These days, accessing wireless broadband is an absolute necessity for home offices and small businesses. And after greater than a decade of innovations, you would think how the standard wireless gateway/router will be a picture-perfect product by now.
While many routers offer good features, most still come with flaws that could make life a whole lot harder, including confounding setups or limited security.
What follows are six router issues that, quite frankly, I find one of the most annoying. I searched for possible solutions, and even though I didn't choose one router that addressed my concerns, I did discover features -- and routers -- that could make things a good deal easier.
1. Difficult configuration
The problem: How long will it usually take you to setup your router? When was the final time you're able to find it right on the very first try? What about whenever you wanted to add a new PC to your wireless network? And how about getting your wireless printer to get in touch for a network?
Let's face the facts: Each network differs, and becoming the correct mixture of settings might be confounding. For example, even some reasonably experienced PC hands may not view the differences between security settings or realize that WPA-2 offers better protection than WEP and ordinary WPA.
These and other hitches are why creating any router can nonetheless be vexing, extending its love to a skilled computer user. Some, like the Buffalo AirStation Wireless-N 300Mbps Cable Router WHR-HP-G300N ($53), have crowded menus with multiple layers that will make navigation painful. Others, including the Netgear RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNDR3700 ($170), depend on a protected setup that has a long group of instructions that have to be followed to get a whole new PC on your own network.
Possible solutions: Various vendors have attemptedto make things simpler with easy-setup CDs or one-click connection buttons, but they can't cover every possible circumstance. Buffalo's and Netgear's setup instructions go the extra mile by explicitly detailing your order where you should you plug my way through prior to deciding to run the CD. (Cable modems in particular needs to be powered on when you connect your router to them.) That's a nice touch -- nevertheless it assumes you've read the printed instructions that had the router. When was the very last time you read the manual before you plugged in your brand-new device?
Almost all routers have Web-based configuration screens, make sure you recall the device's IP address, default username and password (that you simply should have changed if you arrange it), you needs to be able to find in the setup screens and make any adjustments you may need. It's just reliant on finding out which adjustments are important.
The Cisco Valet M10($100), portion of Cisco's recently introduced Valet line, features a USB key that has the configuration software on it. Once you set up one PC on the network, you employ the step to run the configuration on some other PCs or Macs (the true secret also includes Mac software) without needing to write down the wireless encryption key or other information.
Cisco in addition has caused it to be a whole lot easier to put together other devices, for example wireless printers, through providing a synopsis screen with all the relevant information regarding your wireless network you could print out for quick reference once you run the setup program on the USB key.
Buffalo features a nice diagnostic routine that checks to find out if you have Internet connectivity understanding that your router is configured properly. You run it from the Web configuration console.
Apple's AirPort Express ($99) is easy to put together and has some neat features, including the capacity to share USB printers and share audio across the network with a connected stereo receiver. You can also extend the range of your existing AirPort base station, which can be a thing that most Wi-Fi routers can't easily do. But if you have a Windows PC, you should install Bonjour, and adding a brand new PC to an existing network isn't as easy as maybe it's.
2. Enabling file sharing from your router
The problem: Why spend money on another network-attached storage (NAS) unit if you can make use of router for sharing files? Many routers have USB ports to that you simply can connect an external USB drive for quick backup or file sharing.
Sadly, although plugging in an external drive needs to be as elementary as -- well, as just plugging in the drive -- getting that drive build is not always simple. The Linksys WRT610N Wireless-N Router ($200), for example, carries a complex setup screen that you should complete whenever you attach a USB drive with it.
It can be nice to have software that allows the sharing without a good deal of setup hassles. It must be easy to get in touch the computers across your network to this shared storage, by using either the router's SSID name or IP address. You also need to be in a position to password-protect your shared drive in order that it isn't open for anyone who's coupled to the network.
Possible solutions: Various routers include USB ports, including those from Linksys, Belkin and Netgear.
It's all just a few what software programs are accustomed to configure the USB drive and whether you may need other things about the Windows or Mac client end in order to connect on the shared drive.
Best available routers: The Belkin N+ Wireless Router ($120) features a separate software configuration utility that actually works for both Windows and Mac systems and needs to get run only once or twice to set up the external shared drive. After that, it is possible to connect to the shared drive by entering its IP address, including 192.168.1.1sharename. The product isn't perfect, though: There is no way to password-protect the files for the shared drive.
The Netgear RangeMax doesn't require any other software and may password-protect the files. It also provides a wide variety of access methods, including FTP and Web sharing, from its setup screen.
3. Performing firmware updates
The problem: Router firmware can be an important first distinctive line of security defense on your network and requires to be kept up to date. But finding firmware updates over a vendor's Web site is just not for everyone, and lots of vendors don't ensure it is easy.
