Which Wireless Router?

[Allen]

I have never owned a wireless router, so they all confuse the heck out of me. I would like to go wireless at home though but I'm not sure which one to go for. Basically, I'm not worried about max download speeds as I don't download a lot anyway, what I do want is a fast and stable connection from the living room downstairs to my computer room upstairs.

I game a lot online, therefore fast pings are most important for me. I know my line is not great, but the cabling inside the house is terrible and I'm constantly getting high pings due to this, so I want to give wireless a go. What should I look out for?

Also, any advise on a particular router would be great, and preferably something not too expensive!

Thanks in advance.

[vhero]

go for belkin all the way and avoid netgear cheap routers they are terrible the thing you got to think of is if you are planning on keeping the router for many years to come as if you are then i advise N routers as they are super fast and future ready wher as your bog standard router G although fast will be out of date in 1 years time but G routers are dirt cheap and so are adaptors. I would seriously consider a N or N1 router for gaming not only is it the fastest speeds you will also get superior range meaning you wont have to worry about moving your pc about as some G routers wont even work outside the room depending on how your house is built.

N of course is new tech so is expensive but a nice kit would be fine N1 is even better but is tipping the £100 mark

if you need advise on which to get then post a few here first of all though this is a big one youg et the right type of router do you use ADSL or Cable ? if you dont know the differnce ADSL comes through phonelin whereas cable doesnt e.g. virgin

[menthel]

Horses for courses really. I have had nothing but trouble with belkin equipment personally and highly recommend netgear!

Drayteks are supposed to be superb and will be my next purchase once I move and wire up my house fully.

People have always had bad experiences with one make or another, look at some professional reviews and then browse the retailers and look at overall ratings there too.

For network stuff these guys are good:

Broadbandbuyer.co.uk | Wireless Networking, Wireless Router, ADSL Router, NAS, VoIP and Broadband Hardware Experts

[Allen]

go for belkin all the way and avoid netgear cheap routers they are terrible the thing you got to think of is if you are planning on keeping the router for many years to come as if you are then i advise N routers as they are super fast and future ready wher as your bog standard router G although fast will be out of date in 1 years time but G routers are dirt cheap and so are adaptors. I would seriously consider a N or N1 router for gaming not only is it the fastest speeds you will also get superior range meaning you wont have to worry about moving your pc about as some G routers wont even work outside the room depending on how your house is built.

N of course is new tech so is expensive but a nice kit would be fine N1 is even better but is tipping the £100 mark

if you need advise on which to get then post a few here first of all though this is a big one youg et the right type of router do you use ADSL or Cable ? if you dont know the differnce ADSL comes through phonelin whereas cable doesnt e.g. virgin

Am on ADSL Max, but rarely get over 5Mbit/s. I have had a DG834 for about 4-5 years now, it's never caused me any problems and works just fine. But am open to suggestions, a router costing around £50 would be nice, I don't think I could justify £100 on a router.

[Allen]

Horses for courses really. I have had nothing but trouble with belkin equipment personally and highly recommend netgear!

Drayteks are supposed to be superb and will be my next purchase once I move and wire up my house fully.

People have always had bad experiences with one make or another, look at some professional reviews and then browse the retailers and look at overall ratings there too.

For network stuff these guys are good:

Broadbandbuyer.co.uk | Wireless Networking, Wireless Router, ADSL Router, NAS, VoIP and Broadband Hardware Experts

Yeah, I've also heard good things about Draytek, but I think they are quite expensive. Haven't heard many bad things about Belkin routers, but as with anything in this world, you only ever hear about the "bad" aspects of anything, so it's all pretty much ignorable when trying to decide.

[menthel]

Draytek are horribly expensive but rock solid. Just make sure you get one with good overall reviews really. What king of distance will it have to cover? How is the house constructed? Have you considered homeplugs?

[smargh]

My old Draytek 2600G was great. Didn't use the wifi though. I used it on an Eclipse (Tiscali - later LLU) connection.

When the 2600G died from a lightning-induced surge, it was replaced with a 2800VG. It reconnected at least once or twice a day - it got very very annoying, and when I used the wifi AP, it didn't seem to handle long and sustained high transfer rates. I live within peashooter range of my exchange - DMT extimates about 150 to 200 meters line length. The PSU for the 2800VG died (with the replacement free direct from Draytek UK), but it was still crap with the new PSU and also when I tried my own nice Mascot-branded PSU.

