When I originally set up this modem after upgrading to the 25Mbps Extreme plus service there was no documentation included with the device stating the default IP address, user name or password to login to it.  As I figured out there are actually two accounts that you can use to log into the Rogers N Gateway – SMCD3GN.

1. Default IP address: 192.168.0.1
2. User name: cusadmin – Password: password
3. User name: rogcesadmin – Password: wra8uje

Ironically the one Rogers technician I talked to didn’t even know about the second login and took the information down for future reference.

In terms of which account you should use I recommend using only the rogcesadmin account as all device features/settings are available using this account.  For instance if you want to use the SMCD3GN as just a modem (bridge mode) you’ll need to log in as the rogcesadmin to disable all commercial gateway functions.  See screenshot below.  If you do disable all commercial gateway functions on the SMCD3GN I recommend disabling the wireless on it first. If you don’t, you’ll notice that you’ll always see the default SSID for the SMCD3GN available although it’s useless and cannot be connected to. Please note that once you disable all commerical gateway functions on the SMCD3GN it will reboot and you can no longer login to the modem and will need to perform a reset by pressing the reset button on the back of the SMCD3GN for 30 seconds.  This will of course reset it to factory defaults allowing you to login as well as enabling the router/wireless capabilities.

Disable All commercial gateway functions

What’s interesting about the SMCD3GN is that on Rogers website for this device they state: “Enhanced wireless range delivers maximum signal strength anywhere in the home.”  I can tell you right now, that is an incorrect statement.  If you live in an apartment or your residence is only 1 floor of a house you’ll be fine.  If you live in a multi-floored residence (typical house) the SMCD3GN performs poorly for signal strength and network speeds.  There’s no external antenna on the SMCD3GN so that’s one clue as to the extent of it’s wireless strength but test results posted below will show just how weak the signal strength of the SMCD3GN really is.

I performed speed tests in 4 different spots in my house.  I tested using a laptop with an Intel wireless AGN wireless card on N mode.  My SMCD3GN  device is located at the front of my house on the second floor. I performed my first set of tests using the SMCD3GN N wireless and the second test using my NTI WF-2406 N wireless router with the SMCD3GN in bridge mode.  On both tests I used the same wireless channel, encryption methods and server.  There was no other network traffic during both sets of tests.  The following screenshots tell the story.

SMCD3GN - 5 feet - Speed test

NTI WF-2406 - 5 feet - Speed test

SMCD3GN - 30 feet - Speed test - Direct line of sight (horizontal)

NTI WF-2406 - 30 feet - Speed test - Direct line of sight (horizontal)

SMCD3GN - 40 feet - Speed test - 1st floor of house (back)

NTI WF-2406 - 40 feet - Speed test - 1st floor of house (back)

SMCD3GN - 60 feet - Speed test - Basement of house (back)

NTI WF-2406 - 60 feet - Speed test - Basement of house (back)

As you can see even at 30 feet the Rogers N Gateway – SMCD3GN is really starting to struggle and that’s direct line of sight with zero interference. As far as I’m concerned the N wireless capabilities of the SMCD3GN are pretty weak at best. You can get better signal strength from a cheap wireless G router. As a modem the SMCD3GN does exactly as it’s supposed to and performs admirably. I haven’t had to reset the modem yet for any performance related issues and I’ve been using it for over a month now.

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NTI WF-2109 product features are as follows:

1.Comply with IEEE 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n standard for 2.4GHz Wireless LAN.
2.Compliant with PCI 2.2 standard.
3.Capable of up to 128-Bit WEP, TKIP and AES.
4.Support Windows98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7.
5.Support MIMO technology with 1 transmit and 2 receive.
6.Lower power consumption.
7.Easy to install and configure

As per the manufacturer Windows 7 is supported. The NTI WF-2109 ships with a drivers CD but you’ll find that if you’re running Windows 7 attempting to install the driver via the CD will error out and advise you that the operating system is not supported. Windows 7 does not have a built in plug and play driver for the NTI WF-2109. What you’ll need to do is make sure that you have a hard wired connection or otherwise bridge a wireless connection from a laptop so that Windows can download and install the driver. The NTI WF-2109 actually shows up in the Device Manager as a Realtek RTL8190 802.11n Wireless LAN (Mini-) PCI NIC.

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The features for the NTI-2406 include:

• Support MIMO technology with 2 transmit and 2 receive.
• Support DHCP Client, PPPoE Client, Static IP
• Support MAC filtering, IP access control, DNS filding
• Support PPTP, L2TP and IPSEC pass through
• Support UPNP (universal plug and play)
• Upgradeable firmware for future functions
• Support WPS (WI-FI protection setup)
• Support data encryption mode: WEP, WPA, WPA2
• Support DMZ
• Support multiple wireless mode: Access Point, Clien, AP+WDS and WDS

The NTI-2406 comes packaged with power adapter, 2 dipole antennas, quick install guide and a CD with user manual and drivers.  On the top of the NTI-2406 are LED indicators for: PWR, WPS, SYS, WLAN, WAN, LAN.  The web browser configuration utility on the NTI-2406 is very clean, easy to use and well laid out,  easy to setup port forwarding, IP filtering, DDNS and routing table configuration..  The default IP address is: 192.168.1.1 and subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 with the DHCP server enabled by default.  To set up the router you’ll need to make sure that your PC is set to obtain an IP automatically.  The default username and password for the NTI-2406 are both “guest”.

