Dear Lifehacker,
My router sucks. My connection goes wonky once every few days, and I have to unplug the router and reboot it (I believe this is called a hard reset) to fix the problem. Obviously, this is incredibly annoying. What can I do to just make the darn thing work properly?

Sincerely,
Infernal Internet

Dear Infernal,
This is a very common ailment, but there's no one universal cause (which, sadly, means there's also not one simple solution). It could be that your internet provider changes your IP address often, and your router doesn't catch on. Maybe it's overheating, or maybe it's getting bogged down by too many connections at once (which can happen if you download a lot). There isn't an easy way to figure out what the problem is, but there are a few common solutions that could help you fix the problem and prevent it from happening in the future.

First: Verify That Your Router Is the Source of the Problem

Before you start messing with your router, you should make sure the problem doesn't lie with your modem or your internet service provider. To do this, plug your computer directly into your modem and see if you get any dropped connections or other problems. If not, the problem is more likely related to your router. If your modem is a modem/router combo, you won't be able to perform this step (we recommend having a separate modem and router for just this reason). If your modem is the problem, contact either your internet service provider or the modem manufacturer to get support, since it's probably not something you can fix at home.

Option 1: Make Sure Your Router Isn't Overheating

This is about the easiest solution to the problem, so it should be your first go-to step. Get your router out of hot, enclosed spaces, raise it up using wooden blocks, or even stick it in front of your fan. A lot of times, a router that keeps dying can be fixed with just a bit of extra airflow.

Option 2: Update Your Router's Firmware

If the internet works fine when directly connected to the modem, it's probably an issue with your router, and the first thing you should do is check for firmware updates. To do this, just:

1. Head to your router's config page (usually available by typing http://192.168.0.1 into your browser, but you'll have to check your router's manual) and check its current firmware version. Write it down or keep that tab open so you don't forget.
2. Next, go to your router's manufacturer's web site (e.g., www.linksys.com) and head to their support page. Find your router and go to its download page.
3. If the latest firmware on the downloads page matches the one your router is using, then you have the latest firmware. If not, then you should download the latest firmware and update your router according to the manufacturer's instructions.

If you're lucky, the latest firmware will fix whatever problem your router was having that made it thirst for regular reboots. If not, though, continue on to the next step.

Option 3: Flash a Third Party Firmware Like DD-WRT

Sometimes, your manufacturer's firmware just isn't very good. In those cases, flashing a third-party firmware—like the free, powerful DD-WRT—can potentially fix all your problems. It isn't for the faint of heart, but can seriously boost the usefulness and customizability of your router, so we think it's a worthwhile project. It can also reboot your router on a schedule, which may not solve the problem itself, but will keep you from having to do it manually.

Check out DD-WRT's compatibility page to see if your router is supported, and check out our guide on how to set it up, and to turn on scheduled reboots, just head to DD-WRT's configuration page and go to Just head to Administration > Keep Alive > Scheduled Reboot.

Option 4: Limit Connections to File Sharing Services

Oftentimes, your router can just get bogged down by too much traffic coming through. This is especially common with things like BitTorrent and Usenet, which achieve high download speeds by making multiple connections at one time. If you make too many, your router will stop working and need a reboot.

If you're a heavy downloader, head into your BitTorrent or Usenet client of choice and go to its settings dialog. You should find a place where you can limit the download speed. Try limiting the speed, and see if that solves your problems (or just shut off your client for a few days). You can also try tweaking the number of connections, if your client allows it. If you find that your router woes disappear after changing these settings, you've found the problem and you'll just have to settle for slightly slower download speeds.

Option 5: Buy a New Router

The fact of the matter is that while the above tweaks may help, chances are your router is old, cheap, or just plain crappy. If none of the above solutions work, head on over to a site like Newegg.com and start reading reviews on routers. I'd look for a router that not only has high ratings, but is popular—this means that the manufacturer is more likely to update the firmware, and also more likely that DD-WRT will have a version available for it. Also make sure that you buy from a store that has a good return policy in case you experience problems within the first few weeks. You don't want to go spend $100 only to find that your new router has the exact same problem.

While you're at it, check out our router buying guide to see what other features you might want.

Last Resort: Plug the Router Into an Outlet Timer

If you'd rather not buy a new router, you might be able to solve your problem with this rather clever hack from ErnieTheGeek over at Superuser:

In situations like this I love to take a cheap garden timer from Home Depot/any hardware store and set it to reboot the router on a daily basis in a time when there's generally little to no usage.

