WiFi Router Recommendations

Morning all;

I currently have a Draytek 2800 ADSL router, but have found it has problems
with connecting to my ISP; it can drop out and take many minutes to
reconnect (up to an hour sometimes) and reports an abysmal signal / noise
ration on my line. Phone company says they cant do anything about this as
it due to me being at the very ragged edge of the coverage of the exchange.

I swapped it for my old Belkin F5D7630 ADSL modem, and this seems much more
tolerant of the condition of my line; it reconnects far quicker than the
Draytek and drops out much less often.

Problem is, the Belkin seems to be prone to interference (or so I assume)
from something on the Wireless side. It will often drop out for no apparent
reason for a few seconds, then come back up at a lower signal strength
(reported on the client application on my laptop). Setting the channel to
"Auto" on the router seems to "help"- it jumps channels rather than dropping
out, but my laptop takes an age to follow it to the new channel ;(

So, does anyone have any experience of a wireless router that a) is tolerant
of not very good ADSL connections and b) is robust under difficult wireless
operating conditions? I have seen some advertised that have antennas far
bigger than mine (sigh - aerial envy), but my knowledge of physics suggests
that bigger is not always better in antenna design; though I would have had
a go at replacing the existing ones to try it if they could be removed...

Any input received with thanks;

SPR

"Schrodinger'sPetRock" <nospam at nospam dot com> wrote:
>So, does anyone have any experience of a wireless router that a) is tolerant
>of not very good ADSL connections and b) is robust under difficult wireless
>operating conditions?

How about two different devices, a good DSL modem and a good WiFi
router? Or even a DSL modem, a wired router, and the appropriate
number of WiFi APs? The swapping out one of them to chase the latest
technology doesn't require replacing everything...

"William P.N. Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Schrodinger'sPetRock" <nospam at nospam dot com> wrote:
>>So, does anyone have any experience of a wireless router that a) is
>>tolerant
>>of not very good ADSL connections and b) is robust under difficult
>>wireless
>>operating conditions?
>
> How about two different devices, a good DSL modem and a good WiFi
> router? Or even a DSL modem, a wired router, and the appropriate
> number of WiFi APs? The swapping out one of them to chase the latest
> technology doesn't require replacing everything...

That is a solution I hadnt considered actually - I do like the "one stop
shop" approach of having everything in the one box, but just buying an AP
and bolting it to the back of the Belkin would probably work...

I do know there is an old Netgear 11b AP sitting on the shelf of our IT
blokes office so will try and steal that to see if it works

Thanks William;

SPR

Have you tried the Draytek's latest UK firmware ? Read the forum first for
suggestion.
Go to www.seg.co.uk and then to support.

I have similarly bad line but my 2600VG with special UK2 'long line'
firmware now works pretty well at 2Mb/s.
Zyxel 2602HW or HWL is ADSL2+, has the TI chipset and can work at 3Mb/s on
my line, but unfortunately it's WiFi
doesn't work well enough across 70m to my annexe. That doesn't mean it won't
work for you.
I have the 'tried once' Zyxel 2602HW for sale, if you are interested.
Regards,
Martin at gsoft dot freeserve dot co dot uk

"Martin²" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:44ac6ada$0$969$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Have you tried the Draytek's latest UK firmware ? Read the forum first for
> suggestion.
> Go to www.seg.co.uk and then to support.
>
> I have similarly bad line but my 2600VG with special UK2 'long line'
> firmware now works pretty well at 2Mb/s.
> Zyxel 2602HW or HWL is ADSL2+, has the TI chipset and can work at 3Mb/s on
> my line, but unfortunately it's WiFi
> doesn't work well enough across 70m to my annexe. That doesn't mean it
> won't work for you.
> I have the 'tried once' Zyxel 2602HW for sale, if you are interested.
> Regards,
> Martin at gsoft dot freeserve dot co dot uk

I havent been able to upgrade the firmware on the Draytek - never quite
worked out why...

However, the other suggestion I received (to try a speparate AP) works
really well - I can it up high and well away from all the other bits of
metal and cables in the area, and I now get a cracking signal all over my
property and for a good way beyond!

OK the new AP is only 11b, but that is faster than my internet connection so
I dont see that it matters much

Thanks Martin

SPR