Saint AAI

I'm after a new ADSL modem/wireless router, but am unsure which to get as there seems to be hundreds out there and I'm not that clued up on them. Needs to have a USB port for sticking in an external hard drive to use as network storage, and if I get one that uses the 802.11n standard will I get any issues when using a g device at the same time as an n device?
So what do people recommend for under £100, but preferably closer to £50?

Ant

Shane I've got a netgear n rounter and it handles n and g fine.

I've never had issue with my netgear router but it doesn't have a USB port.

I'd stay away from belkin, have you looked at linksys stuff?

Coffin Dodger

I know we'll be able to get fibre to cabinet / BT Infinity 40Mb broadband early next year so I've put on hold any plans to upgrade my router as ADSL won't be any use. #

At the moment BT provide a VDSL modem which you then can plug into a cable router (or a new version of their HomeHub thing).

So if you are upgrading now it might be worth getting something with an Ethernet WAN port as well as ADSL....`

TimH

iTrader: (11)

Draytek Vigor 2710n ticks all your boxes, and gets recommended in reviews - but it is a £100 router not a £50 one.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

netgear ftw

Saint AAI

Cheers Ant, from what I've been googling the Belkins are a bit crap so will stay away. Looked at one of the Linksys ones.

The short list I've got so far is:

Netgear DGND3300 £89
Netgear DGN2200 £52.99
Linksys Wag 320N £87.99
Draytek Vigor 2710n £110

I'm tempted by the cheaper price of the 2200, but when I google it there seems to be one issue with it, that probably won't affect me.
The D3300 comes back as being a little slow, but it will be faster than what I have at the min and it has dual radios.
The 320N sounds good and you can configure a LAN port to a WAN port for use with a cable modem, but I don't think that will be needed in my area anytime soon.
The Draytek has everything I need, but is a little pricey.

I like Netgear stuff so am tempted to go for the D3300, but then the Draytek is only £20 more. Decisions decisions.

markr1963

You might need a dual band router. See here

Saint AAI

I've gone with the D3300. It's dual band so hopefully will work well once setup.

mike1210

Guys for those on the verge of getting VDSL there was an interesting thread on Overclockers testing routers with it (cable routers) and many of them couldn't cope with the speed. For example they were getting 30 Mbit plugged directly into the modem and 16 Mbit via the router. I can't find the thread in question but double check reviews and the like when the time comes to jump to FTTC. Sorry for being off topic

Saint AAI

For anyone interested in a follow up to this, as already stated I went with the Netgear DGND3300. So far it works flawlessly, signal strength is high throughout my house and the connection has been maintained at all times. It was easy to set up and has a load of advanced features I will probably never use. Plugged in my external hard drive and it was easily discoverable with my laptop and pc. I have yet to test the n network side of things, but streaming movies from the NAS drive across the g network worked fine. The router has dual radios and can use both n and g networks at the same time.

You can set up guest access points on both the n and g networks, but I'm not fully sure what the point of this is as if you leave them as open networks, anyone can use your bandwidth, although I guess it's on a separate network so guests can use your internet without sniffing any of your traffic, or accessing any other computers on your main network. I currently use my guest network with WPA encryption for my PSP, as my old PSP doesn't support WPA2 which my main network is set up to use, my NAS drive is also not accessible by my guest network, but I can change this if I want.

Another feature which is probably common amongst routers is that I can set a scheduled firewall, which I tested out the other day. I bought my girlfriend Black Ops for Xmas. Since then she has been up later and later playing on it, to the point that when I get up at 5 to go to work, she is still up. This was getting annoying and so when in bed I logged onto the router using my phone and set a firewall to block everything between 1:00am and 6:00am. This worked great and after about 50 mins of turning things off and on again, she came to bed moaning the internet wasn't working.

My next step is to get TVersity working properly so I can stream from the NAS to my PS3, at the moment I can see what’s on the drive, but it won’t play any of it? Not sure what I’m doing wrong yet.

Sorry for the essay, Shane.

Littleted

ahh a router thread.

Ok ive been in IT for 17 Years from the day of break fix to now a 6 figure consultant and believe me ive had my fair share of **** routers. My views

belkin shiney black ones, Pre N all ok Limited features but ok. Need resetting though.
Vigour Drayteks Specifically the 2400 2600 2900s very nice routers lots of features too many for a beginner though. One thing to remember about drayteks is, If you use newsgroups and newsleechers for stuff, the above Models all Lock up total freeze, I ve been in talks with Draytek China and even they couldnt fix it, with me sending syslogs etc, so stay away if your a leecher, ( it may be fixed in new ones but unsure )

Im currently on 50mb NTl soon to move to 100mb, and they fit me a netgear 2200 and i have to say its been bulletproof.

now this surprised me cos that piece of **** sky used to send out the 834GT nearly had law suits againts netgear cos it was so wankadoodle.

if it was me m8 id go netgear, and look for one if possible that can do 2 wireless lans.

Only reason i say this is the IPAD if you have one, doesnt like single wifi the flavour of which support B G and N, if for instance your wife connects to it on G and your PAD on N it drops out all the time, ( apple admit this is a design fault ) and the fix is to have 2 Wlans ie 1 for kids n wife called FUN WIFI and yours ADULT WIFI locked to PRE N

anyway good luck m8 Pm if you need anything

Ted

P.S

I run 4 PCS, 4 Laptops Ps3 and Xbox 360 through the netgear and its been great ( surprisingly )

saw the PSP thread im sure mine connects to WPA and its a release 1 , by any chance is yours hacked, Mine was once but i got sick of the lack of support o updated it to proper.

I also use Tvercity PS3 media server and others and all work fine

Littleted

teach me to read threads good choice

Saint AAI

Yes my PSP is running CFW 5.0 M33, it connects to WPA, but not WPA2.

Littleted

Np, why are you trying to connect it then, just to play against ya m8s etc ?

I stayed away from the net when it was modded, but i got sick of the support, so i logged into NET and made it upgrade to the real deal,

been much more fun since, using it with my ps3 and cheap games.

Saint AAI

Not sure to be honest, think I just wanted to connect everything up to the new router. I never use the PSP online for anything. It only gets used for playing PS One games and for running emulators, rarely gets used for that.

Littleted

if u got ps3 just bite the bullet and upgrade it, ive now got Gt5 and FFX 7 on it, been great

Plus a load os ps1 titles and fifa 11

mike1210

Hutton I'll have another butchers. I know some models dropped from 32 meg to 16 meg when plugged into the Router.

I'll hopefully replace my 877W with a Juniper SSG 5 (yes OTT I know but I'm a geek)

BT promised my dads mate FTTC by December last year as he's on aluminium cable and stuck on 512K/bit

however they have now put it back to easter

Coffin Dodger

So what have folk with Virgin Media 50/100 Mbit services been using?

mike1210

Hmmm that's a good question

mike1210

Right found it, not too scentific but anyways

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...highlight=FTTC

Of course speed tests are not 100% but it caught my attention anyways

Littleted

well when i went 50mb the actuall terminal was changed as how they achieve the 50mb is to bind 2.5 20mb circuits together, thus this router does it, Same really as how BT achieve Leased lines Binding ISDNs together.

They then popped a netgear from the new terminal for my access, BUT the router only has 100mb ports not gig ones.

SHould cope but lets see

ANyone care to answer if they have gone from 50 to 100 did they change owt

Ant

The netgear wireless n router provided by virgin

Ant

I'm waiting for my area to be 100mb ready only on a slow 50mb ATM

Mick

iTrader: (1)

Priceless Absolutely BRILLIANT!