Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (Black)
My entire household runs on wireless. With three computers, an Ipod, a Nook all accessing the net at any given time. The previous router, a Belkin served it's purpose for over a year but just bit the dust one day. Would not turn on. So it was off to the net for some window shopping before hitting the big box electronic store.
My original choice was the Apple Airport Extreme. A very good A/B/G/N router, and dual band as well. Where my router has to reside is on the bar between the kitchen and the dining room. Phone company says this is the only jack that is strong enough for DSL at the speed we ordered.
Coverage in a two story townhouse was ok. The desktop in the downstairs den would only get a fair connection. This I really could live with, as it was used by a family member late at night, when others were catching up on their beauty sleep. I wanted to add a USB hard drive for backup of all the machines, and went and purchased a 1TB external drive. This is where I ran into issues.
Since there are no Macs in the house, the Airport Extreme would not recognize the NTFS partition when viewed from other computers. I did speak with Apple support on this, and their suggestion was to format the drive to Fat32. I really didnt want to do this on a new drive, and end up with a bunch of partitions. Then I did some further digging, and found out the the router does not support QoS. Not a big deal right now, but in the future it can be.
Back to the net, and I found the router that has been awesome for the last two months. Netgear's WNDR3700 Dual Band Router. Now, I will agree with other people on the setup. It DOES take a long time. Once set up, and all the security features done, it was time to see what this router could do.
Constant good to excellent connections anywhere in the house. This is on two N devices, one G device. No more slow downs when everyone is logged on and transferring data, playing games, streaming video, etc. I have not had to do a single reset to the router yet. It just plain WORKS! Plugged in the USB portable drive, and I was copying data to it in no time.
The dual band capability is very nice. Although none of my personal gear supports the 5ghz band, I did have my work laptop home one evening, and logged in to do some support work remotely. Boy, having a non crowded band all to yourself is like cruising down the Autobahn at 3am. The connection was fantastic, and I was zipping away with my work. I do plan on upgrading my laptop card to dual band ASAP. I do like the feature of the router checking for updates automatically whenever I log into it then asking if I wish to apply that update. There is probably more features here than the average user may need or understand, but for us geeks it is great!
They say you get what you pay for, and although this router is pricier than your ordinary B/G/N router, it is well worth the money. I believe the folks at Netgear really listened to what customers wanted, and they put together an extremely nice product.
So if you are looking for a new router for the home and have difficulty with signals, or if you need a new router for your SOHO or SMB, give this one a shot. I am sure you will be as happy as I am.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tonight's Episode: Wireless LAN topologies (Chapter 7)
This chapter from the CWNA Official Study Guide (ISBN 978-0-470-43890-9) will cover Wireless Networking Topologies, 802.11 Topologies, and 802.11 Configuration Modes. After finishing up this chapter and outlining the important notes from it, its off to watch the CWNA DVDs from Train Signal (www.trainsignal.com) and their videos on the same subject.
Run through GT Hill's guide once more before bed. Slowly this material is sinking in to the gray matter. I think I will try the hypnosis MP3 as well, and see if it makes a difference in the morning.
Run through GT Hill's guide once more before bed. Slowly this material is sinking in to the gray matter. I think I will try the hypnosis MP3 as well, and see if it makes a difference in the morning.
Study Materials and Methods
Current Study Materials:
CWNA Official Study Guide (PW0-104)
Train Signal CWNA CBTs (PW0-104)
GT Hill's CWNA Study Digest (www.gthill.com)
CWNA Exam Objectives
CWNA Exam Terms
Mental Case Ipod/Iphone App and CWNA Study Questions
802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition
Real 802.11 Security: Wi-Fi Protected Access and 802.11i
Hacking Exposed: Wireless
Some people can read a book once, and if the test is geared towards memorization, can pass easily. I myself are more of the read and take notes type. I do go back and review my notes after the chapter review questions, especially on areas that I have missed.
Having other books on 802.11 makes for great reference library as well. Sometimes the main study guides are just not enough. The more material you have, the easier it can make things. I have never heard anyone saying I had too much material to use to study from.
On days that I am not car pooling, I plug in the Ipod Touch and listen to the Train Signal audio. On breaks at work, I can run through a few questions from Mental Case.
Make use of online forums as much as possible. Both CWNP (www.cwnp.com) and TechExams (www.techexams.net) are two of my favorite sites. The material you can gather from these types of sites is priceless.
Study with a friend, if possible. I don't have anyone local, but I do have a good friend in Florida who is also working on the same certification. We are both just a phone call or email away from helping one another. Remember, you are not in this alone.
A good method I am finding, was one that was recommended to me by a Cisco trainer in one of his daily emails. Paul Browning outlines the power of the 50:10:50 method (http://www.paulbrowning.com/featured/the-power-of-501050/ ).
Paul writes “If you have important tasks to complete, the one thing which really gets in the way is interruptions. They can be our own fault such as checking e-mails or going onto Facebook (for example) or exterior such as family and children interrupting us. The 50:10:50 method is for when you want to get something done. You block out 50 minutes where you will do nothing but the task. You take 10 minutes to rest or have a coffee and then you go back for the next 50 minute block of time. Then you finish.”
Now, Paul is not the author of this method, he just was passing it along, and I have found it works, at least for me. I was recently on vacation, and brought along my study materials (I know, you shouldn't do things like that!). Being up early in the morning, I put this method to use. I would crack open the book or videos, read/listen and take notes. Then when my 50 minutes were up, I would slip outside on the deck of our cabin, and watch the Loons call from the narrows, or watch the family of ducks come up and see what they could scrounge up from the grass. Then when my 10 minutes was up, it was back inside to finish up my second round of 50. Only time it didn't work was when I caught a blur out of the corner of my eye, and it was a chipmunk running up and down the deck rail, stopping to look into the windows. This little guy got the nickname of “commando” as he was fearless. Would take bread from the ducks, would run up and sit on your shoe and look up at you while on the deck. Cute little rodent!
