BT Zyxel Prestige 600HW - piece of crap?

quarryman

I'm using the Zyxel Prestige 600HW I got from BT. The range seems to be so poor. I'm connecting with my Thinkpad using the Intel 2200BG Wireless internal receiver.

Anyway, it seems the router needs to be in the same room before I get anything resembling a decent connection, even then its not great. I rang BT and they said to try update the drivers. I did that and if anything its worse. At the moment I have it on the other side of my bedroom wall (plasterboard) and it drops the connection and times out repeatedly. Its interesting as the connection to the router never falls below "Good" or "Very Good".

To rule out the laptop causing the problem I been using it with my Xbox 360 and find similar problems. Every time I turn the console on I need to go to network connections and test it. It hangs on every check ICMP, Xbox live and will either fail (or after 4 or 5 attempts pass).

I have also updated the firmware on the router. Now i know some routers are better than others but to have to have it in the same room is barely wireless, i have lan cables longer than the distance I need to be away from it

Also, I've tested the router using said LAN cable (ie not wireless) and the connection is perfect so its not the broadband service causing the problem.

Any suggestions?

CL7

I have the same problem with the Zyxel Prestige 600HW.The connection is perfect via lan cable. I've tried to connect my laptop ( with the same wireless card as above), desktop with a belkin wireless card and my GF's ibook to it.

Everything works fine if they are in the same room as the router but as soon as move to the next room, the signal dies. I've tried various channels and I've turned off power management on my laptop to maximum, but to no avail.

I rang BT tech support and the tech guy told me to try every channel when I get home tonight, he doesn't think its the router at fault as its wireless light is on.

scuby

using the same zyxel, and i got a new dell lap top last week, so far all working well with the wireless connection. pc is up stairs ans we are using the laptop down stairs, no probs so far with the connectivity

CL7

Bought a Linksys Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster yesterday from pc world and switched the zyxel to bridge mode, it worked great. I'm getting an excellent wireless signal on my laptop all over the house.

Signal still isn't strong on my GF's Ibook though, it has to be pretty near (next room) the router for internet to work. I don't know a great deal about macs. Does anyone know of settings I can adjust on the Ibook that might improve the signal.

Foxwood

Knight Force wrote:

Hi, I have the above wireless router with BT broadband and my internet access works just fine, but I can not connect to xbox live because the NAT is set to moderate and it needs to be open. I have an XBOX 360 with an existing xbox live account and I am trying to connect wirelessly using the approved xbox wireless router that connects to the back of the xbox 360 console. How do I do this? What are the ports that need to be open? What do I type, and where?
I have rung technical several times but they have not been able to help. i thought BTBB was a preferred partner with Xbox?
Please help, I really miss my XBOX live!!

You're not going to get an answer any faster by spamming the same question in multiple threads.

nrkb

Same problem, I (perhaps naively) thought wireless broadband would work within the confines of your home - no chance! been through everything my Netgear Rangemax PCI card (100 euro) will only pick up signal when Zyxel 660hw router is in same room, I mean what kind of wireless is that? BT have offered to refund my outlay for wireless router (not my Netgear card got on their advice though!) and said I could go buy my own!!! Dont know what to do now - go wired and run 20-30ft cable or buy better router with good signal. Have learned a valuable lesson - DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE ABOUT WIRELESS