TomatoUSB

Hey everyone, first post here :)

Been running the latest built of Tomato-USB EXT on my RT-N16 for almost 6 months now, and I like it a lot although it's been rather inconsistent as far as functionality. The majority of my problems have been WiFi related. I have Verizon FIOS and am using the provided Actiontec modem/router. DHCP is enabled on it and I have a few devices plugged into it (office computer, TV, Sprint Airave), but the WiFi on the FIOS router is disabled. I have my RT-N16 plugged into the Actiontec router and configured with a static IP, and have DHCP enabled on the Asus router as well because I want all of our wireless devices connecting through the RT-N16. I have a hard-wire devices plugged into the RT-N16. My PC, Xbox, PS3, and an external HDD (via one of the USB ports). No problems with hard-wire devices, but I do have problems with wireless devices. My main issue is consistency. I can go a few days to a week or so of no problems, but then randomly some of my wireless devices will have connectivity issues. It's random. It happens to our cellphones, iPods, notebooks, our other Xbox, etc. When this happens I usually have to hard-reboot the RT-N16 (removing the AC adapter) and that USUALLY fixes it. Sometimes it doesn't though, and I have to wait 15-20 minutes, and then reboot again for it to finally start working. Most of my settings are default settings, except I did increase the antenna strength a little.

I installed Tomato on this router from day 1 (didn't even bother trying the stock firmware). There's been times where I've wanted to try DD-RWT to see if it fixes any of my problems, but I'd rather stick to Tomato since from what I gather it's the best one for my router.

Any who, back to my main question. Is it possible that all of my problems (or at least most of them) are caused by settings or configuration? I've been trying to search for an in-depth Tomato guide for this Router and all I find are installation guides. Any one know of any good guides out there I could follow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

I have been running Tomato for years, and TomatoUSB on various routers and have never needed to reboot the router when I have wireless troubles. I know this doesn't help, but you may want to try the same hard approach with your wireless devices to see if it could be the clients. With my Androids I need to turn off/on WiFi sometimes and in rare cases I need to fiddle excessively with the Android to make things happy.

Good luck.

RT-N16 has wireless issues, mine also has the same issue. I dont use wireless anymore, just plain old school stuff "WIRED".

I agree with ugvenkat, but there are times when wireless is the only method that is practical. And it is frustrating to have disconnections. This may not help but here goes …

I don't believe RT-N16 doesn't have any more or less wireless issues than any other router. Wifi simply isn't a "guaranteed" connection method and frankly speaking it's a wonder we get connectivity at all. It's on a shared band with all sorts of other devices - such as radar, bluetooth, baby alarms, wireless TV cameras, microwave cookers. There is no way of knowing if any of those are in your immediate vicinity and can wipe you out when they are switched on or moved etc..

Then there are various bells and whistles that have been stuck onto the wireless drivers which are known to cause problems - mostly since the stupid introduction of "N" routers on the 2.4 GHz band using 40MHz bandwidth. You might try disabling everything in Advanced/Wireless that seems unnecessary starting with Interference Mitigation (the big troublemaker). Try different channels 1,6, 11 but don't choose anything in between or you will cause and receive interference to others. Try different powers from 17 up to 60 (the max). If you are trying to use 40MHz channels, try 20 first and get that working. Put Inssider (google for it) on your PC and look to see what is on the band, it will help you a lot. (But be warned it only shows other wifi devices - nothing else).

Then there's the power saving stuff… again just one of your devices may be causing one or both ends to reduce power or sleep. We don't know and have no control, but we do know that the drivers are capable of this. Some wireless cards can disable this feature, others have no settings at all to change - do they use this feature and we can't turn it off? We really don't know.

Then there's Intel wireless cards which have historically always caused problems to networks, and still do. Then there's Apple, and you have an iPod….

Then we have various compatibility problems - each manufacturer seems to interpret some of the features in different ways, and many incompatibilities exist. Wireless devices can and do negotiate all manner of settings with the router, several of which can cause loss of connectivity. Just one of your devices, and it may be hard to prove which one, may be responsible for the whole thing. Or it may not even be yours at all. Just one of the crappier chinese made phones that tries to connect to your system is capable of screwing things up, and you have no way of even knowing if there is one and who it belongs to. It could be someone walking past your house. And the owner may not be aware of the trouble it is causing. (I've had a chinese copy of a blackberry labelled "iPhone" do this before - but luckily I knew who owned it). Again - we don't know ….

It could be that DHCP renewal is not occurring properly with some devices? Could be that one device has a mailer virus or something and is causing a connection storm …

The list is almost endless.

In short, it's a can of worms. A big can. But there's a few ideas in there for you to check out!

See also:

http://tomatousb.org/forum/t-364994/concerning-flaky-wireless-connectivity#post-1169642

Thanks for the replies, guys! I apologize, it's been a while since I've checked back.
I think I have everything working more solid now. I dropped down to 20mhz channels and picked one that's unoccupied and I've had better luck. I also upgraded my security settings to WPA personal instead of basic WEP (I'm a noob, I know LOL).

Now I'm going to try and figure out how to setup my RT-N16 as a media server. Basically, my goal is to be able to locally and remotely connect (from other computers and my mobile devices) to my movie/TV show/music collection on my home PC. I want it to be fast though. I have 35/35 Verizon FIOS so I'm HOPING I can do it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Since my first post in this thread I have since picked up an RT-N16. I had the same issues trying to get N working unless I dropped it down to 20MHz channels. Now I'm fine. I don't have any good way to test N performance so I can't speak to transfer rates since making this change. What I can say is for my needs it is very reliable now.