New Router/Modem Recommendations ?

[mug]

Hi

We've been using the same router for years now and its barely chugging along these days. We get disconnections at least 10 times a day, this might be because we have so many items connected compared with when we first got it (its a bebox router/modem combo).

We have 3 connected through LAN, 3 more laptops wirelessly and a couple of phones. Anyway I think its time for an upgrade to something a tad newer and maybe built a bit better.

Oh yeah it needs to be of the ADSL variety.

Thanks,

[DejaVu]

Upgrading is probably the best idea seeing as its 10 years old, I will always suggest Netgear as I have never had any problems with them. Look for a 'N Status' one - and just my opinion, but avoid Belkin. I have seen one create scorch marks on a wall after it blew...!

In the meantime, try changing the channel your wireless uses.

Lots more people in your area over the years have gone wireless and the channel your wireless is broadcasting on (Channel 6 is usually the default) gets a little overcrowded. Try changing it to 9 or 11 and you with probably find it's a tad more reliable.

[evilsatan]

Another vote to avoid Belkin and also avoid cheap Netgear models, however I hear good things about the expensive ones.

I would recommend draytek vigor routers, theystart at over £100 IIRC but are fantastic. They are designed for businesses so are robust and have a lot of features. Some models even have dedicated inbuilt VOIP so you can plug a phone in and have it operate like your home phone.

[ant3b]

I have a bipac 7800n very good router, I don't think I have had to reboot it due to a fault with router itself; only when broadband goes down. An added plus is that it has adsl2+ and WAN port so works for ADSL and cable connections.

they are expensive though £180 when i got mine I think but I have seen them for £125

[eblaster101]

Im using the o2 router as modem only and dlink for routing as you can flash custom DDWRT on it and it runs like a dream. Dir 615 cheaply found on ebay less than 15 sometimes.

[Over Carl]

Draytek vigors have a fair amount of features for the money. Something like the 2820/2830* range would be nice at home. At work they sometimes lock up over but we have around 25-30 on at at time and our sites sometimes have dirty power and up to 40 users seriously hammering the net.

If you have requirement for plugging in 3g sticks and/or home automation and sms reporting/control, dovado 4gr is lovely but I've only ever had one deployed so can't comment seriously on stablity.

* 2820 has adsl as wan1 then can load balance or failover to wan2, which can be one of the ethernet port or a 3g stick. 2830 has them as wan1, 2 and 3 so no need to choose between ethernet or 3g. Iirc, the n models add wireless n (3 aerials, mimo technology), V models add a basic voip server, s models have isdn.

[destro404]

Bebox is shit when you try to get it to do too much. I've got one that can't handle doing modem + wifi at the same time. I could kill it pretty reliably running 20 connections over wifi to Usenet.

Now got it running in bridge mode just as a dumb modem with a Netgear WDNR3700 doing all the wifi shizzle and it's fine. bebox are actually pretty good as modem onyl as they are well suited to the DSLAMs. Opens up your options a lot too when you don't have to look for an all in one ADSL modem router.

[prezzy]

Draytek Vigor 2710

Got my mate to buy one recently and he is well happy with it very good for the £

[Soulassassin]

I replaced my BeBox with a NETGEAR DGN3500. Was £100 from PC world so you can prolly get em for about 8p on the net.
I have a 1.5TB portable hardrive plugged into it which acts as a nas drive and it streams to my media player fine.
It was a bit of a hassle setting up but I'm a complete noob at that sort of thing anyway.

[mug]

These Draytek Vigor's are getting lots of praise, I think I might have to double my budget and get one.