This could solve a number of the problems that would cause your router to need a reboot, and if you just set the timer to reboot once a day when you're sleeping, you probably won't ever have to do it manually (note that if you followed Option 3 and flashed DD-WRT, you can do this with its built-in scheduled reboot feature). It isn't a perfect solution, but it's a rather clever one that doesn't involve buying a new router or going through hours of troubleshooting. Any outlet timer should work; there are a lot designed for indoor lights that will let you program the outlet over a 7-day period, like this one from GE. They're cheap and they'll get the job done.

Again, these aren't the only solutions to the infamous router reboot problem, but these are some of the most common ways to solve the issue. While you're fixing router problems, you might as well fix your crappy Wi-Fi signal, too. Good luck!

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. Got any other solutions for fixing a constantly failing router? Share them with us in the comments below.

If you're a fan of technology, chances are you've retired a few gadgets over the years and they're sitting in a box in your closet. Today's the day to dig out your leftovers and start thinking about what you can do to let them live and breathe again. Here are ten of our favorite ideas to get you started.

10. Repurpose Your Old Computer in Many, Many Ways

Repurposing an old computer is awesome but it's obvious, so let's get this one out of the way first. There is so much you can do. Laptops can become tablets, desktops can become powerful storage devices, and much more. Old computers are just slow computers with an outdated selection of ports, less storage and RAM, and generally paltry graphics cards. All you need is something else that has those minimal requirements and there's plenty you can do. Web servers, media centers, retro arcades, a kitchen computer that can get a little messy because it's old and you don't care,

9. Create Audio-Visual Mixes for Parties with a Digital Photo/Media Frame

The digital photo frame is something we've all gotten as a gift or bought with hopes that it was going to take us into the future of photo displaying. In the end, I think most of us feel like we were sold storage box filler. If you actually use a digital picture frame, you get the added bonus of paying more money for it for the rest of time. These things draw a reasonably large amount of power for something nobody is looking at most of the time, especially considering their analog predecessors—you know, normal picture frames—don't have that downside and can still display whatever photo you want. I could go on complaining about the downsides of spending tens of dollars on one of these basically pointless devices, but let's not and focus on the positive instead.

You don't want to be running your digital picture frame 24/7 (unless you love paying for wasted energy), so your best bet is to start looking at the thing as a device for specific events. Instead of loading it up with photos, stock your frame's internal storage (or SD card) with art that you like. If it can play video, put music videos on it or just find some awesome motion graphics on Vimeo (that's what I did). Hook it up during a party and you've got something cool to display (instead of photos of your tame vacation to Southern Florida). If it handles audio, too, hook up some speakers and you'll essentially have an audio-visual party mix.

8. Make a Clock, Smartphone Stand, or Laser Show with a Dead Hard Drive

What can you do with a dead hard drive? A lot, apparently. For example, you can turn it into a laser light show projector, make a steampunk clock, or turn it into a smartphone stand. Hard drives, even when dead, always seem like such a substantial thing to throw away. Instead, just make something cool and let it's spirit live on against the wall, on your desk, and in your heart.

7. Lose an Old Laptop, Gain a Second Monitor

Yeah, yeah, we've technically looked at things you can do with an old computer but those were all things that didn't involve taking them apart and actually turning them into new things. If you've got an old laptop that you never use but wouldn't mind having a second display for your desktop computer (or newer laptop), you're in luck! This Instructables post will teach you how to take your laptop apart and make the display usable with another computer. You could even use the bottom half of your laptop to do any of the old computer uses we mentioned earlier. It's a win-win.

6. Create the Best Keychain Ever with Old Cables

While old cables are nice to have around in case you need them someday, there isn't much you can do to repurpose them into something better. Nonetheless, there is one really awesome option: the Ethernet cable keychain. (See the photo to the right if you're not sure why this is so awesome). Technically you could do this with other types of cables, but Ethernet has the distinct advantage of being both thick and locking into its port. Other cables might not hold the weight of your keys or stay in quite as well.

5. Turn Your Nintendo Entertainment System, Controllers, and Games into Several Awesome New Gadgets

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) will live on forever as so many different items. You can turn it into a DVD player, make a game cartridge a wireless router, repurpose a controller as an MP3 player or remote control. If you're not ready to part with your NES, you can also just give it an upgrade and, therefore, a bit more life. Just don't let it go to waste.

