Networking noob needs help!

[seeker17]

Hi, first I want to say that I am new to networking so I'm sorry if this is a dumb question.

 

So I liver in an extremely small town in the US where the best internet I can get is 50 down 10up.....at least that is what I pay for. Over LAN the speeds are fine but my house does not have ethernet jacks and I can't install any because I rent. With my wifi, it is very inconsistent whereas some times I will get 20 down and 10 up over wifi with a Belkin Wifi Extender and other times I get .75down and 10up with nothing running on my network (thank you glasswire). My ISP says that it is due to the range and ignore me when I tell them I am doing the speed test from the same room, not on the other side of the home. I believe that the issue lies with the Wireless functions of the equipment since it is old. It is a Comtrend VR-3033 Wireless Modem/Router combo. So I went online and I want to give Google Wifi a try due to its simplicity but I hit a snag. Since my ISP still runs ADSL2+ and not Cable I can not find a single ADSL2+ modem online that is new and not through a sketch website. So I have a few questions here:

 

1. Is it possible for me to use my current Comtrend modem/router combo as just a modem and connect Google Wifi to it?

 

2. Can you think of any reason this issue with the upload staying at its cap everywhere in the house but the download drops by more than 50% 3+ feet away?

 

3. What would you recommend I do to get faster and more reliable wifi?

 

Thanks for your help guys!

[Windows7ge]

I would check the noise in your area. There are Wi-Fi analyzer apps & programs for phone or Windows that will show you diagrams of the Wi-Fi bands and which are most congested. Switching to a less congested band can improve performance.

 

That's assuming the Wi-Fi source is outputting properly to begin with.

 

If you are locked into using this modem/router it does appear Google Wi-Fi comes with Ethernet ports on the bottom. I believe these work in a mesh so if you just connect one hard wired to the router the others should be able to wirelessly piggyback off that and increase the coverage range. If you do this I would disable the Wi-Fi in the router as you wouldn't need it any more.

[seeker17]

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

I would check the noise in your area. There are Wi-Fi analyzer apps & programs for phone or Windows that will show you diagrams of the Wi-Fi bands and which are most congested. Switching to a less congested band can improve performance.

 

That's assuming the Wi-Fi source is outputting properly to begin with.

 

If you are locked into using this modem/router it does appear Google Wi-Fi comes with Ethernet ports on the bottom. I believe these work in a mesh so if you just connect one hard wired to the router the others should be able to wirelessly piggyback off that and increase the coverage range. If you do this I would disable the Wi-Fi in the router as you wouldn't need it any more.

So I know that Google Wi-Fi does have an ethernet port out and I believe that the other port is a WAN port for the hub to connect to the modem. However, my modem/router combo does not have a WAN port, only LAN. Would I be able to connect the Google Wi-Fi to the LAN port on the Router into the WAN port on the Google Wi-Fi and have that work? Also, what would I look into on the router settings to disable the output of the wifi signal? Also regarding the Bandwith, my router only has two options. A set 20mhz and what it is on now a "20MHz/40MHz Mixed Mode." I did download a network analyzer app and one thing I found odd was that all of the wifi in my area were on channels 1-3 if that means anything. Keep in mind that this is the ONLY ISP in my area and everyone gets the same routers with the same default settings (I checked a friends and everything but the name and password matched)

[Windows7ge]

You would connect the WAN port to a LAN port on your router. It seems this is marked by a small globe of the world on the bottom of the unit. The other port is probably a pass-though.

 

You would enter your router and search for wireless settings. Within those settings should be an option to disable the Wi-Fi. Worst case scenario if you can't it just means you'll have to look at your old Wi-Fi whenever you want wireless internet.

[seeker17]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

You would connect the WAN port to a LAN port on your router. It seems this is marked by a small globe of the world on the bottom of the unit. The other port is probably a pass-though.

 

You would enter your router and search for wireless settings. Within those settings should be an option to disable the Wi-Fi. Worst case scenario if you can't it just means you'll have to look at your old Wi-Fi whenever you want wireless internet.

Wait, you are able to connect LAN to WAN? I was watching a vid last night that was about Linking two routers together. It showed that you had to connect the two via ethernet and only the main router should have anything in WAN. Was that incorrect? Also wouldn't I need to change the ip settings to make sure they are both not defaulted to 192.168.1.1?

[Windows7ge]

2 minutes ago, seeker17 said:

Wait, you are able to connect LAN to WAN? I was watching a vid last night that was about Linking two routers together. It showed that you had to connect the two via ethernet and only the main router should have anything in WAN. Was that incorrect? Also wouldn't I need to change the ip settings to make sure they are both not defaulted to 192.168.1.1?

When it comes to routers the only real difference between LANs and WANs are what you intend to plug into them. If it's going to be your source of internet you would normally use the designated WAN port if there is one. If you're going to plug clients into your router you would use a designated LAN port if there is one. In the enterprise there isn't always a designated LAN & WAN interface. You have to chose what you want it to be. They're interchangeable.

