Router question

[jronald]

I have a pretty extensive wired/wireless network on the 1.25 acres I own. Primarily I use the Lynksys WRT54G (6 or so total).
Cable Modem in @ 8mb max (normal is 5mb)
Cable modem to the first Lynksys WRT.
WRT wireless out and to a switch with 4 desktops hanging off of it. Its maxed.
Switch has 8 ports, 6 of those ports are used for other computers, and the rest of the WRT's
Basically the first WRT does 99.9% of the work with the wired and DHCP services. It runs very hot. It also drops the wireless signal semi regularly, and i have notice recently that when it drops the wireless, the wired network also crashes for a few seconds to 2 minutes. The rest of the WRTs run cool to just warm, never as hot as the primary.

Would I be better off running a wired router after the cable modem and before the wireless WRT, that would allow me to offload the DHCP and a portion of the wired network, which should allow the existing WRT to run cooler/work less.

Your thoughts please.
Ron

[bill bolton]

Basically the first WRT does 99.9% of the work with the wired and DHCP services. It runs very hot. It also drops the wireless signal semi regularly, and i have notice recently that when it drops the wireless, the wired network also crashes for a few seconds to 2 minutes. The rest of the WRTs run cool to just warm, never as hot as the primary.

Its a long time since I've run a WRT54G, but you could try taking the top off the primary WRT54G, to assist in convective cooling, and see if that helps.

You might also check the hardware versions (there have been several) of each of the WRT54Gs.... if there is a later version amongst the set than the one running as primary, then you might want to try running the highest hardware version in the primary role.

Cheers,

Bill B.