For 6 years, I've had a NETGEAR-RangeMax WPN824, "802.11g w/MIMO" router, and an Embarq 660 Series modem.
I'm not sure what was happening, but previously when I would try to connect my media player to the network via a wireless bridge in my home entertainment setup, it would initially work, but then, almost randomly, other devices in the house would end up disconnecting. This would require a router reboot, after disconnecting the media player. It seemed like the router was perhaps maxed out on connected devices. But, frankly, I'm a novice and don't know how that works with regard to WiFi.
A few months ago, my modem was upgraded so I could get faster DSL speeds. (Previously I was maxed out at 5Mbps. With the new modem and subsequent service upgrade, I can now get 10Mbps.) The modem is a CenturyLink branded ZyXEL Model PK5001Z. It is a modem/wireless router. When it was installed, I told the installer to turn off the wireless function because I was happy with my current router. Everything worked fine with speeds that are consistently above 8Mbps and sometimes are actually 10+.
Last week, my NETGEAR router died. In the presence of the aforementioned scenario in which I had to reboot the router. When I rebooted it, the lights faintly flickered, and then it just died. So, I removed the router from the setup and turned on the wireless antenna on the ZyXEL. After connecting my devices to the new SSID, everything seems to work fine. I've also recently replaced my media player with a wifi antenna, and it has no problems connecting either. No disconnects from any devices.
Here is how my devices are connected:
Desktop PC 1 directly connected to the modem/router via Cat6
Desktop PC 2-->wifi
Laptop-->wifi
Laptop-->wifi
PS3-->wifi
XBox 360-->wifi
media player-->wifi
2 DVRs wired to a wireless bridge (D-LINK DAP-1522) in bridge mode.
Kindle Fire HD-->wifi
2 android phones-->wifi
So, after all that. Everything is working just fine. But I have a few questions:
1. Is the new ZyXEL an upgrade from the 6 year-old NETGEAR?
2. When I rest my mouse pointer over the connection animation on my laptops, it says 54Mbps. Is this a decent wireless LAN speed? I don't remember what the prior (NETGEAR) was providing.
3. It almost seemed like I killed my NETGEAR router by over taxing it with so many devices. Did I kill it, or was it just it's time and it was a coincidence? Can I be causing harm to my current modem/router (ZyXEL)?
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