Wireless Router - dead basic

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I have this Belkin N750 and have had zero problems with it.   It just works.  Setup was easy.  My only nit to pick, is that if you unplug it for a bit, it forgets everything.

That may be an issue with you-- once you unplug Belkins for a length of time, they revert to the out-of-box state, with default "passwords"...

[Griffin NoName]

That Belkin model is expensive here, and a bit of an overekill for my father's needs. Forgetting settings when unplugged may be a serious issue as my father is obsessive about unplugging everything in the room when items not actually in use. I believe most if not all routers forget settings if left without juice. I don't know what I can do about it, to stop him.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I had an older model Linksys, pretty basic (but with wireless) that kept it's settings for more than a day, as I moved it from my house to my mother's.   It was nice-- I simply left the wireless setup as it had been in my house, and it just worked-- I didn't even have to reconfigure my portables.

So some brands do have persistent memory-- ask around, or check the interwebs for persistent memory/settings.  Or write to the company and ask--some will bother a reply.  Another way, is to call local computer repair/recyclers about which router(s) they use, and which ones remember settings if unplugged. 

My Belkin one doesn't, and I may get a battery-backup just for it-- a small one would be more than sufficient to the task.  But at less than an hour unplugged, it was out-of-box reset.  Not good, really, but I haven't had an issue with it yet.

[Griffin NoName]

Thanks B.

My Belkin one doesn't, and I may get a battery-backup just for it--

How would you attach the battery

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Thanks B.

My Belkin one doesn't, and I may get a battery-backup just for it--

How would you attach the battery

I'd get as small a one as I could, designed for laptops and/or computers.  Then, I'd simply plug in the power-thingy into that.    A cheap one ought to be around $25 or so....  I could wire one up, using a small cell phone battery & a charger, one that had sufficient voltages for my router's input-- it's modest.  But that'd be too complicated for what is essentially a simple task.

Edit:  apparently the el-cheapo ones are no longer available.  *sigh*  As such, the cheapest I found was $40 or so--too expensive for what is essentially a whim.

My router does permit backups of it's memory, out to a file-- which I have done.  Reloading that file restores all settings quickly enough.  Good enough for now.

[Griffin NoName]

Does it allow backup/restore over wireless?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Does it allow backup/restore over wireless?

Yes-- all you must do, is enable "remote administration" and know it's ISP number.   That can work via any internet connection in the world, supposedly. 

So, in theory, you could set yourself up as admin of your dad's router, and provided you know it's default password, could redo it remotely, if needed.

[Griffin NoName]

Does it allow backup/restore over wireless?

Yes-- all you must do, is enable "remote administration" and know it's ISP number.   That can work via any internet connection in the world, supposedly. 

.............which isn't very secure........ when I worked for a certain university we'd have been shot.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

.............which isn't very secure........ when I worked for a certain university we'd have been shot.

Yep.  Which is why my router's "remote admin" is disabled... the default, factory setting by the way (good).

On the fourth paw?  If you were to select a sufficiently strong password-- out to the max character-count?  That ought to be sufficient, and the benefits of being able to remotely repair your da's router may outweigh the modest reduction in security.

Of course, if he unplugs it for long enough, and it reverts, the "remote admin" setting is also reset, and you won't be able to get in anyhow, even knowing the default password...

... meh.

It's a pity the router's don't have persistent memory, as cheap as that stuff is.  I'm looking at putting in a USB thumb drive in mine, it has 2 ports, and using that as a save-config location.  I'm wondering if it will remember that, and restore itself?  Probably not...

... however, I did just check, and there's a firmware update I might try installing... hmmm.

[Griffin NoName]

I've emailed Belkin to ask about persistent memory.

Frankly, sorting out and supporting my father's computing needs is more trouble than I encountered in my whole 35 years of dealing with difficult systems and customers................... for example, trying to get him to type a word into google,,,,,,,,,,,,, three lengthy telephone calls........then discovered he couldn't actually see there was a box to type into...... (failing eyesight and google using silly faint grey outline lines).......... one of many instances of utter despair.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I've emailed Belkin to ask about persistent memory.

Frankly, sorting out and supporting my father's computing needs is more trouble than I encountered in my whole 35 years of dealing with difficult systems and customers................... for example, trying to get him to type a word into google,,,,,,,,,,,,, three lengthy telephone calls........then discovered he couldn't actually see there was a box to type into...... (failing eyesight and google using silly faint grey outline lines).......... one of many instances of utter despair.

I think there is a way to make Google display in high contrast, but that escapes me at present...

[Griffin NoName]

Looking through various Belkin routers, they all have this in their specification:

Remote Management Browser Support Internet Explorer® 7 and above, Firefox® , or Safari

Remote Management Browser Support only crops up for Belkin Routers, google finds no other instances of it.

Is the implication that one can't use, for example, an android browser, or chrome, etc - it can't be that daft can it??

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Looking through various Belkin routers, they all have this in their specification:

Remote Management Browser Support Internet Explorer® 7 and above, Firefox® , or Safari

Remote Management Browser Support only crops up for Belkin Routers, google finds no other instances of it.

Is the implication that one can't use, for example, an android browser, or chrome, etc - it can't be that daft can it??

Don't know-- if it requires certain scripts to run?  Like FLASH?  Then, yeah, it won't work on the others.  But the majority of interfaces I've seen were pure HTML. 

Okay-- Opera works, but Chrome does not-- I do not know why, either.  (I just tried it with mine).

I use FireFox myself, but I would presume IE works too.   (Sorry, I don't wish to test that one)

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Edit/Update--

-- I had installed NoScript on Chrome-- and once I unlocked that and AdBlock Plus?  It came up just peachy.   So Chrome works just fine as well.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

They usually put the warnings in case a piece of javascript is newer than the older browser (hence no support). Bob's test seems to validate that.