PoSt away, folks!

Courtesy of CJ:

cjsiege wrote:No changes in the last week, so...

Upcoming Woot Wine Gatherings…All The News for the week of March 28th.

March
3/31: Minnesota #18: It's About Time!

April
4/21: NYC #19: Napa Black Tie Event
4/21: NorCal #12: Volcanic Terroir and/or Eastern European Finds
4/27-28: Ohio Wine Dinner with Scott and Jana Harvey
TBD: NoVA/DC #26: Theme TBD

May
5/19: CyberPub Cellars 2011 Rogue Rhone Bottling- NEWEST Thread!

July
7/23-25: RPM's History Tour, Part 1
7/25-29: RPM's History Tour, Part 2
(Dates set. There is room on both tours for more people!)

Pending
TBD: Arizona Verde Valley Winery Weekend
TBD: Dallas #11

Looking for some helping hands:

• South Florida Interest Thread
  
• NorthEast Florida Interest Thread
  
• Missouri Interest Thread
  
• Central NC Interest Thread
  
• Albuquerque Interest Thread
  
• Lake County/Chicago Interest Thread

No events in your area??? Start one! Create an interest thread in the World of Wine Woot Community Tab!

So Join or Create a gathering now!

Re-posting since it didn't get enough visibility last week and no responses:

So I've been meaning to post this for awhle now, and keep forgetting. Need some input for getting my dad a new wired router. Here's the setup:

Cable goes into their house via the basement (that's where the cable modem is). Ethernet goes from the modem, through a wall into another room where a wired router needs to be (since from there he has ethernet cables that run to multiple rooms upstairs throughout the house). In the living room upstairs would be the D-Link wireless router.
There was an old wired router down in the basement, which died. So we need a replacement. Right now the wireless router is down there, but the signal to the den (where he usually uses his laptop) is terrible. It's one & a half floors away and across the house.

I had originally gotten for him a TRENDnet 4-Port Broadband Router TW100-S4W1CA, but it was either just plain crappy or it was a faulty unit. Cuz we couldn't get it working properly, couldn't get the network to get setup right, and after I would change some settings on it I wouldn't be able to get back into it's setup screen. It got overly warm after being on for a bit, so I'm thinking it was faulty. So I returned it for a refund. I'm not entirely sure I liked it anyway, so I think we might be better off going with a better brand or model.
We certainly don't want to be paying much more than that one cost. So we're looking for a simple wired router, that is easy to set up the D-Link wireless as a secondary router on it, and that doesn't cost more than $40 if it can be helped.

Any suggestions?

HitAnyKey42 wrote:
Any suggestions?

Nothing you'll like...
Wired-only routers are only used in two segments- the absolute bottom and the high-end where people use dedicated wireless solutions.

I would buy two wireless units that I could run dd-wrt on, but that will cost more than $40, and it's not particularly easy.

mother wrote:Nothing you'll like...
Wired-only routers are only used in two segments- the absolute bottom and the high-end where people use dedicated wireless solutions.

I would buy two wireless units that I could run dd-wrt on, but that will cost more than $40, and it's not particularly easy.

Eh, whadda you know....
















ooooooh, yeah....a lot.

mother wrote:Nothing you'll like...
Wired-only routers are only used in two segments- the absolute bottom and the high-end where people use dedicated wireless solutions.

I would buy two wireless units that I could run dd-wrt on, but that will cost more than $40, and it's not particularly easy.

Well, he's not opposed to buying a new decent wireless router. That was one of the original thoughts, and I was actually the one thinking getting a simple wired router would be cheaper & easier. My thoughts on that were that there would be added packet loss on the wireless-wireless, since the basement wireless would still be having to transmit through a basement floor to the living room to reach the other router.
Would a decent Wireless-N router theoretically be able to get enough signal to the den without even the use of another router? (though I suppose I'd have to find out if his laptop can even accept N signal)
If we got a new Wireless-N router, would it be better to put that one in the basement with the older D-Link upstairs? Or the reverse? Also, how do you configure two wireless routers so that they don't conflict with each other? (though I suppose I can ya'll that question again later once a device is chosen)

If a second wireless is the most optimal method to get this network working....any suggestions? In this case, I suppose preferably under the $80 range. Though I'll ask him more specifically on his price range for a new wireless router later.

(side note...he doesn't do any movie or music streaming, except for the occasional youtube or other such things. Most of his laptop usage is for regular browsing and occasionally downloading things like program updates and new programs, etc. So it's not like he needs massive DL speeds)

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Well, he's not opposed to buying a new decent wireless router.

