What's the best Router to buy?

xK Marcus

After some inconsistencies with my broadband speeds in the last month, and Eircom assuring me that the connection coming from them has been stable, I'm going to buy a new router which after extensive tests on my settings, must be the problem.

I currently have a Netgear DGN2200 (I think) router, it's a few years old, maybe 4 now. I don't really know what to look for in a router, should I get a wireless one or what.. I'm in a pretty big house with thick concrete walls, so that's always been a little bit of a problem, so I'd be looking for one that gives of the strongest signal/biggest range. I don't have a price cap, I assume they don't go much higher then 100 euro though.

If anyone who knows much about this could give me some suggestions, I would really appreciate it, thanks.

PrzemoF

It is just my opinion, but whatever you pick make sure it's compatible with dd-wrt:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

How did you measure speed? Have you tried to test download speed from like ftp.heanet.ie or torrents? I found sites like speedtest.net showing only fraction of the real transfer that I get.
I never got more that 100MB/s on speedtrest.net, but I get up to 25 Mb/s when downloading from heanet/torrents.

xK Marcus

PrzemoF wrote: »

It is just my opinion, but whatever you pick make sure it's compatible with dd-wrt:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

How did you measure speed? Have you tried to test download speed from like ftp.heanet.ie or torrents? I found sites like speedtest.net showing only fraction of the real transfer that I get.
I never got more that 100MB/s on speedtrest.net, but I get up to 25 Mb/s when downloading from heanet/torrents.

I should be getting around 2mbps downloading torrents, but get a lot less often, I've used multiple speed test sites.

White Heart Loon

What speed do your line stats tell you should be getting?

xK Marcus

White Heart Loon wrote: »

What speed do your line stats tell you should be getting?

I'm on 24mb from Eircom, highest speed I've gotten is 2mbps

White Heart Loon

xK Marcus wrote: »

I'm on 24mb from Eircom, highest speed I've gotten is 2mbps

Post your line stats from your router, login on 192.168.1.254, they'll be under DSL stats, post them here

xK Marcus

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Post your line stats from your router, login on 192.168.1.254, they'll be under DSL stats, post them here

I'm using static IP so it's different the that address, anyway, I have ADSL Settings? No DSL Stats or anything like that

White Heart Loon

xK Marcus wrote: »

I'm using static IP so it's different the that address, anyway, I have ADSL Settings? No DSL Stats or anything like that

Your modem/router will give you line statistics relevant to your line, sync speed, attenuation, noise etc it's usually in a section called DSL statistics or something similar. I'm not familiar with that particular router, someone with one may know better.

xK Marcus

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Your modem/router will give you line statistics relevant to your line, sync speed, attenuation, noise etc it's usually in a section called DSL statistics or something similar. I'm not familiar with that particular router, someone with one may know better.

Ok, I'll look about a bit, and let you know if I find something along those lines

xK Marcus

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Your modem/router will give you line statistics relevant to your line, sync speed, attenuation, noise etc it's usually in a section called DSL statistics or something similar. I'm not familiar with that particular router, someone with one may know better.

The only thing that maybe resembles what you are talking about might be "Router Status" under the Maintenance category

Should I post a picture?

PrzemoF

That kind of page: http://i.imgur.com/X811YIq.gif

White Heart Loon

He has a Netgear, Google throws up this

http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/stats/routers.html#netgear

advertsfox

xK Marcus wrote: »

I'm on 24mb from Eircom, highest speed I've gotten is 2mbps

2Mbps or 2MB/s? Because 2MB/s is almost bang on for up to 24Mb if you include overheads and seed / peer amount. What speed do you get downloading a public ISO?

Try download this Ubuntu ISO from HEAnet and see what speed you get in MB/s and let us know.

http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu-releases//saucy/ubuntu-13.10-desktop-amd64.iso

xK Marcus

I have gotten 2mb/s speed, but the problem I'm having is consistency.



Here's the statistics I think you guys wanted

PrzemoF

Downstream noise margin is very low. Check this: http://www.ubasics.com/ADSL_Noise_Margin_and_Attenuation_Numbers
"6dB or below is bad and will experience no sync or intermittent sync problems"

Have you tried to mode the router to another phone outlet in the house?

I'd borrow a router and check if it makes any difference before spending money.

xK Marcus

PrzemoF wrote: »

Downstream noise margin is very low. Check this: http://www.ubasics.com/ADSL_Noise_Margin_and_Attenuation_Numbers
"6dB or below is bad and will experience no sync or intermittent sync problems"

Have you tried to mode the router to another phone outlet in the house?

I'd borrow a router and check if it makes any difference before spending money.

My problems only really started a month or two ago, and it's been in the same spot for years. I can try to connect it to difference phone outlets if you think I should.

What kind of change will I be looking for though? Just a better noise margin?

PrzemoF

Any DIY works in the house recently? I've seen a nail going through the phone cable causing problems, but the net was still working, just below expectations.
Do you use and DSL filters? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSL_filter
If you do try removing/replacing them. If you don't it might be worth to get them.

Yes, look for noise margin. It is probably indicating the problem with the line somewhere, but see the disclaimer :-) Can you make another print screen and post it, so we can compare it as well?

Connect the modem somewhere else and compare the numbers. If they improve than check the cable going to the original outlet. If they don't improve then borrow a router and compare the numbers again (I don't expect this to make a big difference [1]).


P.S. Disclaimer: I'm not a specialist, but I do have a general understanding how ADSL works.

