Configuring RouterStats

Step 1

When you open RouterStats for the first time, it should automatically open its configuration window. Otherwise, to open the configuration window, press the Configure button, shown above.

In the Router Make & Model section, select the radio button appropriate for your router.

In the Login section, enter the URL you discovered previously in 'Finding the URL'. If you're using a Netgear DG834 or DG834G, the URL should already be there for you unless you've changed the IP address from the default (192.168.0.1).

If you need to log in to your router, check the Login checkbox and enter your username and password.

(There is also a checkbox and a text box where you can enter a Log Out URL. Again, the default URL for the Netgear DG834(G) is already in the box but, in practice, it isn't really necessary to log out unless you really want to or if you want to access the router from a second computer - the Netgear won't allow you to access it from a second computer if the first one hasn't logged out.)

If you're using a Netgear DG834 series router, you can skip the rest of the configuration and jump to configuring the graphs.

Step 2

Select the Router Search Text Tab and click the Get Page button.

You may need to press the Get Page button a couple of times but, with luck, the router's stats page should be displayed in the window.

If the page is displayed but the numeric values are missing, see the section below ( The Use Source A and Use Source B Checkboxes )

If you have problems getting the page to display at all, check out the problems page here.

If you have selected a Netgear DG834 series router, you can jump to Step 4.

For other routers, or if you want to set up 'User-defined' values with the DG834, move to Step 3.

Step 3

Our next step is to 'teach' RouterStats how to locate the Rx Noise Margin figure in the router's display.

Find where it is displayed in the window and highlight the figure (1). Press the Rx Noise button (2) in order to mark its position. Its value should appear next to the 'Rx Noise' text below the window (3).

The `Use Source A` and `Use Source B` Checkboxes

Some routers use JavaScript to display the statistics which is difficult for RouterStats to resolve. Sometimes the JavaScript is on the same page as the HTML which provides the display, sometimes it is on a separate page.

If you check the Use source A or Use source B checkbox, the router source code 'behind' the HTML display will be shown in RouterStats instead of the HTML display. If the numeric values of the stats are shown in the source code, you can try using those in Steps 2 and 3.

If you change from one source to the other, you will need to re-mark the text (Steps 2 and 3).

See The FAQ - Q4 for more details.

Step 4

Finally, press the Test button. This simulates a "live" retrieval of the Noise Margin figure from the router.

If all has gone well, you can now mark the Rx Sync Speed in a similar way - marking its value in the top window, then pressing the Rx Sync button to mark its position.

RouterStats also has two user-defined graphs which are 'marked' in the same way as above.

When marking for either user-defined graph, you will be prompted to type a suitable label which will appear on the graphs.

The two radio buttons allow you to select whether RouterStats will plot the value directly as extracted from the stats page or whether it will plot the difference between successive samples. This allows the graph to plot a "value per sample" instead of a simple cumulative value provided by the router.

For example, if you were monitoring the Line Attenuation, you would select Plot value directly to grap. If you were monitoring 'Received LAN Packets', it would be more useful to select Plot difference between successive values to monitor the received LAN packets per sample.

You can switch between the two plotting methods at any time using 'Radio Button' items on the User-defined graphs' popup menu.

The value shown on the Toolbar will always be the "raw" value directly from the router.