Network Overhaul

I have just over a dozen network connected devices in the place not including any roaming devices from friends or family. I'm expecting this number to only grow over time. Having a capable traffic cop in the house is a pretty high high on my list of home technology issues. For an extended period I have had issues on my network wherein my computer refused to perform appropriately on my Linksys (Cisco) equipment. While most things are connected directly to the router and mostly via WiFi, I still have several devices that connect via wired Ethernet.

The "fix" for my issue was to connect my desktop computer directly to the vendor supplied router and everything else was behind the Cisco network. This caused a lot of problems with media sharing and similar activities since computers on different networks won't talk to each other without fairly creative and complex configurations. For a while now, it seems Linksys has been producing far more retail products than updating the firmware on the stuff they have already have. As a result, even though I was running on a mid- to upper-market Linksys E3200 High-Performance Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router, fixes, improvements, etc. were very scarce.

I didn't really relish replacing the router since it was fairly new still and seemed to work ok with every other device I had. But, replacing my Alienware beast was inconceivable at best (and no, there are no open slots for another network card/USB networking is hokey.) Unfortunately, with as much stuff as I've been doing on the home network, something had to give. 

Luckily, a gift card came my way. While it wouldn't cover the cost of a new router, it would take the sting out. Not as much as I thought, given the unit I ended up going with, but it was something.

I had not looked at the router market for a while so I looked up reviews around the Internet and found some helpful reviews at c|net. Shockingly, there were no 5 star reviews. I don't mind telling you that shocked me. What gives these days that we can't get 5 star equipment for our networks when everything is networked these days. It boggles the mind.

In any case, I narrowed down my list to the newer Linksys EA line, an Asus, the Buffalo line and... well that's about it. I had some pretty horrid experiences with both D-Link and Netgear back in the day of nascent WiFi. I'm sure it's no longer so bad, but the scars are still there. 

The next step for me was to check out the reader reviews. I respect reviewer opinions but like to supplement it with real world usage. Buffalo probably had the fewest reviews, but was generally positive. Cisco had a ton of reviews, but was generally more mixed. Asus had similar number of reviews and was similarly mixed. However, reading the reviews indicated that the issues were slightly esoteric and, moreover, were generally fixed by firmware updates. Even better, the manufacturer had folks reading and responding to the issues raised. That sealed the deal.

Welcome aboard Asus RT-AC66U!This is my first Asus networking product though I regularly used to purchase motherboards from them back in the days where I used to assemble my own computer. Their reputation back then was that of relative quality and stability verses some of the various other vendors at the time. Over the intervening years, they have expanded to other components, laptops, monitors and more. They are also a world wide company so make sure you that you set yourself to United States so you see the correct content.

I'll cover setup of the unit here and talk about performance in a subsequent post. The box was pretty densely packed with all the various components. Everything lifted out easily and it came with a printed Quickstart guide as well.

I'm not the type of person to use wizards much, but when setting up the router it defaulted right into that mode trying to discover what type of network you have etc. and then asking questions. It wasn't able to figure out what type of network I have (which, admittedly few people would use my goofy setup) so I can't fault it too much. However, even when I set the settings manually, the wizard kept trying to run. I fled to the stardard web interface as soon as I could.

Speaking of which, it is a nicely well laid out web application though curiously slow during some navigation. However, it was quick enough to configure the few settings needed. One complaint, I have - and it seems industry wide - is that the software failed to require you to change the password. Folks, it's not a good idea to be running with admin/admin on a wireless device. You most likely will be compromised. 

Speaking of security, it's always a good idea to pop over to Gibson Research to run their basic vulnerability checker called Shields Up! It's an excellent and free resource to make sure you didn't do a Bad Thing^TM.

The unit is wall mountable which is great and it also came with a handy flat Ethernet cable to allow you run the cable underneath the unit if left on a tabletop. All fit and finish was good and the three antennas spoke well for the promises of speed and range. Pretty much everything as hoped so far.

Next, up... performance and some interesting oddities.