# New Router Advice Please



## red268 (Aug 4, 2010)

Hi all,

I'm looking in to getting a new wireless router as mine is terrible. I can barely get signal only two rooms away from it.

I know NOTHING about these things, so please be nice!

Some information:

-  I'm in the UK for a start.
-  I'm with AOL (I know, I know - But I live in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere and it's the only ISP available here!)
-  I'm using the AOL supplied wireless router, which is a Thompson Speedtouch 576.
-  My brothers computer (Windows XP) is the one wired to the router, all other computers (Windows 7 64) are wireless using those Belkin Wireless G USB dongles.
-  I get horribly slow speeds all the time and signal is terrible. I am assuming the router is dying on me? I realise of course that I will never get great speeds being stuck in the middle of nowhere, but I used to get much better speeds for everything.

Can anyone give me some advice as to what router to buy? I was thinking £40ish, but I really don't know enough about it to set myself a price point.

Thanks all.


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## Mussels (Aug 4, 2010)

you dont need a new router just to boost the wireless, just get an access point instead, and move it closer to you.


the crap speeds may well be because of the other PC's on the network downloading and uploading... if one person torrents, the net will go to shite for everyone else, for example.


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## red268 (Aug 4, 2010)

None of us bother to use torrents due to the stupidly low speeds - I should have mentioned that before.

It never used to be this bad, I used to get 800kB/s when downloading, now I'm lucky for it to hit 100 .... it seems to spike up and down. Will shoot up to 50 or 80 then go back to 2 - 6. What could the reason for this be?


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## Mussels (Aug 4, 2010)

red268 said:


> None of us bother to use torrents due to the stupidly low speeds - I should have mentioned that before.
> 
> It never used to be this bad, I used to get 800kB/s when downloading, now I'm lucky for it to hit 100 .... it seems to spike up and down. Will shoot up to 50 or 80 then go back to 2 - 6. What could the reason for this be?



it could be poor wireless signal, it could be a bad router, it could be someone else downloading, it could be the phone line between you and the ISP, it could be the ISP.

unplug everyone else/turn the machines off and see if the speeds get better.


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## red268 (Aug 4, 2010)

Speeds are still horrifically slow - Just my PC on (As usual - The others are rarely used, but I can't have mine wired in due to location.)

Just tried changing the channel on the router too. No help.


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## Mussels (Aug 4, 2010)

red268 said:


> Speeds are still horrifically slow - Just my PC on (As usual - The others are rarely used, but I can't have mine wired in due to location.)
> 
> Just tried changing the channel on the router too. No help.



does it speed up if you connect via wired?


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## red268 (Aug 4, 2010)

Nope. (Sorry for the gaps in replies, but I'm trying out your suggestions as well as some other bits.)

It's just as bad wired as wireless. (But still through the router - I suppose that's obvious? Sorry, I really do know hardly anything about it!)

Really appreciate your help though!


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## Mussels (Aug 4, 2010)

its possible that replacing the router will solve your speed issues then, but if its on the other end (outside your house/out of your control) then its just money wasted.


got a spare modem or router you can try?


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## red268 (Aug 4, 2010)

I don't have a spare personally, but might be able to borrow one. I'll see if I can do that - Will probably be this evening or Friday. If that works, then I'll ask for advice on which ones to go for - If not, well, I'll just have to live with it!

Thanks very much for your help, really appreciated!!


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## red268 (Aug 4, 2010)

Tried a different router, problem was still there. So I'm assuming it's something outside as you suggested before. Pity - Perhaps I'll give AOL a ring .... although this usually just involves me getting very angry and them doing nothing at all.


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## Mussels (Aug 4, 2010)

red268 said:


> Tried a different router, problem was still there. So I'm assuming it's something outside as you suggested before. Pity - Perhaps I'll give AOL a ring .... although this usually just involves me getting very angry and them doing nothing at all.



done an isolation test? unplugged every phone, phone cord and so on (anything NOT the router) from the phone line?


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## remixedcat (Aug 4, 2010)

Netgear has ben pretty good for me. I had a Linksys but it kept loosing the settings and got really slow. even the wired ethernet died. 

is your ISP restricting connections during certain hours? Or is there a lot of kids off of school to take up all the bandwidth. In the summertime my net is very slow since my area has tons of little kids and pre-teens. I am in a bedroom type community area thingy and that happens. It's better at night.


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## red268 (Aug 5, 2010)

Didn't try taking the phone out. Will try that shortly.


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## mrhuggles (Aug 5, 2010)

i just got a WHR-HP-GN and i installed the latest brainslayer build of dd-wrt r14684

so far it seems to be working stabily, wow the wifi is ALOT faster than my old WRT54G v1.1 was [it was running openWRT whiterussian, it got about 2mb/sec where this one gets about 4.5mb/sec

as far as routed traffic [WAN to LAN], the WRT54G v1.1 got about 30mbit peak, this one gets around 80mbit for me

the wifi is atheros and seems to be able to do SuperG no problem, and 65mbit N at the same time, didnt know that was possible, the signal strength would probably benefit alot from an improoved antenna the antenna connector is RP-SMA and that should make it easy to find a better one.

i am stresstesting it now and i will try to remember to get back to you in a week, and maybe again in 2-3 weeks or so and tell you how stable it was during that time.

oh btw it was 42 dollars SHIPPED in the USA from newegg


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## d3fct (Aug 7, 2010)

you said it reacts the same wired or wireless, have u ran speedtests and pingtests both wired and wireless. if so and if u get same results it seems to be your isp, I used to have real bad dsl they got bought out and capped the speeds. as a result i couldnt get half my dl speed or even play online games anymore, cause the lag was soo horrific. also just thinking as im typing this, have u run malware/spyware scans, as they can attribrute to lag. Not sure how well pingtest works in the uk but give that a shot wired and wireless, look for packet loss(shouldnt be any) and line noise(jitter i guess they call it) it could just be your isp.


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## red268 (Aug 8, 2010)

Come to think of it, I think the UK part of AOL was bought by a mobile phone company called Carphone Warehouse not too long ago. That could well have something to do with it.

Haven't got round to calling them yet.


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## mrhuggles (Aug 13, 2010)

its been up for a week now and its running great, better than i could have hoped for


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