I would actually use the ethernet between the two routers, but you don't want the one upstairs doing all its "routery" stuff(tm) just being a wireless access point. I'm not sure how to configure that on [insert other brands firmware]. With DD-WRT, once installed, it can be configured to offer the same network from two access points and/or not do all the "routery" stuff(tm).

mother wrote:I would actually use the ethernet between the two routers, but you don't want the one upstairs doing all its "routery" stuff(tm) just being a wireless access point. I'm not sure how to configure that on [insert other brands firmware]. With DD-WRT, once installed, it can be configured to offer the same network from two access points and/or not do all the "routery" stuff(tm).

So I guess you're saying he should have the current D-Link wireless router down in the basement to act solely like a wired router (with ethernet cable running upstairs to a new wireless router)? What's the difference between that and just buying a new plain wired router?
Also I googled DD-WRT (since I'd never heard of it before) and that seems to deal with Linux, which he doesn't have. So that wouldn't be any help anyway. We need this to be a simple setup, not something more complex than it already was.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:We need this to be a simple setup, not something more complex than it already was.

That's why I didn't reply in last weeks pub...

HitAnyKey42 wrote:So I guess you're saying he should have the current D-Link wireless router down in the basement to act solely like a wired router (with ethernet cable running upstairs to a new wireless router)? What's the difference between that and just buying a new plain wired router?
Also I googled DD-WRT (since I'd never heard of it before) and that seems to deal with Linux, which he doesn't have. So that wouldn't be any help anyway. We need this to be a simple setup, not something more complex than it already was.

Don't they have boosters or range extenders you can get? that might just be the easiest.

Here's an article. I can't vouch for it's rightness

Edit: Alternatively, there are a bunch of crackheads (shocker) on youtube with videos on how to make wifi boosters. YMMV.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:So I guess you're saying he should have the current D-Link wireless router down in the basement to act solely like a wired router (with ethernet cable running upstairs to a new wireless router)? What's the difference between that and just buying a new plain wired router?
Also I googled DD-WRT (since I'd never heard of it before) and that seems to deal with Linux, which he doesn't have. So that wouldn't be any help anyway. We need this to be a simple setup, not something more complex than it already was.

Wouldn't it just be easier to just run a longer Ethernet cable from the modem and hook it directly into a wireless modem on the 1st floor? You can run any other hard-wired connections from there and then you wouldn't have the basement wireless issue...

Edit: Nevermind. After re-reading the original post, this would only work if you rerouted all of the other wiring to the location of the wireless.

I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

kylemittskus wrote:I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

It's okay, that happens to me too. :|

kylemittskus wrote:I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

I scarcely do myself, which explains why I'm naive enough to ask whether this column would be at all useful.

InFrom wrote:I scarcely do myself, which explains why I'm naive enough to ask whether this column would be at all useful.

Well, that certainly gives me an option for connecting bluray in the basement and bedroom. Might have to look into those soon.

mother wrote:Wired/wireless networking stuff

I think that regardless of what firmware you run, a concurrent dual-band router (for which you can turn off the routing function) for the main floor and a crappy wired or wireless router for the direct modem connection ought to solve the problem. Having both the a/n and b/g/n bands running helps solve some of the range and signal problems and you can connect to either or both. Since your internet's external speed is not likely to be higher than a few Mbit/s in either direction you'll be fine with a 100 Mbps wired router or switch (i.e. no need for gigabit). If you decide to go with two wireless routers and keep both enabled for access points, be sure to put them on different channels so they don't interfere with each other. You can check available wireless channels using various Android apps - e.g. wifi analyzer from Amazon appstore.

I have a wireless router with gigabit 4 port switch from Edimax. It works flawlessly and it's cheap on Newegg. It's not (yet) compatible with DD-WRT, though.

klezman wrote:I have a wireless router with gigabit 4 port switch from Edimax. It works flawlessly and it's cheap on Newegg. It's not (yet) compatible with DD-WRT, though.

Can you give me an actual link to the one you got or at least the name/model number?

bhodilee wrote:Well, that certainly gives me an option for connecting bluray in the basement and bedroom. Might have to look into those soon.

Oh, goody, glad it was (potentially) helpful for someone, if not for HAK himself.

The real problem is that you don't just want to set up a router behind a router. It does bad things. So if you have a router downstairs the thing upstairs has to just be an access point.

If you buy two of the same wireless routers that support WDS you should be able to use them.

The problem with WDS is that is reduces throughput and isn't particularly compatible even within one vendors different models.

Using DD-WRT you would just set up the upstairs unit as an access point and let the box downstairs handle NAT, Firewalling, DHCP, etc. (I wouldn't wish upon you getting DD-WRT installed and running on a router yourself, it's definitely a computer geek kind of task)

WDS is more approachable but you will want to buy two nice simultaneous dual band routers. Even then I would not count on streaming HD video...

