A recent problem was plaguing my home wireless network, and I was recently reminded about an important fact regarding Wireless networking.
Over the years, I've worked with a lot with routers, wired and wireless, and I thought I would share some tips that other fellow roboteers might find helpful. This might seem boring to experienced computer people, but hopefully some people will find it useful.
*** WARNING ***: Most of the tips explained here involve making changes to your router. extreme caution should be used when making these changes, otherwise, permanent loss of internet access could occur for all devices in your home!!! If you are not comfortable making these changes, hire a professional, or your 14 year old nephew.
First of all, if you have high-speed internet such as DSL modem, or a Cable modem, make sure you use a router. Either wired, or wireless. otherwise, internet traffic will be bothering your computer, directly exposing your computer to all the madness that is the internet. a router will create a firewall between you and the internet. its like a one-way mirror. it allows you to freely go out onto the internet, but does not allow the internet to freely come into your computer or network. Yes, you could use an internet security program, but all your doing it asking that program (and your computer) to work harder to stop the bad guys, slowing your computer down.
I live in an apartment complex, and when I display a list of wireless networks in the area, of course the list is crowded with all my neighbors wireless routers. The problem I was having was slow internet performance. some of them probably had DSL internet from the phone company, but assumed most had internet from the cable company. I blamed the cable company who provided me with internet. I assumed they simply couldnt handle all the internet traffic coming in and out of the apartment complex I lived in. which brings me to tip #1
1 - if your experiencing slow internet and your in an area with a lot of wireless routers, change the Channel used by your wireless router. All wireless routers share similar frequencies when communicating with your computers or devices, or Robots! in addition to sharing frequencies, they also share Channels. Certain brands and models of wireless routers all use the same channel, which limits the number of devices that communicate at the same time, causing delays for everyone. in my case, my wireless router was using channel 9, so I changed it 4, and instantly my internet performance problems were gone, and internet was fast again.
2 - to change anything in your router - wired, or wireless, you need to log into your router. to do that, you need to know your routers network address. To determine your routers network address In the Windows XP, do this: Start button / Run / CMD. (In Vista or Windows 7, do this: Start button / type CMD into search box) The black and white Command Prompt window should appear, with a C:\Windows> (or similar) then type IPCONFIG. this should display information about your network connection. look for "IP Address", and "Default Gateway". these addresses might be something similar to 192.168.1.101. the IP Address is for your computer, while the "Default gateway" is most likely your router.
To log into your router point your browser to the Default gateway address, such as http://192.168.1.1 this will most likely present you with a login screen. this is your router prompting you for credentials before it grants you access to it's control panel.
I'll add more tips to this as time permits, or if people have specific questions. Here's the bullet list of tips I plan to talk about. Your feedback is welcomed and encouraged so I'm not talking about stuff people dont care about, etc.
3 - change the default password to access the router
4 - change the default name of the router
5 - ensure your wireless router is encrypted
6 - activate logging
7 - review DHCP Clients to see who is using your network.
8 - disable SSID to hide your wireless router.
9 - print all relevant settings from your wireless router before exiting, and store in a safe, secure place, such as with the router documentation.
10 - resetting power to your router, and cable, or DSL modem. - this clears temporary problems or jam-ups, while retaining all your settings.
11 - reset your router to factory default settings. all your settings will be lost, and the router will return to the way it was the day you installed it.
12 - disable ping responses from your router to the internet
13 - review the port forwarding pages to ensure your router is not allowing unrequested trafic to flow onto your network.
(be advised, changing certain settings such as: the ssid, or encryption key, or IP address range, will require reconnecting to your wireless network by typing in the new encryption key.)
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