[hewwo2u2]

so far there is nothing in the manual that is helpful you guys have actually told me more than it does. As a matter of fact there is only one sentence about upgrading firmware...

I'm actually pretty disappointed by how little info this manual actually provides. It has actually left me with even more questions.
In the manual under "basic Wireless settings" it says:
Wireless Network Mode. From this drop-down menu, you can select the wireless standards running on your network. If you have both 802.11g and 802.11b devices in your network, keep the default setting, Mixed. If you have only 802.11g devices, select G-Only. If you have only 802.11b devices, select B-Only. If you do not have any 802.11g and 802.11b devices in your network, select Disable.

This is all it says about this and I have no idea what it means. My computer is the only one using this router. on the sticker it says 802.11n Wireless. I currently have it on "mixed" (the default). Does this mean I should change it to "disable"? What is "n"?


I still can't upgrade the firmware I lost connection again for awhile too.

[JohnWill]

You would use the 802.11g setting.

Do NOT upgrade the firmware over a wireless connection! I know that is spelled out in the manual!

Connect with a wired connection for any configuration of your router, ESPECIALLY doing firmware upgrades!

[hewwo2u2]

uh-oh.......I attempted to do this "no-no"...it sounds like this could be bad. Is something bad going to happen now? it did not say this in this manual. the only thing it says before moving on to the next topic is this:


Firmware Upgrade. Upgrading the Router’s firmware requires a password available only from Vonage.
Contact Vonage for more information.

It's a good thing you're here because I honestly don't know what I'd be doing right now with only this manual.

going to plug in my computer to the modem right now


question: would it be a good idea to purchase a router for 802.11n in the future? Would this make my internet run faster or does it have nothing to do with speed? it said something about B being 11Mbs and G being 56Mbs and I was assuming this has to do with speed but what do I know?

[TerryNet]

Wi-Fi 802.11b has a nominal connection speed of 11 Mbps, 'g' 54 Mbps and 'n' 300 Mbps.

Those numbers are ideal conditions and include all the overhead of packet headers, etc. Actual data throughput is about 1/2 at best.

Your internet speed can not be increased by anything in your house. For example, I have cable 8 Mbps service and whether I'm connecting to my router with 100 Mbps ethernet, 54 Mbps wireless or 270 Mbps wireless my measured (Speakeasy) download speed is about 7.8 Mbps or less.

Any data transfers on your LAN (computer to computer for example) are influenced by the type/speed of connection. I can copy a 2 GB file from my ethernet connected desktop to my HP laptop with 'n' in about 1/3 the time it takes with a 'g' wireless adapter (using an 'n' router).

[mftooltech]

Just a quick thought, do you happen to use AVG 8 (retail version) antivirus? I worked on a computer about a month ago with very similar problems. It seems that the Resident Shield was blocking what it thought was an intruder when it was actually the wireless router. It would happen whenever all power was removed. You can work around it but the easier answer in this case was to go back to AVG free because the subscription was about to run out.

[bradacus]

This may have already been addressed but have you powered down your router AND modem for about 10 seconds then turn them back on?

Sorry if this has already been asked.

[hewwo2u2]

an hour and a half later, i'm finally back after trying to connect directly to my modem. It took forever but finally connected after I restarted 3 times. It's things like this that make me think it might have something to do with my computer.
When attempting to connect to a network I saw it go from "multiple networks" to "network 2" to "network 4" which is the one it is currently connected to. What exactly does this mean? Do I have 4 different networks on this computer?
When I go to "manage network connections" under control panel, the only 2 that show up are my wireless one (currently disabled) and this one that is called Network 4 for now but will probably change the next tie I connect directly to my modem.

[hewwo2u2]

Originally Posted by TerryNet

Wi-Fi 802.11b has a nominal connection speed of 11 Mbps, 'g' 54 Mbps and 'n' 300 Mbps.

Those numbers are ideal conditions and include all the overhead of packet headers, etc. Actual data throughput is about 1/2 at best.

Your internet speed can not be increased by anything in your house. For example, I have cable 8 Mbps service and whether I'm connecting to my router with 100 Mbps ethernet, 54 Mbps wireless or 270 Mbps wireless my measured (Speakeasy) download speed is about 7.8 Mbps or less.

