Fios YouTube Problem

[Alex2507]

Always backup your config. Also manufacturers will have several versions for the same product name. There are two for the 655. Make sure you pick the correct firmware.

Page 53 of the user manual for Rev B of the 655 shows you how to backup your configuration.

It would be a good idea to update the firmware.

I believe only the manual was revised and not the router but all I see on my router is D-Link DIR-655. I reset the router and went through LH's instructions again because of the slow speed test and because somehow the router had configured itself for a Dynamic IP Address instead of the Static IP Address.

I'll read the FAQ and snoop around D-Link's site but I'll ask here again if it's okay to just download the latest version of the firmware. I don't have to download each version beyond mine, do I? Now that I've got my desktop wired to the D-Link again, I can proceed with a firmware update. They warn you about not doing it through a wireless connection and as a reminder to myself I'll deselect 'Scan All Downloads' in MSE but just not tonight. Cheryl made me clean house today. I find that exhausting and humiliating.

I agree with backing up before you do the firmware update (although, I rarely practice what I preach, but that's another conversation altogether). I doubt you'll have to recall any of the settings or have any issues, but you might as well have it at ready just in case.

It seems this little exercise has given you the confidence to jump in and play around with settings a bit, which is fantastic.

I had intended to answer the questions you posted yesterday, but accidentally erased my response about 3/4 of the way through and didn't have time to re-write them.

I'm beyond grateful. This for either you or JJ is a little exercise but to me it's huge. Even though I am more familiar with the landscape I still don't really get what just happened but I am marginally less dumb that a week ago.

1. When your SSID isn't broadcasting (invisible) your laptop should be looking for it periodically in the background and auto connect when it is in range. This is of course assuming you have told it to do that. You may want to try removing the network, turning broadcasting off (make it invisible) and then re-adding it manually if you haven't done this already.

Not quite sure how to add a network manually but for right now I'm good leaving it visible until I do all the reading I possibly can on the firmware update. I figure it works and my security encryption is improved so this sleeping dog gets to lie.

2. I'm not sure why the Westell has multiple character entries. Is this a new occurrence or has it always been that way? Either way it's probably a security "feature" so people don't know how many characters you are typing, but unless it interferes with something I wouldn't worry about it. As for not remembering your password I'd place that in the hands of your browser. What web browser do you use and do you have it set to no remember passwords and/or disabled cookies or have any extensions/add-ons that are security related and might be stopping it from getting stored? This is just a guess at this point.

The Westell has always been like that. I'm using Firefox on both the machines. The newly reformatted XP desktop remembers the multi character password which of course doesn't work so I delete the automatically entered password and start fresh finger banging with the appropriate entry. The Vista laptop doesn't remember passwords. I try to have the same settings on both machines but they act differently anyway ... yep, it's another area that kicks my @ss with the whole computer thing.

3. If you are running a bandwidth test, whether you are wireless or not shouldn't ultimately effect your speed as it should be your external bandwidth that you are checking. There are some caveats to this like if you are getting a terrible signal on your laptop (are you?), but since the wireless should be symmetrical for upload and download, I'm not sure why both speeds went down. My guess is, something is being reported incorrectly and you won't notice any real world difference. Happy to help investigate though if you are seeing issues.

I think it was the Dynamic IP setting being used instead of the Static IP setting that caused the slow speeds. I don't have symmetric speeds from FiOS. I'm suppose to be getting 15/5 Mbps but after this reset I'm at 23/4 Mbps on Vista wireless and still around 20/4 Mbps on the older XP desktop. I've always had great signal strength from both routers. Just a note to self to look up external bandwidth.

Symmetrical bandwidth

I'm going to look that up too. I emailed you the instructions back with notes just in case you wanted to see them. Take some pic's of your gear and start a thread in Pros and Joes Gallery forum. You'll get good tips on system set up that way. GranteedEV (sp) and Firstreflection are good guys to get info from in your first thread even if they are Canadian. I'd like to hear your take on the EMP's too.

I suck at typing too so this for me has been brutal.

[Lordhumungus]

You should be able to just download the latest firmware version and not go incrementally. You need to do it with a wired connection because if you used wireless and your connection dropped while it was transferring/updating, you would be what the French commonly refer to as "Le Screwed".

Glad you are learning new things. Hopefully it's all useful info to be placed in the bat-tool-belt of your brain I unfortunately can't recommend any books because I hate reading, but google and the internet are an endless ocean of knowledge at your disposal.

I'd be surprised if it was the dynamic IP setting that was killing your speeds, but a win is a win (I'd like to take this opportunity to make a shout out to Vin Diesel) and I won't argue with it if it's working.

Symmetrical bandwidth just means that the upload and download speeds are roughly the same. With your connection, your upload bandwidth is roughly 1/5 the speed of your download bandwidth. Normally this isn't a problem, but if you do a lot of file sharing and/or uploading of large files, it can cause slowness. For my personal use, I want it so I can stream all of my media to any internet connection anywhere I am. I can basically do it now, but the limited upload bandwidth + my usage cap makes it less than ideal.

I haven't had a chance to look over your notes yet, but I'll do that sometime within the next week or so and hopefully re-post for anyone who is interested.