I keep losing my connection to the Internet with the old D-Link 524 (yup, it's a fossil, but it has served me well). I have a brand new Motorola Surfboard modem, because the old one went south about a month or so ago. I've tried resetting the D-Link, but no joy. I've also updated firmware on it. I think it's time to get a new one. Any suggestions from someone who's purchased one recently? I've been looking around and there are SO MANY choices out there compared to five years ago when I bought this one. I'm taking an online class and my final exam is next month. I'm sort of nervous about losing my connection during the exam so I need to buy something dependable soon. I don't need to cover a wide area, living in a small house, but I need speed. We have a Mac Pro, a MacBook, an iBook G4, an eMac 1GHz, and an iMac 600MHz CRT on the network. The old iMac CRT uses the original Airport card and the rest use the Airport extreme cards. <br><br>

The Time Capsule is the first thing I'd look at, if I were in your spot.<br><br><br>The Bill of Rights doesn't grant us our rights, it merely enumerates them.

I'll second the Time Capsule idea. When my D-Link dies that's what I'm going for.<br><br>

Thank you so much, macbeemer! After several dropped connections, I FINALLY managed to order a 500 GB Time Capsule from apple.com. It should be here within the week. I owe you (and your wife) a beer and a place to stay if you ever come to Cape Cod. It's pretty sad when dialup on the iPhone is faster than broadband on the Mac Pro... My online final exam is next month and it would be a real pain to have to connect the 12" iBook directly to the modem just so that I didn't drop my connection in the middle of it! That 12" screen is OK for when I'm traveling, but I really like being able to see the big picture. Whew! What a relief. Thanks again for that wonderful suggestion. It's a done deal. I was totally stressing out over this.<br><br>

Thanks for the second opinion, Marg! <br><br>

I'd really be interested to know what you think about your Time Capsule after you've had time to play with it for a while. My Linksys is getting a bit long in the tooth. It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it... <br><br><br>Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some smaller countries are neutral.<br><br>Robert Orben (1927- )

I suppose it's too late now, but did you try changing the wireless channel?<br><br>I had similar problems on my current Linksys WRT54G. I tried updating the firmware and even installed DD-WRT (the hacked open source firmware) to no avail. Then a light bulb went off and I changed the channel. It worked.<br><br>I have always lived in apartment buildings with a lot of wireless access points in them and I know there are a few out there that just seem to blast the hell out of anything else on the same channel. The congestion has gotten so annoying that I'm thinking about upgrading to 802.11n as soon as I find a good reliable router that will use DD-WRT.<br><br>-- Cee Bee Double-U

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>The congestion has gotten so annoying that I'm thinking about upgrading to 802.11n as soon as I find a good reliable router that will use DD-WRT.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Look no further <br><br>I think I'm going to get this one soon. The newest DD-wrt V24 lets you set a router as a repeating bridge, instead of using WDS, so you can link any two routers together without regards to make or model. It works really well. Plus Asus guarantees this router for whatever the final n spec is going to be.<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®

No kidding! I was looking at that one a couple of weeks ago. I still have a little while to go on my router. I need to look into a way to secure my old router on the hypothetical new one so that I could run an open wireless access point with some QoS restrictions on it for my neighbors.<br><br>If you have the time, you should report back here about your experiences in case other people are looking for hackable N routers.<br><br>-- Cee Bee Double-U

When I got the highspeed installed, I had Linksys wrt54g v5 router that my wife had brought home because they were tossing it out where she works. I bought another one so I could hack them and use WDS and extend the wireless down to father-in-law's garage, so we can use his work laptop there when working on stuff. The garage is about 250 away and it works fine.<br><br>But, the trouble is our Wii is on the opposite side of the house from where the router has to be, and is going through 4 walls. The Wii picks up the signal from the router great, and downloads at pretty much full speed but the upload isn't as good. If I go ahead and get the N router, the new PC has wireless N built in, and then I can also move the second linksys to the other side of the house, where it would boost the wii's range, as well as allow me to hook up the DVR wirelessly.<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®