Help - BT Homehubs doing my head in!!!
 

For the third time this year I'm having problems with my BT broadband service constantly dropping the connection.

I'm losing the will to live from talking to Indian call centres run by individuals who don't listen / repeat themselves / pass me on elsewhere / give me the wrong diagnosis etc etc. They always start by saying there's a fault on the line and an engineer will check, take 48 hrs blah blah. The ultimate cause is always identified as the BT home hub having become faulty (we had an engineer who told us he had a van fully of the bloody things that had gone wrong).

Now I could bin BT as my provider, but they'll still in essence be the ADSL provider, even if I use a third party, so I'd like to buy a better modem. What I need is one that has 2 ADSL outputs as well as wireless, as I run a Netgear powerline range extender to cover the half of the house the homehub can't reach wirelessly.

What router would people suggest? I seem to recall fans of Netgear on here but much admit to being a bit of a techno thicko when it comes to choosing this sort of thing!

All advice gratefully received!

Gordo

Got one of these DrayTek Vigor 2820n ADSL2/2+ Router and N61 Wireless USB Adapter Bundle

Rock solid so far. Not sure what you mean by '2 adsl outputs ...' ...

Dave

thx - I mean two connections - 1 for the (wired) PC and one for the range extender. LAN connections? See - told you I was rubbish at understanding these things!

That one's not cheap - what does having 3 aerials achieve?

surprise surprise, the BT engineer has decided the router is the source of the problem (again!).

He's recommended looking at D-Link routers (specifically said not to get Netgear as they create regular problems needing firmware updates or something due to compatability issues).

Gordo

I use a Netgear DG834G on my BT line after binning the home hub. Been fine since but the other thing I did which made the biggest difference to my line stability and performance was follow this guide.

I cant recommend doing it enough!

DSL ZoneUK - Improve your speed - Extension wiring and Disconnection help

good advice, thx - I'll enjoy myself dismantling this weekend and having a test.

bt engineer did mention we have a "super fast connection" - he was surprised given the problems - they always turn up expecting it to be our internal wiring before getting round to checking the piece of bt home hub sh1te.

G

Go look at Guide to rewiring internal UK phone wiring

I've rewired my house with Cat5e cable and get the same speed upstairs as at the master socket - reliably. No breaks from the master socket to last socket on the line - just pushed the wire into place.

Dave

If you don't have on yet get one of these, a lot of the cause is normally the filter dongle as they are built as cheap as possible.

ADSL Nation - XTE-2005 - Filtered Master Faceplate

My connection was dropping out all the time and would vary between 1.3Mb up to 6.9Mb. Now it sits at 6.4Mb all the time :D

Since getting it my connection stays on and does not drop.

E