Routers (adsl) reliable ones, ii seems many people have problems

Hi,

Got no problems with a Speedtouch (stingray) or 330 - both work well
and seem reliable - but it would be nice to have the freedom to do
what I like with the PC without losing the ADSL connection.

Reading up on routers in places like adslguide.org, it seems it's not
just the cheaper end that have problems, reputable makes such as
netgear, etc, seem to have firmware and pwr issues, necessitating
routine pwr down of the routers - maybe a modem is more reliable

So, Belkin, Netgear, BT, other - what problems in the real world (not
review) really exist - what makes currently on the market work well.

You can pay between £50-200 - are the more expensive ones more
reliable in terms of leave on for months?

Wired is a necessity - but wireless with it would be nice to have I
guess - but not essential.

Many thanks.

Ice

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Got no problems with a Speedtouch (stingray) or 330 - both work well
> and seem reliable - but it would be nice to have the freedom to do
> what I like with the PC without losing the ADSL connection.
>
> Reading up on routers in places like adslguide.org, it seems it's not
> just the cheaper end that have problems, reputable makes such as
> netgear, etc, seem to have firmware and pwr issues, necessitating
> routine pwr down of the routers - maybe a modem is more reliable
>
> So, Belkin, Netgear, BT, other - what problems in the real world (not
> review) really exist - what makes currently on the market work well.
>
> You can pay between £50-200 - are the more expensive ones more
> reliable in terms of leave on for months?
>
> Wired is a necessity - but wireless with it would be nice to have I
> guess - but not essential.

All I can tell you is that the Draytek router I'm using now is more
stable than the Netgear, D-link, 3 Com or Linksys ever were. Netgear
does come a close second though

On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 21:44:50 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>
>Hi,
>
>Got no problems with a Speedtouch (stingray) or 330 - both work well
>and seem reliable - but it would be nice to have the freedom to do
>what I like with the PC without losing the ADSL connection.
>
>Reading up on routers in places like adslguide.org, it seems it's not
>just the cheaper end that have problems, reputable makes such as
>netgear, etc, seem to have firmware and pwr issues, necessitating
>routine pwr down of the routers - maybe a modem is more reliable
>
>So, Belkin, Netgear, BT, other - what problems in the real world (not
>review) really exist - what makes currently on the market work well.
>
>You can pay between £50-200 - are the more expensive ones more
>reliable in terms of leave on for months?
>
>Wired is a necessity - but wireless with it would be nice to have I
>guess - but not essential.

I only have experience of two routers - a 3Com and a Netgear (both
with Wireless).

IME, the Netgear is significantly superior. But I haven't tried
upgrading the firmware, on the principle of "if it ain't broke..."

I always turn off at night, so I don't know what might happen if left
turned on for weeks at a time. But I do tend to have it on for up to
18 hours a day. In that time, the 3Com would lose internet
connectivity on average half a dozen times. I've only had the Netgear
a couple of weeks, but it hasn't done it *once* yet (with Plusnet, on
a moderately iffy line - 61-63 dB attenuation, 22-24dB noise margin).
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Meow... SPLAT... Ruff... SPLAT... (Raining cats & dogs)
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

Draytek is the best, but of course not cheap, my original one never missed a
bit in two years.
In fact I am so confident that I bought a VoIP version on Ebay at half
price.
Plenty available, if you are patient you can get a bargain.
Regards,
Martin

Draytek. You should be able to get one on Ebay but may have to wait a bit.
Mine has run and run and run!

--
Regards from Peter Crosland

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Hi,
>
> Got no problems with a Speedtouch (stingray) or 330 - both work well
> and seem reliable - but it would be nice to have the freedom to do
> what I like with the PC without losing the ADSL connection.

there seems to be a lot of variation in the reports - some of that may be
down to manufacturing issues.

having a good ADSL line with a good signal / noise ratio and low noise
levels around the link and your house helps a lot

some routers effectively reboot if they have to retrain - which breaks
connectivity for attached PCs (i set one up for a friend - this was a
Netgear on a line with 8 dB noise margin, and a replacement 3Com fixed the
issue). The 3Com seems fairly stable and just stays OK unless the ADSL goes
south (1 to 2 times / year).

my feed is cable, so the connection from a recent Netgear WRG614 to NTL is
Ethernet to a set top box. The old one (again Netgear, an FR314) tended to
need a reboot every month or so - but that was caused by the NTL cable box
choking and needing a power cycle. New set top box is Samsung rather than
Pace and is more stable and reliable.

a lot of the reliability stuff depends on what you do with it.

gaming stresses the boxes more than simple downloading, browsing and email.

the killer seems to be those who run peer to peer sharing - lots of
connections for the router to manage.
>
> Reading up on routers in places like adslguide.org, it seems it's not
> just the cheaper end that have problems, reputable makes such as
> netgear, etc, seem to have firmware and pwr issues, necessitating
> routine pwr down of the routers - maybe a modem is more reliable

the touchstone for commercial use routers are cisco (like them or loath them
they are pervasive)

