Eircom Router

Teabreak

I see that there has been discussion about routes before but they were in 2011 and a lot has changed since then, My question is this what is the best router to replace the old black box Netopia which has served me well but has gone so slow it is time to move it. I live 1.2 miles from eircom station and am on next gen broadband I am looking for a reliable router, as I am forex trading and need reliability and good speed. Wireless for rest of the house required. Any suggestions Please

yoyo

Linksys, TP Link, Buffalo and Netgear are all quite decent. A poor phone line may work better with a better modem/router, but that obviously wouldn't be a guarantee.

Teabreak

Thanks yoyo, the phone line from the eircom pole is Cat 5 and i am told the line to the Eircom sub station is quite good but it is still crap as with all the broadbane in this great country . was looking at Linskys are they good?

I used a TP-Link TD-W8960N with an Eircom line, cheap, no issues and very stable. But as yoyo says, the stability of an ADSL modem may depend on your line quality.

yoyo

Teabreak wrote: »

Thanks yoyo, the phone line from the eircom pole is Cat 5 and i am told the line to the Eircom sub station is quite good but it is still crap as with all the broadbane in this great country . was looking at Linskys are they good?

Linksys are good (consumer level Cisco brand), if you can get a TP Link modem/router cheaper I would go for that, very robust and relyable modems

Nick

havetoquit

How often should one change to a new router please? I have been using the Netgear for 6 years now and have never had an issue with it. I am not technical minded, so do not know if the age of the router affects the speed of my internet.

yoyo

havetoquit wrote: »

How often should one change to a new router please? I have been using the Netgear for 6 years now and have never had an issue with it. I am not technical minded, so do not know if the age of the router affects the speed of my internet.

Well once it's working ok there shouldn't be a need to change it, although if you have newer laptops/wifi enabled devices supporting the Wireless N standard that would give a better performance than Wireless G your current netgear probably is (although check, it could be Wireless N certified).
Obviously some routers will have better range than others, but netgear in my expierience are generally ok, along with the others I mentioned above

Nick

havetoquit

Thanks Nick. Very helpful.

Teabreak

Thanks everbody I am going to get the Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL and add the Tomato Firmware (http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato) and see how I get on.

PogMoThoin

Teabreak wrote: »

Thanks everbody I am going to get the Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL and add the Tomato Firmware (http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato) and see how I get on.

The wrt54gl is a 'g' only router, it may not be the best choice now that all devices, laptops, phones etc all have 'n' wireless cards.

Yeah that would not be my choice, aside from being g-only, older wifi routers weren't designed to handle the volume of wifi clients that are commonplace nowadays.

Also just note that product is a router only. If you go with a router only you will still need an ADSL modem for your eircom connection.

Freddy Smelly

Teabreak wrote: »

I see that there has been discussion about routes before but they were in 2011 and a lot has changed since then, My question is this what is the best router to replace the old black box Netopia which has served me well but has gone so slow it is time to move it. I live 1.2 miles from eircom station and am on next gen broadband I am looking for a reliable router, as I am forex trading and need reliability and good speed. Wireless for rest of the house required. Any suggestions Please

keep the netopia router.... eircom's new black zyxels are complete rubbish plagued with bad firmware... poor dsl line syncing and stability

if eircom offer you a new black zyxel router tell them you don't want it as it's rubbish.

i went through a few before a friend gave me his old netopia router which works flawlessly

Freddy Smelly

Teabreak wrote: »

Thanks everbody I am going to get the Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL and add the Tomato Firmware (http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato) and see how I get on.

dont get that... get the N version as it is faster than the G version

B = 11Mb/s
G = 54Mb/s
N = 120Mb/s+ (some N routers can get upto 300Mb/s)

Teabreak

OH more to learn as i did not spot the N version or G version stuff. So does the TP-Link TD-W8960N cover all the item ? wireless and N version stuff? thanks

yoyo

Teabreak wrote: »

OH more to learn as i did not spot the N version or G version stuff. So does the TP-Link TD-W8960N cover all the item ? wireless and N version stuff? thanks

Thats a wireless N router yep

Nick

Teabreak

Teabreak wrote: »

OH more to learn as i did not spot the N version or G version stuff. So does the TP-Link TD-W8960N cover all the item ? wireless and N version stuff? thanks

Yes its an ADSL modem/router which means there's a modem built in. So you plug your eircom cord into it and away you go.

Its basic (2.4GHz only) but it will do the job and personally I found it very stable.

See the thread I posted in Bargain Alerts for a significantly more advanced Belkin ADSL modem/router for only a few quid more. However I have no experience of it so I can't give any personal recommendation. Just on paper it does a lot more.

PogMoThoin

Deleted User wrote: »

See the thread I posted in Bargain Alerts for a significantly more advanced Belkin ADSL modem/router for only a few quid more. However I have no experience of it so I can't give any personal recommendation. Just on paper it does a lot more.

Buying a Belkin is never a bargain, they make terrible networking products, avoid

Freddy Smelly

Teabreak wrote: »

Thanks yoyo, the phone line from the eircom pole is Cat 5 and i am told the line to the Eircom sub station is quite good but it is still crap as with all the broadbane in this great country . was looking at Linskys are they good?

do you have a skybox plugged into the phoneline? if yes try unplugging it and see if your broadband improves.... if it does then u need to replace the dsl filter on the skybox phoneline socket. skyboxes with crap or no dsl filters will screw up your line speeds

Teabreak

Thanks Freddy i spotted that a few years back and sort the sky box.

Teabreak

Hey Nick has this router ( TP-Link TL-WDR4300 N750 Dual-Band Wireless Router) replace the TP-Link TD-W8960N or do you know ? thanks

yoyo

Teabreak wrote: »

Hey Nick has this router ( TP-Link TL-WDR4300 N750 Dual-Band Wireless Router) replace the TP-Link TD-W8960N or do you know ? thanks

That is only a router, what you want is a modem/router

Nick

Teabreak

thanks