The range of the wireless signal on G is decent inside the house and unfortunately I don’t have any N wireless devices but I’m sure that the signal would be even better using N.   On my old wireless G router I had a 7dBi antenna attached for greater range.  That type of antenna isn’t compatible with an N wireless router but once I upgrade to N wireless devices I can appreciate the greater range of N. You can also set the NTI-2406 to transmit the radio signal of your choice or a combination thereof.

There are also parental controls you can use to supervise internet activity.  These controls aren’t just limited to parental use obviously and are handy for use in small businesses.  The term “supervise internet activity” makes it sound like you can view logs or otherwise know what someone has been doing which is not so.  What you can actually do is take advantage of 3 different firewalls, MAC, IP and DNS.  You can set days of week and time to allow or deny access to the internet.  If you use the IP firewall it would be best to set a DHCP reservation for the system first.  Using the DNS filter (firewall) you can block access to websites by keywords.  Again, you can set time of day, all day, days of week, allow or deny.

So far I’m happy with this purchase of the NTI-2406 and it’s working great.  I’m also impressed with the amount of features that are included and the level of configuration available.

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They had no idea what was causing it and there were no known issues in my area.  I had set up a service call for 4 days later although the next day everything was back to normal.  I did a few speed tests to ensure all was back to normal and the picture below is the results of my first speed test.  If only that were true it would mean download speeds of 23.5MBps which is insanely fast.  That means you could download a 1GB file in less then 43 seconds.

Fastest speeds ever

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Now I had to find out what on earth was using up so much space. As it turns out my default email account which I never use was the victim of email spoofing. There were over 70,000 daemon failure messages amongst other spammy emails.

I promptly notified tech support and within minutes they had something setup to prevent any of those mails from getting into my account. I finally managed to delete all of those emails and was able to update to the latest release of WordPress this morning.

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I must say that this trip has been an interesting one for SSID’s. I’ve seen some such as “Paula, get off our shit” and “Don’t steal my Net ya Mooch”. What I find surprising is that the owner of the latter SSID knew enough to be able to change their SSID but no idea on how to secure it. They also knew enough to change the default username and password on their router. I enjoyed using their internet connection quite a bit I must say.

Most people would benefit from keeping their SSID short and sweet. The longer it is the more it can slow down network traffic. The SSID gets tagged onto the header of each data packet sent over the network. People who use their SSID as a message headliner are unwittingly hurting themselves. I’m also surprised how many people are only using WEP security on their routers as well. Quite interesting I must say.

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I find these social networking sites like Facebook a unnecessary life hack. It does nothing for me that I need or require. It is not my preferred method of communication with people. I would rather physically talk with someone or see them ironically, face to face in the real world. Email is great for quick communication and I would much rather use email any day over Facebook.

So many people upload so much personal information online it really isn’t funny. Their whole life is there for display. Honestly, what is lacking so much in your “real” life that you feel compelled to do such a thing? There is no way I’d be displaying any real personal information on Facebook. I don’t even use my real name on Facebook. I’ve also heard issues about people trying to close their Facebook accounts. Facebook will keep all your information there for a certain time period in case you change your mind. You have to go back into the account, delete everything manually, uninstall all the applications and then close your account again. Even after you do that there is still a copy of everything you ever put on Facebook on their servers. You can email or contact Facebook to try and have them delete it but you’ll never know for sure.

Having said all that I will accede to certain usages of Facebook that would justify it’s existence. One benefit of such social networking sites is for campaigning or possibly raising awareness of certain issues, fighting “the machine”, the gov’t or corporations. Outside of that my Facebook account collects digital dust and I couldn’t care less about it.

When I moved to where I live now I had met my neighbours face to face. There had been some minor talk of going out for dinner and whatnot. Time passed and we had never settled on anything. Next thing I know my neighbours had tracked both my finance and myself on Facebook and just dropped the fact that we’d be going out Friday night and they had a babysitter lined up. Well, needless to say I promptly cancelled. I don’t know about other people but when my neighbours that live directly beside me can’t come over and knock on the door to make plans or talk but rather track me down on Facebook that’s frick’n CREEPY!!!!!!! I cannot stress that enough.

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I can’t answer whether or not Internet users are clicking on fewer Google ads or not but I can share my perspective on the matter. This blog is by no means popular, nor do I get thousands of visitors everyday. Regardless, there are Google ads displayed on every page and in the past two months with over 4000 ad impressions (viewings) there has only been 1 ad clicked on. For the record it wasn’t me, lol! You don’t need to do the math to realize that the click through rate is next to non-existent. I think that speaks for itself as there’s no money being made here, not from Google ads anyhow. :-) That means, no money for me, Google or the advertiser.

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I also installed and added the ma.gnolia Firefox add-on, that makes life a little easier as well.  I really wish there was an easier way to import all my bookmarks instead of one by one.  That’s how I started out believe it or not, manually copying and pasting.  After my short mental lapse in good judgement I went ahead and imported all my bookmarks from Firefox.

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