whats the best wireless router for about £140

[bamturbo]

hi, i want to upgrade my router to one with a better range and perfomance.

the main thing i need it to do is;

• work with xbox live without any hassle setting up
• one that works with my nokia n96, as netgear seem to struggle to do it
• must have an ADSL connection for a BT line
• needs to have a good range as my netgear struggles to go through 1 plasterboard wall and one brick wall

my current router is a netgear DG834PN, and its starting to annoy me keeps playing up my connection to aol and other things

just wanted to know whats one of the best i can get for around £140, i have seen a belkin N1 with a nice display on the front but im not a fanof belkin either

thanks

 

[beerhunter]

hi, i want to upgrade my router to one with a better range and perfomance.

my current router is a netgear DG834PN, and its starting to annoy me keeps playing up my connection to aol and other things

I guess the question that I would ask is why. What you have is a perfectly good router. I suspect that swapping you router won't get rid of your problems. You MAY get better range with a router with 802.11n but you will need to upgrade the WiFi adapter in the devices that connect to it. They all have exactly the same WiFi power by law and so if you contniue to connect via 802.1g an new router won'tt but you anything. If you can't get through the walls, I'd look for interference or use HomePlugs.

All routers should work OK with xbox live without any hassle setting up or alternatively, exactly the same hassle. Same goes for your Nokia. All routers with a built-in ADSL Modem will connect to a BT line.

Any problems that you have with you connection to AOL are unlikely to be the fault of your current router.

 

[Arther]

For range you could consider an external antenna to boost the signal...I think it was for my previous router that I bought my antenna since I was getting low signals upstairs where it would constantly drop the connections on various wireless devices. When I fitted the new antenna I found I had nearly constant high signals with the occasional medium (depending where my laptop was) and no dropping at all.

I now have a Netgear DG834g V3 in my new but old house (a little bigger than my old with thicker stone walls) with the external antenna connected, I find the lowest signal I get is medium at the opposite end of the house on opposite floors. Look for user reviews if you go down this route and if your router doesn't include an external antenna but a socket for one then it'll likely improve the signal if it's already poor.

 

[bamturbo]

i know for a fact its my router thats causing problems as i bought a belkin router for a week, it never cut me off whilst connected wirelessly, unlike the netgear did. and the netgear never cut off from aol as a wired connection was working while wireless wasnt

the only reason i took that one back was because i couldnt get xbox live to work with it, didnt know what settings to change. my netgear worked without changing settings couldnt understand why the belklin had to give me grief.

i just want to know what is a really good router with great signal that does what i want it to do

 

[beerhunter]

i know for a fact its my router thats causing problems as i bought a belkin router for a week, it never cut me off whilst connected wirelessly, unlike the netgear did. and the netgear never cut off from aol as a wired connection was working while wireless wasnt

The 'fact' was almost certainly that the second router had a different default WiFi channel ands so did not clash with one of your neighbours'. I reiterate that ALL WiFi signal output level is controlled by law and none of them are more powerful than others.

 

[tigermad]

hi, i want to upgrade my router to one with a better range and perfomance.

the main thing i need it to do is;

• work with xbox live without any hassle setting up
• one that works with my nokia n96, as netgear seem to struggle to do it
• must have an ADSL connection for a BT line
• needs to have a good range as my netgear struggles to go through 1 plasterboard wall and one brick wall

my current router is a netgear DG834PN, and its starting to annoy me keeps playing up my connection to aol and other things

just wanted to know whats one of the best i can get for around £140, i have seen a belkin N1 with a nice display on the front but im not a fanof belkin either

thanks

This thread is spooky. I am also looking at changing my DG834PN. No matter what I do I cannot ping my iphones. One minute they work next minute they dont. But the iphones connect fine to the web. Is this what is happening with your Nokia? I swapped over to my Bethere router and it worked great but am certainly not keeping that one on.

I too was looking at the Belkin one

 

[bamturbo]

The 'fact' was almost certainly that the second router had a different default WiFi channel ands so did not clash with one of your neighbours'. I reiterate that ALL WiFi signal output level is controlled by law and none of them are more powerful than others.

yeah im not disagreeing with you, but i would like a new router, thats hassle free like that new belkin i had but a better one!

could someone just tell me the good newer routers out at the moment, dont want a discussion about the one i have as im not happy with it and wish to upgrade

 

[bamturbo]

This thread is spooky. I am also looking at changing my DG834PN. No matter what I do I cannot ping my iphones. One minute they work next minute they dont. But the iphones connect fine to the web. Is this what is happening with your Nokia? I swapped over to my Bethere router and it worked great but am certainly not keeping that one on.

