(More) Network Woes

The week I got home from my liver transplant we started having network issues. Like that is just what I needed. The issues are much like the last time (with our Comcast modem, I’d link the post but I can’t find it) except instead of dropping the ISP modem connection my Wifi is deciding to crap out, consistently. When trying to log back on you get the error “cannot obtain an IP address”. Great. I know it’s not the server this time at least, it’s just sitting there and it is working just fine. I had already switched back from ClearOS to a standard router WTF is wrong?

So I thought it was the AP in the garage so I unplugged it, worked for a few hours then the IP issue came back. Plugged it back in and tried unplugging another AP. Same results, worked for a few hours then the issue came back. This time I unplugged all the APs. Same results. Looks like its the router this time.

The router in question is a Buffalo WHR-300HP, which was a good router for the most part. It shipped with DD-WRT installed which was partly why I bought it at the time. Maybe it needs an update. Well apparently they didn’t issue any official updates for it. In my search of the DD-WRT forums I found I could use another routers firmware update instead… no doing that. Not without a back up. I do have other routers lying around but they are old subpar WRTs or other just as old units. It looks like I needed a new router. If I had to get a new router it was gonna have an AC band. So I did a little research and bought one. I nabbed an ASUS RT-ACRH13 (AC1300) Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Router. There were better choices but I was not comfortable dropping $150+ into a wireless router. But I made sure to get something gigabit this time. Now the entire network is gigabit, even the wireless! Ha.

All of the AP’s are powered down and only the ASUS is running. Covers the whole house. It has 2.4gHz and 5gHz bands which is nice. It does do AC but only the tablets and phones have AC modems in them at the moment. Honestly everything else is wired. It would be nice if the TVs and gaming consoles were AC. I would at least settle for N speeds. The router has a USB 3.0 port but I am not using it. I have a full blown server running don’t really need a NAS too. So far the new router is working out nicely, but I don’t care for the interface very much. A little too “Web 2.0”. It’s a wireless router, a piece of network hardware. I don’t need (or want) some fancy ass menus. Other than that its great so far.

But now I am saddened. I had a home built machine running as my router with distributed wireless Access Points throughout the house. Had issues and had to remove the server router. Now I have wireless issues and had to remove the APs. Well I didn’t have to but the new router really makes them obsolete. I no longer have a “cool kickass” home network :(. At least I still have a rack in the garage filled with blinky lights! Which could be reduced down to just one switch probably :(. Now I am sad again.