Problems with wireless router...need help

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I'm starting this thread at work, even though the problem is at home, because I'm hoping to get a jump on the problem. I'll reply later if someone needs more information, and hopefully we can figure the problem out. I know a little bit about wireless routers, and some of the settings, but this one has me completely baffled.

My roommates and I switched ISPs to Charter and their 5 Meg service just a little bit ago. We tried, in vain, to get my Linksys WRT54G (version 5) working consistently. It had problems with our old ISP, too.

Josh and I both have macs. I have a MacBook and a Power Mac, and he has a MacBook as well. Jim has a Dell desktop and a Sony laptop. With the Linksys, every time Jim would wake his computer up, it would "steal" the internet connection and kick both me and Josh offline. When him and I were able to get back online, the connection would last only a short time.

So, Josh decided that the router was the problem and went out and bought a new Netgear RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N Router , thinking that maybe we needed something that could handle more traffic. (Side note: Perhaps someone could tell me why we'd possibly need a Wireless-N router with 270Mbps, when our connection is limited to 5Mbps.)

Now, with the wireless-N router, I cannot access certain sites, such as the MR front page. Google will not work, nor anything with Google analytics or adsense. ESPN.com will not work. I have tried on both of my computers, and both of them are displaying the same problem. Josh's MacBook, however, is just fine. We have no "blocked sites" in the router settings, and the security is set to WPA2. I can connect, and visit other sites, but not a strange list of sites.

Any ideas on what I can check for?

 

[aristobrat]

(Side note: Perhaps someone could tell me why we'd possibly need a Wireless-N router with 270Mbps, when our connection is limited to 5Mbps.)

So when you or Josh get the iTV, your Macs will have zero problem streaming quickly to it.

If you're not adverse to using terminal, I'd be curious what a traceroute to a site that you can't get onto looks like vs. a traceroute from Josh's MacBook (to the same site).

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

So when you or Josh get the iTV, your Macs will have zero problem streaming quickly to it.

So, no use. That settles that. I figured we wouldn't need an N router, but no one listens to me.

If you're not adverse to using terminal, I'd be curious what a traceroute to a site that you can't get onto looks like vs. a traceroute from Josh's MacBook (to the same site).

If you could point me to directions on how to do this, I'd be glad to check the results when I get home, if it will help pinpoint the problem. I'm not experienced in Terminal, but I'm not scared of it either.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Here are the traceroute results...

josh's computer

traceroute www.macrumors.com
traceroute to macrumors.com (64.62.137.66), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  www.routerlogin.com (192.168.1.1)  1.095 ms  1.286 ms  0.710 ms
 2  10.25.32.1 (10.25.32.1)  6.983 ms  6.028 ms  5.973 ms
 3  24.217.2.153 (24.217.2.153)  7.047 ms  9.878 ms  11.928 ms
 4  12.124.129.97 (12.124.129.97)  15.858 ms  16.794 ms  15.047 ms
 5  tbr2-p032203.sl9mo.ip.att.net (12.123.24.222)  18.266 ms  18.367 ms  27.371 ms
 6  tbr2-cl7.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.10.45)  33.741 ms  17.166 ms  16.572 ms
 7  ggr3-ge110.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.4.253)  91.770 ms  171.288 ms  221.720 ms
 8  192.205.33.126 (192.205.33.126)  26.957 ms  24.834 ms  25.304 ms
 9  * nyk-bb2-pos7-1-0.telia.net (213.248.80.74)  40.089 ms nyk-bb1-pos0-3-0.telia.net (213.248.80.154)  40.825 ms
10  nyk-b1-link.telia.net (213.248.83.230)  39.199 ms nyk-b1-link.telia.net (80.91.250.161)  43.051 ms nyk-b1-link.telia.net (213.248.83.226)  41.225 ms
11  hurricane-113206-nyk-b1.c.telia.net (213.248.83.114)  47.614 ms  38.276 ms  37.929 ms
12  pos0-1.gsr12416.sjc2.he.net (216.218.223.133)  86.558 ms  85.660 ms  88.225 ms
13  pos10-0.gsr12416.fmt.he.net (216.218.229.38)  232.389 ms  84.722 ms  90.811 ms
14  g1-0.gsr12008.fmt.fastservers.net (64.71.160.46)  85.541 ms  86.756 ms  84.562 ms
15  web1.cultoa.com (64.62.137.66)  86.039 ms  85.774 ms  86.919 ms

