The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

Any of the Speedtests are a joke and mean nothing. My crap DSL line is rated at 12Mb and Speed tests at 10Mb. Really I'm lucky to squeak out 2Mb to 3Mb actual which is why I don't have the 40Mb service as my line wouldn't allow actual 10Mb service so it would be a waste to spend more for a service I wouldn't use. When they finally update the lines with fiber then I will consider a faster service. I've heard that in the next couple years they will bring fiber up to the house, I can hardly wait

I have had good luck with the same Linksys (WRT54GL) Sam did but they are far and few, as a rule I don't trust Linksys.

The new Cisco business class routers actually have html interfaces now unlike the old archaic routers so they aren't to bad to configure and manage now, Cisco has always been strange in their management. Plus I think you can get into a level 3 for about a $1000 now too which is a bonus. I could see going that route as the extra management would be real sweet.

 

Also take into account the speed of the servers you are downloading from. I agree that speed tests are a joke as well. I frequently get readings of over 60Mbps on speedtest.net

 

That is covered by doing multiple DLs at a time or you'll see the peak from even one good server as you point out.

 

I stopped reading for a day for a family get-together and you guys posted more than I could keep up with

I haven't finished reading the router posts yet, so please forgive me if you're all past that, but one thing that I did and I'll never regret is use open-source firmware on some routers. I know of there being an open-source WRT and an open-source Tomato, both are great firmwares that work on a wide variety of routers. There is an Asus router with 300Mb Wireless N that I've been thinking about buying and I've heard great things about it so long as you use the open source firmware. It seemed as if it was designed specifically to be compatible with several open-source firmware products and intended to be used with them because that was a mentioned feature and the stock firmware supposedly sucks. The WRT54 routers are also known to be excellent long-term routers that work with the WRT firmware, but they don't go past Wireless G, so I wouldn't recommend them to any network bandwidth hog. I've considering trying a 450Mb or better wireless router sometime too.

The open-source firmware can give you much more control over the router, network, and such than the regular firmware does. Some routers are physically identical or almost identical to higher end models, but have some hardware disabled or intentionally bottle-necked by poor firmware so that they can be sold as lower end models and open-source firmware can often unlock such locked hardware and features. For example, some routers have locked memory and caches that open-source firmware can make use of. Some are capable of giving the antennae more power than the stock, reduced firmware allows and their range can be extended by changing a setting.

However, I've never had problems with video streaming over Wireless G, even when I'm one or two floors above a crappy Linksys E1000 router and have a signal that says it can drop to 20 or 30 something Mb/s rather than the full 54Mb/s, with YouTube and other such video streaming sites and 720p or 1080p video that weren't the fault of the site itself. I think that this is *proven* when a desktop that is right next to the router and has a short Ethernet cable that isn't wrapped or bunched up anywhere and is directly connected to the router, yet still has the same problems. Maybe a home media-streaming server would have problems, but I know that web-streamed content shouldn't unless there is some other factor such as a dying router or something else that I may have overlooked.

There's also the fact that many routers are upgrade-able in a way. Some can have their antennas replaced or supplemented by better antennas. That can make a huge difference in some situations.

 

I wish Tomato were available on modern routers, it looks like they stopped supporting new devices about 5 years ago, would be nice to have the same level of functionality on a more powerful gigabit-switch router.

 

This is the ASUS I'll most likely buy from my previous post.

ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless AC 1750 Gigabit Router IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, IEEE 802.3/3u/3ab

It's a 450N dual band so it would require me to upgrade my notebooks mini-pc card to the 3T3R system and would also mean that I would have to add a third antenna wire around the display. Probably worth the headache though. I'm not sure if I can get a dual-band 3T3R mini-pc card but that definitely would be the route to go.

I also like having the 3 antennas which can be replaced with high gain ones and extended outward from the router providing better coverage.

 

Ah yes. Tomato. I've read about it multiple times. I've never used open source firmware. Fact of the matter is, much like programming/scripting, I'm extremely green when it comes to networking. I can figure out just about anything though.

Rich, you apparently have the exact model of netgear I've been looking for. Unfortunately yours is used. I have this thing about preferring new Especially given the headaches I've dealt with on the actiontec modems! I will likely never buy or endorse them again.
What a shame newegg wants so much for the netgear Upwards of $100USD. An ebay seller has a new one, and offers a warranty on it. I have til tomorrow morning to think about it I suppose. The modem is after all, the heart of anyone's internet. Much like I won't skimp on a power supply for my PC, I'm figuring I better not skimp on my modem either.

I guess I should consider myself lucky-ish. I pay for a 5MB connection, but I've been receiving 6 for a few months. They don't offer more in my current area. (The sticks) LOL!

 

Oman7,

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm limited because of the distance from the source, to about 3MB/s, and there's no F/O network here. If you are foolish enough to buy the FIOS, you are just wasting your money because it's wire all the way to the pole. They bring it down from the pole with a F/O line, a total rip off! There are no fiber optic lines here at all! Still, better than a T1 line though!

Russ

 

Thanks Kevin I found them on eBay and bought the last ones. LOL

New Netgear N300 Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Router DGN2200-100NAS Built-in DSL $55 shp'd

Netgear DGN2200M N300 Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Router Mobile Broadband Edition $60 shp'd

My biggest problem with this router is the limited fast Ethernet, I want gigabyte!

 

The VDSL lines used here are fibre-optic to the local cabinet, and copper from the cabinet to the premises (around the last 100-300m). This is what limits me to 67Mbps versus the full 80 that the technology supports. Nothing to grumble about certainly, but that's as high as the line speed will go until the whole lot is replaced with fibre throughout, which will be many years away no doubt.

 

LOL, if you bought the last ones, you'd be broke

Wow, I definitely want one now!
"The NETGEAR N300 Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Router Mobile Broadband Edition is a full featured Wireless-N router with Integrated ADSL2+ Modem and a failover or backup option to connect to a 3G+ Mobile Broadband network in case of DSL outage."

 

$100 for a router isn't all that much. Going standard for the high-end routers from Netgear, Asus, WD, Draytek etc. is £120-£180, so pre-tax about $160-$230.

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I have an expensive habit! LOL!

 

My D-Link DIR-655 very old router has that capability too, already. In fact you can hookup 4G if you want, 3G would be a waste, way too slow.

 

Gb is Gigabit, not Gigabyte and GbE is 1Gb/s. 1GB/s or better with Ethernet would need 10GbE instead of GbE.

 

You didn't understand what I was saying? PLEASE!

 

What did I misunderstand? Did you mean the brand Gigabyte, or did I really screw up?

 

When a router is equipped with a 10/100/1000M Lan port, it is said to be Gigabit. My switch is equipped with Gigabit speeds

 

I know that a 10/100/1000 port is said to be Gigabit.

What did you mean by this? Fast Ethernet is 100Mb and you said gigabyte is what you wanted. I am well aware of the fact that Gigabyte and Gigabit are two different terms with different meanings and that they are thus not synonyms. When you said Gigabyte, I thought that you meant to say Gigabit, so I tried to address the difference.

 

Actually Steve(mr. Movies) wrote/said/texted that And I was talking to steve when I said that. I was not correcting you

I guess I should have quoted steve :S