For those of you interested in learning Cisco, Paul has a great site called How to Network (www.howtonetwork.net). Paul also commissioned a well known UK therapist to develop a self hypnosis audio that you can listen to before ending your studies. Supposedly it helps you retain more of the materials you just went over. I will have to try it for the CWNA exam and see if it works. Could be very useful!
CWNA Official Study Guide (PW0-104)
Train Signal CWNA CBTs (PW0-104)
GT Hill's CWNA Study Digest (www.gthill.com)
CWNA Exam Objectives
CWNA Exam Terms
Mental Case Ipod/Iphone App and CWNA Study Questions
802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition
Real 802.11 Security: Wi-Fi Protected Access and 802.11i
Hacking Exposed: Wireless
Some people can read a book once, and if the test is geared towards memorization, can pass easily. I myself are more of the read and take notes type. I do go back and review my notes after the chapter review questions, especially on areas that I have missed.
Having other books on 802.11 makes for great reference library as well. Sometimes the main study guides are just not enough. The more material you have, the easier it can make things. I have never heard anyone saying I had too much material to use to study from.
On days that I am not car pooling, I plug in the Ipod Touch and listen to the Train Signal audio. On breaks at work, I can run through a few questions from Mental Case.
Make use of online forums as much as possible. Both CWNP (www.cwnp.com) and TechExams (www.techexams.net) are two of my favorite sites. The material you can gather from these types of sites is priceless.
Study with a friend, if possible. I don't have anyone local, but I do have a good friend in Florida who is also working on the same certification. We are both just a phone call or email away from helping one another. Remember, you are not in this alone.
A good method I am finding, was one that was recommended to me by a Cisco trainer in one of his daily emails. Paul Browning outlines the power of the 50:10:50 method (http://www.paulbrowning.com/featured/the-power-of-501050/ ).
Paul writes “If you have important tasks to complete, the one thing which really gets in the way is interruptions. They can be our own fault such as checking e-mails or going onto Facebook (for example) or exterior such as family and children interrupting us. The 50:10:50 method is for when you want to get something done. You block out 50 minutes where you will do nothing but the task. You take 10 minutes to rest or have a coffee and then you go back for the next 50 minute block of time. Then you finish.”
Now, Paul is not the author of this method, he just was passing it along, and I have found it works, at least for me. I was recently on vacation, and brought along my study materials (I know, you shouldn't do things like that!). Being up early in the morning, I put this method to use. I would crack open the book or videos, read/listen and take notes. Then when my 50 minutes were up, I would slip outside on the deck of our cabin, and watch the Loons call from the narrows, or watch the family of ducks come up and see what they could scrounge up from the grass. Then when my 10 minutes was up, it was back inside to finish up my second round of 50. Only time it didn't work was when I caught a blur out of the corner of my eye, and it was a chipmunk running up and down the deck rail, stopping to look into the windows. This little guy got the nickname of “commando” as he was fearless. Would take bread from the ducks, would run up and sit on your shoe and look up at you while on the deck. Cute little rodent!
For those of you interested in learning Cisco, Paul has a great site called How to Network (www.howtonetwork.net). Paul also commissioned a well known UK therapist to develop a self hypnosis audio that you can listen to before ending your studies. Supposedly it helps you retain more of the materials you just went over. I will have to try it for the CWNA exam and see if it works. Could be very useful!
A litte bit about me
I've always been fascinated with wireless communications. Listening to AM radio late at night, and finding distance stations barely above the static was intriguing. As I got older, I had one of those multi-band AM/FM/SW radios, and started pulling in voices and music from all over the world. This was almost unbelievable for a pre-teen.
Teenage years rolled around, and CB radio was all the craze (“Hello skipland!) - probably dating myself a bit here. Soon I was introduced to amateur (ham) radio, and the wireless bug really bit me. To press a key down to make a series of continuous wave (cw) signals, and someone a world a way could hear you instantly? Whoah! It was here that I learned about various types of antennas, propagation, power levels, frequencies, rules and regulations, etc.
Bringing the past up to the present, it still amazes me that a computer can communicate with another computer or access point wirelessly. I bet Marconi hadn't even a sliver of an idea that we would take his wonder theories and inventions, and progress them so far. Guess it goes to show, that geeks really do rule!
I have worked in mainframe operations for the military (USAF), done computer support for small and medium sized companies, computer sales to VARs as a manufacturer's rep and have worked for a wireless ISP (WISP). It was here that the wireless bug bit me once again. Installing antennas and routers at clients locations, and aiming them at antennas miles away on mountain tops, then seeing data begin flowing was remarkable. To other workers, hey it was just a job. To me, it was feeding an almost addiction. I wanted to know more and more.
My current job has me as a network administrator, supporting both wired and wireless communications. Whether its someone sending an email from their laptop to a customer or employee, or someone using a wireless device (Bluetooth) I am there to support it. Got a PC thats down? Call me. Can't sync your data to the server? Yep, you guessed it, call me. I could go on.
It was last year that I decided I needed to actually achieve some certifications for the many years I have been involved in IT. I chose to go the wireless route, and came across the certification programs from Certified Wireless Network Professional (www.cwnp.com). I have achieved both the Wireless# and Certified Wireless Technology Specialist (CWTS) certifications.
My next goal, is to achieve the CWNA – Certified Wireless Network Administrator certification. It is this blog that will deal with my attempt to conquer this one before the end of the year. I will be posting information about my studying, my material, interesting articles, and links that others who have an interest in wireless communications might find of interest. Feel free to drop me a line anytime at sayno2wires@gmail.com.
Rick
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