[diyguy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I had a Netgear before: it wasn't this bad.

As you continue to experiment with your router, you can think of DD-WRT or tomato etc to give you more control and refinements. I think the U.S. Equivalent R6300 supports ddwrt not sure of your model, but may be worth a try. Prior to that, I suppose you would have tried a firmware upgrade to the latest to fix some of the known issues..

[diyguy]

My bad on the R6300 realized it is the router only equivalent of your DSL D6300 version. Read some reviews on Amazon.com and not very promising unless the issues have been sorted out in newer firmware releases. Apparently configuration is done in firmware and not software so backup restore was not feasible earlier. Do check.

[Thad E Ginathom]

you can think of DD-WRT or tomato

As I didn't check it out before buying, I'd put money it not being compatible! Same as the reviews I read were all good ones. Hey Ho, that's life.

Backup/restore is certainly there. And it is on their latest firmware.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Backup/restore is certainly there. And it is on their latest firmware.

You can still return it to fk and take another make/model from them if your niggles continue. Nothing wrong with that. It's some serious cash you've put down so use your exchange window to check and decide.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

If I ever renovate/build a house again, I'll wire it with ethernet cable. It may be unfashionable, and the portable devices may still need to be covered by wi-fi. but, for stuff that stays in one place, it's simple and straightforward.

Not required.
Powerline is a better solution. Example: http://www.tp-link.in/products/?cate...=206&ref=pline
Which means using the copper laid to deliver electricity will be used to deliver the information from one point to another.

Essentially your entire house wiring will become a LAN!
Want to tap off a wireless signal? Simple, plug a powerline device that acts like a wireless access point - to which all fancy gizmos can get connected to.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Not required.
Powerline is a better solution. Example: http://www.tp-link.in/products/?cate...=206&ref=pline

Have you used this? Is it reliable?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by diyguy

You can still return it to fk and take another make/model from them if your niggles continue. Nothing wrong with that. It's some serious cash you've put down so use your exchange window to check and decide.

Not fk, but Amazon, which might be even easier. Considering this.

I think that powerlan works where a house supply is only one phase, so everything is connected at the distribution box. I don't think there is a way that you could connect to one phase, and have the signal on the others. Seem to remember this being discussed before, but I can't remember if it was here.

In many other countries (certainly not in UK), three-phase power would never be found in domestic environment. It is only used for large buildings, high current consumption, or presence of three-phase equipment such as hefty industrial motors. The single phases are quite up to the job of supplying enough current for a substantial family house, including heating, cooling, etc. There is three-phase in the street: alternate houses are connected to different phases to spread the load.

[raghu.t.k]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Not required.
Powerline is a better solution. Example: http://www.tp-link.in/products/?cate...=206&ref=pline
Which means using the copper laid to deliver electricity will be used to deliver the information from one point to another.
.....

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

...
I think that powerlan works where a house supply is only one phase, so everything is connected at the distribution box. I don't think there is a way that you could connect to one phase, and have the signal on the others.
.....

I was looking at this option, but could not find much information in terms of security, speed, and other aspects. Also wanted to know what the shortcomings are. I currently have a couple of PCs in a different room, which currently connects over WiFi, and would be great if I could get the speed of wired network. Do we have any solutions for the 3 phase problem ?

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I think that powerlan works where a house supply is only one phase, so everything is connected at the distribution box. I don't think there is a way that you could connect to one phase, and have the signal on the others.

There is three-phase in the street: alternate houses are connected to different phases to spread the load.

You are right. However, I am sure there wouldn't be any household which has different phases connected to different rooms!
Essentially a single house runs on single phase only.
This can be easily determined at the Main circuit breaker / fuse board in the house.

Originally Posted by diyguy

Have you used this? Is it reliable?

You mean the product or the technology?
Technology is well proven in the industrial usage (smart meters, and instrumentation on powerline).

The TP Link URL I gave just as an illustration, not used personally, so I cannot vouch for their products.

Originally Posted by raghu.t.k

I was looking at this option, but could not find much information in terms of security, speed, and other aspects. Also wanted to know what the shortcomings are. I currently have a couple of PCs in a different room, which currently connects over WiFi, and would be great if I could get the speed of wired network. Do we have any solutions for the 3 phase problem ?

I think the only shortcoming can be interference.
But then these would manifest itself quite easily as poor bandwidth/throughput.

