Hello, At work I keep going through routers. I'm 99% sure that its a power issue. I'm at a gas plant, lots of big equipment. Or, do routers die fast if they are being used heavily? all 4 ports plus wireless going nonstop. Next one is going to have a surge protector but I am wondering if I should have to get a better router?
Its a dlink router. I used to think the dust up here was killiing them but being winter there isn't much dust in the air.
Depending on the size of the network at your work, you may need more professional SME routers like Draytek or Cisco. It wouldn't harm to plug these into an anti-serge UPS either
network isn't huge, sat dish -> modem -> 1st router -> second router -> thrid router We just seam to go through them really fast up here. Only thing I can think of is the power grid isn't very stable becuase of all the heavy equipment turning on and shutting off.
yup, first one is in my office, second is actually connected to the first by a set of wireless transmitters because its 900feet away. third is an underground 300ft cable.
but do they need to route? You can also use them as a switch, making everything a lot less complex...
Bingo, that's the problem. Power spikes shorten a devices lifespan eventually leading to it failing. Either power your current sensitive equipment on a different supply or install anti-serge/line smoothing equipment. Probably using NAT for two networks or one as routing only and the other as a wireless base station.
heres a different question, assuming that a router has the ability to act as a switch, how do you set that up?
You shouldn't be using the WAN port anyway, only for modem connection or daisy-chaining routers. Turning off DHCP and using the LAN ports will act as a switch.
Please, explain it correctly... A router makes a connection between 2 networks, WAN and LAN in this case. WAN is the outside world, LAN is the internal network. Since you only have 1 outside connection, you should use the WAN port only once. DHCP is a service the router offers to the internal network (LAN). It's best to have the router that is connected to the outside world handle DHCP, hence you should disable it on all other routers.