I honestly think that powerline idea is probably the best one. Use it to create a second 'ethernet' connection between the modem downstairs and the router upstairs, then use the ethernet wire in the wall to bring the 'net downstairs and connect it to the other ethernet drops with a cheap 10/100 Ethernet swtich.

Edit: More $$$ than you want, but this looks like it would do the job nicely.

Ok I promise not to talk about computer stuff if everyone else will come back, sorry ;)

mother wrote:Ok I promise not to talk about computer stuff if everyone else will come back, sorry ;)

nah, we'll just start talking kitty stuff, and everything will balance out. (;

kylemittskus wrote:I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

I tried a month ago or so to help out but there was just nothing but trouble, and while I can fix something if I'm there, I'm no good over the phone - people can't describe what's going on in the kind of detail that my brain processes as helpful.

sanity wrote:nah, we'll just start talking kitty stuff, and everything will balance out. (;

Llwybrydd Meddal, llwybrydd Cynnes, blwch bach o sglodion. llwybrydd hapus, llwybrydd gysglyd, purr purr purr.

mother wrote:Ok I promise not to talk about computer stuff if everyone else will come back, sorry ;)

One last Q & A please...so if I have my cable modem go to the wireless router which then has a cable from the router to an ethernet switch. Any chance I can connect another ethernet switch down stream from that?

mother wrote:Llwybrydd Meddal, llwybrydd Cynnes, blwch bach o sglodion. llwybrydd hapus, llwybrydd gysglyd, purr purr purr.

That router better work with 4 other routers in-line after that treatment!

edit: more funny after reading doc o's question.
touche mother!

otolith wrote:One last Q & A please...so if I have my cable modem go to the wireless router which then has a cable from the router to an ethernet switch. Any chance I can connect another ethernet switch down stream from that?

Yes ... you can always attach a switch, since all it is basically just a repeater for the network. A switch is not a router, as it does not provide the network address, it just supplies the route to the network table that resides on the router.

otolith wrote:One last Q & A please...so if I have my cable modem go to the wireless router which then has a cable from the router to an ethernet switch. Any chance I can connect another ethernet switch down stream from that?

Just avoid any loops and you can daisy-chain as many switches as you want.

mother wrote:Just avoid any loops and you can daisy-chain as many switches as you want.

Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!

Oh noes, it's a woot-off...

kylemittskus wrote:Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!

This is my reaction as well.
There are hundreds of forums that would be 1000% better at answering all of these questions. I know its the pub and so its everything and anything but c'mon guys.

Anybody looking for anything in particular in this woot-off? I was thinking its been awhile since we saw a corison offer.

cortot20 wrote:This is my reaction as well.
There are hundreds of forums that would be 1000% better at answering all of these questions. I know its the pub and so its everything and anything but c'mon guys.

Anybody looking for anything in particular in this woot-off? I was thinking its been awhile since we saw a corison offer.

Speaking of Corison I picked up a couple bottles of the 03 Corison cab on Winebid last week for 25 a bottle...well 35 each after all the fees and shipping. This week there is about 6 up for 30 each.

:edit: sorry looks like only 3 bottles

cheron98 wrote:Oh noes, it's a woot-off...

my thoughts exactly!!! agggggg!

cheron98 wrote:Oh noes, it's a woot-off...

my thoughts as well....

oh look, double post.... servers were acting up... so I posted again... sorry

tytiger58 wrote:Speaking of Corison I picked up a couple bottles of the 03 Corison cab on Winebid last week for 25 a bottle...well 35 each after all the fees and shipping. This week there is about 6 up for 30 each.

In thanks for outbidding me, I'm going to continue talking about technology!

mother wrote:In thanks for outbidding me, I'm going to continue talking about technology!

This will now play in my head all day

Better Version but won't embed.

mother wrote:In thanks for outbidding me, I'm going to continue talking about technology!

Do you use the same handle on WineBid? Because if not, they may not have known it was a Wooter.

Or they don't know the prime directive for Wooters on WineBid .... Thou Shalt Not Outbid a Fellow Wooter.

So true ....

whats up with woot servers?

stoopid Woot servers!!


Now, what was I complaining about again?

Or here for?


Oh, I know!! If anyone doesn't want the sweet Sparkly Reislings up from their set, I'll take two.

mommadeb1 wrote:whats up with woot servers?

Not gonna lie, I don't talk supreme tech so I can't speak on that level, but I can say they're being a bit problematic today. On the good side, I know that whenever something seems to hiccup, it goes right back pretty fast. That's also to say we appreciate your patience and hanging with us.

Kind of think the servers need some wine and perhaps a good cheese to relax a bit, don't you?