Do wireless routers wear out?

Two or three years ago I installed a Trendnet TEW-432BRP
(802.11g) wireless router to link upstairs with downstairs
(and out to the Internet via wireless router with antenna).
This home network works reasonably well about 28 days
a month; the upstairs unit (Belkin 802.11g wireless card)
occasionally reports Very Low Signal, sometimes no signal.
When on line without trouble download speeds are OK, e.g.
50 Mb in 10 minutes or so.

Just lately performance has been poor just when I wanted
to update the income tax software . . . Would a newer
router (perhaps Wireless N) give better performance?
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:05:01 -0500, Don Phillipson typed this message:

> Two or three years ago I installed a Trendnet TEW-432BRP (802.11g)
> wireless router to link upstairs with downstairs (and out to the
> Internet via wireless router with antenna). This home network works
> reasonably well about 28 days a month; the upstairs unit (Belkin
> 802.11g wireless card) occasionally reports Very Low Signal, sometimes
> no signal. When on line without trouble download speeds are OK, e.g. 50
> Mb in 10 minutes or so.
>
> Just lately performance has been poor just when I wanted to update the
> income tax software . . . Would a newer router (perhaps Wireless N)
> give better performance?

Yes, but only if you also switch your wireless cards to 802.11n. Then
you'd get the max. 150N transfer rates but using 802.11g on a Wireless N
router limits the max. to 54M transfers. And those numbers decrease
depending on interference between router and wireless card.

You need to upgrade the security from WEP to at least WPA, preferably WPA2. WEP
is not safe and is easily cracked and hacked.

On Tue, 2 Mar 2010 17:02:51 -0800 (PST), Falcon ITS <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I use the following equipment successfully in my own house to get
>strong wireless coverage throughtout my entire home.
>
>I use Powerline adapters to run ethernet over my AC power grid:
>
>http://www.netgear.com/Products/Powe...tAdapters.aspx
>
>I have spread out 3 Netgear WTG-604 access point routers (about $
>39.00 in Staples) and connect them each to a powerline adapter.
>
>I set up each access point to have the same SSID and WEP key. Each
>access points is hardwired with a static IP and I connect the
>powerline adapter to the LAN ports, NOT the WAN port. I get the same
>wireless signal throughout my entire house. I can walk around and not
>lose my signal. The signal is very strong no matter where I am.
>
>It has been very reliable considering how inexpensive the stuff was.
>
>
>Miguel Fra
>Falcon ITS
>http://www.falconits.com
Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.digitalmediaphile.com
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

Hi
They do not wear out from use.
However, if used in an unventilated environment and tend to get Hot, the
excessive heat can wear them out over time.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

"Falcon ITS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:dadb276c-d697-4f56-bb47-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I use the following equipment successfully in my own house to get
> strong wireless coverage throughtout my entire home.
>
> I use Powerline adapters to run ethernet over my AC power grid:
>
> http://www.netgear.com/Products/Powe...tAdapters.aspx
>
> I have spread out 3 Netgear WTG-604 access point routers (about $
> 39.00 in Staples) and connect them each to a powerline adapter.
>
> I set up each access point to have the same SSID and WEP key. Each
> access points is hardwired with a static IP and I connect the
> powerline adapter to the LAN ports, NOT the WAN port. I get the same
> wireless signal throughout my entire house. I can walk around and not
> lose my signal. The signal is very strong no matter where I am.
>
> It has been very reliable considering how inexpensive the stuff was.
>
>
> Miguel Fra
> Falcon ITS
> http://www.falconits.com

Don Phillipson wrote:
> Two or three years ago I installed a Trendnet TEW-432BRP
> (802.11g) wireless router to link upstairs with downstairs
> (and out to the Internet via wireless router with antenna).
> This home network works reasonably well about 28 days
> a month;

Sounds hormonal to me. Is this a female network?

the threat is more likely to be "drive by", for example 16 year olds with time
on their hands.

On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 19:54:25 -0800 (PST), Falcon ITS <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I know my neighbors pretty well (median age 80) so I am not quite so
>worried about my home DSL getting hacked.
Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.digitalmediaphile.com
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 19:54:25 -0800 (PST), Falcon ITS
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>WEP and WPA are quite easily cracked.

Regarding WPA with a long random(ish) key, are you talking about the
theoretical man in the middle attack which was discussed a while back
or is this something else?


Jim.

Falcon ITS wrote:
> Barb,
>
> I know my neighbors pretty well (median age 80) so I am not quite so
> worried about my home DSL getting hacked.
>
> But I do agree with you, WPA2 is better.
>
> WEP and WPA are quite easily cracked.
>
> Miguel
>
>

WPA is not "easily cracked." There was a paper by a couple of German
researchers in late 2008, followed by one from some Japanese researchers
last summer, that described successful attacks on WPA-protected systems.
Neither method actually "breaks" the encryption. For details, see
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...ure-on-wpa.ars
http://arstechnica.com/security/news...pa-cracked.ars

That said, it is definitely better to go to WPA2. Or, if your hardware
is not WPA2-capable, see if it is capable of WPA (AES), which will foil
both methods described in the papers.

--
Lem

Apollo 11 - 40 years ago:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ap...0th/index.html