I too was looking at the Belkin one

with my nokia, it constantly says 'web gateway not found' or something like that. it has never worked. i know that there probably is just a setting wrong, but for the life of me ive tried to sort it out, nokia sites, netgear sites and to no avail.

netgears are known to be problematic with nokia wi-fi and other phones i think

its a very poor router in my opinion

 

[beerhunter]

i would like a new router,

That's more like it.

You may not like this, but this one is getting a good press at the moment: WIRELESS-N SERIES ROUTERS – DGN2000 and well within your budget.

The reason that people recommend Netgear is that they are good reliable products at very good value for money.

 

[Baz1205]

I have a Netgear DGN2000 router and Netgear GS605UK GB switch. I highly recommend both for a GB network.

 

[t72bogie]

with my nokia, it constantly says 'web gateway not found' or something like that. it has never worked. i know that there probably is just a setting wrong, but for the life of me ive tried to sort it out, nokia sites, netgear sites and to no avail.

netgears are known to be problematic with nokia wi-fi and other phones i think

its a very poor router in my opinion

I think you will find its one of the biggest selling most reliable routers on the planet, used in the millions.

wi-fi phones are themselves notorious for half baked implementations ..many of the early ones didnt even meet wi-fi.org certifications, Ive come across many early smartphones that were shocking

anyway, regardless of the issue, if you are trying to test connectivity, then you need to understand that 802.11 has inherently a lot of packet loss/resends

Ping over wireless, then you can see 30% or more packet loss on bad links i.e. no response...nothing...thats just wireless, as you have no control over the airwaves ...hence media players with 10 sec buffers built in to overcome such things

Id still recommend trying to troubleshoot the actual issue, rather than blindly replace perfectly good equipment, in the hope that you will find a combination that works....as thats what it boils down to with these phone handsets....it could get expensive, if the D-link, Belkin, Linksys router you try next exhibits the same problem

all of them are limited by law in the EU to 20dBm max EIRP (power coming out of the antenna) 802.11n has some tweaks including multiple antenna arrays which help maintain signal at given range, and go a bit further, but its not night and day e.g. if you go through 2 walls now at home and get 50%, 802.11n will likely do the same but with more bandwidth, rather than go through another 2 walls

"best" wireless router is subjective as to purpose of course, there are many reviews at SmallNetBuilder - Small Network Help

For a good ADSL router Id try a DGN2000 from Netgear again, just on the basis that its the one on the market going out in significant volume and actually tested on UK ISPs networks - the BT Homehub is 802.11n now and another excellent product, of course you need to sign up to BT though ......

 

[Arther]

The 'fact' was almost certainly that the second router had a different default WiFi channel ands so did not clash with one of your neighbours'. I reiterate that ALL WiFi signal output level is controlled by law and none of them are more powerful than others.

But some routers are more efficiently designed than others regardless of what channel they're set to.

Just a thought to the OP....Have you upgraded the firmware? You'd be surprised by the number of problems I've solved in the past by just upgrading the firmware. This goes for random signal losses and even range so it's worth checking for whatever router (or other device) you may have. Just write down your settings first because they're usually reset to default (user name/pass etc. wiped) during the firmware update.

 

[mickevh]

Just a thought to the OP....Have you upgraded the firmware? You'd be surprised by the number of problems I've solved in the past by just upgrading the firmware. This goes for random signal losses and even range so it's worth checking for whatever router (or other device) you may have. Just write down your settings first because they're usually reset to default (user name/pass etc. wiped) during the firmware update.

Sorry, this is an urban myth. There's no point in randomly changing any driver/BIOS/firmware/software unless you know that such a change will actually fix the problem you have. Such a change may actually make things worse. You have to analyse the problem first, then go look for the solution (which may indeed be a firmware upgrade.) Randomly upgrading is like going into the chemist when you feel "ill," closing your eyes and grabbing 20 remedies off the shelves, taking them all and hoping that you get better. You might get lucky. You might not. Better to analyse the problem, "I've got a hangover," then determine the correct solution, "need paracetamol & lucozade." Sticking a couple of tampons up your, er, nose, taking a laxative, rubbing on some vick and spraying on some ralgex probably won't help with a hangover and may make you feel a lot worse (though at least you'll get the additional "benefit" that the tampons will stop you smelling the ralgex & vick.)

 

[Chris Muriel]

Any firmware/software upgrade should be accompanied by a "changelog" file (usually a text file that can be read in Windoze Notepad); read this to see if any of the changes are appropriate to fixing the problems that you have (do the diagnosis first as already recommended).
If none of the fixes mentioned in the changelog relate to your current setup and issues, leave well alone.

Chris Muriel, in Boston, Mass. this week but normally....