New router - which one to go for?

CurlyWhirly

CurlyWhirly

CurlyWhirly

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I have now decided to go ahead with the purchase of a router as I want to get maximum benefit of BT's Max DSL service when it is launched on 31st March.

I have just been on Live Help and AOL officially support these routers:


Netgear DG834 ADSL Modem Router

Netgear DG834G Wireless ADSL Modem Router

Netgear WG511 54Mbps Wireless PCMCIA Network Adapter

Netgear WG111 54Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter
Thomson SpeedTouch 510 4-Port ADSL Modem Router

Thomson SpeedTouch 576 Wireless ADSL Modem Router

Thomson SpeedTouch 580 Wireless ADSL Modem Router

Thomson SpeedTouch 110g 54Mbps Wireless PCMCIA Network Adapter

Thomson SpeedTouch 120g 54Mbps Wireless USB Network Adapter

Thomson SpeedTouch 121g 54Mbps Wireless USB Network Adapter


Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with any of these routers as I need to know before commiting myself.
I don't need to use a wireless router as I have no need to set up a home network as I only have the one PC.

Thanks.


p.s. the reason why I want to upgrade to a router is that I have been told that you need to leave your router on continously for 10 days in order for the exchange software to sync at the correct speed with your PC therefore giving you the fastest possible speed.

If I use my current BT Voyager 100 modem, I will have to leave my PC on continously for 10 days solid which I have never done before!


Out of the above list I notice that only the top one isn't wireless.
This doesn't matter to me as I intend plugging the router into my telephone line.
 
p.s. I'm not asking for links where these routers can be purchased (as it's against the rules), I am only asking for advice on which model to go for.
 
Al Vallario said:
Erm, how does wireless functionality have anything to do with whether you intend on connecting it to your phone line? The fact that a router has wireless capabilities doesn't mean it can connect to your phone line wirelessly, it means other devices can connect to it wirelessly!
Click to expand...
Yes I agree I worded that wrongly :o


tolien said:
One thing against the Netgear is it seems to (still) have an issue with drifting SNR over time, which is a bit of a problem with Max.
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Yes I heard about that as well.
I am quite far from the exchange so the last thing I want is S/N ratio problems.
I have fitted a BT faceplate which may help with SNR?
 
tolien said:
AFAIK yes it does, but if you switch the modem off/the modem crashes, it's not going to touch an error counter...
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I am under the impression that you can leave routers on even if you turn the PC off.
Is this right :confused:

Please excuse my ignorance as I have had no experience of using a router.
I have only ever used modems, originally a dial-up modem and now a ADSL USB modem.
 
It just proves that I should read the sticky threads more often in future as I didn't know that it is possible to know your Attenuation and S/N ratio levels with a standard ADSL USB modem.

I know I will be getting a router in only a few days time but before I do I would like to carry out the instructions for the BT Voyager 100 as explained in this sticky.

Unfortunately I can't get the checker to work as when I enter my details into this line speed estimator I get this error message HTTP 500.100 - Internal Server Error - ASP error:





After Googling the error message I think it's something to do with IE browser settings which is strange as I was using Firefox at the time :confused:

Any ideas anyone?
Thanks.
 
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tolien said:
It's neither Firefox nor an IE error - it's an ASP error (which the calculator uses).
It works for me though.
Click to expand...
Would you know how I can fix it?
I tried leaving out the dB bit when entering the information but the error still came up.
 
tolien said:
It's because you're trying to feed it "25.5 dB" instead of just the values, and two attenuation values (with characters in between) instead of one...
Click to expand...
I did leave out the dB bit afterwards but I entered both the attentuation values so this is probably what caused the error so I will have another try.

Cheers.
 
Phnom_Penh said:
and none of that funny stuff with big and little m's Tolien ;).
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I know I'm always doing it :rolleyes:


Phnom_Penh said:
Having a 1m line is al well and good, but you won't connect at 1m.
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Do you mean because it doesn't take overheads into account?
When I run ADSL Guide's broadband test I usually get around 950 kbit which isn't bad for a 1 mbit line I assume?


tolien said:
Put in 1152, 56.0 and 25.5, and it works...
Click to expand...
Thanks now I know where I went wrong!
My excuse was I never used that line checker before so I didn't know how to enter the info correctly.


tolien said:
A crude estimate of what your line is capable of is 6693kbps (kilo bits per second)
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Crikey that's way higher than BT's figures which say that I can't even get 2 mbit let alone 6 mbit :eek:
 
tolien said:
Because they're guesstimating based on your attenuation, not your SNR margin. Note that it is crude - the only answer's what you get when it's enabled.
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Thanks tolien.
You seem to really know your stuff :cool:

I will now check out the sticky threads for more info on exactly what these terms mean.
 
My new router has just arrived but before I connect it up can someone please explain the difference between line rate and data rate (or sync rate I think it is also known as)?




I'm just curious as to why the line rate is higher in both instances of download and upload speed :confused:
I thought that the data rate already allowed for 'overheads'.

Thanks :)
 
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