# Router question



## bit4bit

I'm on cable broadband, and my router has broken down. ( I was getting a really weird problem, where my wirelessly connected devices wouldn't connect properly unless the wired computer was turned on....I know, it doesn't make sense. trust me I tried everything, the router must be broken)

Anyway I'm looking at a netgear wireless cable router (http://www.netgear.co.uk/rangemaxnext_wirelessrouters_wnr854t.php) and wanted to know whether it would be worth getting it without upgrading my network cards/adapters.

They are all 802.11g or 802.11b, and although they will apparently work with this router (802.11n), I'm worried I won't be getting the most (top speeds) out of the router? Not knowing a great deal about networking, I'm guessing the 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n, all work off the same data protocol, but work at faster frequencies respectively? If so, then I wouldn't get the fastest speeds using a 802.11g wireless card with a 802.11n router right?...(slower frequency, slower data transfer)

Also I want to ask, from previous experience, would you say that Netgear is generally better than Belkin? (It's a Belkin router that has just bust over here.)

Thanks for the help.


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## Geoff

You're correct, if you keep the 802.11b/g cards then you wont gain anything with having an 802.11n router.  If you're devices are nearby and currently get a strong signal, and you don't transfer large files often, there isn't a huge need then for 802.11n cards.


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## bit4bit

OK, all devices are within fairly close range (all in the same house, but different rooms) and for a while the router worked perfectly, but one day it just decided that my computer (wireless) would not be able to connect to it, unless the main computer (wired) was powered. I do often download files of various sizes (sometimes pretty large), and I suppose I can't really complain with my downspeeds, however faster is always better. 

Well I'm just gonna stick with a 802.11g cable router then, forget the 'n' for now. No point paying an extra £30 for the 'n' adapters too. Ok, so how about Belkin/Netgear? any preference?


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## Geoff

bit4bit said:


> Well I'm just gonna stick with a 802.11g cable router then, forget the 'n' for now. No point paying an extra £30 for the 'n' adapters too. Ok, so how about Belkin/Netgear? any preference?


I've never used Netgear, although I've heard they make some excellent products.  I used to have an 802.11b/g router from Belkin and it lasted several years without a problem, much better then my current Linksys router.

Unless you're looking for certain options, or one brand has more to offer, I would just go with the cheapest.


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## bit4bit

Hi, well I got the new router, and I did actually go for the Belkin 802.11n router, as my GF said she would get me an 'n' adapter for it. (looking forward to some nice speeds  ) The Netgear ones were a little pricey to be honest.

Now I have a new question: I have the router up and running, and have my first wired lan computer connected, with access to the net. The second PC I want to connect wirelessly to it, and when I go to Network connections> search for available networks> and click on the new network, It gets onto 'Validating network' or something like that and just stays there. (It doesn't freeze/crash, as the yellow ball is still moving left and right in the taskbar icon). 

At the moment that PC only has an 802.11g card in it, so hopefully that isn't the problem?...The router does say it's backwards compatible with 'g' and 'b'. (Even though I am changing this for an 'n' adapter, I want to be able to connect 'b' and 'g' laptops too.)

I think it might be something to do with the WEP encryption though. I did go into the router set-up to enable WEP encryption, and there were quite a few options for which protocol to use. I ended up selecting 128-bit WEP.

Am I right that WPA is the most secure, followed by 128-bit WEP, then 64-bit WEP? Ideally I want the most secure, but could my problem be that my network card doesn't support the 128-bit WEP, so it's not connecting properly?...in which case I would have to settle for 64-bit WEP? 

Thanks


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## bit4bit

Actually, it's saying "Validating Identity". Does that ring any bells with anyone?


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## SirKenin

Unless you're transferring data between computers, wireless N is completely pointless.  Wireless B is actually sufficient if you're only connecting to the internet, unless you can top out an 11Mb signal (which there are a couple of services that can...although they're quite pricey).

Another myth of wireless N is range.  I've seen that pop up a few times while surfing around.  They're actually not any better.  They use the exact same frequencies as G..  And in some cases I've seen the range be less, not more (the WRT150 is one example.  I had to mod the firmware to boost the signal strength).

If you're looking for range, I found the WBR 2310 from Dlink to give the best bang for the buck.


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## bit4bit

Too late now though, I've already got it!  

Any ideas about the error message?..."validating identity"


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## bit4bit

This page seems relevant to my problem, but I followed it through, and when I got to the window towards the end (step 17: enter credentials) where I have to enter username, and email etc, I was stuck on what to put. I mean what username, and what email am I supposed to enter?...

http://its.southwestern.edu/resnet/cd_2005/windows/Documentation/wireless_windows.html

Everything else looked exactly the same as in their article up to this point.


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## slaphappylinksys

*wireless n *



SirKenin said:


> Unless you're transferring data between computers, wireless N is completely pointless.  Wireless B is actually sufficient if you're only connecting to the internet, unless you can top out an 11Mb signal (which there are a couple of services that can...although they're quite pricey).
> 
> Another myth of wireless N is range.  I've seen that pop up a few times while surfing around.  They're actually not any better.  They use the exact same frequencies as G..  And in some cases I've seen the range be less, not more (the WRT150 is one example.  I had to mod the firmware to boost the signal strength).
> 
> If you're looking for range, I found the WBR 2310 from Dlink to give the best bang for the buck.








i bought a linksys wireless n router it was a piece i had a linksys wireless g pci card and the two would not work together even tho it said on the package wireless G COMPATIBLE i still think n isnt standardized enough yet to waste money on. so i took it back and got a wireless G Access Point No Problems what so ever.


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## bit4bit

...Erm..."validating identity"? The wireless network is picked up fine, but this is the message I get. (where  it usually says "acquiring inetwork address") So I can't actually connect to the net.

Has no-one seen this before? Any network specialists here?


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## bit4bit

bump


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## paratwa

Just in case you did not know this, but WEP encryption has been cracked. It is a fairly easy thing to do now a days. It only takes someone a couple of minutes to crack a standard WEP system.

The most secure systems now run WPA or WPA2 encryption and if you use a long password, at least 9 keys, then it would take someone days to crack your system. The longer password you use the harder it is to use a brute force password checker. Make sure to use capital letters along with numbers and a few other keys to make it impossible to crack. Never use common words for a password. Make a word up.


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## bit4bit

I know plenty about those Linux based WEP-crackers. In fact this isn't the case, yet again, I have solved the problem by myself. I'm using 64-bit WEP encryption at the moment, which is all my current network cards will support (otherwise I would use WPA), and the network HASN'T been cracked. It's only been up and running properly for about ten minutes now after all!

The problem was that 'IEEE 802.1x authentication' was enabled for the network, which was prompting me to enter a set of credentials for access to tit. It's like the kind of thing that larger university and business networks use to authenticate the user based on a certain specified domain name. 

Obviously I don't know a great deal on this already, as I wouldn't of had this problem, but I'm guessing that you would have to specify a list of users within the routers setup page somewhere. Interesting stuff though, I'm doing a bit of reading on it.

Besides, if someone had gone to the bother of waiting outside my house with their wireless enabled laptop, and WEP-cracker, for me to set up a new wireless network, then I don't think it'd be so obvious that I'd been cracked. A   background running key-logger would be more likely....goodbye identity...time to validate!


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