ADL router?

[pwood]

My old ETEC is starting to need reboots more and more. It struggles to transfer a FLAC encoded album to my WD NAS via wifi sometimes its hangs. I have been using the ethernet cable if I have a few albums to upload at a time but would rather more speed without having to go upstairs. Apart from that I need a bit more reach in the garden so looking at N spec routers. Thing is as is the way of these things the choice is bewildering. Ideally £40 - £70 would be nice and PC world have a few including this Edimax (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/edimax-ar-7266wna-wireless-n-adsl-router-04274398-pdt.html). What are you guys using.

I dont want anything that will cause issue with my Sonos. Will be using Ipad 1 (n ready), Samsung Galaxy S2 (n ready), HP laptop (n ready) and a PS3 which is not N ready. Plusnet is my ISP.

Any suggestions folks?

[dave2010]

My old ETEC is starting to need reboots more and more. It struggles to transfer a FLAC encoded album to my WD NAS via wifi sometimes its hangs. I have been using the ethernet cable if I have a few albums to upload at a time but would rather more speed without having to go upstairs. Apart from that I need a bit more reach in the garden so looking at N spec routers. Thing is as is the way of these things the choice is bewildering. Ideally £40 - £70 would be nice and PC world have a few including this Edimax (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/edimax-ar-7266wna-wireless-n-adsl-router-04274398-pdt.html). What are you guys using.

I dont want anything that will cause issue with my Sonos. Will be using Ipad 1 (n ready), Samsung Galaxy S2 (n ready), HP laptop (n ready) and a PS3 which is not N ready. Plusnet is my ISP.

Any suggestions folks?
You do sound as though you may need a new router, but for internal links a router isn't strictly necessary. You can use Ethernet switches for wired systems. TP-Link have some neat and cheap ones which work well. I bought 2 for around a tenner fairly recently. You could try HomePlug kit to get the links between your downstairs and upstairs, though this may not always work. I've only just decided that something in my house prevents HomePlug connectivity from working between the upstairs and downstairs, but I know others have this working. I assume that you don't want to install a wired system. Somewhat reluctantly I'm coming to the conclusion that wired systems have big advantages, providing you can tuck the cables away. However running cables up the stairs which I do for testing is definitely not the way to do it. You may have already tried this yourself. 20 metres of cable isn't expensive.
The next thing I'm going to try is a wireless access point - again from TP-Link - to link upstairs and downstairs.

You'll also find that TP-Link do routers, and some are relatively advanced for the money. For example one model allows multiple SSIDs off the one router, so effectively supports several different wireless LANS in one box. One general issue with their kit seems to be figuring out how to make it work though, and the manuals, which may be comprehensive, do need to be read carefully.

[MartinT]

Presumably (from the Plusnet reference) you need an ADSL router? I used a D-Link 2740B which is wireless-n, MIMO aerials, very reliable and fast. However, it is probably outdated now and you might want to look at one of the newer ones such as the 2740R.

[Mark Grant]

Some other models to consider:

Billion 7800N

http://www.billion.uk.com/product/wireless/7800n.htm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002TOKGL8/ref=asc_df_B002TOKGL83396691?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002TOKGL8

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/wireless-routers/278557/billion-bipac-7800n

many comments online abut increased wireless range and improved ADSL connection speed compared to free or cheapest routers.


Draytek Vigor 2710n ( make sure you buy the N - lower price model does not have wifi )

http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2710.html

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=127955&sourceid=5852

The Draytek has a USB port to allow a USB memory stick or USB hard drive to be used as shared NAS storage.

The choice of routers is endless :)

[Krisbee]

My kit is old, but I thought the general advice for the WAN side was to pick a router with a chipset that gives an optimal connection to your BT exchange or cable provider. In my case that is broadcom and I still use a speedtouch t585. The wireless on the router is feeble, so I use it with a Linksys w54rtg (a hacker's delight) configured as a WAP. The w54rtg has two decent sized antenna and good power ouptut for wifi coverage on the LAN side.

If I was looking for a new router I'd be checking the chipset used, how many antenna it has and the power ouput. If is acted as a gigabyte switch for wired connections that would be a plus if other network devices worked at this rate.

The TP-link stuff at least looks to have decent antenna. In an ideal world I'd much prefer to use all wired connections. For all the hype, Wifi can be very capricious.

Seems like this is a case of ploughing through reviews and checking on forums like thinkbroadband.

[Mark Grant]

The Billion 7800N mentioned above has Gigabit Ethernet ports, useful when moving large files about the network such as photos and videos.

[MartinT]

Also, if you have a service like ADSL2+ (which I have), check that the modem actually supports it. You'll get better speeds if both ends do.

