Decent wireless router for Talk Talk fibre connection?

having issues and i really think it is down to the HG533 router shipped with the Talk Talk Fibre Optic package. whenever i am in the upstairs area i get constant disconnections, erratic speed and on occasion get a 'cannot connect to TALKTALK network' despite the SSID being visible and a good signal strength. on occasion it tells me that i am connected to the network and have internet access, when i obviously appear not to as nothing will load in my browser and i get the usual 'cannot find server' error.

can anyone recommend a decent fibre wireless router that can used with my Talk Talk account. it was the good users on this forum that put me on to the 2wire HGV2700 back in the day.

What's your budget as that's a major factor?

sorry for the delay ukhardy, i am at work. around maybe £50 - £70, but please also let me know of any better models for future reference.

Trendnet tew-639GR. £50.00 if you hunt around.
Wireless signal excellent provided that you have a decent download speed in the first place.

I had the same issue with my HG533, I managed to fix it by changing the Wireless-N Band Width.

Type 192.168.1.1 in your browser and put in your login details, click Advanced, click Basic, then WLAN. Look for 11N Band Width and change it to 20 MHZ.

testing your internet connection with a browser isn't really the best test. A browser means world wide web and http, which is a protocol/service that runs on the internet.

Connected to the network just means you have IP configured (IP address, subnet mask, default gateway) which is just your LAN or WLAN connection.

The Internet access bit probably just pings an MS server somewhere, and may not even use DNS to do so.

Webpages use the DNS server to convert the URL to an IP address. So, you might just have an issue with DNS servers.

In reply to a post by Myth:

The Internet access bit probably just pings an MS server somewhere, and may not even use DNS to do so.

Actually it uses HTTP and uses DNS by seeing if it can get to and read http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt - but it only checks infrequently so you're totally right it can't be relied upon as anything accurate.

Just for interest value

ahh didn't know that.

Interesting

does it ignore the local DNS cache on each check?

Edited by deleted (Sun 21-Jul-13 01:29:23)

Before you buy something new

I STRONGLY suggest doing the following:
Change your wireless to 20mhz if its on 40.
40 is faster close up but it severely reduces the range as 40mhz picks up a lot more interference and becomes unusable faster

Also change the wireless channel

Firstly try 11, then 6, then 1
The channel you are using may be congested. Wireless doorbells, baby monitors, wireless keyboards etc tend to be on lower channels hence why I suggest trying 11 first.

Routers are generally ok to be on the same channel. So you might find 11 works best even it your neighbours routers also on 11.

It's the cordless doorbells microwaves baby monitors etc that cause issues as its not digital signals