Ask the Wi-Fi Guru

By Aaron Weiss

November 11, 2009

Our monthly Q&A; series offers advice to those seeking help with home or small business WLANs. Popular topics include DD-WRT, range extension, security, bridging and–strangely enough–how to share Wi-Fi in nautical scenarios. You can find each monthly installment in our Tutorials section, or browse through them all here.

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Our monthly Q&A series offers advice to those seeking help with home or small business WLANs. Popular topics include DD-WRT, range extension, security, bridging and–strangely enough–how to share Wi-Fi in nautical locations. You can find each monthly installment in our Tutorials section, or browse through them all here. Additional help is available in our Forums.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode I  [March 4, 2008] In this new monthly column, Aaron Weiss, our resident Wi-Fi Guru, will answer your burning questions about small-scale Wi-Fi deployments. In this episode, he covers bridging robots, hotspot sharing, and DD-WRT repeaters.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode II [April 7, 2008] In Episode II of this new monthly column, Aaron Weiss, our resident Wi-Fi Guru, will answer your burning questions about small-scale Wi-Fi deployments. In this special, themed episode, he covers a variety of ways to extend your range. Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode III [May 15, 2008] In the May installment of our monthly column, Aaron Weiss, our resident Wi-Fi Guru, answers your burning questions about small-scale Wi-Fi deployments. In this edition, he covers indoor/outdoor solutions, Vista networking issues, and some WPA/WPA2 security basics.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode IV [June 12, 2008] In this month’s installment, the Guru addresses questions about packet loss and gaming, properly assigning IP addresses, and combination wired/wireless networking.

 Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode V [July 9, 2008] In the July edition of our monthly Q&A with Wi-Fi Guru, Aaron Weiss, readers wrote in to ask about networking Xboxes, the dangers of RF signals, broadcasting SSIDs, and mysterious connectivity issues.

 Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode VI [August 5, 2008] In the August edition of our monthly Q&A column, the Wi-Fi Guru responds to one of our most popular topics of inquiry: Wi-Fi on boats. He also delves deeper into flashing firmware (for beginners), wireless bridges, DD-WRT, and solves (with a reader’s help) Nikki’s connection mystery from the last episode.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode VII [September 5, 2008] In the September 2008 edition of our monthly Q&A column, our Wi-Fi Guru focuses on helping readers solve issues involving the placement, configuration, and compatibility of multiple routers in one household.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode VIII [October 10, 2008] In the October installment of our monthly Q&A column, the Wi-Fi Guru tackles Bluetooth blocking (although he’s not sure why), WLANs for WISP subscribers, iPhone tricks, and of course, DD-WRT on a WRT54G.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode IX [November 12, 2008] In the November 2008 installment of our monthly Q&A series, the Wi-Fi Guru covers SSIDs, OpenWRT, and cordless phone interference to help a home user, a college student, and an entrepreneur with their Wi-Fi dilemmas.Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode X [December 22, 2008] In the December 2008 installment of our monthly Q&A series, the Wi-Fi Guru focuses on extending range in a variety of deployment scenarios.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XI [January 20, 2009] In the January 2009 installment of our monthly Q&A series, the Wi-Fi Guru covers sharing cellular (on a tugboat no less), best methods for roaming between clients, and offers a tip for Mac users.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XII [February 12, 2009] In the Valentine’s Day edition of our monthly help and advice column, the Wi-Fi (Love) Guru shows you how to love your router–and also answers questions about daisy chaining, DD-WRT, signal boosting, and remote administration access.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XIII [March 3, 2009] In our lucky 13th installment of this monthly Q&A series, the Wi-Fi Guru helps with wireless bridges, Hi-Def home networking over 802.11n, and some DD-WRT issues.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru: Episode XIV [April 16, 2009] In our April 2009 installment of this monthly Q&A series, the Wi-Fi Guru covers a wide variety of Wi-Fi networking issues, including range boosters and why Macs and PCs sometimes can’t get along–and asks for readers’ help in solving them.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XV [May 8, 2009] In our May 2009 installment of this monthly Q&A series, the Wi-Fi Guru covers a wide variety of Wi-Fi networking issues, including signal boosters, dealing with foliage-based interference (ah, spring!), and resolving basic connection problems.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XVI [June 9, 2009] This month our Guru covers a lot of ground by answering questions related to bridging with open source firmware, such as DD-WRT and Tomato, as well as queries about boosting throughput for older routers and clients.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XVII [July 16, 2009] This month our Guru ponders several WLAN mysteries–including one unsolved. Can you help?

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XVIII [August 11, 2009] Our monthly Q&A series offers advice to those seeking help with home or small business WLANs. This month our Guru offers advice on the common issues of range extension and bridging, among other things.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XIX [September 22, 2009] Our monthly Q&A series offers advice to those seeking help with home or small business WLANs. This month our Guru offers advice on range extension and bridging, WPA-Enterprise, and static DHCP addresses, among other things.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XX [October 19, 2009] Our monthly Q&A series offers advice to those seeking help with home or small business WLANs. This month our Guru offers advice on keeping out the bad guys, DHCP servers, Tomato, and more.

Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XXI [November 6, 2009] Our monthly Q&A series offers advice to those seeking help with home or small business WLANs. This month our Guru explains the difference between “WRT” and “DD-WRT,” and tackles traffic monitoring, and Internet connection sharing.

Aaron Weiss, our Wi-Fi Guru, is a freelance writer, book author, and Wi-Fi enthusiast based in upstate New York. To submit your questions to the Wi-Fi Guru, simply click on his byline (above or in any episode) and put “Wi-Fi Guru” in the subject line. For more by Aaron Weiss, read “How to: Monitor Bandwidth with Tomato Firmware” or “DD-WRT Tutorial 4: Defining Priorities with QoS.”