[Effem]

My old ETEC is starting to need reboots more and more. It struggles to transfer a FLAC encoded album to my WD NAS via wifi sometimes its hangs. I have been using the ethernet cable if I have a few albums to upload at a time but would rather more speed without having to go upstairs. Apart from that I need a bit more reach in the garden so looking at N spec routers. Thing is as is the way of these things the choice is bewildering. Ideally £40 - £70 would be nice and PC world have a few including this Edimax (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/edimax-ar-7266wna-wireless-n-adsl-router-04274398-pdt.html). What are you guys using.

I dont want anything that will cause issue with my Sonos. Will be using Ipad 1 (n ready), Samsung Galaxy S2 (n ready), HP laptop (n ready) and a PS3 which is not N ready. Plusnet is my ISP.

Any suggestions folks?

I didn't understand a word of that :scratch:

Is it a recipe for spaghetti bolognese or summat? :eyebrows:

[pwood]

Our area runs ADSL2+ and I get 11meg connection most of the time with the ETEC. How do I find out what chipset suits my exchange. I see a lot of references to Broadcom but to be honest I dont know why the chipset makes a difference.

Mark your right there are a lot of options and usually i end up with the less than straight forward one:doh:

[Krisbee]

Our area runs ADSL2+ and I get 11meg connection most of the time with the ETEC. How do I find out what chipset suits my exchange. I see a lot of references to Broadcom but to be honest I dont know why the chipset makes a difference.

Mark your right there are a lot of options and usually i end up with the less than straight forward one:doh:

Check which exchange your are connected to here:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

and ask the question here:

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/

If you're provider is using BT for ADSL2+ then not only will distance to the exchange effect speed, but their dreaded profile system (unless that's changed in the last 18mnths) can have a major influence if your connections drops, let alone any hardware/sofware interaction between your router and the exchange.

With all the BT ADSL2+ problems 18months ago, I went for a LLU C&W service. It's a 16mb max service, and speedtest shows I get 15mbps. But then I'm only 1K to the exchange as the crow flies.

PS The other forunm I forgot is: http://www.dslzoneuk.net/dslforum/

[pwood]

Thanks for the links. I cant get cable and I doubt we ever will:rolleyes:.

[Krisbee]

Thanks for the links. I cant get cable and I doubt we ever will:rolleyes:.

LLU C&W is not cable, it's ADSL2+ and comes down the phone line via the BT exchange where the data side is connected to C&W equipment not BT's. Xilo is the provider.

Have a look at your exchange details on samknows if LLU is of interest to you.

[dave2010]

Thanks for the links. I cant get cable and I doubt we ever will:rolleyes:.Paul

Before you rush out to spend money ......

Not sure which model of router you are using. Have you checked for any firmware updates? Sometimes they may make a difference?

Have you followed the recommended procedures to check for ADSL faults - e.g disconnect every other phone device, check microfilters, connect router direct to master BT input etc.? There are pages online which help you with this if you haven't.

Older routers do eventually wear out or malfunction - though sometimes it's just changes in the systems which cause incompatibilities. Last time we had a router panic we changed supplier - to Talk Talk - and they more or less insisted we use their router. It works OK, but it's basically a cheap (Chinese?) model. I reconfigured it to connect to the rest of our network.

If you're looking for really good routers you may have to pay £00s - e.g for some of the Draytek routers which are well over a £100, but some of them do fall back to alternative broadband suppliers, including satellite.

Might be worth checking your router website to see if there are any firmware upgrades. Also, try checking your router speed (e.g speedtest.net) and see how slow it is. You might find that changing the micro-filters (they can also wear out in a couple of years) makes a big difference to the speed and error rates, and if the problem is due to the wiring or micro-filter then changing the router won't fix that. Go for the cheap checks first I'd say. Indeed, if there are problems, do the micro-filter check first, as otherwise you may get corruptions even if there are firmware upgrades - unless you can download such across a known good link (e.g work, or a friend's). No point in installing duff firmware - that'll probably brick your router if it isn't already.

Check with your ISP that all the parameters are set up optimally for your router, though some ISPs aren't helpful with that. Some will only help you for routers they know about or supply.

You might find that a firmware upgrade does the trick for a while, but if the problem recurs soon, then that might indicate that it's time to give up and buy a new one.

I'd strongly recommend micro-filter check, wiring check, speedtest.net then firmware check before spending anything more.

[ursus262]

Before buying a new router, can I suggest you replace the power supply first? Evidently, the power supplies can deteriorate and a new one of those can rejuvenate your router. Routers don't have moving parts, so can't wear out!

Incidentally, Billion routers have a good reputation if you must replace it. We use a Netgear 834Gv2 router, which is seven years old now! It works perfectly, and my hifi, pvr and Blu Ray player are all networked to it. Never had any problems with it.

