A neat idea but why not take that $60 and buy a router that didn't require resetting. They do exist. My Asus router just never needs reset. I have it on an ups unit and the only time it is reset is to do firmware upgrades.
I love my MikroTiks. Even the $22 "hAP lite" is a fantastic home WiFi router option, and comes with all the functionality a hacker could want.
My MikroTik's fantastic reliability (48d uptime, and that was b/c I accidentally pulled the power cord), combined with a queue policy to throttle bandwidth to avoid my ISP's humongous queues, makes me feel sorry for others whenever I hear them complain about their router always crashing, or Netflix causing Minecraft to lag.
Its not always the router though. I remember living in a shared flat a while back, and whenever one girl connected her laptop to the network, it would mess up wireless for everyone. I seem to remember the fix needing applied to her computer, as I have never done anything to the software on a router.
That's great. An equally good product to this plug might be an oracle that can tell you how good a router's software was, and improves it if it is not decent.
That's why return periods exist. So you can see if something works well or not. You don't need an oracle to know that you should return a router that malfunctions when someone starts connecting to it.
The oracle is needed to see if the router works well or not in all possible configurations of connected clients the router will face during its lifetime...
...so that you can return it during the return period.
Look at the brands that focus on quality/software vs. releasing new models every 3 months.
In my experience Pepwave/Unifi/Microtik are good prosumer brands.
For more consumer-y stuff, it might be worth it to have a look at the Apple/OnHub routers too.
You can also pick up enterprise gear on eBay at pretty good prices, brands such as Cisco/HP/Aerohive/Ruckus etc., but configuring/updating might be a pain.
I can't speak from experience for most of these, but I just bought some Ruckus APs and have been through review hell. The Ruckus APs were clear winners; the reviews (of the R500 and R600) were glowing and said the devices were easy to configure. (They're also very expensive.) They haven't arrived yet, so I can only recommend them based on my research, not based on experience.
I'm replacing a hodgepodge of hardware, including some Apple routers and APs. The Apple products worked reasonably well. I had to keep them fairly isolated (for heat) or else they required reboots. But given their price point, I would probably look somewhere else.
Throughput was a major complaint for many reviewers of the Unifi models I researched. No individual reviewer convinced me the units themselves were the problem, but the sheer number of such reviews did.
Peplink's Pepwave units look awesome and were my second choice.
For all the others, I could either not find enough reviews to reach any conclusions or could not find a model that fit my needs.
One caveat with Amazon products reviews. With any products that have unusually high 5*s, search for term 'exchange' and lookout for lines like : 'I received this product at a discounted price in return for my unbiased review.' I got bad experience with multiple such products.
The people writing these reviews definitely seem to start with positive, since they got the stuff for free or discount!
No idea if they're available outside of Germany, but my ISP-supplied Fritz!Box has been rock solid for years. Only complaint is that the wifi signal isn't very strong.
This is after several terrible experiences with expensive name-brand home routers, which I agree are usually trash.
You can add ANY wifi router to ANY ethernet network. You absolutely are not required to use a wifi device that your ISP gives you. The WAN side is under their control, but you can do anything you want on your side.
Of course, then you've just added a second point of failure - their crappy router can still bring down your connection, but now so can the additional router you've added.
Obviously it is possible to increase the TTL of incoming traffic if that's what you wanted to know. Linux iptables can do that, IIRC BSD pf too, and some consumer routers even have an option in the GUI.
Comments
A neat idea but why not take that $60 and buy a router that didn't require resetting. They do exist. My Asus router just never needs reset. I have it on an ups unit and the only time it is reset is to do firmware upgrades.
Exactly. There are a few MikroTik routers for less than $60. They are all rock solid and full of functionality, including watchdog timer.
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:System/Watchdog
http://www.amazon.com/Mikrotik-hAP-AC-Lite-RB952Ui-5ac2nD/dp...
http://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-RB951Ui-2HnD-5-Port-Wireless-...
http://www.amazon.com/Mikrotik-RB941-2nD-TC-Lite-2-4Ghz-802-...
http://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-RouterBOARD-2-4GHz-Access-Poi...
http://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-RouterBOARD-2-4GHz-Ceiling-Ac...
I love my MikroTiks. Even the $22 "hAP lite" is a fantastic home WiFi router option, and comes with all the functionality a hacker could want.
My MikroTik's fantastic reliability (48d uptime, and that was b/c I accidentally pulled the power cord), combined with a queue policy to throttle bandwidth to avoid my ISP's humongous queues, makes me feel sorry for others whenever I hear them complain about their router always crashing, or Netflix causing Minecraft to lag.
Does MikroTik have something against gigabit Ethernet? Even the $20-30 routers from other companies include it these days.
The Apple AirPort is one such router. It's expensive but high quality. I get great reception through walls, outside, etc.
Its not always the router though. I remember living in a shared flat a while back, and whenever one girl connected her laptop to the network, it would mess up wireless for everyone. I seem to remember the fix needing applied to her computer, as I have never done anything to the software on a router.
