On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 6:29 PM, Lewis G Rosenthal <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com> wrote:

Hey...

On 03/24/10 10:32 am, Neil Waldhauer thus wrote :

I've been using a Linksys wireless router, a WRT54G with firmware version
v8.00.0. It's worked for years, but lately, it has been stopping, and I've
needed to unplug it, count to 10, replug it to get my line working again.

Last November, we had a short discussion on this list about this router, and
how it slowly cooked itself to death. Is is reasonable to assume that my router
is "done". If so, what is a similar router good for and eCS user? I'd like to
get a cheap, yet reliable router.
 

The WRT54GL is probably as good as any other. All of these little devices die from heat exhaustion at some point. Ed's suggestion is a good one, though; I'd try flashing it, and of course, you could always add a fan (google "wrt54g fan mod" and see some of the wacky things the kids have "cooked" up for these little buggers) to help keep it cool and buy yourself a few more years.

New WRT54GL's (hardware only) are about $55 from Amazon <shameless plug> (and of course, Warpstock gets a bump from those sales) </shameless plug> . More are available on eBay, but of course, buying a used one means that you may be purchasing one which is just as tired as yours is, now. DD-WRT and OpenWRT will allow you to throttle back the CPU, to further reduce heat, if you don't need it running at full throughput, although your broadband and LAN performance - as well as your Wi-Fi output - is bound to suffer from a lower clock speed.

Alternatively, you could build yourself a nice little router which will run DD-WRT. Check out:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Mikrotik_Routerboard_RB/532
http://www.routerboard.com/rb500.html

I have had good results with the VIA mini-ITX boards, too. The real benefit to building a box for yourself is that you get to mount the motherboard in a real case with fans and a decent power supply (though the little stuff is expensive for the space you get, so beware of that), and then choose your antenna(s).

If you don't want to get your hands dirty, but still want something a bit more substantial than the LinkSys without paying an arm and a leg, look at the Ubiquiti or Mikrotik offerings. I can usually get these at reasonable prices through my Wi-Fi channel (no pun intended), so feel free to run pricing past me to see if we can get you a better deal than advertised.

I have almost no experience with D-Link wireless routers (though I've had good luck with their small switches - better luck than the latest LinkSys ones). Buffalo has some decent stuff (one of our Wi-Fi locations has a Buffalo box running DD-WRT, and it seems to be fairly resilient to wide temperature changes (it's in an unheated/un-air-conditioned room at a train station).

HTH

--
Lewis