You can get a perfectly serviceable TP-Link DSL modem for $20-30. As long as your router is working fine for you, there's no need to buy an all-in-one.

 

I would just provide a little extra ventilation for the modem and leave it on full time. That can be done by standing it on it's edge/mounting vertically or putting some thick stick-on feet underneath. Above all, make sure it's not stacked with other equipment and has ample space for air movement.

Wireless speed will only be as good as the slowest component and slows down further with distance. If the wireless devices are 150Mb N or 54Mb G then a faster router will be a waste of money.

 

I would just provide a little extra ventilation for the modem and leave it on full time. That can be done by standing it on it's edge/mounting vertically or putting some thick stick-on feet underneath. Above all, make sure it's not stacked with other equipment and has ample space for air movement.

I have mine resting on top of my pc case. Should be ok there....I have nothing blocking its ventilation.

I actually took a closer look at my modem last night and didn't even realize that on the sides of it there's actually openings for the heat to escape from.

I guess I should just leave it on and stop worrying about it overheating. I left it on last night and this morning when I went to feel how hot the top of it was, it actually wasn't hot at all....just warm. I guess that's normal right?

If the modem does end up frying I'll just simply go out and buy another one with better ventilation next time. I'm just one of those guys who doesn't like paying for extra hydro costs if the unit isn't required to be one all the time. But looking at the size of my modem, it probably doesn't use up much hydro...my alarm clock is probably operating at a higher wattage.

So from now on I'll just leave my router and modem on and hopefully this will get rid of my problems. I figured why go out and spend $30-$80 bucks on a modem or combo when mine work fine?

Feel so dumb at this moment......

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Use a power bar that has a switch on it. I use this to reboot both modem and router. It is more convenient than fumbling for the power switches.

 

Alright...here's an update folks.

So far so good! Haven't turned off my modem or router and everything is gravy. I do notice that once I've shut down my Wii or 360, sometimes the orange light on my router comes on. But once I fire up one of my consoles or decide to use my wi-fi connection on my android, the light turns green.

I didn't even realize that my modem has vents below as well so what I did was prop it up to one side (it looks like a ramp) and this way it's getting the most ventilation as possible.

Modem hasn't conked out yet! Let's hope it stays this way.

 

Alright...here's an update:

It seems my celebration was short lived. I'm still having to power cycle my router here and there. I'm really starting to think it's the router and not my modem.

I definitely want to go out and try another router and my question still stands: do I buy a modem/router combo or just a router? For all I know it's my modem giving me problems. I honestly don't know how to find the culprit.

I just remember the days when I had my 2wire combo and had no issues for years. I have a 2wire at work from Bell and never have issues with it either except for the odd time I need to reboot it.

I like having an all-in-one machine but heard there's drawbacks to it. What do you guys suggest I do? I can't keep going through this crap every night. I wanna be able to come home and fire up my 360 without it telling me it can't sign in to Xbox Live! That stupid orange light on my Dlink keeps coming on!

I'm honestly ready to throw it out the window and hopes a truck drives over it!! HELP!

I'm on a budget so I was eyeing the TP link models. Your opinion?

 

I like separate components. It provides more flexibility in case one item needs to be upgraded or changed. It does sound like you would be happier with a combo unit though. There are some decent DSL combo units and a separate router can also be added later if an upgrade is required. (Just use one of the LAN ports and disable the modem's router component.) With DSL2 being rolled out in many areas, it might be better to rent a combo unit for the short term.

 

Thanks for your feedback ScaryBob.

I'll be using my router mostly for streaming Netflix from my 360 and since the Xbox doesn't have "N" capabilities, I guess buying a G router should be enough right?

It's so easy to get confused and get caught up with all the tech jargon which makes it sound like you'll be getting ridiculously fast speeds every second you're online.

All I see is "300 mbps" or "Gigabit" or "Dual Band". What's the point of all that technology if the hardware on the other end doesn't support it??? When it comes to purchasing a new wireless router, I'll be stuck with an N router because no one is selling a G only anymore. Since I'm not going to need all that speed, is there anything else I should consider before jumping into a new model?

Does having 3 antennas give you better speeds or less interference? I'm also looking for customer tech support that doesn't close it's help (phone lines) at 11pm. There have been so many times where I needed assistance at midnight or later and couldn't get anyone on the line. My Tenda modem doesn't even have a 1-800 number I can call....it's actually a long distance call!

To sum it up, I'm not one to get caught in all that tech hype. I just want something reliable that will work every time without having to power cycle the router every night. I actually have a wired connection from my 360 to my router when streaming video...find there's no buffering issues this way. Truth is, I use the wireless aspect more for my android phone and for my Wii.