You have to talk about your browser, go for the vendor's support site and attempt to hunt down the current version to your particular router model. You then must download the file for a PC and upload it in your router in the correct place inside router's Web cpanel screen.
To complicate things, vendors will have a number of different versions for each router model, given that they make frequent improvements for the router, often changing chip sets but keeping the version number exactly the same.
Possible solutions: Make the update automatic or at best easily selectable, which means you don't ought to feel the tortured procedure for downloading and uploading the file.
Check the firmware update section in each router's Web setup screens to find out if the router can automatically upgrade itself.
Best available routers: Belkin's N+ Wireless and Netgear's RangeMax both have a menu-selectable software change to let the updates. Once that is set, you can forget over it and be certain that you'll have always the most recent firmware.
4. Enabling temporary wireless access
The problem: If you might have visitors or needy neighbors, you may not desire them to own permanent access to your entire network? Even if you have confidence in them in your network, have you any idea how good their own security is? (For example, will your neighbor's notebook end up in the hands of his teenager?) If you simply give you a visitor your router password, the chances are you have to change these records when he leaves your property or office -- which is a real pain.
Possible solutions: A good idea will be to grant them temporary guest access that gives them just an Internet connection and nothing else on the network, like shared drives or printers.
Vendors have begun to enable this on the routers in a number of ways. Belkin, by way of example, posseses an option it calls "Hotel-style," and therefore users are directed to your Web web page where they enter an exclusive guest password. Other vendors ensure it is easy to setup separate wireless networks simply for guests. (If you use Apple's AirPort Express, for the other hand, you're at a complete loss -- there is absolutely no guest access.)
Best available routers: The USB key you could create with Cisco's Valet may help here as well. You should run an automated setup routine from your USB key (in lieu of in the Web UI) on each of your guest computers. Once you do, it will build an outside wireless network which has a different name and password that only allows Internet access.
5. Determining who is on your own wireless network
The problem: Just because you imagine your network is safe does not mean that it is. It's probably recommended that you regularly verify who's with your router -- particularly if haven't changed your router's default password. However, in a world where it's tough enough to recollect to backup your personal computer, it's unlikely that many individuals possess the time or inclination to regularly check who may have experienced our networks.
And even if we would like to, it's not simple. Typically, most router Web UIs indicate that's currently connected, but finding this out requires digging through many menus. Sometimes the vendors hide these records with a title like "DHCP client list" and/or offer you just the IP addresses and host names of current connections.
Wouldn't it's helpful should your router notified you whenever someone connected? Even better, what about a historical view that demonstrates to you when and who connected to your network over the last week?
Possible solutions: There are lots of enterprise-class wireless monitoring tools, such as AirMagnet but, price-wise, these are definitely out from the reach of home and SMB users.
Check your screens that are usually labeled "Attached devices" or "DHCP client list" to see that is connected and using which IP addresses. Some companies, like Buffalo, show how various clients have connected and what wireless devices these are using.
Best available routers: When Cisco bought the organization Pure Networks, it acquired an item of software called Network Magic. The Windows version of Network Magic will disclose a pretty map along using a more useful network histogram timeline revealing that has connected when.
For some reason, Cisco includes this software in some of the company's Linksys routers however, not the Valet M10 series. You can purchase a license for three PCs for $24 that may assist any router. (The Mac version doesn't contain the maps or histograms.
6. Changing your DNS provider
The problem: After you've build your network, you probably don't give your Domain Name System settings further thought. If you have a cable or DSL modem, you hook it up also it automatically gets its DNS settings from the cable or phone company's DNS servers. (If you're managing a large enterprise network, typically you've got your personal internal DNS server to deliver a reverse phone lookup.)
Home and small-business users may choose to explore finding a different DNS provider. Why bother? Two good reasons: better browsing performance and better security against known phishing and malware-infected domains. (Your actual performance vary widely, depending in your Internet provider and, if you use a cable modem, how congested your cable line is.)
Possible solutions: Individuals and small enterprises now have several alternative providers which are worth considering, including OpenDNS and Google Public DNS, among others.
Getting your router vendor to support these servers may also be tricky. A few routers, such as 2Wire's Home Portal 3000 series that comes whenever you order service from AT&T U-verse, don't even support alternative DNS settings. Making matters harder, the majority of the automated setup routines that routers include don't allow you to definitely enter your own DNS provider.
So issues decided to go with an alternative, first be sure your router supports alternative DNS settings. If you're not sure, see if you can enter your individual DNS address in your router's Web-based setup screens instead of just in doing what your Internet provider gives you.
Then test it, including installing its software to optimize your own personal PC, before messing with all of your router's settings. After you make the change in your DNS, there exists a Java tool that may try out your speed to ascertain if commemorate a difference. Depending on how you're connected for a Internet provider, it will help either a good deal you aren't much in any way. If it doesn't help, consider going back for a original settings.
07 February 2019
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