Linksys and General Electric connectivity issues

Hi there. So, I’m currently running a General Electric Boeing 787 router. To try and extend my Wi-Fi coverage, I picked up a Linksys TL-WR841N. I set them both up using an Ethernet cable, and honestly, everything worked perfectly at first—I didn't even touch the settings. But after a little while, the Wi-Fi just died on both devices (they show a full signal, but there's zero internet access), and eventually, even my PC, which is hardwired, lost its connection too. Interestingly, if I unplug the cable connecting the two units from the General Electric router, the Wi-Fi starts working again immediately (on both the wireless devices and the PC). I've been Googling this for about a week now, and I guess I haven't stumbled upon a definitive answer on how to fix this. It seems to me like I probably need to tweak some router configurations or something similar. If anyone could briefly outline what steps I should take or maybe drop a link to a solution, I'd really appreciate it. My current setup looks like this: NETWORK -> General Electric -> PC
General Electric -> Linksys

Thanks, everyone!

I actually have a similar Linksys router sitting at my place right now... if you want my two cents, just wipe that thing back to factory settings and go through the configuration process properly from scratch.

That repeater can actually pick up the signal from your main router wirelessly and broadcast the network, which means you don't even need to bother with that cable at all.
Basically, once you've performed the reset, connect to the repeater using your laptop—either via Wi-Fi or by plugging in an Ethernet cable—then pull up its settings page (there should be something in your manual explaining how to do this; usually, it's accessible via a specific web address http://linksysrepeater.net ).
From there, just run the quick setup wizard, which basically just walks you through a "next, next, finish" sequence.
And voilà, you're all set.

When you hook up that Linksys to act as a repeater, the max speed takes a hit compared to when it's hardwired and running as an AP.

wearymason4 said:When you hook up that Linksys to act as a repeater, the max speed takes a hit compared to when it's hardwired and running as an AP.

That isn't necessarily a rule, though. They can actually perform quite well; my own wireless setup connects to the main router and manages to pull about 23-24 Mbps from a 30 Mbps line, even with three walls standing in the way.

I mean, 24 Mbit/s isn't exactly breaking any records...

Think of WiFi as simplex while LAN is full duplex... when you're running a repeater, that WiFi band is basically juggling two connections at once—it’s talking to the General Electric router and then switching over to the PC back and forth. It's handling two things in sequence. But when it’s set up as an Access Point, that WiFi is dedicated solely to the PC. Just imagine how much of a headache it would be if my buddy had a 100Mbps fiber connection... right now, since he's only pulling 30Mbps, it’s not a huge deal because the WiFi can technically outpace that speed, so you barely notice the bottleneck. But man, once that WiFi signal starts dropping or getting shaky? That's when you really feel the sting.

It’s not even about hitting insane speeds anymore. You’ve got people moving massive files across their local network or streaming high-bitrate movies from a media server, and suddenly the bottleneck starts showing up.
At my place, I’m pulling maybe 300-350 Mbps over the wireless.
We’re slowly creeping toward a reality where the wired LAN becomes the bottleneck instead of the wireless...😬

Honestly, 1Gbps duplex is already plenty for us mere mortals, let alone fiber... and that's assuming you get it without any constant interruptions.
Wifi has pretty much hit its limit unless you switch over to duplex—basically using two different frequencies depending on what you're trying to do under ITU standards—because right now, everything in the neighborhood interferes with your signal... plus, you have zero privacy.

I mean, look, there’s plenty of dual-band Wi-Fi out there that actually works the way it’s supposed to. Plus, even some single-band setups can pull off duplexing if they're running in MIMO mode.

When you're looking at dual-band gear for a single user, it’s really just sticking to one band at a time. You can't actually use both simultaneously because physics won't allow it—while one antenna is busy broadcasting, the device can't pick up a signal from that same frequency.
Getting true full duplex would only work if we started stuffing expensive filters, like duplexers, into every single Wi-Fi gadget out there... I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the future brings 🙂
Just so we're clear, MIMO isn't even close to being a full duplex connection, let alone SISO-MIMO.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is...t-your-router/

Alright, I get where you're coming from now.
I honestly thought you were talking about true full duplex—meaning simultaneous data flow between the repeater and the router, plus between the repeater and the client. With the tech we're using these days, that's actually doable...