Which router / modem for long / poor line

Hello,

My sister has a plusnet account however the supplied BT Voyager 105 will not
stay connected for more than a few minutes if at all.

I have read that the voyager is not the best of devices and think it best to
replace it with a router modem. Am looking at the Solwise SAR-600E or
Billion 5102S any likley problems with these or is there something better ?

Ian


Ian M Robertson

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005, Ian M Robertson wrote:

> My sister has a plusnet account however the supplied BT Voyager 105
> will not stay connected for more than a few minutes if at all.
>
> I have read that the voyager is not the best of devices

I don't know the specific device, but I use a 205 on plusnet and it's
fine. But more to the point, it has diagnostics, and can report
signal levels and SNR. Doesn't that one?

However, I see that the 105 is a USB-connected device. Maybe that's
the real problem.

> and think it best to replace it with a router modem.

Without doing any kind of diagnosis?

But, true, I wouldn't recommend USB ADSL connections - seems a false
economy to me.

I'd suggest looking for its diagnostics. You have folks here (I think
it's clear enough from their posting record who they are) who can
comment sensibly on reported attenuation and SNR figures if you can
post them.

But if you can confirm they are OK, and that it's the USB side that's
letting her down, probably an upgrade is advisable. Can we take it
that she /does/ have an Ethernet interface on the computer too?

Have you looked at plusnet's offerings just now? They have a number
of router upgrade options for existing customers, and, if you're
shopping on someone else's behalf, there might be some benefit in them
getting a device that was sold by and is supported by the ISP. I'm
just saying that as an interested bystander and, as it happens,
customer of Plusnet - I've nothing to gain from whatever you finally
choose.

good luck

On 27 Oct 2005 12:19, Ian M Robertson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have read that the voyager is not the best of devices and think it best to
>replace it with a router modem.

Before going much further, as it might be the line connection speed giving
some of the problems, would it be possible to get the line stats and post
them. See <http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm> for the Voyager 105
(I don't have one, have never seen one, but think it is the model used by
BT engineers for their testing, so 'is not the best of devices' would be
a bit of a shame... But USB *is* likely to cause probs, IMHO... Peter.


--

UK ADSL <http://tinyurl.com/dghgq> - Happy to save cash with Plus.Net!

Unsuitable for heavy downloaders, but fine for video/audio streaming.

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 12:19:28 +0100, Ian M Robertson <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> My sister has a plusnet account however the supplied BT Voyager 105 will
> not
> stay connected for more than a few minutes if at all.
>
> I have read that the voyager is not the best of devices and think it
> best to
> replace it with a router modem. Am looking at the Solwise SAR-600E or
> Billion 5102S any likley problems with these or is there something
> better ?
>
> Ian

Hi Ian,

As Peter's suggested can you post the line stats from the modem? Also when
it disconnects do you know if the modem loses sync?

If it does lose sync I'd suggest having a read through

http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/10

and

http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/13

to see if anything there helps and if not raise it to the support team via
http://contactus.plus.net and we can run some remote testing on the line
and see if we can find a fault.


With Regards,

Dave,
--
| Dave Tomlinson Broadband Solutions For
| Customer Support for Home & Business
| PlusNet plc @ http://www.plus.net
+ ----- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -----

"Ian M Robertson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:djqd40$nid$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello,
>
> My sister has a plusnet account however the supplied BT Voyager 105 will not
> stay connected for more than a few minutes if at all.
>
> I have read that the voyager is not the best of devices and think it best to
> replace it with a router modem. Am looking at the Solwise SAR-600E or
> Billion 5102S any likley problems with these or is there something better ?

Assuming that you have extension telephone wiring, I would suggest trying to
connect to the internal socket of your BT master socket. with all extension
wiring disconnected, or isolated by filter. If that helps you can get a master
socket with built in filter.


The Speedtouch frog always had a good reputation, so I bought a Speedtouch
router.

--

Michael Chare

Michael Chare wrote:
> "Ian M Robertson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:djqd40$nid$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hello,
>>
>> My sister has a plusnet account however the supplied BT Voyager 105 will
>> not
>> stay connected for more than a few minutes if at all.
>>
>> I have read that the voyager is not the best of devices and think it best
>> to
>> replace it with a router modem. Am looking at the Solwise SAR-600E or
>> Billion 5102S any likley problems with these or is there something better
>> ?
>
> Assuming that you have extension telephone wiring, I would suggest trying
> to
> connect to the internal socket of your BT master socket. with all
> extension
> wiring disconnected, or isolated by filter. If that helps you can get a
> master socket with built in filter.

It will almost certainly help. What you do (to check), go to the master
socket, unscrew the top half of the front faceplate, pull out, on the right
behind the faceplate will be a socket to fit a regular telephone, put the
filter in there, and connect the rest of the modem up. If it works
uninterrupted (which it probably now will) you just need a faceplate filter.

Gaz

Ian M Robertson wrote:
> Hello,
>
> My sister has a plusnet account however the supplied BT Voyager 105
> will not stay connected for more than a few minutes if at all.
>
> I have read that the voyager is not the best of devices and think it
> best to replace it with a router modem. Am looking at the Solwise
> SAR-600E or Billion 5102S any likley problems with these or is there
> something better ?

The BT Voyager 105 will work on a wet piece of string, if the wind is in
the right direction, that's why it is used as the test interface by all
the DSL field engineers, (you should see some of the readings I get when
I'm testing when the customers equipment just sits there flashing away)
.. The problem is more likely to either be software problems (aka driver
problems) or line problems.

The biggest problem is that in itself, with the basic software package
you get you have no way of getting at your line stats, I believe that
there is an addon pack but for the life of me I can't remember what or
where ...

But for my own personal use I do use a router as they can be inherently
more stable & you do normally get some indication of what your stats may
be..

Thanks to all for opinions / advice fitted Solwise SAR-600E yesterday -
works well.

Couldn't see how to get the s/n figs from that either - no matter

Ian