2x 1/2 pound double w/ cheese (add bacon) and 2x large fries (one for the trip home, and the other for the burgers). I had a huge craving and had to let my inner fat guy out for a night. First time I've eaten that unhealthy in months. That should do me for the next few months until I get another uncontrollable craving for nasty, greasy, salty fast food.
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12-02-2013, 08:50 PM
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Explain to me how a dns issue can cause slow and unreliable connection? I've been experiencing slow connection lately, 3-7Mbps, and sometimes a dropped connection. It all started around the time I tried a new DNS but it didn't occur to me that that might be the issue. Changed back to OpenDNS and immediately my DL is back up in the 24-30Mbps range, and seems to be stable.
Well ****. It WAS seeming stable. Now it has slowed down to 10-12Mbps and videos won't reliably buffer, pages are slow to load, streaming hulu is being weird.
Well ****. It WAS seeming stable. Now it has slowed down to 10-12Mbps and videos won't reliably buffer, pages are slow to load, streaming hulu is being weird.
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12-02-2013, 09:28 PM
DNS isn't going to cause download speed issues. It could slow down the loading of a page if say your primary DNS is bad and all queries have to time out before querying the secondary dns server, but actual downloads once started would see the same throughput. Furthermore, incorrect DNS would not cause you to lose connectivity as that's a layer 2 issue.
If you saw improvements after changing DNS, my hunch is you have a POS router, bad cat5 or both. When you changed DNS, it could have reset and worked for a bit before puking. Trying resetting your Router next time it goes south. If that doesn't fix it try reseting your modem/bridge. Problem is probably in one of those two.
If you saw improvements after changing DNS, my hunch is you have a POS router, bad cat5 or both. When you changed DNS, it could have reset and worked for a bit before puking. Trying resetting your Router next time it goes south. If that doesn't fix it try reseting your modem/bridge. Problem is probably in one of those two.
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12-02-2013, 11:32 PM
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It's a good router. Linksys WRT54GL, one of the better ones out there, if not a bit outdated by now. All Cat5 is good quality stuff, not very old, and never gave any issues before.
I have a feeling it's more something on the ISP side of things, or something on the pole. Infrastructure around here is ****, and it's infuriating. I swear over the years I have noticed issues related to weather/temperature. Maybe a poor physical connection somewhere in my neighborhood, or on my pole? Oh well. I'll continue to be at their mercy.
Also, just in the time I'm running a speed test, I can watch the download hit peaks and troughs. Usually 3 or 4 troughs just within 1 test cycle, averaging about 6Mbps lower than average. Also, upload is always stable and consistent, only the download is all over the place.
I have a feeling it's more something on the ISP side of things, or something on the pole. Infrastructure around here is ****, and it's infuriating. I swear over the years I have noticed issues related to weather/temperature. Maybe a poor physical connection somewhere in my neighborhood, or on my pole? Oh well. I'll continue to be at their mercy.
Also, just in the time I'm running a speed test, I can watch the download hit peaks and troughs. Usually 3 or 4 troughs just within 1 test cycle, averaging about 6Mbps lower than average. Also, upload is always stable and consistent, only the download is all over the place.
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12-03-2013, 02:06 AM
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Work pays for my internet and for some reason, its always been ****. I can never get over 20 Mb/s but I had no idea what plan I was on, so I just kinda "lived with it" because, you know, free internet.
This was a typical Speedtest result:
Comcast Cable, Motorola DOCSIS 3 modem, WRT54GL router. This test was done over a wired connection.
Then I saw the billing and discovered I was on the "Comcast Extreme 105" plan. that's SUPPOSED to be 105 Mb/s down. Something was wrong.
I stopped by the Best Buy and purchased a cheapie Netgear WNR2000 router and some cable modem that looked decent. First thing I did was swap my faithful WRT54GL out for the WNR2000. Being a tech the first thing I wanted to do was ignore the wizard, but it was very naggy so I ran it figuring I would manually reconfigure it later. It seemed to figure out my connection on the first try and got me out to google with no trouble. I decided to turn off the WiFi and for kicks, turn off IPv4 and run purely on IPv6 because I'm baller like that. Then this happened:
**** me sideways! That's more like it!
Notice the timestamps: I can switch back a fourth between the WRT54GL and the WNR2000 and get results like this all day long. Pretty fabulous for a one time $45 expenditure.
This was a typical Speedtest result:
Comcast Cable, Motorola DOCSIS 3 modem, WRT54GL router. This test was done over a wired connection.
Then I saw the billing and discovered I was on the "Comcast Extreme 105" plan. that's SUPPOSED to be 105 Mb/s down. Something was wrong.
I stopped by the Best Buy and purchased a cheapie Netgear WNR2000 router and some cable modem that looked decent. First thing I did was swap my faithful WRT54GL out for the WNR2000. Being a tech the first thing I wanted to do was ignore the wizard, but it was very naggy so I ran it figuring I would manually reconfigure it later. It seemed to figure out my connection on the first try and got me out to google with no trouble. I decided to turn off the WiFi and for kicks, turn off IPv4 and run purely on IPv6 because I'm baller like that. Then this happened:
**** me sideways! That's more like it!
Notice the timestamps: I can switch back a fourth between the WRT54GL and the WNR2000 and get results like this all day long. Pretty fabulous for a one time $45 expenditure.
