Which router to buy??? Advice needed for a colleague :~)

Hi All

On behalf of a colleague I am writing to ask for your advice (I am a PlusNet ADSL user )

My colleague in the past had a WinXP laptop and used his Virgin Cable modem AOK but now has a Windows 7 laptop and the modem is not recognised???

I suggested he talk to Virgin tech support but our external IT contractor suggested he get a Router, he called me knowing I use a Router to ask for some user experience.

As mentioned I use ADSL so know nothing about Routers suitable for use with a Cable service. Hence the question:- can you please throw some light on this and recommend a make & model of router???

TIA

Edited by deleted (Wed 03-Nov-10 23:17:32)

I use a Belkin N router. He might need to get Belkin wireless dongles/cards too, which work very well. I get transfer speeds of up to 150Mbs over wireless, with about 19Mbs download speeds on a 20Mbs line. Tell him to double check that he buys the cable router, as the ADSL one comes in a very similar box!

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

I use a Belkin N router. He might need to get Belkin wireless dongles/cards too, which work very well. I get transfer speeds of up to 150Mbs over wireless, with about 19Mbs download speeds on a 20Mbs line. Tell him to double check that he buys the cable router, as the ADSL one comes in a very similar box!

My Linkys G router died recently and I got hold of someone to come and install a new one - Belkin N - for me . I'm on 20Meg now and since the Belkin went in my wireless MacBook Pro [ is an 'N' standard ] is only achieving a maximum of 3.7Meg but the PC wired lappy is getting 12 or above [ depending on the time of day of course ]

I'm shortly getting the nice man back again and hope he can tinker with things so I can get reasonable speeds again - this is driving me bananas .

What encryption are you using?
Have you tried different wireless channels?
Are you broadcasting the SSID?
Is the router near any metal appliances?

now you are asking the non geek

WEP2 [ set up for me ]

Nope - at least I don't know

Haven't a clue

The router is sitting under the cable modem , which is how the Linksys was placed.

Hopefully you meant WPA2

There is not WEP2, if you meant WEP that is encrypted but easily broken if someone has 10 minutes of free time

Probably as it was set up for me and I was told that the PC Lappy would have to be wired as it couldn't cope with the security set up .

I know my password - so that's all that I really need to know about it

Told you this was something I couldn't do

Thanks guys for all the feedback

As an ADSL user can I clarify something???

As mentioned be has a Virgin Cable modem (AFAIK that is?) so does the Cable Router have like an ADSL Router a modem built in i.e. he plugs the Router directly into the incoming cable socket or does he still need to use the Cable Modem and in effect it is using the Router that is overcoming his W7 laptop not recognising the Cbale Modem?

I hope that bit of rambling makes some sort of sense to/for you and you can close the gap in my knowledge???

TIA

He will still need to plug the cable modem into the router.

See http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupi...

Incoming coax -> cable modem -> cable router -> pc, laptop, etc.

(Useful graphic which makes more sense!)