[olug] DD-WRT Router Suggestions?

[Rob Townley]

On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 9:28 PM, T. J. Brumfield <enderandrew at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> OLUG mailing list
>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
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Our isp is Alltel evdo 3g revision A.  We get packet loss, but rarely.
 i would have iperf running to test out reliability - it is pretty
good for tethering a phone.

For the router, we use the CradlePoint ctr-73c which i have not found
on dd-wrt's website (bummer).

i am wondering if the usb port on the wrt-610n with dd-wrt can be used
to tether to a cell phone?  We want both for network redundancy at the
office.