But if you read about on the internet, it looks as if the idea is catching on!
In fact this is being utilized in the audio transmission and reproduction domain where there are audiophools who will only listen to the 196 kHz sampled audio utilizing 32 bits!

Ultimately signal transmission is just modulation of electricity. Whether I do that at ~1-5V over ethernet or ~100-250V over powerline.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by alpha1

However, I am sure there wouldn't be any household which has different phases connected to different rooms!

If power line works well it is easier and maybe cheaper to pull a copper wire separately into all rooms and create a 4th internal phase just for Ethernet than to pull a cat5e cable, maybe? Just thinking. Alternately for three phases we can have three of those devices I suppose. Will be easy for security cameras, remote operated gates etc

We have different phases in different rooms at least in our house.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by diyguy

You can still return [Netgear D6300] to fk and take another make/model from them if your niggles continue. Nothing wrong with that. It's some serious cash you've put down so use your exchange window to check and decide.

OK, if I do that, then what is the recommendation for a flagship wireless ac router with included ADSL modem?

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

wireless ac router with included ADSL modem?

Tough one! Netgear is a good brand, but for the money, are you getting that incremental benefit.
I've been wanting to get myself an AC router and was eyeing the Apple Airport Extreme but was waiting for a new generation one before pulling the plug. I was also checking out the Asus series. At this price point, I didnt want to lock myself down to DSL with newer forms of ISPs becoming available.

In my wishlist are the Asus AC66U, the Nighthawk and the Airport Extreme.

For now, I've been managing with the setup below:
300Mbps b/g/n versions of Netgear, Asus and a Linksys in router forms and use plain old beetel modems or motorola modem. I have setup points in my house where I can turn on and turn off modems/routers so I can get connectivity where I want. I have DSL (2Mbps Airtel) and Cable internet (18Mbps YouBroadband) at home both with parallel points setup in the Hall and Bedroom, so that I can get any ISP anywhere. Its kind of a hassle at first but gives me the best of both worlds. I also get redundancy and higher speeds where I need them. My routers are 25$ or less, each and the modems were either free or I got them off olx for 300-400 rs

All my routers are DD-WRT flashed and I was using them earlier as repeaters, daisy chained via wifi to each other for full house connectivity. However, the signal wouldnt stay connected for long and so I chose the other method of parallel connections for more stability.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Without having much looked into DD-WRT, I got the impression that if I want a Modem-router, It is much less likely to DD-WRT-able. Is that right? It is not a deal breaker for me, though: I want a one-box solution, and my home does not need more than one access point (And I have a wireless extender in the cupboard if I need it). I'd rather have one box than be able to DD-WRT, which I probably don't needexcept for a geekfest (I have them occasionally).

Apple won't go on my list, sorry, prejudice indeed, but it just won't. Asus is welcome on it. Nighthawk I do not know and --- earlier today I was looking at TP-Link D7. I always like to look at the user manual, rather than the brochure, and it seems comprehensive.

It's nice in a geekish sort of way to know that one can telnet to a router but I'm sure I can live without it though.

I'll browse for Nighthawk: what do you think of TP-Link?

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

much less likely to DD-WRT-able.
...was looking at TP-Link D7?

Two of my friends have purchased a tp-link modem router in the past month or two. Both picked up the 8968 which supports DSL / standalone router / 3G dongle etc. I had a chance to look at the router maintenance pages and there are a surprising array of configurations for the challenge inclined and there is an express setup where the major DSL providers are prepopulated - airtel,Bsnl etc
I also learnt that tp-link contract manufactures beetel modem-routers for Bsnl and airtel
The D7 looks good and their products have 3 years warranty. Not sure of the others such as netgear, asus..

[Thad E Ginathom]

I think the TP-Link would be a much better buy.

However, for now, I think I will avoid the hassle of returning/buying-again. The thing works, it is just the setup UI that pains, and there is no great need to go there once it is set up. In a year or three there will be all new stuff to choose from, and, if I feel like a change, I'll do it then.

By the way: I got the Netgear Android App, and it really, really brought home to me how dangerously insecure wifi can be. I don't know if others do this with their apps, but I logged into my router from the phone, looked at the Wireless-setup page, and there was the pass-key, in plain text, all ready to be cut'n'pasted into anybody's wifi setup, giving full access to the network.

I've done it now, of course, but it should be the first thing to do on a wireless router: change the default password!

If anyone is reading this and has not done that, do it now. Otherwise you have zero security.