FWIW of the 1000s we run at work on MPLS and ATM / FrameRelay (mainly 17xx,
26xx these days for small feeds on ADSL, ISDN and N*64k lines), the average
MTBF between failures is around 4 years (reboots are more common, but
normally driven by config change or code upgrade).
we have a much smaller installed base of little routers (again mainly cisco)
on Internet feeds, but similar reliability is the order of the day there as
well.
>
> So, Belkin, Netgear, BT, other - what problems in the real world (not
> review) really exist - what makes currently on the market work well.

i think you are assuming that different models from the same manufacturer
get similar results, but i suspect it is much more hit and miss than that.
>
> You can pay between £50-200 - are the more expensive ones more
> reliable in terms of leave on for months?
>
> Wired is a necessity - but wireless with it would be nice to have I
> guess - but not essential.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Ice
--
Regards

(E-Mail Removed) - replace xyz with ntl

On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 21:44:50 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Got no problems with a Speedtouch (stingray) or 330 - both work well
>and seem reliable - but it would be nice to have the freedom to do
>what I like with the PC without losing the ADSL connection.
>
>Reading up on routers in places like adslguide.org, it seems it's not
>just the cheaper end that have problems, reputable makes such as
>netgear, etc, seem to have firmware and pwr issues, necessitating
>routine pwr down of the routers - maybe a modem is more reliable
>
>So, Belkin, Netgear, BT, other - what problems in the real world (not
>review) really exist - what makes currently on the market work well.
>
>You can pay between £50-200 - are the more expensive ones more
>reliable in terms of leave on for months?
>
>Wired is a necessity - but wireless with it would be nice to have I
>guess - but not essential.

I personally use 2 different routers for 2 different purposes. I have
a Netgear DG834G on my home connection and a Draytek 2600G on my work
one. The Draytek cost twice as much as the Netgear as does have
superior functionality, though not by much. It's a pretty decent bit
of kit and essentially just sits there doing the job.

That said, the Netgear is better value for money. It's more stable
and easier to use which might be a bonus if you're new to routers. All
the company reps use this box at their home offices and I have several
friends who use them too. Some of the friends in question have bought
them to replace previous routers and, off the top of my head, the
routers in question were a Belkin, a Linksys and a USR. All boxes
perform equally well, all users consider them far superior to the
units they replaced.

For an office I'd say get a Draytek - very thorough syslog, excellent
handling of VPN, QOS options etc. For a home connection I'd say get
the Netgear, far cheaper (half the price), much easier GUI, more
support options due to the large number in use, better access controls
for family use etc. It's also ADSL2+ capable, though I suspect for
the majority of the UK that's a long way off anyway.

Simon Pleasants wrote:
> On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 21:44:50 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>> Got no problems with a Speedtouch (stingray) or 330 - both work well
>> and seem reliable - but it would be nice to have the freedom to do
>> what I like with the PC without losing the ADSL connection.
>>
>> Reading up on routers in places like adslguide.org, it seems it's not
>> just the cheaper end that have problems, reputable makes such as
>> netgear, etc, seem to have firmware and pwr issues, necessitating
>> routine pwr down of the routers - maybe a modem is more reliable
>>
>> So, Belkin, Netgear, BT, other - what problems in the real world (not
>> review) really exist - what makes currently on the market work well.
>>
>> You can pay between £50-200 - are the more expensive ones more
>> reliable in terms of leave on for months?
>>
>> Wired is a necessity - but wireless with it would be nice to have I
>> guess - but not essential.
>
> I personally use 2 different routers for 2 different purposes. I have
> a Netgear DG834G on my home connection and a Draytek 2600G on my work
> one. The Draytek cost twice as much as the Netgear as does have
> superior functionality, though not by much. It's a pretty decent bit
> of kit and essentially just sits there doing the job.
>
> That said, the Netgear is better value for money. It's more stable
> and easier to use which might be a bonus if you're new to routers. All
> the company reps use this box at their home offices and I have several
> friends who use them too. Some of the friends in question have bought
> them to replace previous routers and, off the top of my head, the
> routers in question were a Belkin, a Linksys and a USR. All boxes
> perform equally well, all users consider them far superior to the
> units they replaced.
>
> For an office I'd say get a Draytek - very thorough syslog, excellent
> handling of VPN, QOS options etc. For a home connection I'd say get
> the Netgear, far cheaper (half the price), much easier GUI, more
> support options due to the large number in use, better access controls
> for family use etc. It's also ADSL2+ capable, though I suspect for
> the majority of the UK that's a long way off anyway.

You forgot to tell him to upgrade the firmware.....

Simon:
>For a home connection I'd say get
>the Netgear, far cheaper (half the price),

>much easier GUI, more support options
You mean the chance to speak to Ahmed In Bangalore ?
(I did, it was waste of time)
Regards,
Martin

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 02:25:05 -0000, "Martin²" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>You mean the chance to speak to Ahmed In Bangalore ?
>(I did, it was waste of time)

Agreed (now there's a rare thing). I was thinking of a much bigger
userbase meaning there are far more people with first hand experience
to provide help.

Netgear support? *What* support?