[1] Comment from eircom rep: "I can't really confirm the reliability of non-eircom modems. In saying that, we do get reports of people buying a private modem and seeing improvements"

xK Marcus

PrzemoF wrote: »

Any DIY works in the house recently? I've seen a nail going through the phone cable causing problems, but the net was still working, just below expectations.
Do you use and DSL filters? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSL_filter
If you do try removing/replacing them. If you don't it might be worth to get them.

Yes, look for noise margin. It is probably indicating the problem with the line somewhere, but see the disclaimer :-) Can you make another print screen and post it, so we can compare it as well?

Connect the modem somewhere else and compare the numbers. If they improve than check the cable going to the original outlet. If they don't improve then borrow a router and compare the numbers again (I don't expect this to make a big difference [1]).


P.S. Disclaimer: I'm not a specialist, but I do have a general understanding how ADSL works.

[1] Comment from eircom rep: "I can't really confirm the reliability of non-eircom modems. In saying that, we do get reports of people buying a private modem and seeing improvements"

No DIY work recently, and we do have those filters, I'll check the rest as soon as I can

RangeR

xK Marcus wrote: »

I can try to connect it to difference phone outlets if you think I should.

Try it in the master socket [usually in the hall or right next to your hall door]. No point trying any other socket until you get perfect performance from the Master socket.

It's not all about speed. It has been mentioned that might be getting a bad sync to the ISP. What's your packet loss like?

In a command prompt type

PING -n 100 heanet.ie

The only lines from the output would be the last 3 or 4 summary. Paste them here. It should look similar to

Ping statistics for 193.1.201.145:
    Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 23ms, Maximum = 23ms, Average = 23ms

I'd say that your packet loss is greater than 10%. The screenshot you pasted looks like you're syncing at 17Mb but only getting 2Mb.

xK Marcus

RangeR wrote: »

Try it in the master socket [usually in the hall or right next to your hall door]. No point trying any other socket until you get perfect performance from the Master socket.

It's not all about speed. It has been mentioned that might be getting a bad sync to the ISP. What's your packet loss like?

In a command prompt type

PING -n 100 heanet.ie

The only lines from the output would be the last 3 or 4 summary. Paste them here. It should look similar to

Ping statistics for 193.1.201.145:
    Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 23ms, Maximum = 23ms, Average = 23ms

I'd say that your packet loss is greater than 10%. The screenshot you pasted looks like you're syncing at 17Mb but only getting 2Mb.

I think the master socket would probably be in our kitchen, as for the command prompt command, it says that PING is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

White Heart Loon

xK Marcus wrote: »

I think the master socket would probably be in our kitchen, as for the command prompt command, it says that PING is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

Lower case

Also, click this link and tell us what speed you're getting after a min or 2
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/thank-you?distro=desktop&bits=64&release=lts

2MB/s (Megabytes per second) would be ~16 mbit (megabits, what broadband is sold in) meaning you're getting your moneys worth

xK Marcus

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Lower case

Also, click this link and tell us what speed you're getting after a min or 2
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/thank-you?distro=desktop&bits=64&release=lts

2MB/s (Megabytes per second) would be ~16 mbit (megabits, what broadband is sold in) meaning you're getting your moneys worth

Lower case produces the same result, and I'm currently getting 1.2mb/s from that download, but as I said, that's not my problem, consistency is my problem, later tonight I could be getting 2mb/s, or 100kb/s, as well as some ping spikes.

White Heart Loon

1.2 MB/s is 10 mbit which would be about right for this time of the evening. Show us a speedtest result from speedtest.net, paste it here

I don't think changing your router would make any difference

xK Marcus

White Heart Loon wrote: »

1.2 MB/s is 10 mbit which would be about right for this time of the evening. Show us a speedtest result from speedtest.net, paste it here

I don't think changing your router would make any difference

At the time of downloading the link, I was on 12mb speed, now here's the consistency problem I was talking about.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3248697136

White Heart Loon

xK Marcus wrote: »

At the time of downloading the link, I was on 12mb speed, now here's the consistency problem I was talking about.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3248697136

Ok, most likely nothing you can fix, inconsistent speeds like this are most likely down to your provider. Changing router would make zero difference, what you have is most likely fine

advertsfox

OP dropping your profile would make a difference, if you are on 17MB but your line is not stable with your low noise margin, you should drop it to a more stable 15-16MB as this will increase the dB, thus stabilising the line.

You will need to ring Eircom, find out what profile you are on and drop it by 2-3MB (there are predefined profiles). This is common practice and can be sorted over the phone.

White Heart Loon

Hmm, how did I miss those line stats, you deffo need to get them to drop you to a lower profile to stabilise your line

xK Marcus

advertsfox wrote: »

OP dropping your profile would make a difference, if you are on 17MB but your line is not stable with your low noise margin, you should drop it to a more stable 15-16MB as this will increase the dB, thus stabilising the line.

You will need to ring Eircom, find out what profile you are on and drop it by 2-3MB (there are predefined profiles). This is common practice and can be sorted over the phone.

That's what they already did, they dropped it from 24 to 17 to try fix it

advertsfox

xK Marcus wrote: »

That's what they already did, they dropped it from 24 to 17 to try fix it

Drop it again, down to 15MB and post up the stats please.

xK Marcus

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Ok, most likely nothing you can fix, inconsistent speeds like this are most likely down to your provider. Changing router would make zero difference, what you have is most likely fine

Eircom have said that it's nothing on their end though, and it only started a few months ago

xK Marcus

advertsfox wrote: »

Drop it again, down to 15MB and post up the stats please.

Ok, if I have to ring Eircom to do it, won't be able to until they're open tomorrow.