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12-03-2013, 02:49 AM
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Well ****. I thought the WRT54 was supposed to be the ****. I guess not. To run a new modem, isn't the only thing you have to do it call the ISP and give them the MAC? I recently was given a new modem by them, but it is a do everything, really cheap looking off brand plastic thing with phone connections and a bunch of other useless stuff on it. I'd feel better running something newer and better known.
This test started strong at ~32Mbps, then dropped, and dropped, then flattened out, then dropped again. Again, stable and good ping and upload.
This test started strong at ~32Mbps, then dropped, and dropped, then flattened out, then dropped again. Again, stable and good ping and upload.
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12-03-2013, 03:13 AM
I used to have the WRT54GS, stole it from my dorm. Speeds were dicky at best so I got the Asus RTN66U running Merlin firmware, a gigabit switch and use the WRT54 running Tomato firmware as a wireless extender in the attic for late night MT.net browsing on my phone.
This is wireless from my laptop just now.
My download/gaming/movie rig is wired and has gigabit card fortunately. I can pretty much get 95% speed of my 150/15 subscription easily.
And a personal victory
This is wireless from my laptop just now.
My download/gaming/movie rig is wired and has gigabit card fortunately. I can pretty much get 95% speed of my 150/15 subscription easily.
And a personal victory
Last edited by Oscar; 12-03-2013 at 03:27 AM. Reason: resized pictars
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12-03-2013, 12:08 PM
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Well ****. I thought the WRT54 was supposed to be the ****. I guess not. To run a new modem, isn't the only thing you have to do it call the ISP and give them the MAC? I recently was given a new modem by them, but it is a do everything, really cheap looking off brand plastic thing with phone connections and a bunch of other useless stuff on it. I'd feel better running something newer and better known.
This test started strong at ~32Mbps, then dropped, and dropped, then flattened out, then dropped again. Again, stable and good ping and upload.
This test started strong at ~32Mbps, then dropped, and dropped, then flattened out, then dropped again. Again, stable and good ping and upload.
I'm not saying the WRT54GL is ****, I'm just saying that this is what worked for me. If nothing else, you can buy something at BestBuy, test it out, and return it if you don't get the result you are looking for. Kinda like how I bought hardware for years at Frys in Sunnyvale. I'm besties with the "Return Queue of Shame" by the front door
I work in IT and I argued for most of a day with our Network Engineer and several other guys as to WHY I got the result I did. The NE seems to think that I could have got this result by switching over to purely IPv6 on my WRT54GL. His theory is that I'm hitting some sort of underutilized "business class" tier of IPv6 routing as home connections out here default to IPv4 and business class default to IPv6.
Whatever the reason, I see no reason to **** with a good thing. I have better stability and consistency than any other home connection I've ever had. I can Speedtest it any hour of the day and I get a consistent 95ish Mb/s whereas previously at 3:30pm and 5:30pm I would get MASSIVE dips in bandwidth to the point of timeouts. Now? Netflix and a beer when I get off work. Awwwww yisss! Sometimes the wife even lets me have one.
Correction: I do NOT have a Motorola DOCSIS 3 cable modem, I have a "ubee" DOCSIS 3 that was originally supplied by Comcast like, 4~5 years ago.
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12-03-2013, 12:15 PM
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I've had the WNR2000 for a while. A few months ago it stated getting flakey, requiring me to reset it every day or two or else the apple products won't connect (169.xxxxxxxx), and the windows products connect but are very very slow. I've updated the firmware and that didn't help. I've fucked with all sorts of settings and that doesn't help either. I see they are $35 off amazon, hmmm...
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12-03-2013, 01:49 PM
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What if I (A) have no clue about electronics [electricity is the work of witches and wizards as far as I can tell] and (B) need to be able to support more wireless devices in my house?
If I have two iPhones, two laptops, Xbox Tree-Fiddy, Apple TV, and the Compy386 all trying to connect to the wi-fi at the same time, someone's gonna have a bad time.
Do I need more routers? Is that a thing? An upgraded router?
If I have two iPhones, two laptops, Xbox Tree-Fiddy, Apple TV, and the Compy386 all trying to connect to the wi-fi at the same time, someone's gonna have a bad time.
Do I need more routers? Is that a thing? An upgraded router?
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12-03-2013, 01:55 PM
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The bandwidth of a single 802.11n channel is far greater than the useful bandwidth of any cable / DSL internet connection.
You could be streaming video from the Compy386 to the Xbox and the AppleTV while both laptop users are watching Netflix vidoes and both iPwn users are doing... whatever people do on devices that can't run any useful applications, and nobody would even notice the other's presence. If someone is torrenting then that's going to cause congestion, but the bottleneck here will be your ISP, not your internal infrastructure.
Do I need more routers? Is that a thing? An upgraded router?
They also make "wireless range extenders" that act as repeaters within the WiFi domain (without requiring a wired connection back to the main router), though of course these don't increase total bandwidth, merely act as signal-boosters to extend coverage into "dark" areas. Example of such a device: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122376 (These also allow you to plug wired devices into a WiFi-only network, which is kind of cool.)
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12-03-2013, 01:56 PM
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Or does it? Just noticed they are hyperlinked... oh well, I don't even know what a hash tag is anyway. No loss. I never thought I would see the day when I felt so out of touch with what is the trend. Happened much sooner than anticipated. I thought I would at least be in the loop until 50.
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