Any data transfers on your LAN (computer to computer for example) are influenced by the type/speed of connection. I can copy a 2 GB file from my ethernet connected desktop to my HP laptop with 'n' in about 1/3 the time it takes with a 'g' wireless adapter (using an 'n' router).

Thanks for the info! so to make sure I understand, are you saying that a N router would only be "better" if I had multiple computers over a network that I would want to transfer/share files with?

[hewwo2u2]

Originally Posted by mftooltech

Just a quick thought, do you happen to use AVG 8 (retail version) antivirus? I worked on a computer about a month ago with very similar problems. It seems that the Resident Shield was blocking what it thought was an intruder when it was actually the wireless router. It would happen whenever all power was removed. You can work around it but the easier answer in this case was to go back to AVG free because the subscription was about to run out.

I have the free version of AVG. I recently had the retail version of McAfee Enterprise but removed it after several people on this site advised that I should.

Originally Posted by bradacus

This may have already been addressed but have you powered down your router AND modem for about 10 seconds then turn them back on?

Sorry if this has already been asked.

yes I have done this. several times actually. It never does anything. The only thing that works is restarting the computer and sometimes I have to do it along with the modem and router.

[hewwo2u2]

Originally Posted by JohnWill

You would use the 802.11g setting.

Do NOT upgrade the firmware over a wireless connection! I know that is spelled out in the manual!

Connect with a wired connection for any configuration of your router, ESPECIALLY doing firmware upgrades!

Ok this is probably another stupid question, but I have finally connected with a network cable and now I don't know how I am going to upgrade the firmware. If I can't do it over a wireless connection, then how will my computer be able to detect the router in order to do this? Am I supposed to be connected to both? If so, this could be a problem as I only have one cable. What exactly is wrong with upgrading over a wireless connection?


Also, I changed the wireless network mode to the "G-only" setting and noticed that my signal strength was very poor. I then changed it back to "mixed" and the strength became excellent again. Do you know why this is?

[bradacus]

Can you do this. When your PC is booting spam F8 until you get the safemode options....

Then choose "Safemode with Networking"

If you get steady connection in there then at least we can rule out modem and router.

[hewwo2u2]

Originally Posted by bradacus

Can you do this. When your PC is booting spam F8 until you get the safemode options....

Then choose "Safemode with Networking"

If you get steady connection in there then at least we can rule out modem and router.

I have done this before but not for long enough to rule everything out. in order to find out I would have to possibly stay connected in safemode for several days...
Now that I am connected to the internet with the network cable I am almost positive I will not loose connection, so I think that rules out the modem already, no?
As for the router, if you still think I should do this even though it may take days, I will try this after I've been able to download the new firmware (I'm still waiting on a reply to how I can do this). Could you please explain your logic behind how safemode would be able to rule out the router?

[TerryNet]

Yes, the increased speed of an 'N' router will help only if you are copying files over your LAN (and have only 'N' devices on the wireless network).

No idea why 'mixed' mode works better than 'g'; must be some little secret between your router and adapter.

Get at least one more ethernet cable! We always need one more than the number we have. It's good to have a spare for those times when the one you're using is bad or may be bad and you need to test.

For now, get the firmware file downloaded to your computer; think you've already done that. Then connect the computer to the router--no internet access is needed--by ethernet for the actual firmware upgrade.

Note: any time you switch the device (computer, router) connected to the modem you must power cycle (unplug for 30 seconds) the modem. Often less time is OK; sometimes more unplugged time is needed; but a power cycle is needed.

[hewwo2u2]

alrighty! I will do this now and let you know how it goes! thank you for answering all my questions!

[hewwo2u2]

I have a problem...I still can't update my firmware!
I shut my computer down and unplugged everything and waited a few minutes. Then I connected to my router via ethernet and attempted to upload the file from my desktop and again I got an error. It says: Upgrade action is not completed!!
Upgrade file pattern error.
what am I supposed to do? Also, once/ if I ever get the firmware updated, is it mandatory that I reset the router back to its factory default? I'm asking this because someone else set it up for me, and I'd hate to do this and not be able to get it back to how I had it...