Modem Router wanted

[Saintsman]

I'm in the market for a new modem router. I need something that four of us can use at a reasonable speed (N?).

I've seen a few on the web that seem to meet the spec but when you get down to reading individual's reviews, they leave a lot to be desired.

The most important thing for me is connectability. Something that stays on line all the time. I'm fed up with swithching my current one off and on all the time because it's dropped the connection.

Suggestions appreciated.

Forgot to say its for a BT line.

[BladePilot]

Using the BT 2110 Voyager it's well up to the job. Have been very happy with it, have a look at the spec on their website.

[Jofm5]

The famous argos has a belkin for sale for £29.95 at the moment (Buy Belkin Wireless G+ Router. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for . (http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6750392/Trail/searchtext%3EBELKIN+ROUTER.htm)). It is the same model I have been running for years with no problems whatsoever - highly stable in my experience and at 4 1/2 stars out of 5 from 36 reviews most would aggree it seems.

It has easy to configure settings (as usual by web interface). It is only 802.11g (though I think with a firmware upgrade can be upgraded to N) but 802.11N seems to have very little compatibility between vendors from my experience.

For your home users you have the wireless connection and 4 wired connections. A built in firewall will afford some protection and it has all the usual options of port forwarding etc should you need. It is an ADSL2+ device so will work right up to the 24mbps providers that are around at the moment.

Hope this helps.

[Saab Dastard]

Draytek and Linksys get my votes, based on experience. Netgear is so-so, also based on experience.

SD

[Keef]

As SD says.

I had so many problems with Belkin stuff that I don't allow it in the house. Ditto both daughters at their homes, and a couple of other folks I know.
It may be better now than it was 4 or so years ago, but I'm not going to take the risk.

Netgear was so-so, I was pretty happy with Linksys, very happy with Draytek, and stunned with Cisco. But setting up the Cisco is a long and tortuous process, not for the faint hearted.

If the line keeps dropping, that may not be the modem's fault. I'm a long way from the exchange, and sometimes I will get a "dropout" every few days. Then it'll go for weeks with nary a hiccup. It may be to do with rain, or something - I don't know. Folks who know a lot about this stuff have looked into it, and say it's just distance and noise levels. Better modem = better results, but it's not going to be perfect.

The Netgear dropped the line about daily, the Belkin about every half hour. YMMV

[Jofm5]

I have had a nightmare with linksys when I lived in the states, and their build quality leaves alot to be desired.

I have had my belkin at 3 different properties now, right from living on the doorstep of the exchange to living a few miles away and only being able to achieve 1.9mbps on an 8mbps service. I have never had the intermittent reset problem - occaisonally in bad weather it as dropped the connection and reconnected at a lower speed but never required any manual interference.

I guess we all have our preferred vendors - but if you read the reviews and research what your buying you should not go far wrong with any of them.

[parabellum]

I have aan Edimax ethernet 4 port ADSL2 router here, never been used, cost me A$80.00, no idea what it is like, (EDIMAX Technology (http://www.edimax.com.tw)). They are in Taiwan.

$20.00 for postage and you can have it! (I got a freebee from Telstra that is totally compatible with their Bigpond system).

[Jofm5]

A nice offer above but do your research first, a UK DSL modem wont work in some other countries (and vice versa) e.g. the USA as the telecom exchanges are different. UK works on 64k channels and A-Law wheras the US operates on 56k channels and μ-law.

I am unsure where parabellum is and what telco standard they work to locally, so you will need to understand the above first before proceeding otherwise it may only be useful as a door stop. Also there may/will be voltage & plug/socket differences.

[Bushfiva]

Microy, you're offering a $700 device to someone in the UK who's looking for a $70 device.

Parabellum, yours may work in the UK depending on the model number, but Saintsman would have to check the Edimax website.

I'd personally avoid Belkin; the Voyager 2110 is a decent item.

[parabellum]

It has an Australian plug on it, is 240Volt IN and 12Volt OUT and you will need to supply your own transformer, the Ethernet cable is included.

Postage only as I bought it in a sudden rush of blood, the Telstra one is the better router for me so this one just gathers dust, I put it down as just another of life's experiences! In the menu it shows itself as OK for the UK.
("It supports PPPoA(RFC2364-PPP over ATM Adaption Layer 5, RFC1483 encapsulation over ATM(Bridged or routed), PPP over Ethernet (RFC2516) and IPoA (RFC1577) to establish a connection with ISP. The product also supports VC based and LLC based multiplexing.

With the web management interface users can easily configure the various functions of the router including DHCP server, NAT, virtual server, DMZ, access control, IP filter, PFTP/IPSec/L2TP pass-through, DD NS, UPnP, and Wireless")

Verbatim from the book of instructions. Just remembered it claims support in many countries but doesn't include Australia, probably would work but maybe a victim of the Australian -China relationship.

Offer stands for anyone, A$20.00/GBP10.00 postage and it is yours (I'm giving it away, not advertising it for sale) UK cheque no problem.

[Jofm5]

Not sure what you got against belkin - on paper its the same box apart from the belkin can be upgraded to 802.11n.

The belkin being £40 cheaper seems like a logical choice and having run one for 3 years+ with no problem I cant see where the justification in the extra £40 is.

Like I said we all have our preferred vendors (mine is not belkin btw - but then I work for a telco and get kit very cheap) but if your going to discourage a vendor at least give some substance behind why.

[Parapunter]

I would tend to agree with the choice of Belkin. I have one in the office that has worked without fault for 5 years, that is to say, set it up five years ago & haven't touched it since. Never missed a day.

At home I have a nwtgear W34 something or other. Again, it has been reliable, although given that both work ok, the user interface on the Belkin would make me choose it over netgear everytime.

[oldbeefer]

Ditched cr@p netgear for a Speedtouch 585 a year ago. Has not dropped the connection once since then (netgear had to be reset almost daily).

[Blues&twos]

I have a Netgear, we had problems initially with dropped connections, then bizarrely, it cleared up and out of the four users in my household only my wife still had problems....

After a couple of months of repeated dropped connections for her (while the rest of us logged in on our own accounts with no problems), she created a new account and hasn't had any trouble since.

The Netgear was absolute simplicity itself to configure, took me abut 5 to 10 minutes.

[Tosh McCaber]

Please note- the Argos Belkin is a router only- for cable use

[Jofm5]

No the argos belkin is a dsl router is Buy Belkin Wireless G+ Modem Router. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for . (http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001501&productId=1500353493&langId=-1&engine=froogle&keyword=Belkin+Wireless+G%2B+Modem+Router)

It was on a deal but is now up to £46

[Jofm5]

I do profess to admitting the first link was wrong in defference to tosh

[Keef]

If you're quick, you might get one of these (http://www.dsldepot.co.uk/product_details.asp?idProduct=314).

When they're gone, there won't be any more!