and

my computer

 1  www.routerlogin.com (192.168.1.1)  1.869 ms  1.879 ms  1.231 ms
 2  10.25.32.1 (10.25.32.1)  14.578 ms  7.005 ms  8.390 ms
 3  24.217.2.153 (24.217.2.153)  9.754 ms  12.177 ms  8.088 ms
 4  12.124.129.97 (12.124.129.97)  17.547 ms  16.423 ms  16.335 ms
 5  tbr2-p032203.sl9mo.ip.att.net (12.123.24.222)  17.374 ms  37.645 ms  18.125 ms
 6  tbr2-cl7.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.10.45)  18.980 ms  17.111 ms  16.433 ms
 7  * * *
 8  192.205.33.126 (192.205.33.126)  17.311 ms  16.410 ms  15.461 ms
 9  nyk-bb2-pos7-1-0.telia.net (213.248.80.74)  44.474 ms  53.935 ms nyk-bb1-pos0-3-0.telia.net (213.248.80.154)  44.625 ms
10  nyk-b1-link.telia.net (213.248.83.230)  44.594 ms nyk-b1-link.telia.net (213.248.83.226)  39.053 ms  41.962 ms
11  * * *
12  * * *
13  * * *
14  g1-0.gsr12008.fmt.fastservers.net (64.71.160.46)  84.799 ms  86.323 ms  93.478 ms
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *

The stars, which I gather means something's not right, go on continuously, as far as I can tell...

(Please let me know if I am releasing information which I should be keeping to myself. I don't think I'm doing anything like that, but please let me know if I am.)

 

[aristobrat]

Hmmmm.

Before packets from your computer even leave the house, they have almost (but not quite) 2x the latency of your roommates (based on the first hop).

Was your system near his when you did that test, or in a different room? Any chance his reception is a lot better?

Try this free tool and see if you're getting a lot of interference:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/airstatz.html

 

[yg17]

I'm starting this thread at work, even though the problem is at home, because I'm hoping to get a jump on the problem. I'll reply later if someone needs more information, and hopefully we can figure the problem out. I know a little bit about wireless routers, and some of the settings, but this one has me completely baffled.

My roommates and I switched ISPs to Charter and their 5 Meg service just a little bit ago. We tried, in vain, to get my Linksys WRT54G (version 5) working consistently. It had problems with our old ISP, too.

Josh and I both have macs. I have a MacBook and a Power Mac, and he has a MacBook as well. Jim has a Dell desktop and a Sony laptop. With the Linksys, every time Jim would wake his computer up, it would "steal" the internet connection and kick both me and Josh offline. When him and I were able to get back online, the connection would last only a short time.

So, Josh decided that the router was the problem and went out and bought a new Netgear RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N Router , thinking that maybe we needed something that could handle more traffic. (Side note: Perhaps someone could tell me why we'd possibly need a Wireless-N router with 270Mbps, when our connection is limited to 5Mbps.)

Now, with the wireless-N router, I cannot access certain sites, such as the MR front page. Google will not work, nor anything with Google analytics or adsense. ESPN.com will not work. I have tried on both of my computers, and both of them are displaying the same problem. Josh's MacBook, however, is just fine. We have no "blocked sites" in the router settings, and the security is set to WPA2. I can connect, and visit other sites, but not a strange list of sites.

Any ideas on what I can check for?

Before you mentioned this happened with your old ISP, I was going to blame Charter. Not sure what city you're located in, but their service in St. Louis isn't that great.

Try plugging one of the computers directly into the modem and see what happens. That way, we can tell if it's the router, Charter, your computer, etc.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Before you mentioned this happened with your old ISP, I was going to blame Charter. Not sure what city you're located in, but their service in St. Louis isn't that great.

Try plugging one of the computers directly into the modem and see what happens. That way, we can tell if it's the router, Charter, your computer, etc.

I'm in STL too...and I haven't had charter for too long, but it's already better than the Earthlink DSL we did have. There aren't a whole lot of viable options in this city of ours.

Hmmmm.

Before packets from your computer even leave the house, they have almost (but not quite) 2x the latency of your roommates (based on the first hop).

Was your system near his when you did that test, or in a different room? Any chance his reception is a lot better?

Try this free tool and see if you're getting a lot of interference:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/airstatz.html

They were in the same room, right next to each other. They both showed 4 bars in the menubar...


Nevertheless...we got it figured out. We returned the Wireless N router, and bought two Airport Expresses. Everything just works now.

 

[yg17]

I'm in STL too...and I haven't had charter for too long, but it's already better than the Earthlink DSL we did have. There aren't a whole lot of viable options in this city of ours.

Yeah, broadband sucks in St. Louis. I hope we get FiOS sometime, but we're not a Verizon service area so I doubt it.

For me, out in Chesterfield, it's either Charter, satellite internet, or dial up. SBC hasn't even bothered getting DSL out to our house for some reason, and they've been promising to since 2000