Reliable wireless APs?

[Dan Jenkins]

Chip Marshall wrote:

>  On January 10, 2007, Travis Roy sent me the following:
>
> > Linksys WRT-54G running the DD-WRT firmware.
>
>  I've been using a WRT54G with DD-WRT at home for a while now, it's
>  been pretty solid. Under other firmwares I did have problems with the
>  WRT turning into a brick, requiring a full reset and reflash via it's
>  modified TFTP recovery method. I don't know if that was something
>  going wrong with the hardware or just the firmware being flakey.

I've had similar problems with the factory firmware. I did have a couple 
running
DD-WRT which would partially revert to factory settings, specifically 
changing
SSID to linksys and no security. I switched them to HyperWRT (Thibor)
and have no problems since. (I think the client was tweaking the settings.)
The other ones running DD-WRT and OpenWR have been quite reliable.

>  I'd stay away from Netgear stuff, by the way. I had horrible problems
>  with a Netgear AP that would simply decide to stop responding on
>  it's wireless device. Needed to be power cycled pretty much every
>  time I wanted to go use it. Newer models may be better though.

I have three Netgears on the shelf waiting for someone to get RMAs.
I have had good ones out there, but I've had more flaky ones than
Linksys units.

All of the consumer grade units seem to run too hot. I strongly suspect
that is the cause of much of the erratic operation and premature
failure. Too often, I have found the wireless routers stuffed between
books, or in a stack of hubs and cable/DSL modems, seeming way
too hot to the touch. Those which stay well-ventilated seem to last
longer and be more stable. (Anecdotal evidence, I realize.)

-- 
Dan Jenkins (dan at rastech.com)
Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA --- 1-603-206-9951
*** Technical Support Excellence for over a Quarter Century