Buying a wireless router?

Question

I live in quite a large house - 4 floors with 6 bedrooms - and about 3 months ago I went and got a B.T. Home Hub wireless broadband package. However, I never get any broadband signal downstairs in the basement of my home and I was wondering if changing my router would make a difference? I've heard about this new 802.11n specification that's suppose to be better than what I've got and I've got my eye on this:

NETGEAR RangeMax NEXT 802.11n WNR834B

I also head that there are ADSL and BroadBand routers and that they are not the same thing apparently. Could someone shed some light on this?

What? Is it possible to have more than one router attached to your phone line? I thought you could only have one.

Answer 1

Hi, firstly the bt home hub is rubbish. There are over 300 questions on here with people who have problems with it. The main problem seems to be it disconecting or not working wirelessly. I think they over spent their budget on advertising it and skimped on what you get for your money.

Your house is on 4 floors. Do you live in a hotel lol

I think you are asking a lot here. I like netgear, have had a dg834g for nearly 2 years now and it's been excellent. Set up was far easier than the belkin equipment I have.

Rangemax router is the best way to go but also consider a signal booster as well. You can add the signal booster if you find you still have problems.

If you have a bt line you want a modem router. Not all rouers have a modem in them. If you had cable broadband you would not require a modem router as your connection is cable and not by telephone line.

I am not familiar with the router you mention as in if it has a modem or not. I find comet very helpful and would ask the question if it will cover the 4 floors of your house. If ithey say yes, and it doesn't you could take it back but I wouldn't.

You are supposed to connect your router to the main phone line coming in to the house. This may be in your basement, or ground floor. Plug it in there and see if you can get reception on all floors. Hopefully you will be ok. My netgear is a standard modem router and is good for good to excellent reception for 30 feet, through a solid brick wall plus an internal wall although it is not as good from downstairs to upstairs.

What you could is position the router were reception is best say first or second floor and run a cable to the basement and ground floors if reception was bad here. Running a network cable is no different to having telephone extension sockets fitted. What you can then do if you don't want your pc or laptop limited to one place on that floor is then buy a wireless access point or ethernet bridge which plugs into the socket leaving you free to be in any room on that floor.

I have made my xbox 360 wireless in the same way as I mentioned above.

Have a look at ebuyer for your router, they the cheapest I have found so far.

I just had a look at the router you mentioned and don't think it is the right one. Have a look at the one at ebuyer.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

First of all, there's never been an A+G router, ever. A was the first wireless protocol, and has been completely abandoned for years now. The first B routers also included A, but that was also a few years back. All G routers also can communicate with B cards. Also, there is an extremely new protocol, N, that is up to 6 times as fast as G. It isn't cheap, but it's also 3 times as fast as non-wireless, so it's something to look into. Most people today buy either 54 Mb/sec. G or 108 Mb/sec. Super G, which is slightly more expensive than G, but is also twice as fast. The speed of your router only applies to how fast your router communicates with the computers that are communicating with it. How could it make your internet connection faster? By the way, if you're only wanting to give multiple computers internet access, through your DSL or cable modem, just stick with 54 Mb/sec G, since it costs the least, and is roughly 10 times as fast as your cable modem or DSL connection. If you're also going to be sharing files between the computers, or sharing drives over the network, you'll probably want to invest in a MIMO router and NIC's (Network Interface Card). That will alleviate dead spots, and will give you maximum performance, no matter where in the house the computer is located. Oh, and definitely get a PCI card for the desktop computers, and a PCMCIA card for the laptops. You'll not only get much better performance, they are less trouble, from my experience.

Answer 3

A stronger or more powerful router will give you better coverage. Broadband and ADSL is the same thing. ADSL stands for Asymmetric digital subscriber line. B/band is one and the same.
P.S. If you live in a house like that, I'm sure you can afford the best in broadband equipment.
Also, with wireless, you don't necessarily have to locate your router near your pc (as long as you have a wireless adapter for your computer) so try putting it somewhere central.

Answer 4

Perhaps in the interest of aesthetics, your router got so hidden that it is having difficulty in properly propagating its signal. Try positioning the router's antenna such that there is no hard solid obstruction towards where you want the signal to go. A solid obstruction bounces the signal. The obstruction should be behind the router.

Answer 5

Assuming you have a phone line on more than one floor why not just add another BT router on a different floor ?

BT should sort this out for you at no extra cost , it's a BT home hub not a bt half the house hub !

Answer 6

If you are looking to receive a wireless signal throughout your entire house check out www.meraki.net

Answer 7

You can get signal relay stations that sit between the router and the computer, enhancing and resending the signal.

eg:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linksys-WRE54G-UK-Wireless-Expander-802-11g/dp/B0007SQG5S/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/203-5775810-9850337?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1181491896&sr=8-1

Answer 8

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1150948375.1181482947@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdkaddleemgdmlcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=834717&category_oid=-32721

One plugs into router.
The other plug anywhere else in the house and won't become dated or be unreliable...

Use collect and store first...will probably be out of stock when you go down there. LOL.