I was looking into the new Cisco E1500:

Or the TP Link : http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_1046_365&item_id=026991


Both are roughly $60 bucks. Which is better iyo? I'm definitely not buying another D-Link....no way after my experience with that crappy 615.

I will take your advice and go with a router only. Doubtful it's my modem...I just bought it 6 months ago. Can you point me in the right direction? I do play online once in a while too.

Oh...forgot to mention that I'm on a 6mb plan so getting something beyond 54mbps won't matter right?

 

I just thought of something last night.....why the hell should I have to fork out another $60 bucks on a router when D-Link should be helping me to either fix what I have or get me another model?

I've had the 615 for over 1 year and realize that it's out of warranty range...but I feel so ******* ripped off. I was looking at a whole bunch of different models and they all have good reviews and bad so I'm honestly lost as to what to do.

Should I contact tech support and have them help me get my router working or should I yell and see if they'll help me get into something else that will work right? I've really had it up to here with this model. I shouldn't have to come home and keep power cycling this thing. I've never upgraded the firmware because I've read online that you can brick your router if it's done incorrectly. So, being a scaredy cat, I never tried to see if that would help things.

I'm at the point where I don't want to support D-Link anymore if they don't help me fix this on-going issue. If they say I'll have to pay for tech support, I will NEVER buy another D-Link product even if they had a sale at Future Shop or Best Buy with their top model at 80% off....I STILL WOULDN'T BUY IT.

If you were me, what would be your next course of action? Call them and go in guns blazing or not? Sometimes unless you complain, you won't get anything accomplished. I had an issue with my HP laser printer and long story short, I ended up getting a whole new printer and toner from them because I fought for it and told them I'd never buy another HP product. You'd be surprised what companies will do when you say that to them.

So....where do I go from here folks? Your opinion? It's now been 3 days that I haven't been able to go online at home and just wasted 3 days of my Netflix account. I'm so frustrated with all of this!

 

I would definitely upgrade the firmware. It's fairly easy to do and "bricking" rarely occurs. Download the firmware directly from D-Link's support site. Connect the router directly to the PC with a short cable and don't turn off the PC or router or interrupt the procedure in any way. I've never bricked a router doing firmware upgrades (and I've done many.) Even if it does happen, there are recovery procedures.

You are correct in noting that N routers seem to be the most commonly available. I wouldn't get anything less than N due to the fact that there is little cost difference and most devices are N capable. (The 360 is a relic in that regard.) N requires 3 antennas so that's not much of a selling point. I would not consider dual band in this case since it is not required and it adds a hefty premium. (However, it does have its uses.)

Note that the Linksys e1200 is not much different from the e1500 and can be purchased for $30. Linksys routers are also sold under the Cisco name. Other brands to consider are Asus, Netgear and Belkin. If you are willing to spend a little extra for future proofing and a top rated router, the ASUS RT-N56U can be had for under $100. If you can tolerate a shorter warranty, the top rated Linksys Linksys E4200 can be purchased as a refurb for $70.

 

After what I read on some forum, I don't think I'll be investing in a the new Cisco/Linksys models. Some guy said that the company is able to see everything you're downloading and surfing....I don't know how is possible but after reading that, I'm sort of turned off Cisco right now regardless of how pretty their routers look.

I've been eyeing a Belkin N300 ($40 bucks) and like that "self healing" app it comes with. Don't know if it's a marketing hype which sells units but I like the fact that it supposedly can fix networking issues on its own.

I was also reading good things about Trendnet and Netgear too. All have people saying they are either fantastic or horrible. I guess everyone's experience with something will be different.

I guess it wouldn't hurt at this point to update the firmware and see if that helps. If I can't get it to work, I'll call D-Link and see just how much they're willing to do to keep me as a customer.

Otherwise, I'll have to go to a store with a decent return/exchange policy just in case I don't like the new model I'll be buying.

I'm definitely staying under $50 bucks because frankly, I don't need all those other features in higher priced models.

Thanks again for your feedback and help ScaryBob.

 

By the way ScaryBob, I found this tutorial online and wondered if it could help my situation. After I update the firmware, should I be following these steps? Here's the link:


http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-basics/24437-howtorouterdrops



Is that advice correct? If not, could you tell what you'd do instead?


Thanks buddy!

 

Smallnetbuilder - Real Help For Your Small Network

Smallnetbuilder is an excellent site. I often go to it for information. They have very good router reviews. Check out their router charts as well.

 

Gino:
When upgrading the firmware:
* download the firmware and unzip if necessary
* back up your router settings
* reset your router to default settings
* use hard wire connection to your computer
* install the firmware update
* restore your settings from the backup file
I've heard of issues if you don't reset the router to its default before upgrading.

One gotcha which may not apply - if you changed the router default address, this will reset to default address.

