Cisco / Linksys 400N Router - Setup Matters

Just a quick note to mention that routers are not always very fast or reliable on their default settings. I have been having trouble for weeks with the new Cisco (Linksys) 400N router I got a while ago. And it got worse and worse until it simply stopped behaving.

I checked on the Internet for issues with this router and found a couple of people who suggested different settings from the defaults. But they suggested almost exactly the *same* set of different settings. This of course bodes very well.

So after a bit of agony in trying to get the router to take the new settings (hint, if Windows 7 asks you if you would like to upgrade the new router with the settings from your computer, and if you are finding it difficult to otherwise talk to your router after a factory reset, just say yes) I ran a speed test on my favorite test site, http://speedtest.net.

I am paying for 18mbps down and 1mbps up, and I cannot say that I find these numbers disappointing.

So don’t be afraid to use better settings for your router, assuming of course you trust the source.

Here are the settings that I used:

Remember to click on Save Settings for each page.

For 2.4 GHZ

• Wireless Network mode should be mixed
• Provide a unique name in the Wireless Network Name (SSID) box in order to differentiate your network from your neighbors’ networks
• Set the Radio Band to Wide-40MHz and change the Wide channel to 9 and Standard Channel to 11-2.462GHz
• Wireless SSID broadcast should be Enabled

For 5 GHz

• Wireless Network mode should be mixed
• Provide a unique name in the Wireless Network Name (SSID) box in order to differentiate your network from your neighbors’ networks (note, I also provided a name slightly different from the 2.4ghz network so it was easily distinguishable)
• Set the Radio Band to Wide-40MHz and change the Wide channel to159 and Standard Channel to 161-5.805GHz

For Wireless Security

• Click on the Sub tab under Wireless > Wireless Security
• Change the Wireless security mode to WPA, For Encryption, select TKIP
• For Passphrase input your desired WPA Key. For example – MySecretKey - this will serve as your network key whenever you connect to your wireless network. Do NOT give this key to anyone. NOTE : Passphrase should be more that 8 characters

In Advanced Wireless Settings

• Change the Beacon Interval to 75 (I used 50)
• Change the Fragmentation Threshold to 2304
• Change the RTS Threshold to 2307 (I used 2304)

Now see if you can locate your Wireless Network and attempt to connect