Will a N Router make a difference ?

nutter · 19 Sep 2009 at 12:58

Hi i currently have SKY Broadbrand, & fastest speed they sell, but for me it's very choppy and at times very slow. Im think this is partly down to the crap Router of skys. Transfer speed of sky router is 54Mbps i think, so was thinking of buying a N Router which can get upto 300Mbps speeds. Was also going to buy a N usb wirless adaptor.

Router i want to buy: Belkin Wireless N Router
Wireless adaptor: Belkin Wireless N USB Adaptor.

Would not be cheap, over £100. Im just wondering if it will actually really make a difference, has anyone gone from a standard router to the better ones?

Would it be easy to set up, do i just swap the sky router over for the belkin, or is there more too it?

Daegan · 19 Sep 2009 at 13:14

Your Sky broadband is an up to 20mbps service, while the router is advertised 54mbps. In reality you won't get anything like 54mbps over your wireless, but it should still provide more than enough bandwidth for your broadband.

Choppy and slow doesn't go very far in explaining any problems you might have. Stuff like line stats, reliable measurements of download speeds and info about what you're doing on your PC at the time helps.

Finally vanquish any thoughts you might have of Belkin, they're a terrible terrible brand

nutter · 19 Sep 2009 at 13:54

Oh dam 2nd person who told me not to do it :eek:

Current speedtest....

Download speed: 76.28mbs
Upload speed: 0.62mbs
Ping 74ms

Is that good?

Last night whilst streaming online, it crawled very badly at times. And just in general at times it goes slow and even loses signal odd time.

s0ck · 19 Sep 2009 at 13:57

How about plugging yourself into an ethernet port and actually seeing if there's a difference?

nutter · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:00

s0ck said:
How about plugging yourself into an ethernet port and actually seeing if there's a difference?

See my router is downstairs, and my wireless laptop upstairs, but due to the connections to my sky boxes in the rooms, i have spair phone line sockets that run to the router.

If i just connected a ethernet cable from laptop to one of those sockets, do you thin kthat would make a difference.

AbsenceJam · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:02

nutter said:
See my router is downstairs, and my wireless laptop upstairs, but due to the connections to my sky boxes in the rooms, i have spair phone line sockets that run to the router.

If i just connected a ethernet cable from laptop to one of those sockets, do you thin kthat would make a difference.

Try using it wired to see if it makes a difference.

You can't plug a network cable into a phone socket, you need a network, and it wouldn't even fit...

Monkeynut · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:04

Don't get Belkin equipment if you do, it's rubbish.

nutter · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:05

Do i need to connecte the ethernet from laptop to router, or can i use on of the phone sockets?

nutter · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:07

Ok then rule out the new router for a second, what about those homeplugs that suppose to make signal better.

Would that be better?

nutter · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:14

Just tried ethernet cable connected to router, went very slow, this was results.

DS: 19.78MBS
US: 0.64mbs
PING: 69

Upload speed same, guess im just best stickign to what i have

Could always go to BT :mad:

Nothing i can mess about with in my sky broadbrand settings to get it abit quicker?

Monkeynut · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:36

nutter said:
Oh dam 2nd person who told me not to do it

Current speedtest....

Download speed: 76.28mbs
Upload speed: 0.62mbs
Ping 74ms

Is that good?

Last night whilst streaming online, it crawled very badly at times. And just in general at times it goes slow and even loses signal odd time.

To me that result sounds very, very wrong.

K.C. Leblanc · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:40

nutter said:
Just tried ethernet cable connected to router, went very slow, this was results.

DS: 19.78MBS
US: 0.64mbs
PING: 69

Upload speed same, guess im just best stickign to what i have Could always go to BT

Nothing i can mess about with in my sky broadbrand settings to get it abit quicker?

It should be quicker or the same speed as using wireless. Did you disable wireless on your laptop before you did the test.

Also is your router plugged into your BT master socket, or an extention?

nutter · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:40

Monkeynut said:
To me that result sounds very, very wrong.

In what way, i used Speedtest to do the test.

nutter · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:41

K.C. Leblanc said:
It should be quicker or the same speed as using wireless. Did you disable wireless on your laptop before you did the test.

Yes.

Daegan · 19 Sep 2009 at 14:57

nutter said:
In what way, i used Speedtest to do the test.

It's telling you your download speed was 76mbps, when your broadband service has a maximum download speed of 24mbps. It's wrong.

iCe-BLaZeD · 20 Sep 2009 at 01:56

its most likely a firewall/AV interfering with the speedtest, try disabling ur firewall and/or Anti-virus software and try the test again

Rroff · 20 Sep 2009 at 02:12

Common problem with speedtest.net and similiar sites that show some fast connections sky llu, be, virgin, etc. at 70-80mbit/s when it reality they are only 20 or 50mbit... possibly related to firewall or other incompatibility as said above - thats still gonna be miles better speed than you'd get on BT...

Sound like you are running into one of 2 issues:

wireless connectivity
traffic management

For the first I would grab a copy of inSSIDer ( http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider ) and see what channels are in use in your area - try using either channels 1, 6 or 11 so that you aren't overlapping another wireless network if possible.

As for the second I'm none too sure on what traffic management if any sky uses - but some ISPs manage certain type of traffic i.e. video traffic during peak times and slow it down