Cisco 3925 - Bridge or change modem/router?

ixoy

I've had the Cisco 3925 router for a good while now and am getting a bit sick of
its wireless "capabilities", especially as I continuously have more of them.

The two issues are that, after downloading a bit (around 1gb+) the wireless speed drops to a crawl. Less frequently, there are DNS resolution issues. They all resolve with a router restart. Are these the sort of issues people have seen resolved by bridging or is there something wrong with the router itself?

If I am bridging, I can see that there's a "bridging" option in the Router Admin settings. There's also though a "true bridging" thread here. Is this still relevant or has the bridging option I see come about since that thread? What's the difference? And is the bridging for wired and wireless or just wireless? Flashing the router seems a little.. risky.
If it's about remote access (as I think it might be), then I do have things like Philips Hue lights, Google Home, etc that I'd want to access remotely.

ED E

First off tape a 5v fan to the 3925.

ixoy

ED E wrote: »

First off tape a 5v fan to the 3925.

I know it gets hot, but is this an actual issue for the wireless functionality? Generally, the wired bit stays fine.

ixoy

*bump my thread*

So with the sales on, it's a good time to maybe get a new wireless router. Still not sure why I would do a "true" bridge on my Cisco 3925 or just use the inbuilt bridging function from the Admin menu?

I'm presuming a new wireless router wouldn't have the "wireless crawl" that happens with the Cisco 3925 after a bit of downloading.

Gaffs89

Who is your broadband provider?

ED E

Gaffs89 wrote: »

Who is your broadband provider?

You shouldn't need to ask that.....

Gaffs89

And why would that be?

ED E

That unit is, and can only, be used by VM formerly UPC.

Gaffs89

Well there ya go now.I've learned something.
I only asked because one provider throttles your downloads to a trickle halfway through the download if you're downloading to much in their opinon.part of their fair usage policy,but of course you already knew that Ed.

Marlow

I'd get on to VM and tell them you've got issues with your Cisco ..

Get them to replace it with the Superhub3 ... the wireless is pretty poor in those Ciscos. They've got other issues, too.

Superhub3 is supposed to be a lot more reliable. Bridging it won't be necessary ... and is a PITA anyway, when it comes to VM.

/M

PixelTrawler

I've one of these. They get wicked hot. I've bridged it now and have a really quiet usb fan on it from amazon. Nice and cool now. Then i bridged it and got a warehouse deal asus 68u from amazon which is a decent router.

ixoy

Will VM just replace the router like that for a customer on broadband-only?

So the wireless is more reliable - does it drop at all then and is the range better? My major issue is with the wireless speed dropping and sometimes vanishing.

Marlow

ixoy wrote: »

Will VM just replace the router like that for a customer on broadband-only?

So the wireless is more reliable - does it drop at all then and is the range better? My major issue is with the wireless speed dropping and sometimes vanishing.

I'm not a VM customer, but I know a few and there was a link at some point, that allowed you to apply for a free replacement.

Worst case, threaten to cancel the connection .. with recent price increases you might be able to come under opt out of contract, let them give you a good deal for a renewed contract for not leaving and demand they replace the router as part of that They do have a team, that specifically tries to recover leaving customers and actually do go to some lengths to do so.

/M

DECEiFER

ixoy,

Just to address your query re. the "True Bridging," I am the OP of that thread and it was written before UPC (at the time) made the option available. The method in the thread is only relevant if you don't see the option as means to add it into the HTML form on the relevant page. The thread still went on as a means to help support anyone with issues connecting their own cable router.

You have two options: You can see if VM are still giving the Hub 3.0 away. If so, they'd have it to you within a day or two - it was very quick for me when I did it last year. However, I found pretty much right off the bat that it added a bit of latency to domestic servers but nothing serious. The same happened on a friend's and my folks' connections once they got the Hub. It's probably a bit of a hog, and it does take about 5 minutes to boot up. I continued to use my own router as well and its "Modem Mode" made bridging it just as easy as you'd bridge the 3925. That said, the Hub hasn't got terrible WiFi performance in terms of both speed and range. I replaced my 3925 after I found that it kept going from Gigabit to Fast Ethernet speeds every so often (an orange instead of a green LAN port LED)

The other option is to go with your original plan of bridging the 3925 with a cable router of your own choosing. The 3925 is good to about 300Mb/s, as it only has 8 DOCSIS channels, so if you're on the 240Mb/s plan, you're all good to keep it. Once you upgrade to something higher, VM will likely supply you with whatever the latest flavor of their Hub is.