 

Make sure the firmware you download is for the exact version of router you have. Do these not come as. A1.......C1
,,,,, B2. Etc.? If so make sure it matches up. Else brick.

 

Don't be scared off of Cisco gear by paranoid people on the internet. Cisco did make a major mistake when their legal department got over-excited in the EULA but it has since been modified and tests have shown no data going to Cisco. Even then, people were only concerned about the cloud version of firmware which Cisco allows you to disable, if your gear even uses it.

 

Thanks for all the advice fellas.


I'm still going to try and salvage this router before spending money on a new one. Quick question: When it comes time to setting up 802.11 mode, should I leave it at mixed?

These are the devices I have connected to my home network:

Xbox 360 slim (did not purchase the N adapter)
Nintendo Wii
HTC Incredible S Android phone
My Windows 7 pc (hard wired)

I'm looking to purchase either a Roku or Netgear streaming player for X-mas.

Do all of these devices run on G? Because if they do, I'll just select that and not mixed. Is that advisable or should I just leave to mixed? (b/g/n)

 

Your Xbox and phone should both support 802.11n but will fall back to 802.11g if you set the router that way. You are more likely better served leaving it in mixed mode as I would assume your Wii is used the least and is the only 802.11g device. The streaming boxes also are 802.11n and would benefit from the higher data rate.

If we are troubleshooting the existing router, you have failed to mention which LED turns orange. I will go out on a limb and assume it is the Internet LED and that it stopped doing this after you stopped unplugging the modem (which makes sense). You then mention that you still have to occasionally reboot the router, but not if your LED still turns orange.

Based on personal experience (with a different router), I will assume everything stays green, but that you basically cannot do anything over the WAN port although the internal network is fine. I used to have this problem with an old Motorola router after using bittorrent as my router would buckle under the pressure. The torrent would work fine but no other internet traffic would flow until I rebooted the router, even if the torrents were stopped. I assume you are torrenting the shows you mentioned earlier. Switching to a newer, more capable router solved my problem (Cisco E4200). It is possible that limiting my torrents in some way would have solved the problem but I wanted to upgrade anyway.

If this does not line up with your experience, post some details about when/what seems to cause your router to fail.

 

Hey NineBall....thanks for your feedback and advice.

I finally got around to trying to fix this problem last night and went nowhere. I'm completely lost and I'm starting to think it's my modem that's giving me the trouble. I bought a Tenda 820 modem about 6 months ago and for some reason, everytime I bring up the screen where it asks you for your username and password, it has other info there. I reset it but it still keeps it in memory. I use a needle and hold down the reset for 10 seconds. Maybe I need to hold it longer???

I was able to log into my Dlink router using 192.168.0.1 with no issues. I made all the changes and tweaks following my guide but I think my modem and router aren't communicating.

I know it's hooked up correctly (I have an RJ45 cable going from my pc to LAN 1 behind my router and then I have another RJ45 cable going from "Internet" into my modem.

In hindsight, I should have bought a more popular brand of modem. I wish I could log into my modem just like my Dlink but this particular model doesn't work this way. I need to go into my Network settings through Windows 7 to access it. I hate that. I'm thinking I should just go out and pick up a TP Link model.

Just curious, how can you find out if a modem has capability of being able to go into the back end like a router? I will never buy another modem that works through my pc...it's a pain in the butt.

Anyways....sorry for the essay....I would appreciate help from anyone at this point. Thanks in advance.


Edit: I just found out that the TP Link TD 8616 modem has "Administration and operation software (firmware) upgradable locally by web". Got that right of their website. Is that what I should be looking for to make things easier?

 

Alright....it seems that my modem either doesn't work or I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I've decided to replace my modem and wanted to know a few things:

1) Since I own a D-Link router, does it make more sense to go with a D-Link modem? Are there any benefits if I stay with the same brand? Easier setup between the two units? Will they "communicate" with less problems?

2) If the answer to question 1 is no, I'm eyeing the TP Link 8616 or 8816 modem. Will I run into problems if I buy the 8816 which is also a router? The 8816 has more features I like but I worry that having 2 routers might cause conflicts/problems. Should I just stick with the 8616?


Thanks!

Edit: I'm definitely never buying a Tenda product again. Their customer tech support closes at 6pm and I couldn't get through...always a busy signal. At least DLink or TP Link offer 24/7 support.

 

I see I'm the only one responding to my own thread over these last couple of days!


Anyways, I picked up the TP Link 8616 last night and all I can say is WOW. What a difference it makes. I hooked everything up last night in less than 10 mins and was online right away. My router and modem are working great now and I guess it was my modem after all.

My only question is....why can't I access my modem's admin page? I tried typing in 192.168.1.1 but that didn't work. Once it's hooked up to my router, is there something I need to change for it to work? Is there something on my router's admin that needs to be altered in order to gain access to TP Llink's modem page? I'd like to go in there and see what's available in terms of settings and see if I can tweak anything.

