In This Thread You Get To........

[yawner]

..recommend me an adsl modem / wireless router

Been researching this for weeks now, It seems that the one which fits my requirements nicely is the Netgear N600, but on Amazon it seems to have as many negative customer reviews as positive. There seem to have been several firmware updates for this model since its release but have they sorted its gremlins?

If not - what would you recommend old bean?

[Whatever]

Draytek if looking for better quality, but we find they can all be good and all be shite. BT HomeHubs are the biggest pile of junk going, despite all their marketing. Netgear pretty much have the home market I'd say, and normally they're fine. We use them a fair bit for voice networks for business too.

[ih8mondays]

I like netgear and zyxel routers.

I hate belkins (obviously)

[familychoice]

I used a Netgear one for a few years - never had any problems with it. Now using the hub BT provide which seems to give a better signal than the Netgear. I wouldn't call it a pile of junk - build quality and performance wise it's as good as the Netgear, though I guess I've yet to discover if it last as long.

[Whatever]

From experience, we've swapped Home Hubs with other makes of router and in one instance, doubled the speed they were getting from their BB!

[Matt]

I tend to use zyxel these days, just got one to replace sky bb (you can't directly replace on sky, it breaches their terms, so I have too loop through ) but the wireless n is well worth it, especially for ipad2 iPhone 4s and the netbook that all support it.

http://m.ebuyer.com/165245

Usedit at a few clients places first as well and no issues.

[familychoice]

From experience, we've swapped Home Hubs with other makes of router and in one instance, doubled the speed they were getting from their BB!

They brought out a new model when I signed up, maybe the new one is better. I get a better signal with this one anyway.

The Netgear modem worked fine but I find the controls on this better and it was easier to set up. I also had a couple of Netgear network routers that died. The first one was D.O.A and the replacement lasted a day before fizzling out so I don't think you can guarantee any of the buggers is going to be totally reliable.

[Jeep Stone]

We got a TP-LINK from Amazon. Great piece of kit and cheap too.

[Dom]

We use a Thomson something or other that Plusnet provided. It does everything we want and seems pretty reliable, so I'm happy. It was free with a subscription but I think they'd have charged about £40 for it otherwise, which is about the same as you'd pay for most other commercial routers.

I've had a few in my time, and unless you're looking for something in particular (features-wise) then they're all pretty much the same in my experience.

[yawner]

Thanks folks. Wow, I find all that a bit surprising. Given that you lot are generally such an opinionated bunch, I was hoping to be knocked over by a unanimous avalanche of "buy this". Hmm.

Being in a crap area tv-reception wise, we rely on telly streamed from the web. We have 2 tellys (one via dedicated PC, one via Playstation), 2 PC's, an iPad, iPhone and Blackberry and Kindle all relying on web reception. The BT Home Hub we currently use is ok, but its performance is inconsistent.

Naturally I'm becoming increasingly seduced by the manufacturer's claims for babies like the aforementioned Netgear 600, but don`t want to end up with something thats no better than the Home Hub.

That would make Mrs Y think I was a chump. 

[Steve Lampkins]

I guess it does not have the ADSL part, but the Apple Airport Extreme is supposed to be good (not the Express version). Bit pricey though.

[Shirker]

Got an N600 and installed it over Christmas. Was also concerned by the negative reviews on Amazon but it's one of PC Pro's recommended routers. The fix in the negative reviews is a firmware upgrade and mine came with that already installed. Been very solid since - had to re-start it once in the last three weeks but that was to fix an errant Airport Express which had decided to have a hissy fit for no good reason. I'm planning on using the 2.5ghz part for the laptop, ipads, etc. then the 5ghz for telly streaming to keep it separate.

Edit: for your Telly bit, I've connected an iPad to the telly several times now and watched the iPlayer, ITVPlayer and several Netflix things on the telly via the iPad and it didn't stutter or judder once. We're on a bog-standard broadband connection getting about 3-4mb.

[yawner]

Now THATS the sort of reassurance I was after !! Merci Monsieur Shirquer

[Shirker]

For what it's worth, you've piqued my curiosity and for the last 10 minutes or so I've had a lappy uploading a video to YouTube and iTunes streaming to an AirportExpress while editing the Shirker website, while Mrs. S is watching something on the iPlayer in the kitchen, all on the same 2.5ghz part of the N600 and none of them are dropping out. As I've not had the home lappy on long I guess Dropbox is also doing it's sync thing and Carbonite doing it's backup of what's changed today at work as well.

I switched from an older Netgear router as we used to get music dropping out when playing via the Airport Expresses and it was worse if someone else was idly browsing at the same time.

On the downside, I was expecting a bit more from the 5ghz part  but it drops off pretty much completely when it has to go through any wall, but I understand that's more a function of the 5ghz spectrum rather than the specific router. (We have concrete-reinforced walls so the house is something of a cage not not that WiFi friendly).

[samhs]

Agreed on Airport. We use a home hub for the connection to the web, but Airport for wifi - very good, very reliable and also has the bonus of being a networked drive/backup solution for our macs.

[Whatever]

We got a TP-LINK from Amazon. Great piece of kit and cheap too.

After having to use one today, seems they are a good bit of kit.

We had to change a Netgear out as it couldn't port forward for a phone system we're installing but the TP Link did it all and apparently was cheaper.