[olug] DD-WRT Router Suggestions?

[T. J. Brumfield]

I have skipped the router and connected directly to the modem.

I also build and repair computers fairly often for people on the side.
I've hooked a number of computers up, most of them Linux, and some are
netbooks with SSDs. My main rig is a Phenom II X4 940, overclocked,
with 4 drives in RAID, and 8 gigs of RAM. My machine flies. I don't
think it is my hard drive not able to write fast enough to cache. That
certainly isn't a factor with pings timing out.

The worst is that it takes 20-30 minutes to talk to someone. I tell
the automated attendant I don't want to go through their automated
troubleshooting (reboot PC, reboot modem, lather, rinse, repeat) but
it puts me on hold for 5 minutes, and then forces me through the
automated troubleshooting none the less.

Never does it ask what the problem is. It just forces me to go through
the steps, checking to see if my signal from the cable modem drops or
picks up at points to make sure I'm really rebooting stuff. In the end
it asks if I can see a web page, when I say yes, it says it is going
to hang up on me since my problem is solved. Since my problem is
intermittent and slow service, it isn't solved. I tell the automated
assistant I'm not happy, and then it puts me in a hold queue for
another 10 minutes.

Then a Cox employee tells me they know for a fact it can't possibly be
them, and it must be that I need to defrag.

When I explain that I'm a friggin' systems engineer, they still insist
that I can't know what I'm talking about.

I purchased a new cable modem out of my pocket to see if that would
help, and it hasn't. But I did spend $60 to troubleshoot Cox's
problems.

I tried switching to Qwest briefly out of frustration, but it requires
PPoE authorization. I can't use my router, which I didn't realize when
I signed up for service. I called their support several times telling
them I needed to configure their DSL modem to just be a pass-through
and do the PPoE authorization via my router, and that I'd need my
login and password for the account. Tech support kept insisting there
was no such login, and it didn't exist. But I could see in the DSL
modem config that there was a password (replaced with asterisks of
course). I talked to a friend who was a Qwest employee who did verify
I needed to do PPoE with my router to make it work, but when I called
Qwest back yet again, they still insisted there was no login and
password.

I hear Verizon might offer their FiOS in town to compete with Qwest's
new FiOS, but I live on the East side of town where neither is
available. So I'm stuck with Cox, and they refuse to help me.

If there is a better alternative, I'd love to hear it.

-- T. J. Brumfield

On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 7:09 PM, Kelly Williams
<kellywilliams81 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Defrag the hard drive wtf. Sorry i read that i know cox would say that is
> kinda funny. Have you connected the computer direct to the modem..
>
> Kelly Williams
>
>
>
> On 12/23/2009 5:51 PM, T. J. Brumfield wrote:
>>
>> I bought a high-end router a year ago, but I'm not 100% happy with it.
>> My internet connection is still slow. Cox refuses to talk to me about
>> performance since a router is involved, and they won't come out to the
>> house to check the signal, even though pages time out all the time.
>> They insist I need to defrag my hard drive.
>>
>> Even though I assume the issue is really on Cox's part, and I've shown
>> I still have trouble with pages timing out when not connected to the
>> router, I wouldn't mind trying to get a better router to get the best
>> possible performance I can get given the circumstances.
>>
>> I purchased a DIR-655, which got rave reviews, is supposed to have a
>> fast processor and do decent QOS, has 4 LAN gigabit ports, and does
>> 802.11n wireless.
>>
>> The question is, can I find an equivalent or better router that
>> supports a Linux firmware (like DD-WRT?)
>>
>> Ideally, I want something with at least 32 megs of RAM for processing,
>> and at least 8 megs of RAM for flash storage. The newest releases of
>> DD-WRT are getting larger than 4 megs. It would have gigabit ports,
>> and 802.11n support.
>>
>> Does anyone know of such a router?
>>
>> -- T. J. Brumfield
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