4. Use Those Unused Ports on Your TV to Charge Your Phone, Set up a Security Camera, and More!

The ports on the back of your TV are often under-appreciated. Most of us plug in an HDMI box or two and call it a day, but the old school ports (and even some newer ones) let you do all sorts of neat things. The service USB port on most flatscreens is one of the most fun, allowing you to power all sorts of USB devices. This means you can plug in backlighting, or charge your smartphone or game controller. Video out ports can output what's on your television to another monitor or device so you can view from multiple locations or record what you're watching. A port or two on your television can probably host live video input from a camera you own, which can work as a makeshift security monitor or even a fun display at a party. For a whole bunch of ideas, and a primer on all the ports you've got, check out this post.

3. Turn Your Router into a Wireless Radio

Although I've been with the same router for four years now (aww), before I decided to settle down with my DD-WRT-ed LinkSys 310N I went through routers like toilet paper. If I hadn't given them all new homes before learning I could turn one of them into a wireless radio, I'd have done that in a heartbeat. Although this is one of the more complex DIY projects you can take on, it's also one of the coolest. Just check out the video to the left to learn how it's done. It's definitely a weekend project, but when you're done you'll have a wireless radio for the price of a router you weren't even using.

(Pssst! If that's not your style, try this bonus option: turn your router into a home automation server.

2. Use a Mobile Device as a Dedicated VOIP Phone

iPod touches make great iPhones when you add Skype, or any other VOIP service, to their array of apps, but any old device will do. Even if you've got a tablet you're not using anymore it can make a great phone (if you add a headset). Just keep it around the house and you've got a great makeshift home phone line (especially when you get Google Voice involved). Tablets also make great video conferencing devices (assuming they're sporting cameras). If you'd rather not sell yours because it isn't worth much anymore, use it solely for communication. It's remarkably helpful if you don't get great (or any) cellular service in your home.

1. Upgrade Your Crappy Headphones

When you're spending under $50 on headphones you're generally not going to get the greatest pair, but there is a lot you can do to make them worth far more than their price tag. Replacing the drivers yourself can net you audiophile-level sound on the cheap. You can also splice them with a headset to give them a few extra superpowers or even turn them into a noise-isolating headset (in some cases). If you've got a crappy pair and some time, these upgrades will give you a better sound and features without the associated cost.

Home networks can be great or they can be a huge pain in the butt. Set aside some time this weekend to fix your annoying network issues, boost your Wi-Fi reception, and add some great new features. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Before we get started, it's important to have a good grasp on basic networking skills like how your router works and what you can do with it. If you need to brush up your knowledge, check out our Know Your Network Night School lessons. It'll help you pick out a great new router (if you need one) and teach you how to use its basic functions or even go as far as installing custom firmware to do even more.

Wire Your Home Effectively

Wireless isn't all it's cracked up to be. Networking with Ethernet cables is still a lot faster, so going completely wired in your home is a great way to improve network efficiency and speed. Most people like to avoid additional cables running throughout their house because it involves a mess or the difficult work of fishing those cables through their walls. That doesn't have to be the case, however, as you can often hide your cables alone the edges of the wall, cover them with tape, and then paint over that tape to make them appear flush. Alternatively, you can buy FlatWire and just paint over the wire that will lay flush on any surface. Alternatively, don't hide your cables at all and create an attractive design instead.

Improve Wireless Reception

When you've got a bad wireless signal, there's only so much you can do but we have a few suggestions. In general, placement is paramount. If you're router is in a drawer, under a table, or obscured by anything you are hurting your signal. Your goal needs to be to place your router as high up in the room as possible and ensure its antennae are unobstructed. For an added bonus, you can build this Windsurfer signal booster that's compatible with pretty much any router that has external antennae. If you have a lot of ground to cover and happen to have an extra router lying around, try turning it into a repeater. (Just don't use a repeater in a smaller space because it can often hurt your signal rather than help it.) You also want to make sure you're using the wireless channel with the least interference. You can do this by using Wi-Fi Stumbler, a Java web applet that'll survey your network and help you find the best channel for you. Finally, you can actually boost your router's transmit power. Some standard firmware will allow you to do this, but in many cases you'll need to install something custom. Just read on for information on how to do just that.

Install Custom Firmware for Better Features or Easier Use

If you want to put custom firmware on your router to get more out of it, you have two popular choices: Tomato, a powerful but very user-friendly option, and DD-WRT, a powerful and extremely comprehensive upgrade. But why would you even want to mess around with your firmware? Well, routers are not particularly easy to use in general, so if your focus is simplicity then Tomato is a good choice. It offers a no-nonsense interface to help you manage your network and, in the case of some routers, even offers some useful additional features. DD-WRT, on the other hand, is not particularly user-friendly but provides you with near-total control over your router. If you have any features missing from your router's admin panel, such as tools that help you easily serve media from home, bandwidth statistics, in-depth access restrictions, additional security options, the ability to boost your signal's transmit power, and much more, DD-WRT can add them. Both custom firmwares only support so many routers, so be sure to check compatibility on their respective pages before you attempt to install. If you need additional assistance, be sure to read our DD-WRT and Tomato start-to-finish setup guides.

