Quality of routers?

[ja3h]

Hey guys,

i'm not v.good at networking etc. But i'm with bulldog and have an 8mb service (or whatever i get down the line)

And i have a cheap 4 port safecom modem/router *a cheap ebuyer one*

And it is receiving 4meg i updated the firmware and everything, and bulldog support was actually really helpful, a technician gave me a ring and i tried to fiddle with dns settings etc. He said i should be getting faster speeds and that maybe my router was to blame. It was something like "not all modems and routers can handle such high speeds" is that true or he can't figure anything else out?

Thnx

[aidanjt]

I've never heard of safecom, but generally speaking so long as the router supports ADSL1 it should achive 8mbps, it should also tell you its speed uplink in its control panel settings somewhere.. don't expect to max 8mbps from any one server, you rarely acheive half of that with any one connection.

[Slamdog]

some routers used to have poor throughput (netgear springs to mind) but your problem seems to be a bit more modem related rather than the router part

[aidanjt]

he's talking about a router with adsl circuts built-in.

Bear in mind that the lenght of cable from your telephone entry to your modem cannot exceed 30 metres, otherwise you'll get signal degridation and your uplink speed will be significantly reduced. If this isn't the case and you're convinced that the problem is with the router, then a Netgear DG834 ADSL Router would do the trick for £50, it has an advanced firewall built in as well.

[Lee H]

It really depends on the SNR as to what speed you would synch at.

Some router chipsets are a bit more "sensitive" than others, I found this when I used a cheap connexant based adsl modem and router on Bulldog and this occasionally lost synch.

Since replacing the router with an Asus AAM6020VI-T4 router based on I think it's the Texas Instruments chipset and my routers now been connected for over 167 days without disconnecting, lagging and other issues that I've seen from the pile of routers I have at home. The wireless HAS never failed as well, something I have seen on a variety of routers which tended to get to near 28-34 days uptime and started to act a little "strange"

[ja3h]

Thanks for the response guys, greatly appreciated

The router is plugged into the tele socket so its not losing anything there. Its wired, from the modem to my pc by...
router--20m cable--switch--5m cable--pc

Its also a usb connection too, so i took my pc (had some spare time) to the tele line and tried with the usb, and the speeds were the same so no line degridation.

The router is stable though, its been on for weeks 24/7 and i haven't had any restarts or needed to restart it.

The bulldog exchange is in wimbeldon and i live a few miles away so i was hoping a better connection.

I got an old speedtouch wanadoo usb modem, do you think its worth plugging that in and giving it a go? I don't really want to buy a new router and find that nothing has improved.

thnx

[aidanjt]

if you live a few miles from the exchange then that'll explain the speed problems, 8mbps needs you to be basically sitting on top of your exchange, even after a mile the ADSL signal becomes more degraded.. You can try plugging in the speedtouch modem, but I can't see it making a difference.. Bulldog should never have offered 8mbps if you live that far from your exchange.

[ultim8um]

Yep the further away you are from the exchange the slower your speed will be but things can tail off even more quickly if the last mile is poor quality (e.g. aluminium cable is involved!)...
To get the full 8mb consistently you would have to have pretty good line quality.

Oh and ADSL routers often do have different abilities (although most of the ones I have seen have differences between their supported Upload (700k - 1mb) speeds rather than their download speeds).