[GTALUG] of routers and access points

Lennart Sorensen lsorense at csclub.uwaterloo.ca
Thu Apr 25 14:43:59 EDT 2019


On Thu, Apr 25, 2019 at 01:27:02PM -0400, David Mason via talk wrote:
> This (letting the router do all the work) is a possibility, but the router is very far from all the other connections, so at the moment I have a long RJ45 cable to the router. So I’d have to run another long cable back to the switch where everything else is plugged in.
> 
> Part of my question was whether anyone else is using POE access points, and whether it’s worth doing as right now I have an extension cord running to the router. If so I’d need a router that supported POE, so I mentioned the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter as such a (non-WiFi) router.
> 
> To clarify the topology, the modem is just a modem (cable), so some router is needed. Also, I don’t think the DLink WiFi router does DNS other than relay (because I want to have names for my local servers). It also flakes out for a few seconds, so replacing it now seems like a reasonable thing.
> 
> Lennart mentions the WRT1900ACv2, but I’d like to get the system so that it’s less brittle (i.e. if I’m not home for a week or 2 and bad things happen, i’d like others to be able to get things back to functioning) so I’m not sure about custom firmware.

I have had a lot less trouble with openwrt (and lede before that) than
I ever did with the factory firmware on any router/ap I have used.
They are way more stable with the custom firmware.

Other than if I decide to check for any updates I never seem to need to
reboot it.  Can't say the same for the VDSL modem from Bell which does
occationally need rebooting to work (even though it is only in bridge
mode and really shouldn't have much of anything to do).

And with the openwrt setup, if it isn't working, power cycle it.
Problem solved.  I don't remember the last time I had to do that though,
except if I mistakenly thought it was at fault when in fact it was an
ISP problem or a Bell modem problem.

-- 
Len Sorensen


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