the net raiders

An explanation to the lack of updates and podcasts on the site is quite simple. I’ve been moving to a new apartment. And when you live in a city like San Francisco, going from one place to another isn’t just as simple as getting in your car and driving. It turns into a full fledged planned affair. For those of you familiar with the layout, I lived in the sunset which is not sunny to the surprise of many, and moved to Noe Valley. When I got settled in I went ahead and booted up the old cube of doom and tried to give the network a whirl. Tried being the operative word seeing as how the connection broke just about ever 15 seconds. If a site couldn’t carry all the packets in that amount of time, then I wasn’t browsing anything.

I should have seen this coming though. My new place is an old remodeled Victorian flat. The router sits on the top floor, and at the other end of the house, on the floor below, sits my humble network of computers, laptops and xbox360’s not soaking up any of that sweet sweet signal. The router we have is a Netgear WPN824 v3 RangeMax purchased by my roommate, “Joshie-Boy,” who did a great job buying the thing by making sure the box had the most checkmarks compared to the other routers. I don’t blame him for not knowing what he purchased. After all, this shit is confusing. And my lack of connection isn’t the router’s fault. Not only does this thing have to drop a signal through the floor, but it also has to compete with old wiring, asbestos (good chance it’s still in there), and of course led in the old paint. I’m probably going to get cancer real soon but that’s a different story all together. I worked out a plan, if I could get some sort of access point to clean up the signal I could put that downstairs appropriate to where the router is upstairs, and that could fix the problem…

I went ahead and ordered the Netgear WPN802v2 Wireless Access Point (referred to as the WAP from here on out) off of NewEgg. I could have perhaps gotten something better, but I don’t like to mix brands when it comes to networking. I will admit that this thing has some torque to it. But I, like an idiot, didn’t realize that a WAP and a BRIDGE were two separate things. The WPN802v2 first and foremost, is built as a WAP that is connected by some cable into the wired router. I went ahead and tried that first by injecting the WAP into the router, doubling the signal. It solved my problem, but the signal was still weak, and wasn’t as fast as it could be. And like most of my tech peers, I wasn’t about to settle for second best.

After a little research online I found that my idiocy was spared by Netgears “Repeating” function which was compatible on both the router and the WAP. I activated the function on the router, making it the “master” which would then broadcast packets to the WAP “slave.” Kind of like the old boot ups with multiple hard drives. I then set up the WAP to take signals from the router, using the MAC address of its master to relay signals back upstairs. I thought maybe I would have to put in the network pass phrase, but this isn’t needed as the job of the WAP is just to rebroadcast the encrypted signal of the router, and not so much stay “connected” to it. And bingo, this fixed the problem. Clean crisp signals downstairs, without having to pass through copious amounts of led and other hazardous materials that will eventually kill me the longer I stay here.

So let’s conclude the good, the bad and the ugly. The good in all of this, is that it worked. The signal is strong, and the technology is reliable. I have a handful of other flat mates who use the internet about as hardcore as myself, and then complemented me on the new found speed downstairs. The router and the WAP physically match, and have a cool blue orb on the side that adds a nice futuristic feel. This also serves as a pretty decent nightlight in the middle of the night which shines on an awkward step that people always trip on. For those who hate the flashing lights, this is a feature that can be turned off.

Now the bad. There is virtually no reading material on this wireless “repeater”/bridge function. Everything I found existed on the internet, most on tech forums, which if you are “sans the internet”, then you are shit out of luck if you don’t already have a tech background to begin with. This WAP was really designed for a wired network which really comes as a shock given how everything is moving to wireless. You would think there was something in the box that would explain how to do this.

Now the ugly. If you don’t have a tech background, don’t do this. In fact, running a hard cable downstairs would probably be more worth it than trying to setup the wireless repeater function. This technique requires MAC addresses and other things that are relatively foreign to the average person. It also requires a little network topology logic to figure out how you are going to build your network (thank you Cicsco Networking academy for that one). Also the biggest kicker… and I mean this one really takes the cake, is that you have to configure your computer to 192.168.0.231 network to even modify the settings on the WAP. And then once you save the basic settings, merging itself with the existing network, it changes its IP address! Kicking you out of its admin and leaving you sitting there for 5 minutes saying “WTF” as you try to log into it over and over. I was able to find the WAP again by logging into the router and looking at what it was connected to. But what the hell, Netgear? You think a normal person is going to figure this out? Hell no. No wonder they just discontinued these things.

This device is pretty nifty. I’m glad I got it and was able to resolve my problem. But on the flip side…. I’m glad I knew what the hell I was doing. At least, I think I know what I am doing. The WPN802 doesn’t acknowledge any connections so I had to run an internet speed tester to prove that the packets are sending back and forth between the two devices. I wouldn’t suggest this to the novice. Actually, I wouldn’t suggest most home networking to anyone on account that it can get so confusing, and everyone company does it differently. Sparing you all from a soapbox speech, just take a look at the directions next time and ask you if it’s easy enough that an idiot could do it. Netgear, Linksys, Belkin…. All of these guys dropped IP configuration with their DHCP’s and TCP/IP settings on the public like we all knew this stuff before hand. It’s like the manual writers didn’t have a focus group try and install these things. They make the devices and shiny and white, with very “human” verbiage on the outside of the box. Then when you get inside they forget to tell you that when you save the settings, this crap is going to change it’s IP on you and bury itself into your network topology. Don’t know what an IP is or why we use them? Oh well to bad, so sad.

Home networking has some serious things to smooth out before they start giving these out to the average consumer. Excuse the rant, but I am just trying to look out for the little guy. I like the WPN802v2… but for the love of god, and all this is holy, get a professional to help you out and bribe them with a batch of cookies or a pizza and some beer or whatever.