[Mark Grant]

Routers don't have moving parts, so can't wear out!



The plug in PSU do definately fail, so good idea to try another.

No moving parts but capacitors fail eventually inside some makes.

A thread on an Australian forum:
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=544294



We use a Netgear 834Gv2 router

I had one of those years ago, the V4 had better connections speeds on some lines as it had a newer broadcom chipset.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netgear_DG834_(series)

The modified firmware at DGteam is worth a try for those that like to tinker with Netgear routers.
http://dgteam.ilbello.com/index.php

I replaced an 834V4 that worked perfectly with a DGN2000 to get 'N' , was great to start with but now wifi is a bit random, needs rebooting sometimes to enable wireless devices to connect, it does run very warm.

http://twigstechtips.blogspot.com/2009/11/netgear-dgn2000-overheating-issues.html

Might buy one of those Billions....

-

[pwood]

Yet again TAOS never fails to make me :) at the help you get on here. My router is over 5 years old and has a max file transfer rate of 120. A couple of years ago I got another router from Plusnet for hehaw and used that until the BT exchange was upgraded and the Thomson router was found to have a throughput issue preventing anything more then 8Meg (Plusnet did the checking on my line and that was their conclusion). They offere for the price of postage another Thomson that would work fine but I decided i would rather buy an N spec one with better data transfer speeds.

Currently I get 11.4 download and 0.94 upload using speedtest.net which I think is pretty good. Its the inability to transfer FLAC files and view my pictures stored on my NAS at a decent speed that prompted me to finally look into a new router especially as its been less reliable of late.

One thing that I wonder if its related is the fact my SONOS stutters when playing music when the microwave is on. Is this the router? or Sonos related as i can surf the internet without any issue.

[dave2010]

Routers don't have moving parts, so can't wear out!
Sorry to disagree, but routers which are a few years old can definitely fail, for various reasons. Another possibility is that some can even be attacked by hackers, so reinstalling the firmware and/or returning to factory settings can help. if the problems keep coming back - it happened to me with one model, and I have two identical ones - then eventually it becomes easier to assume the router has become faulty than worry about it. Heat may be a factor in some fault situations. Some very old routers may not be ADSL2 compatible, or up to the latest standards, so system changes at the ISP can trash a router overnight. It shouldn't happen too often, but can, and does occur sometimes.

[dave2010]

One thing that I wonder if its related is the fact my SONOS stutters when playing music when the microwave is on. Is this the router? or Sonos related as i can surf the internet without any issue.
Quite possibly. Try running with the microwave on, and without, and see what happens. Do mobile or cordless phones also affect streaming?

How close is the Sonos to the router? Surfing the Internet probably won't generate anything like the amount of data which needs to be shifted in time. Are there any buffering parameters which can be tweaked at the Sonos end?

Can the Sonos use a wired connection? If so, then if you can route the cable it'll probably improve things considerably. If you don't get good results with a cable, then it's unlikely that tweaking the wireless will make a difference, though I wouldn't expect too big a problem with audio. Have you ever tried streaming video over your network? One way to test is to use a laptop, run YouTube or video from one of your servers (if you have one), then move around and see if the video gives up or drops out. You might find that positioning helps, and I can also suggest that some devices even require to be oriented "correctly"' so try rotating the router and receiver about a vertical axis. Don't put anything on top of metal boxes e.g. biscuit tins! Lastly, if you use other mobile devices, you might find that putting them somewhere on a line between the router and the device you are interested in will disrupt communications.

[pwood]

When i installed the Sonos it would not show on my computer. Turned cordless phones off and it worked fine. Once everything was setup I turned the phones on and it all worked fine.

[Alex_UK]

I had similar issues with a "digisender" wireless video sender we used to transmit the sky signal to the kitchen - needs to be turned off when adding anything to the network, otherwise it drowns out the router. And I don't trust microwaves one little bit - shifty evil little things they are... My mate's microwave sets off his car alarm every time he uses it - has to unlock the car before doing any cooking! :eek:

[MartinT]

Microwave ovens and video senders are known to interfere with the 2.4GHz frequency band that wireless b/g/n uses.

[AlexM]

Microwave ovens blast 700-800w around 2.4Ghz and will nuke WiFi connections if there is any problem with the shielding at all. most ovens start to leak as the door hinges or latches wear.

Agree with the comments re: PSUs going bad over time, and causing crashes, Wireless connections or intermittent lock-ups. ADSL problems also often cause intermittent connection issues with WiFi while the ADSL connection retrains,so follow the diagnostics suggested earlier.