I'm still not able to connect to Xbox Live even after everything was set up. I guess there's something like IP addresses or DNS settings I need to change right? I know this isn't the right place to ask this but can someone help me to get Live working?

If someone can answer any of the questions I posted that would be great.

 

Regarding XBL. Did you go to the network settings to do a test and it said it was not connected or were you judging it on the lack of stuff on the 360 Dashboard as XBL was down in some parts last night but not completely down?

 

Ya....XBL must have been down in my area because I tried going online this morning and it worked.

Well, I guess it wasn't my router all along. Now I'll know that if my connection goes, it's definitely not my modem now that I bought a new one. Those tp link modems are awesome....plain looking but they do the job and that's all I care about!

I went on online to Xbox support and printed off a few help tips next time I can't connect. Hopefully, that will not happen any more now that I've got this new modem.

Thanks to all who helped out.

 

If your modem is in bridge mode you can't access it directly from the network. You will need to plug your PCs ethernet cable directly into it.

I would check the manual.

 

Unless you have a specific problem with your ADSL connection, you shouldn't have a need to access the modem's settings.

That said, as notsure mentioned, you will need to plug directly to the TP-Link to access it's web admin interface. Your D-Link router is handling NAT and DHCP which prevents you from directly accessing the modem from within the network. When you connect to the TP-Link, you will need to manually set your IPv4 address to 192.168.1.x (x is anything between 2-254) and your net mask to 255.255.255.0 then connect to 192.168.1.1 which is the default address of the modem and login with admin/admin. When reconnecting your PC to the LAN after playing with the modem, remember to set your connection back to DHCP from your manual setting.

 

Thanks again guys for all your help!


I've had the modem now for 4 days and so far so good! Everytime I fire up my Xbox 360 I'm automatically signed in....no problems!

I won't go messing around with my modem's settings as long as everything works. I've learned a long time ago not to touch something if it's not broken. Knowing my luck, I'd screw something up so I'd best leave it be.

You guys are awesome.

 

Ok....now I'm really going to lose it!

This makes absolutely no sense. Here is my story:


I ended up buying a brand new TP Link 8616 modem last week and hooked it up to my DLink 615 router. In about 10 minutes everything was connected and I was online...no problem.

Last night, my wife came home from work and decided to turn the pc on and go online to do some X-Mas shopping. After she is done she closes the browser and says "dear, you can have the computer" (as I was waiting for her to finish because I needed to look something up).

Out of nowhere....the internet isn't working. This was literally minutes after she just got offline. I tried everything from resetting modem and router to power cycling them. I even started fresh and re-entered my username and password in the router...but couldn't get online. First thing I did was contact my ISP to make sure we were still connected.

CSR told me that everything was fine on their end and that my connection was still good with no interruptions in service. I spent nearly 1 hour and still couldn't get online. Am I honestly ready to call Bell and get back with them. All I know is that ever since I decided to cut my phone line and go the dry loop route, I have had nothing but problems.

How do I find out who the culprit is? Is it my modem? My router? My ISP? Bad lines? Maybe it's Windows 7?

I seriously need to take a networking 101 course because this is all Greek to me. I always thought that resetting hardware would fix things but it hasn't worked for me. I even went from my pc to my modem directly and still couldn't get online after resetting modem. I am so lost and frustrated right now.

The only way I got access to online content last night was through my phone's data. I turned wifi off and used Bell's network to access what I needed to look up last night.

I've hear lots of bad things about the 615 router....do you think it's dropping connections? It can't be my modem...it's brand new and was able to connect when I got it. Maybe I should just go out and pick up a TP Link router and see if that helps.

Can someone help me to pin point where the problem lies??? I noticed that even after power cycling my router, that it still had passwords saved in memory. WTF?? PLEASE HELP!!!!

All I know is that when I had Bell's 2wire all in one everything was fine. Now that I've gone dry loop and decide to purchase my equipment, it has done nothing but fail me constantly.

What's my next step?

 

The ISP should be able to walk you through troubleshooting the modem connection. As far as modems are concerned, I find it's often better to use the make and model recommended by the ISP. Purchasing or renting from the ISP can provide extra support.

Assuming this is a PPPoE configuration with the modem in bridged mode, the router should be connected with a valid IP address, DNS server address and DHCP lease. If not, there is an issue between the router and ISP or the router configuration is incorrect. Since the connection was working, the PPPoE info should be OK.

I would look at replacing the DIR-615. Don't know if it's the problem but it's a little underpowered for high speed connections and D-Link products can be buggy. Get something that's capable of more throughput and has a good reputation. Something like the Asus RT-N56U will cost a little more but will handle anything that will be demanded of it, for a few years at least.