If it can be fixed by restarting the router, the router could have fixed it automatically during operation if it had decent software.
That's great. An equally good product to this plug might be an oracle that can tell you how good a router's software was, and improves it if it is not decent.
That's why return periods exist. So you can see if something works well or not. You don't need an oracle to know that you should return a router that malfunctions when someone starts connecting to it.
The oracle is needed to see if the router works well or not in all possible configurations of connected clients the router will face during its lifetime...
...so that you can return it during the return period.
In that case I think I had been using the router for 6 months or so before the dodgy laptop appeared.
Similar success with my TP-Link TL-WDR3600. Had a 20$ netgear before that needed resetting several times a week.
I have that model -- install OpenWrt, and you have an very stable router: http://imgur.com/cMhIwmp
I'm quite irritated that TP-Link is locking out OpenWrt now. For the last 7 years, TP-Link is all I've purchased or recommended. Not now though.
Same device here, works perfectly with OpenWRT.
How are you supposed to find out which ones don't?
Look at the brands that focus on quality/software vs. releasing new models every 3 months.
In my experience Pepwave/Unifi/Microtik are good prosumer brands.
For more consumer-y stuff, it might be worth it to have a look at the Apple/OnHub routers too.
You can also pick up enterprise gear on eBay at pretty good prices, brands such as Cisco/HP/Aerohive/Ruckus etc., but configuring/updating might be a pain.
I've bought Ubiquiti point-to-point wireless gear before, and really liked it, but note that their APs don't do well with many simultaneous clients: http://www.wlanpros.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Wi-Fi-Str... (page 30)
This isn't so much a problem with the regular UniFi APs, but the UniFi AC AP costs $300!
I picked up a UniFi AP AC Lite for $84 a couple months ago and couldn't be happier with it. For home use, the full version is probably overkill.
I can't speak from experience for most of these, but I just bought some Ruckus APs and have been through review hell. The Ruckus APs were clear winners; the reviews (of the R500 and R600) were glowing and said the devices were easy to configure. (They're also very expensive.) They haven't arrived yet, so I can only recommend them based on my research, not based on experience.
I'm replacing a hodgepodge of hardware, including some Apple routers and APs. The Apple products worked reasonably well. I had to keep them fairly isolated (for heat) or else they required reboots. But given their price point, I would probably look somewhere else.
Throughput was a major complaint for many reviewers of the Unifi models I researched. No individual reviewer convinced me the units themselves were the problem, but the sheer number of such reviews did.
Peplink's Pepwave units look awesome and were my second choice.
For all the others, I could either not find enough reviews to reach any conclusions or could not find a model that fit my needs.
I just look for models known to work well with OpenWRT. This way I don't have to deal with random bugs or limitations of stock firmwares.
Newegg/Amazon product reviews are a good starting point. Avoid new models until they are well tested and bugs patched.
One caveat with Amazon products reviews. With any products that have unusually high 5*s, search for term 'exchange' and lookout for lines like : 'I received this product at a discounted price in return for my unbiased review.' I got bad experience with multiple such products. The people writing these reviews definitely seem to start with positive, since they got the stuff for free or discount!
Basically good brand and not cheap as chips? Won't need resets.
Also many come with decent warranties
That's not been my experience. Still haven't found a router/device combination that doesn't need resetting at least a few times a year.
No idea if they're available outside of Germany, but my ISP-supplied Fritz!Box has been rock solid for years. Only complaint is that the wifi signal isn't very strong.
This is after several terrible experiences with expensive name-brand home routers, which I agree are usually trash.
Even if it did, hardware watchdogs are like 5 cents and should be a standard feature of all devices.
some ISPs in some countries won't let you switch from their crappy routers
You can add ANY wifi router to ANY ethernet network. You absolutely are not required to use a wifi device that your ISP gives you. The WAN side is under their control, but you can do anything you want on your side.
Of course, then you've just added a second point of failure - their crappy router can still bring down your connection, but now so can the additional router you've added.
Been there :)
It's not the wifi itself, it's the internet connection that goes down. So this did not help...
But then you have an extra hop.
You do understand that the extra hop's increase in ping is negligible. If it was a problem, we wouldn't be able to have 10 gig ethernet.
I think they may be talking about evil ISPs who change TTL of all your incoming IP packets to 1 so that any router you may run would drop them.
However, this is not an issue with "dumb" ethernet-WiFi bridges.
Hm, is this something that can be shaped?
Not sure what you mean.
Obviously it is possible to increase the TTL of incoming traffic if that's what you wanted to know. Linux iptables can do that, IIRC BSD pf too, and some consumer routers even have an option in the GUI.
You answered my question!
You're also behind two NATS and the wireless signals interfere.
Sure, but that's only going to add 0.5-1ms of latency.
Not even; even with low perf hardware you're looking at 0.1ms on the high side.