 

That video may have been telling you how to use a router as a switch or a Wi-Fi AP. In that scenario you could still use the WAN port but configure the router in bridged mode. This would disable the router function so all clients would get an IP from the primary router.

 

You would not want to connect two routers LAN to LAN regardless of their network ranges because this would cause serous DHCP issues. Network devices would lose Internet access because they'd get an IP from a router with no Internet on the WAN interface.

[seeker17]

2 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

When it comes to routers the only real difference between LANs and WANs are what you intend to plug into them. If it's going to be your source of internet you would normally use the designated WAN port if there is one. If you're going to plug clients into your router you would use a designated LAN port if there is one. In the enterprise there isn't always a designated LAN & WAN interface. You have to chose what you want it to be. They're interchangeable.

 

That video may have been telling you how to use a router as a switch or a Wi-Fi AP. In that scenario you could still use the WAN port but configure the router in bridged mode. This would disable the router function so all clients would get an IP from the primary router.

 

You would not want to connect two routers LAN to LAN regardless of their network ranges because this would cause serous DHCP issues. Network devices would lose Internet access because they'd get an IP from a router with no Internet on the WAN interface.

So let me make sure that I am following along here properly. So if I just go out and buy a google wifi set ran an ethernet cable from the LAN on my existing router to the WAN on the google wifi and disable wireless on the existing modem/router combo it should just work? (besides having to go in and change the name and the password to match my current network setup so existing devices connect to the new router.) But I won't have to go in and change the new routers ip from 192.168.1.1 (if that is the default). if they share that IP I will not run into issues? I could just config the new router on wifi and keep my existing one connected via ethernet and modify the original router from the ethernet pc. correct?

[Windows7ge]

24 minutes ago, seeker17 said:

So let me make sure that I am following along here properly. So if I just go out and buy a google wifi set ran an ethernet cable from the LAN on my existing router to the WAN on the google wifi and disable wireless on the existing modem/router combo it should just work? (besides having to go in and change the name and the password to match my current network setup so existing devices connect to the new router.) But I won't have to go in and change the new routers ip from 192.168.1.1 (if that is the default). if they share that IP I will not run into issues? I could just config the new router on wifi and keep my existing one connected via ethernet and modify the original router from the ethernet pc. correct?

Nothing is ever definitive but it should work that way yes. So I wasn't aware that the Google Wifi in itself was a router. If all you want is internet access this will still work but down the road if you ever want to do any port forwarding, game hosting, or other server hosting you'll run into issues if the device is connected to the Google router. Otherwise everything will just work.

[seeker17]

2 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Nothing is ever definitive but it should work that way yes. So I wasn't aware that the Google Wifi in itself was a router. If all you want is internet access this will still work but down the road if you ever want to do any port forwarding, game hosting, or other server hosting you'll run into issues if the device is connected to the Google router. Otherwise everything will just work.

For pirt forwarding could I not just open the ports on the old router and the same port on the Google wifi?

[Windows7ge]

18 minutes ago, seeker17 said:

For pirt forwarding could I not just open the ports on the old router and the same port on the Google wifi?

It'd be a little more complicated than that. Not an ideal configuration either. Ideally you'd configure your modem/router in bridged mode. Connect your Google router. From here you may have to call your ISP to activate the connection. From here you'd connect that one LAN port to a network switch for all your wired devices.

 

From there you'd have everything on one network. Port forwarding would be a breeze (assuming your ISP allows it). And the mesh Wi-Fi would cover the whole house.

[seeker17]

4 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

It'd be a little more complicated than that. Not an ideal configuration either. Ideally you'd configure your modem/router in bridged mode. Connect your Google router. From here you may have to call your ISP to activate the connection. From here you'd connect that one LAN port to a network switch for all your wired devices.

 

From there you'd have everything on one network. Port forwarding would be a breeze (assuming your ISP allows it). And the mesh Wi-Fi would cover the whole house.

UPDATE: I went out and purchased the 3 pack and ran into some issues at the start, I reach out to my ISP who said that they don't support 3rd party products and that I would need to reach out to Google. So that is what I did and we managed to get it set up after about an hour and a half of troubleshooting. The mesh is working great with using the old modem/router combo as just a modem. Thanks for your help and your insight on networking. Now I'm getting 6x the speeds that I was getting on the old setup....(my isp still says it wasn't their equipment) Also my I asked my ISP about PortForwarding and they said "To port forward there is a $25 fee per port" (they also don't give you access to your own router/modem settings, the only reason I have the login is because I know a guy)

[Windows7ge]

It's good to know thing are working for you. That sucks that your ISP locks you down like that. I have Spectrum (previously TWC) and can open as many ports as I want myself at no cost so that's kinda bull. It's not an unheard of practice though. Let's just hope you never need to.