Recommend a router please!!

Cherrycola

My mum has been stuck with the famous Eircom Zyxel(sp?) router for a few months now after her old faithful Netopia packed in. And just like my old eircom pile of rubbish her broadband is constantly disconnecting and is slow as a wet week.
I was lucky enough to get a gift of an unwanted netopia router from an ex-eircom customer, and from the day i dumper the Zyxel one and hooked it up i havent had a problem.

So now my mum has decided she needs to buy a new router so she can actually USE her broadband.
What router would you recommend? Wireless please.

She doesn't need anything fancy, she wont be gaming online or anything, just something so she can browse the net and check emails without the internet disconnecting.
I was looking at Netgear ones from Argos, any thoughts?

collier

Cherrycola wrote: »

My mum has been stuck with the famous Eircom Zyxel(sp?) router for a few months now after her old faithful Netopia packed in. And just like my old eircom pile of rubbish her broadband is constantly disconnecting and is slow as a wet week.
I was lucky enough to get a gift of an unwanted netopia router from an ex-eircom customer, and from the day i dumper the Zyxel one and hooked it up i havent had a problem.

So now my mum has decided she needs to buy a new router so she can actually USE her broadband.
What router would you recommend? Wireless please.

She doesn't need anything fancy, she wont be gaming online or anything, just something so she can browse the net and check emails without the internet disconnecting.
I was looking at Netgear ones from Argos, any thoughts?

Firstly make sure you get ADSL2 compatible device most are but one or two on the market may not be.

You are right the one eircom provided is fairly useless (would work only as a paperweight).

I have always found Linksys (think the market them as Linksys by Cisco now) to be excellent, I have heard Netgear are equally as good.

I would also suggest going with a wireless n type router as they are more future friendly and if the machine has a wireless n card it will allow a better range and speed then a wireless g equivalent.

-=al=-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TD-W8961ND-300Mbps-Wireless-Router/dp/B004ERXXHC

never an issue with tp-link... very reasonably prices and never cuts out

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TD-W8961ND-300Mbps-Wireless-Router/dp/B004ERXXHC

I persume its a modem/router you need... there's just a router version too.. prob slightly cheaper... but reasonable and reliable

P38Man

My home network consists of 3 windows PCs / laptops, Macbook Pro, Apple TV, iPhone and iPods. Would really appreciate a recommendation for a replacement router as I have the Zyxel P660HW T1 v3 P.O.S. too.

AgentMyth

I read a solid test done by PC Pro in the last 3 months and the result is at:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/alist/wireless-router
'Netgear DGND3700 N600'

Dabs.ie link

It's expensive, but the best performance in the test. I'm planning to get one myself soon.

Socialist_Pig

AgentMyth wrote: »

Dabs.ie link

thats way too much to spend for what cherrycola's mother needs,you can get a decent netgear for half that,(having said that 2 work colleagues have it and they swear by it-it has no problems streaming HD movies and is excellent for gaming)

Also be aware that if you get a 'N' modem and its not dualband and you have some wireless devices that are of the 'G' standard it will revert back to g for all devices

AgentMyth

@Socialist_pig
You're right - it might be a bit high end.
What's the model no. of the kit your work colleagues use?

I'd always prefer a real-world test like a magazine review or a friend's recommendation, because a good name and spec sometimes doesn't produce good kit. The most expensive Cisco/Linksys kit performed pretty poorly in that magazine review I mentioned, even though I expected them to do well.

I agree that if possible you should get the dual band 802.11n for the best range and throughput.