Router of choice for sharing AOL ADSL connection

Some of my relatives have an AOL ADSL connection which they now need to
share.
Can anyone recommend a modem/router combo that works well?

And yes , I am aware of AOL's shortcomings and no there is no chance of them
changing to another provider.
Please try and restrain yourself from a pointless rant on this subject

--
Alex

Piece by piece the penguins have taken my sanity
www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Dr Zoidberg says...
> Some of my relatives have an AOL ADSL connection which they now need to
> share.
> Can anyone recommend a modem/router combo that works well?
>
> And yes , I am aware of AOL's shortcomings and no there is no chance of them
> changing to another provider.
> Please try and restrain yourself from a pointless rant on this subject
>
>
Netgear DG834GT.

--
Conor,

Same shit, different day.

Conor wrote:
> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Dr Zoidberg says...
>> Some of my relatives have an AOL ADSL connection which they now need
>> to share.
>> Can anyone recommend a modem/router combo that works well?
>>
>> And yes , I am aware of AOL's shortcomings and no there is no chance
>> of them changing to another provider.
>> Please try and restrain yourself from a pointless rant on this
>> subject
>>
>>
> Netgear DG834GT.

£100 including a USB wireless jobbie.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/83433

That looks like it'll do the job and will save me trailing CAT5 around their
house.
Thanks Conor.


--
Alex

Piece by piece the penguins have taken my sanity
www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

Dr Zoidberg wrote in message
(E-Mail Removed):

> Conor wrote:
>> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Dr Zoidberg says...
>>> Some of my relatives have an AOL ADSL connection which they now need
>>> to share.
>>> Can anyone recommend a modem/router combo that works well?
>>>
>>> And yes , I am aware of AOL's shortcomings and no there is no chance
>>> of them changing to another provider.
>>> Please try and restrain yourself from a pointless rant on this
>>> subject
>>>
>>>
>> Netgear DG834GT.
>
> £100 including a USB wireless jobbie.
> http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/83433
>
> That looks like it'll do the job and will save me trailing CAT5
> around their house.

The Netgear DG834G(UK) and DG834GT routers certainly work very well with
AOL: I've configured both without any problem.

One thing: whichever router you go for, you need to reduce the MTU from the
default value 1458 to 1400 bytes for use with AOL. My experience is that
some customers' routers run quite happily with 1458 whereas other routers
(even the same model!) fail to keep LCP up unless you reduce MTU to 1400. So
it's best to play it safe.

Dr Zoidberg wrote:
> Some of my relatives have an AOL ADSL connection which they now need to
> share.
> Can anyone recommend a modem/router combo that works well?
>
> And yes , I am aware of AOL's shortcomings and no there is no chance of
> them
> changing to another provider.
> Please try and restrain yourself from a pointless rant on this subject

any adsl router that allows you to change mtu will work. I found the 3com
officeconnect works excellently, netgears are officially supported by aol,
so if you have setup problems they will help you.

Gaz

In message <4468c1d9$0$18262$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Martin Underwood <a@b.?.invalid> writes
>One thing: whichever router you go for, you need to reduce the MTU from the
>default value 1458 to 1400 bytes for use with AOL. My experience is that
>some customers' routers run quite happily with 1458 whereas other routers
>(even the same model!) fail to keep LCP up unless you reduce MTU to 1400. So
>it's best to play it safe.
>
I've also seen problems with certain poker web sites and also some
instant messengers (MSN usually) not connecting or being reliable unless
you change the MTU to 1400.
>

--
Clint Sharp

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed) says...
> any adsl router that allows you to change mtu will work. I found the 3com
> officeconnect works excellently, netgears are officially supported by aol,
> so if you have setup problems they will help you.
>
>

There is absolutely no advantage gained by having the ability to set mtu
on your modem/router, because you would still have to set it on your PC.

If you've set it to 1458 on your PC, this will undoubtedly be lower than
any default setting on your modem.



--
Alan LeHun

Alan LeHun wrote in
(E-Mail Removed):

> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed) says...
>> any adsl router that allows you to change mtu will work. I found the
>> 3com officeconnect works excellently, netgears are officially
>> supported by aol, so if you have setup problems they will help you.
>
> There is absolutely no advantage gained by having the ability to set
> mtu on your modem/router, because you would still have to set it on
> your PC.
>
> If you've set it to 1458 on your PC, this will undoubtedly be lower
> than any default setting on your modem.

The default value on the DG834G/GT *is* 1458 - I confirm that because I had
to change it today for an AOL customer.

I hadn't appreciated that youn needed to change it at each PC as well. I
thought that the lowest value prevailed. At a PC, the data is divided into
packets according to the MTU value that is set (or the default value that is
implied for any Ethernet connection). If the router has a lower MTU value,
those packets are further fragmented so that the maximum packet size is this
MTU value.

I *am* right, aren't I? Or have I been wrong all these years?

Alan LeHun wrote:
> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed) says...
>> any adsl router that allows you to change mtu will work. I found the 3com
>> officeconnect works excellently, netgears are officially supported by
>> aol,
>> so if you have setup problems they will help you.
>>
>>
>
> There is absolutely no advantage gained by having the ability to set mtu
> on your modem/router, because you would still have to set it on your PC.

Well there is with AOL, as many routers will not authenticate an aol
connection unless the mtu is 1400


> If you've set it to 1458 on your PC, this will undoubtedly be lower than
> any default setting on your modem.

It doesnt matter what you do on your pc if your router cant logon onto your
aol account.

Gaz

In article <4468ea86$0$18248$(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> The default value on the DG834G/GT *is* 1458 - I confirm that because I had
> to change it today for an AOL customer.

A sensible default.

>
> I hadn't appreciated that youn needed to change it at each PC as well. I
> thought that the lowest value prevailed. At a PC, the data is divided into
> packets according to the MTU value that is set (or the default value that is
> implied for any Ethernet connection). If the router has a lower MTU value,
> those packets are further fragmented so that the maximum packet size is this
> MTU value.

Yes. Meaning that two packets have to be sent by the router for every
datagram > 1458 received from the PC.

>
> I *am* right, aren't I? Or have I been wrong all these years?
>

Yes. We are maybe both right, probably.

--
Alan LeHun