I’ve been noticing a lot of slowness that I’ve traced to DNS issues lately, typically with the caching DNS in routers. It happened to me, and it happened to my mom. We have different routers from different manufacturers, and they probably even use different embedded operating systems. Hers almost assuredly runs Linux; I have an [...]
All posts tagged router
Something strange is going on
Posted by Dave Farquhar on June 2, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/06/something-strange-is-going-on/
PC Magazine’s tips for buying your own cable modem
PC Magazine published a few tips for people looking to buy their own cable modems and ditch the monthly rental fee. It also contains a reminder: Make sure you know whether your modem is just a modem, or a combination device that routes as well.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 22, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/04/pc-magazines-tips-for-buying-your-own-cable-modem/
Linksys isn’t the only company building insecure routers
I warned a few days ago about Linksys routers being trivially easy to hack; unfortunately many other popular routers have security vulnerabilities too. The experts cited in the article have a few recommendations, which I will repeat and elaborate on.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 18, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/04/linksys-isnt-the-only-company-building-insecure-routers/
If you use a Linksys router, you need to drop everything now and upgrade it
If you own a Linksys WRT54GL or EA2700 router, both devices have serious security vulnerabilities. Serious enough that the only way to continue using them safely is to load an alternative firmware such as DD-WRT on them. That’s not entirely a bad thing; DD-WRT is more capable, and unlike most consumer-oriented firmware, allows you to [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 7, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/04/if-you-use-a-linksys-router-you-need-to-drop-everything-now-and-upgrade-it/
Home network projects for a budding sysadmin
A very good question came in as a comment to my earlier post, the benefits of practicing IT at home. What do I mean by putting some Windows 7 machines on a domain? I mean standing up a server with centralized user accounts and shares, running on Windows Server or Samba, whichever you can afford. [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 13, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/home-network-projects-for-a-budding-sysadmin/
An update on the shortcut to wiring a house with Ethernet
Last week, I presented a shortcut for wiring a house with Ethernet using cheap keystone couplers. I’m happy to say I’ve done it twice now, and it all works, but I wanted to follow up and share a little more experience now that I’ve wired about a dozen ports this way.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 27, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/12/an-update-on-the-shortcut-to-wiring-a-house-with-ethernet/
How to be a hero next Christmas (or your next family get-together)
My mother in law didn’t have wifi set up, but she picked up a smart TV this year, so she asked me if I could help her with it. So I picked up a D-Link DIR-615 on sale, brought it with me and set up wi-fi securely (hints: set the SSID to whatever time it [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 25, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/12/how-to-be-a-hero-next-christmas-or-your-next-family-get-together/
What to do about a router dropping connections
A former classmate and coworker contacted me with a question. My router is about 5 years old. I have a cable modem and a router. The cable modem is fine. The router keeps connecting and disconnecting from the internet…used to happen occasionally, now happens all the time. I reset it and it works for a [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on August 27, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/08/what-to-do-about-a-router-dropping-connections/
Thanks for the misinformation, Disney
In one of its throwaway kid’s sitcoms, Disney insinuates that open source software contains spyware and using it is a ‘rookie mistake’. Open source software rarely contains viruses or spyware. Since it’s open for examination, changes to the code that have any funny business in them tend to be rejected. For that matter, code with [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on August 21, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/08/thanks-for-the-misinformation-disney/
Two more questions about wireless security
I got two good questions last week, via Facebook, that I answered briefly in the comments, but are worth further exploration: Does it beef up wireless security to hide the SSID and only allow the MAC addresses of hardware you own? Those are good questions. Smart questions. I like those kinds of questions. Unfortunately, neither [...]
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/08/two-more-questions-about-wireless-security/