wireless router for talktalk - advice please!

Hello all!

I'd be sooo grateful for some advice please.

I need to get a wireless router for our home setup, and we are with talktalk. I get a great speed result from our existing modem, and seek advice as to the best possible modem to get.

I understand that some Belkin routers are not the greatest with talktalk, although John Lewis is recommending them first.

I gather some folks recommend the Netgear DGND3300, and wonder what you might think?

Also, in terms of set up, I'm hoping to have the connection for our desktop upstairs, and a wireless set up for the rest of the house. Therefore, is it possible and/or advisable to keep the existing fixed modem upstairs, and install a wireless router downstairs. Will this work? I have enough phone lines around the house to do this. At the moment, all of the phone jacks have the little plugs in to reduce signal reduction to our primary modem.

Your advice would be greatly appreciated, as I don't want to get this wrong and spend hours installing and then returning gear to a store if it doesn't work.

Many thanks in advance!

Hi foresthillguy,

you can't use two routers at once. So you will need to find a router that suits all your needs. My own preference would be Netgear, I am not a fan of any of our standard routers and most definitely not Belkin ones.

Ady

Not strictly true, but at a simple level reasonable advice.

If it is just the wireless that is an issue, find a wireless access point - this has no routing functionality, but simply acts as an ethernet to wireless converter.

Thanks both!

Reading what I wrote, I don't think I made myself clear about the way I was hoping to set everything up. What I meant was, can I leave our remaining old landline modem in place for the desktop, and set up a different wireless router elsewhere in the house, using one of the other phone jacks, for a wireless set up for the laptop?

I guess the real reason I'd like to do this is that I think I'll be using the laptop pretty much on a different floor of the house to that of the desktop.

I'm thinking you're going to say no...

But otherwise, if you recommend that Netgear router, that's great to know! Thanks!

I think you can only have 1 modem per 1 ADSL line....so a no-no in your case. Do what i do: connect your wireless router to your telephone socket and buy a wireless N pci card for your desktop (i have this and its brilliant)

I'm also on a TalkTalk line and i used to have the Netgear DGND3300...its certainly a very good router (dual band). However if you're willing to spend around £100 on this, then you might as well pay an extra £20 or so and buy the best (IMHO) router currently available...the Billion 7800N. I'm using this on my TalkTalk line and its brilliant. Stays synced for months at a time. Have a look at the Amazon reviews:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Billion-BiPAC-7800N-Broadban...

Edited by deleted (Mon 25-Jul-11 15:00:32)

Thank you so much! Have received similar advice on the talktalk forums. Now, with regard to the Edimax, please explain this to me like I'm an idiot (which, with these things I am!)....how is this installed? Will it be compatible for every machine? Currently, we have a very old Dell (circa 2003/4), but will be getting an iMac in the future...

Thanks again!

The Edimax card pushes into a PCI slot and is easy to install. Have a quick peek in your PC (don't be scared!) and see if you have any spare PCI slots. Have a look here for more info:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/pci5.htm

Edited by deleted (Mon 25-Jul-11 15:32:14)

Many thanks!!!

A crucial thing to remember is to retain the old TalkTalk modem for testing the line if there are any faults.

Oh, thank you, that's great advice! Much appreciated!

Hello all!

Well, thanks to your earlier advice, I've now purchased a Billion router and have it installed. Getting great speeds on the desktop (16 Meg), but terrible results on the laptop (less than 1 Meg), no matter where I am in the house (even right beside the router).

Any ideas? Settings I need to change?

Your advice would be greatly appreciated once again....!

Thanks in advance!

PS...the laptop is a brand new hp Pavilion g6.

I got lousy wi-fi with my Billion (7800N) at first, it doesn't seem to be too good at auto-selecting the best channel to use (though I've never found a router that was!).

Get yourself a copy of NetStumbler¹ and find a channel that nobody else within range is using, and set the channel to that one, that'll probably work.

It may be worth changing the mode from 802.11b+g+n to 802.11g+n, unless you have some older kit that only works with "b".


¹ iStumbler if you're using a Mac.

Many thanks! I changed to a different channel, and it made the world of difference. Also changed to 802.11g+n, so that may have helped too!

Brilliant -thanks for your help!

Out of interest which Billion router did you buy?

7800N

So far very pleased. Easy to set up, even for a newbie like me. And once I got the channel sorted, it's worked like a dream thus far...