Share Files and Stream Media

One of the best things you can do with your home network is easily share media from computer to computer and other devices. If you enable port forwarding you can even share that media outside of your home. One of the best ways to do this is to turn an old computer into a network-attached storage device and media server. If you don't have an old machine, you can always build one from scratch. If you plan to create a server running OS X or Windows, Plex is a great option for serving up your media at home or on the go. It can send movies and music to pretty much any OS X or Windows computer and mobile devices as well. In the event your media is too big to stream or just won't play on the mobile device you're using (here's looking at you, iOS), Plex will convert it for you in real time. (This, of course, will require a reasonably powerful machine.) However you go about it, media and file servers can be the best part of your home network.

The Lifehacker Show is back with a new format. Come check out our first episode where we answer a variety of questions from you, the readers. We'll discuss how to access your home network from afar, remap keys in OS X and Windows, hook up multiple screens to a laptop, find an apartment equidistant from three offices, learn how to get started with open-source development projects, and much more. Come check it out!

What's New?

The Lifehacker Show has been on hiatus for a few months because we've been thinking about a new approach. As much as we loved the old format, we didn't have enough time to do it justice and write all our posts. We wanted to try something that we could put together a little faster and also interact more with you, our readers. (Additionally, this format allows us to provide an audio version of the podcast which was a frequent request.) Over the past few weeks we asked you for questions and answered 11 of them as a trial run. Rather than shelve the test episode, we decided to share it with you and get your feedback. This episode only answers reader-submitted questions, but in future episodes we'll be adding a few other things:

• Top news stories of the week
• Our favorite tips and posts of the week
• The downloads of the day

If there's anything else you think would make a good addition to the show, please let us know in the comments. Remember, this was just a trial run to try out the new format. As we release future episodes we'll be working to make things better.

What's in this Episode?

We answered 11 reader questions this time around. Here's what we covered:

1. How do I resize my Windows Bootcamp partition?
   • You can't really, but Whitson has some suggestions in the show. We've never covered the process step-by-step, but you can find a lot of the information you need in his tutorial on how to migrate to a solid-state drive without reinstalling Windows.
2. What's the best online survey tool?
   • We use Polldaddy on Lifehacker.
   • The forms in Google Docs are nice, too, and they're embeddable.
3. How do I get involved with open-source development projects?
   • We like finding projects on Github.
   • You can find Adam Pash's projects here
4. How do I access my home server from outside my local network?
   • Learn about port-forwarding, or your home network in general.
5. How do I get Siri on a non-iPhone 4S?
   • With Spire, but we don't recommend it.
6. How can I get the most out of FreeNAS when serving files to multiple computers?
   • We all had many opinions about this. For some good FreeNAS tutorials, check out our original FreeNAS guide and our guide to turning your FreeNAS box into an internet PVR.
7. How can I hook up 2-3 screens to my laptop on a budget?
   • Try a USB display adapter or USB display.
   • Use AirSharing to turn a mobile device or other computer into another monitor (although it's not exactly the most responsive monitor you'll ever use).
8. Is there a way to get home and end key functionality on my Apple keyboard?
   • Just use fn+arrow keys.
   • Remap your keyboard with KeyRemap4Macbook
9. How can I find an apartment that's equidistant from multiple work locations?
   • A combination of Meet In Between Us and PadMapper can do the trick.
10. How can I remap function keys on my Windows keyboard?
    • AutoHotkey can get the job done.
    • These time-saving AutoHotkey tricks, this keyboard shortcut mapping guide, performing nearly any system task with AutoHotkey, and this AutoHotkey automation guide should help you learn the skills you need.
11. What's a great, inexpensive DIY waterproofing solution for a DSLR camera?
    • Check out a bunch of options we rounded up.

How Do I Download the Podcast?

You can watch the Ask Lifehacker Podcast on our YouTube Channel or every Friday at 8:00 AM (PT) on lifehacker.com. We'll be updating our iTunes feeds and posting the show in more places next week, but for now you can download* via these links:

• Video (720p H.264)
• Audio (192kbps MP3)

*Right click and choose to save the file to download directly to your computer.

Thanks for watching (or listening)!

How Do I Submit a Question?

There are three ways to send in your question:

• Record a video, upload it somewhere, and send a link to tips+asklhshow@lifehacker.com
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Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!