I then changed to a Speedtouch 585v6 which was very stable. However, when I changed my ISP to Be, it then reconnected every one or two days, sometimes more often. It also took a long time to resync, despite configuring it as recommended by Draytek.

SO....... I then changed to a Netgear DG834GT, which works brilliantly - it very rarely reconnects, even then I reckon it's at the same time as gusts of wind blowing the cables around outside.

So, my recommendations are: Speedtouch 585v6 for BT ADSL or ADSL-style 0/38 LLU, and Netgear DG834GT with the UberGT firmware for ADSL2+ LLU connections. The DMT tool can be used with both of them (only Speedtouch firmwares lower than 6.1.something, however).

[kmac]

I had a Draytek 2600We for over 6 years and never had any problems till it died about a week ago ( I think possibly from a lightening induced surge).

I was given a free Netgear DG834GT and no problems so far.
I think that Draytek has more features and would really like to get the 2820Vn but its circa £180.

There is alos the Cisco 800 series to consider but i don't believe they support N spec yet. if you are looking for coverage I owuld definately go for N spec.
I would have no problem recommending a Draytek ( althoug i think there were some issues with the 2800 wireless G routers).

[Allen]

Draytek are horribly expensive but rock solid. Just make sure you get one with good overall reviews really. What king of distance will it have to cover? How is the house constructed? Have you considered homeplugs?

I would say it was no more than 10 meters with no more than 1 wall and the floor to go through. As for how the house is constructed, I honestly have no idea.

Is the homeplug option any good? I don't know how old the cabling is inside the house, the telephone extension upstairs which I'm currently using is crap and limiting me to about 1Mbit/s at the moment, so I don't know how well the power cables will cope, or if it will even work.

[vhero]

home plugs aint a good idea i heard nothing but problems from them

I would advise this personally then if your looking uner £50
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK
and
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

cheapest combo on scan i didnt just pick because it was belkin lol

[menthel]

My homeplugs have been great, much faster and more reliable than wireless.

I use a pair of solwise 85mbps ones. I do have fairly modern wiring though. You have to be careful in older houses as they may have 2 separate rings over 2 floors.

Is your house old? Victorian? Edwardian? Or modern? If its old you can have problems with wireless because of the wall thinckness.

[vhero]

My homeplugs have been great, much faster and more reliable than wireless.

I use a pair of solwise 85mbps ones. I do have fairly modern wiring though. You have to be careful in older houses as they may have 2 separate rings over 2 floors.

Is your house old? Victorian? Edwardian? Or modern? If its old you can have problems with wireless because of the wall thinckness.

yeah plugs are a hit and miss if you really want it though and can find a place that accepts returns like pc world or something and find em under £50 then go for it. Prob is if you want to add more pc's at a later date its a costly way to add them to your network but for 1 PC its great solution.

[Allen]

My homeplugs have been great, much faster and more reliable than wireless.

I use a pair of solwise 85mbps ones. I do have fairly modern wiring though. You have to be careful in older houses as they may have 2 separate rings over 2 floors.

Is your house old? Victorian? Edwardian? Or modern? If its old you can have problems with wireless because of the wall thinckness.

I believe it's modern, we live in a split-level mainsonette on a development that people in their 30's remember when it was a public house... So not that old! Our neighbour uses wireless, I guess I should ask him how his performs.

[Allen]

home plugs aint a good idea i heard nothing but problems from them

I would advise this personally then if your looking uner £50
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK
and
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

cheapest combo on scan i didnt just pick because it was belkin lol

Looks pretty good, but will 802.11g handle online gaming OK or should I look for this new "n" version mentioned earlier in this thread?

[vhero]

G will suffice for now as you wont get an N router and adapter for under £50 games in the future will need faster speeds so N will be needed but by then they will probably be the norm. I used G for my mmo's and games like counterstrike fine. I was just saying N is for the future but if you dont mind buying another router in a year or 2 time then go for the G to last besides N is pointless if your only getting 5mb.

[menthel]

If you are only going to connect 1 computer I still think a homeplug could be more relaible...