System Error Message
Part of the Furniture
This is a much better explanation than what @thiggins has posted and i hope you learn a little about picking a wifi router or even just a wifi AP by itself.
So when posting for help about buying a wifi router it is helpful to post your requirements and what you're looking for i will break it down into 5 points to keep things organised.
1) Physical requirements
-For wifi, the measurements of the area (instead of 2000 square feet it is better to say 40*50 feet or 30 feet radius for circular room for example as 2000 square feet can also mean 2*1000 feet. Wifi works in a spherical radius.)
-What type of walls/floors, brick + conrete? Wood? Steel beams? Approximately how many walls?
- wifi protocols (i.e. a,b,g,n,ac) and channels. i.e. 3 channel wifi AC (1900)
- wiring (how you plan to connect things such as wifi to wifi bridge, SFP, ethernet, powerline) i.e. want network of APs connected via ethernet to a switch, 1 AP via powerline and 1 AP via a dedicated wifi to wifi bridge. i.e. want an AP with SFP to connect via various mediums.
- other things such as fanless or with wind turbine included, usb-c, thunderbolt, touchscreen? i.e. router with usb3 included
2) Network requirements
- WAN speeds (if looking for wifi router) i.e. 100Mb/s (megabits not megabytes)
- network related features - ipv6? port forwarding? upnp? mesh? bonding? VPN? SNMP? stratum-0 NTP server? i.e. a router that supports IPV6 LAN and WAN and ipv6 NAT with openVPN client and openVPN server.
3) Software requirements
non-networked Features that you look for in the firmware such as NAS, media server, web server, minecraft server, backup for windows/apple OSX, 3rd party firmware compatible, can run virtualbox? Network control and monitoring (such as snmp software like dude server for instance)? Can be managed via proprietary software instead of web?
4) Options
-What options are available in your area such as from local shops, online, 2nd hand (if you know what you're looking for), left behind.
-budget
- you have read: How to buy a wireless router
- you have or will use Router charts to compare options
5) skill level and anything else.
- Clueless (dont know how to open a router's admin page for instnace)
- beginner (knows how to access router's admin page and enter relevant WAN and LAN settings
-intermediate (knows how to setup more advanced things like seting up port forwarding, segmenting the network and basic vlan knowledge) and using other features like scheduling and filters available via the GUI
- expert (knows how to setup advanced networking stuff like configurable firewalls and filters for instance, using the CLI and other less known stuff)
-omnipotent (you know everything there is to know about networking and non networking stuff, from being able to explain what bits correspond to what on the network on every protocol, the way different CPUs handle networking even in the low level such as how the instructions are queued in the pipeline to gourmet cooking)
Its important to provide as much relevant information as you can when asking for advice. The more information you give the more accurate advice can be given. If you dont know what something means or dont know what your needs are than ask and describe your situation. The more relevant information is described the better we can help you. Post your questions in an organised manner instead of an essay.
Many questions end up not being solved or answered because they give either too little information that we cant figure out heads or tails of it or too much irrelevant information that we cant be bothered to read through. Rather than leave out information because you dont know, it is better to mention what you are clueless about when posting as others can help you determine what you need. You should also remember that 2.4Ghz is very very crowded so dont expect performance, stability is more important than performance in a very crowded environment so dont expect the performance you could get a few years ago), even the settings you should use differ too and quite often requires advanced tweaking.
This post may be long and boring enough to cure Insomenia with ADHD but it is important to read through when you seek advice as it could save you and others time and perhaps you may learn a few things too. I hope @thiggins would sticky this so it wont be lost in the sea of many posts.
So when posting for help about buying a wifi router it is helpful to post your requirements and what you're looking for i will break it down into 5 points to keep things organised.
1) Physical requirements
-For wifi, the measurements of the area (instead of 2000 square feet it is better to say 40*50 feet or 30 feet radius for circular room for example as 2000 square feet can also mean 2*1000 feet. Wifi works in a spherical radius.)
-What type of walls/floors, brick + conrete? Wood? Steel beams? Approximately how many walls?
- wifi protocols (i.e. a,b,g,n,ac) and channels. i.e. 3 channel wifi AC (1900)
- wiring (how you plan to connect things such as wifi to wifi bridge, SFP, ethernet, powerline) i.e. want network of APs connected via ethernet to a switch, 1 AP via powerline and 1 AP via a dedicated wifi to wifi bridge. i.e. want an AP with SFP to connect via various mediums.
- other things such as fanless or with wind turbine included, usb-c, thunderbolt, touchscreen? i.e. router with usb3 included
2) Network requirements
- WAN speeds (if looking for wifi router) i.e. 100Mb/s (megabits not megabytes)
- network related features - ipv6? port forwarding? upnp? mesh? bonding? VPN? SNMP? stratum-0 NTP server? i.e. a router that supports IPV6 LAN and WAN and ipv6 NAT with openVPN client and openVPN server.
3) Software requirements
non-networked Features that you look for in the firmware such as NAS, media server, web server, minecraft server, backup for windows/apple OSX, 3rd party firmware compatible, can run virtualbox? Network control and monitoring (such as snmp software like dude server for instance)? Can be managed via proprietary software instead of web?
4) Options
-What options are available in your area such as from local shops, online, 2nd hand (if you know what you're looking for), left behind.
-budget
- you have read: How to buy a wireless router
- you have or will use Router charts to compare options
5) skill level and anything else.
- Clueless (dont know how to open a router's admin page for instnace)
- beginner (knows how to access router's admin page and enter relevant WAN and LAN settings
-intermediate (knows how to setup more advanced things like seting up port forwarding, segmenting the network and basic vlan knowledge) and using other features like scheduling and filters available via the GUI
- expert (knows how to setup advanced networking stuff like configurable firewalls and filters for instance, using the CLI and other less known stuff)
-omnipotent (you know everything there is to know about networking and non networking stuff, from being able to explain what bits correspond to what on the network on every protocol, the way different CPUs handle networking even in the low level such as how the instructions are queued in the pipeline to gourmet cooking)
Its important to provide as much relevant information as you can when asking for advice. The more information you give the more accurate advice can be given. If you dont know what something means or dont know what your needs are than ask and describe your situation. The more relevant information is described the better we can help you. Post your questions in an organised manner instead of an essay.
Many questions end up not being solved or answered because they give either too little information that we cant figure out heads or tails of it or too much irrelevant information that we cant be bothered to read through. Rather than leave out information because you dont know, it is better to mention what you are clueless about when posting as others can help you determine what you need. You should also remember that 2.4Ghz is very very crowded so dont expect performance, stability is more important than performance in a very crowded environment so dont expect the performance you could get a few years ago), even the settings you should use differ too and quite often requires advanced tweaking.
This post may be long and boring enough to cure Insomenia with ADHD but it is important to read through when you seek advice as it could save you and others time and perhaps you may learn a few things too. I hope @thiggins would sticky this so it wont be lost in the sea of many posts.
Last edited:
