OK, so I am having an issue, it seems. Sorry for the long winded post, but I wanted to get all the info out there so that you have an accurate idea as to 1)
what I am doing, 2)
why I am doing it, and 3)
what steps I have taken to troubleshoot it.
BackgroundI have a DGL-4500 and a DGL-4300 in very close proximity, and there is a reason for this. I have read that the 4500 does not play nicely when trying to use both G & N for multiple type of connections (and even experienced it myself, although it was on my originally purchased unit, as opposed to my RMA replacement that I am now using), but I have no choice in the matter, as I have 2 laptops that are N based laptops, and 2 that are G based, as well as my Motorola DROID and a pair of Blackberry's (Storm II and 8600 (?)) as well as an iPhone (yes, we're a diverse group of folks) (all G based). I wanted to keep N and G separated, so I came up with the (possibly) brilliant idea of using my DGL-4500 to serve as my N provider and my 4300 as the G provider, having the 4500 running at 5.8 GHz so as to minimize the interference. My home built system uses an eVGA 780i motherboard, with a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports on it, so I made the 4500 the primary device connecting to my cable modem, and my 4300 a slave of the 4500, on a different subnet. (varying at 3rd and 4th octets, obviously still using 192.168 for the first two octets).
This gives me a lot of flexibility and leeway, in that I can almost instantly look at an IP address and know where it is connected, but more so, I can also easily control access to routers and machines using rules and MAC address filtering, etc.
My problem lies somewhere in this quagmire, but it gets better. Recently, we converted our home phone system to Vonage, and originally had it set up as Vonage suggested -
Cable Modem --> Vonage --> 4500 --> 4300. That worked - for 2 days, until a corrupted update for the Vonage router took out our entire network, as when it went down, everything behind it did as well.
This Vonage router crapped out 3 different times, before I finally figured out how I can prevent all of this - I changed the order to the following:
Cable Modem --> 4500 --> 4300_______________
| _______________
_______________
| _______________
_______________
V _______________
____________
Vonage ____________
I assigned the Vonage device a static IP in the 4500, (as I do with all of my devices, so I know exactly when someone is trying to screw with my network - it pops up IP in a slightly off 4th octet range) and I then made that IP the DMZ. Now, Vonage is happy, b/c my 4500 is letting it think it is connected directly to the modem, and my network is happy, b/c all subsequent failures on the Vonage device leave my network intact.
The IssueRecently, I moved from one room to another, and this entailed moving 4 sets of computers around - my old room became my computer room again, my sister's old room became her room again, but the study became my bedroom, and the folks' computer was moved into their room. Now, in the folks' room, there is no drop, and I don't have enough switches to put in anymore drops. Since we had a DWA-552 lying around that would work in the desktop, and since the other computer in there laptop with wireless, I figured "Kewl, solution Manifesto." Wrong - DWA-552 works on 2.4 GHz only. LOLWTF?
Sigh. OK, so I converted the 4500 to run at 2.4, no restart seemed to be needed, and *poof* - the DWA 552 can see it plain as day. Kewl. However, now I seem to have a new (and potentially threatening) issue.
Since I have one NIC on my mobo connected to the 4500 and the other to the 4300, it makes it easy to troubleshoot both routers (even simultaneously, if need be). However,
the issue is that, recently, my connection speeds have gone to crap. By crap, I mean that I am paying for Cox.net's premium tier service for residential lines, and in the past, using first the 4300 and then the 4500 I have gotten speeds that easily double what I am advertised as receiving. They advertise 12-15 Mbps, and I routinely was getting 24-33 Mbps down (upload was ~even with what was advertised).
Now, all of a sudden, I am getting 5 Mbps down and 0.1 (yes, 1/10th of 1) Mbps up. I have been on the phone with Cox a few times this week, and we have finally resolved it to being the something in between the cable modem and my computer - taking everything out of the mix, I go right back to getting 18-20 Mbps down and 5.5 up, but putting everything back in and I get more of the same crappy results.
So, I disconnected my computer from the 4300, leaving me connected to the 4500 only - and *poof* my connection shot to near advertised specs. Not the same as I am getting being connected to directly to the modem, but much better than the abysmal effort I get with both connected to my computer.
Conspiracy TheoriesThis leaves me wondering:
- Is it because both of my wireless routers are broadcasting in close proximity at 2.4 GHz?
- Is it because I have the Vonage device in the mix as the DMZ in the 4500?
- Is it because my 4300 is failing (at one point, around Jan 2009, I could not obtain any IP addresses from the device on wired connection, which is why I purchased the 4500 in the first place - the reason I brought it out of hibernating was that, originally, I though to have only wireless connected to it, but when I saw the wired was working like a champ, I just rolled with it....)
One other idea that occurred to me - if I bought a NetGear GS-108 Gigabit switch into play, immediately behind the router, I could conceivably hook all three devices to the modem, in effect isolating them from each other.
Would that help?
Finally, is there *
any* way possible to make the DWA 552 work at 5.8 GHz so I can test whether it is, in fact, wireless frequency interference? (
<-- I am 99.44% sure the answer is no, but had to ask - just in case).
I know, so many questions. Luckily, I have an entire weekend to play and figure this out....
Author
Topic: Trying to optimize my multiple connection types.... (Read 17291 times)