Cheers,
Alex

[Jac Hawk]

Can i add my 10p worth since i work for BT Broadband, 1st off unless your PC and other peripherals are N rated, then an N rated router will not give you anymore intranet speed as it will drop down to probably G, most kit works on G and it's fine, as for routers, IMHO I would get a Linksys every time, or get BT broadband and one of our new hubs which are fab too.

[Jac Hawk]

Microwave ovens and video senders are known to interfere with the 2.4GHz frequency band that wireless b/g/n uses.

the new BT home hub can alter the frequency it sends and receives on to alleviate this problem ;)

[pwood]

Everything except my PS3 is N ready although not sure about the Sonos zone bridge side of it. A dual band router seems to be a desirable feature then I did wonder about that. Oh and a new microwave :eek:

[Tim]

We use a Netgear 834Gv2 router, which is seven years old now! It works perfectly, and my hifi, pvr and Blu Ray player are all networked to it. Never had any problems with it.
Amazingly my Netgear DG834g v2 has been switched on 24/7 for the last 6 years without a hitch and for the past 12 months has been in the airing cupboard running very warm indeed. I'm almost wanting it to break so I can get a more modern one.....

(that'll be it now though, I've just give it the kiss of death I reckon :scratch:)

[pwood]

Just wanted to add that I have replicated the fault 2 days in a row. I can surf all day but when i get up next morning my devices will not connect to the router despite it showing high strength. A quick reboot of the router and everything works fine. :scratch: The Thomson is going back in soon till i decide on a router. Ideally £50 would have been my budget but thats looking less likely:(

[dave2010]

Just wanted to add that I have replicated the fault 2 days in a row. I can surf all day but when i get up next morning my devices will not connect to the router despite it showing high strength. A quick reboot of the router and everything works fine. :scratch: The Thomson is going back in soon till i decide on a router. Ideally £50 would have been my budget but thats looking less likely:(If rebooting works, why not put a time switch on the router mains to switch off overnight - say 2am to 6am? A time switch is a lot cheaper than a router - I've picked up several from B & Q bins at £1 each in the last few years. Might give you months or even years of extra life!

Have you checked the firmware yet? Otherwise sounds as though it's working OK from the speed tests. Sometimes problems are due to DNS failures (quite common) or occasionally IP address conflicts. Could be due to DHCP leases expiring also. Some routers don't do DHCP well, so maybe consider static IPs.

[ursus262]

Amazingly my Netgear DG834g v2 has been switched on 24/7 for the last 6 years without a hitch and for the past 12 months has been in the airing cupboard running very warm indeed. I'm almost wanting it to break so I can get a more modern one.....

(that'll be it now though, I've just give it the kiss of death I reckon :scratch:)

Oh, it's absolutely wonderful. It goes on and on and on.... but like some of the people on this forum :lolsign:

[dave2010]

One thing that I wonder if its related is the fact my SONOS stutters when playing music when the microwave is on. Is this the router? or Sonos related as i can surf the internet without any issue.
Today I was playing with a wireless access point - which I finally got working up to speed, after a period during which it was really, really grindingly slow - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WA701ND-150Mbps-Wireless-Access/dp/B002YETVVE/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1309549126&sr=1-3

At one point I was trying to make a phone call using a cordless phone, and I noticed that the phone had glitches every time I changed the web page. The phone and the access point were rather close at the time, so obviously there can be interactions. It seems likely that phones can also interfere with wireless streaming data.

[Butuz]

Amazingly my Netgear DG834g v2 has been switched on 24/7 for the last 6 years without a hitch and for the past 12 months has been in the airing cupboard running very warm indeed.

They work fine wired. Try using the wireless daily and you'll realise it's a steaming pile of :lolsign:

Best router I've used so far is my Bt Homehub 2 (and I've used a lot) Utterly fantastic. Lets hope the new version is as good!!! Unfortunately you've got to move to bt Internet to get one which is no where near as fantastic. :doh:

Butuz

[Tim]

They work fine wired. Try using the wireless daily and you'll realise it's a steaming pile of :lolsign:

:scratch: no problems here at all, I have a Samsung Netbook that runs via wireless and a Dell Vosto laptop too. Then I have a desktop PC, NAS and my Music Server hooked up via Ethernet - not a hitch at all (yes I know I have 4 computers, but I'm a geek!).
Mind you I guess a lot will depend on the construction of your building? I live in a modern build flat and I guess the maximum distance any wireless receiver is from the Router, is no more than 40~50 feet.

[ursus262]

I use mine day in day out. I've never had any problems with my Netgear Router (DG834Gv2) It is seven years old now, and it works perfectly.

Today, I upgraded the firmware (which you can do easily from the Netgear website), and it definitely seems to work much faster! So I am even happier with it.

I have never had problems with wireless in our house.