Which Modem Router in a Broadband Slowspot?

We are based in rural Wales, in a broadband slow spot ( best speed about 1.3 Mb, worst about 0.4 Mb). We�re about 4.5 miles from the telephone exchange. For the last few months, our service has been noticeably worse, with many short interruptions. The interruptions are more frequent when both computers are on line at the same time. We have a new iMac and MacBook Pro and our modem router is a Netgear N150 Wireless ADSL2+. Is there any chance that another router would give a better performance? I�d be most grateful for any advice.

What is the performance like when they are directly connected to the router (rather than using wireless)?

Also, what is the performance like if the router is connected directly to the BT master socket rather than through any extension cabling?

Edited by micksharpe (Thu 13-Sep-12 15:29:58)

In reply to a post by micksharpe:

What is the performance like when they are directly connected to the router (rather than using wireless)?

Also, what is the performance like if the router is connected directly to the BT master socket rather than through any extension cabling?

We tend to use the ethernet cables because they are slightly more stable - but only slightly!

Router is connected directly to BT master socket. All cables are as short as possible.

What line stats is the router reporting?

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php#top

Can you post your line stats reported by the router please?

May be in Maintenance | Router Status | Show Statistics

This is definitely not the first thing that you should do but if your connection to the exchange is as good as it can be, you could ask your ISP to turn on interleaving.

In reply to a post by MinnieMinno:

Router is connected directly to BT master socket.

Try test socket hidden behind faceplate.

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

What line stats is the router reporting?

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php#top

I hope you can make some sense of this! It's the best copy I can make so far as I couldn't find our how to put a screenshot on this forum

System Up Time 02:53:00
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 87263 107955 0 798 13114 02:52:20
LAN 10M/100M 109215 88936 0 13271 827 02:52:42
WLAN 54M/65M/150M 2177 883 0 36 13 02:52:45

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1216 Kbps 448 Kbps
Line Attenuation 61.6 dB 31.5 dB
Noise Margin 13.4 dB 15.0 dB

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by MinnieMinno:

Router is connected directly to BT master socket.

Try test socket hidden behind faceplate.

We were using the test socket until the last BT engineer gave us a new socket with integral filter. He said this would give the best performance. What do you think? Should we go back to the test socket?

Interesting stats. The attenuation indicates your line length is about 4.5 kilometres or 2.8 miles.

Did you use a phone in the test socket when you were using it or just broadband?