Need advice on which router to get

piggeh

Hi

I have recently started housesharing with 5 others and 3 or 4 of us use the internet connection to browse, download, play games etc. Firstly the signal strength is quite low as the router is in the loft room and needs to cover the whole house. It's also near a fax so might have some electrical interference. Secondly I'm finding that the web slows down a lot and even worse, my gaming ping goes to around 700 when there's a few people on it. I was thinking of getting a new router to help overcome these problems. ie one with better range, or stronger signal through walls etc, to improve signal strength. Also maybe QoS features so I can prioritise gaming traffic and restrict bandwidth per port or IP. I dont mind spending a bit, maybe £100ish.

My question is - a)If my ISP does not support QoS features (I think QoS tags packets so ISP must remove the tags or ignore them) will such a feature improve my gaming ping? I guess it would prioritise gaming traffic locally so might have an effect? b)Can anyone recommend a router that would be suitable?

Thanks for any input.

-TangleFoot-

I've no idea whether having QoS features on your router will help, but the cheapest such one I can find is the Linksys WAG54G2. I seriously doubt it would meet your other requirements if it were left in the loft though...

The second cheapest one I could find - on CCL at any rate - is the D-Link DSL-2740B. It's 802.11n compatible, so it'll probably have greater wireless range than the Linksys. If you visit Play.com you could get it for just £62.99.

piggeh

Thanks, looks pretty decent. I guess it's got to outperform a DG834G right?

Will try and hunt a bit more info tomorrow. If anyone knows if QoS is effective even if the ISP doesnt support it, it would be a great help.

asbokid

piggeh wrote: »

Thanks, looks pretty decent. I guess it's got to outperform a DG834G rig

Will try and hunt a bit more info tomorrow. If anyone knows if QoS is effective even if the ISP doesnt support it, it would be a great help.

I think QoS is done usually at the ethernet level with VLAN tags marked in frames that need prioritising..

If your ISP doesn't support QoS, and I don't suppose many do offer it as part of a residential service level agreement, then I wouldn't bother.. How do access the internet? ADSL? i.e. PPPoA? If so, I don't think it can support QoS at the transport layer any way...

However, your ISP may do some form of time priority scheduling or space priority allocation at its buffers, according to packet classification...

QoS would need to be supported end-to-end to be of any great use.. It's not much use if the priority tags are lost 100 yards down the line when your traffic hits someone else's network.

Personally, I would go for the cheapest wireless router.. about £10 to £15 would be my upper limit... .Many routers are identical inside, and use the same Conexant chipsets... If video games figure that greatly in your life then maybe get a better ISP that provides a guarantee of low latency (on its segment of the internet)

-TangleFoot-

piggeh wrote: »

I guess it's got to outperform a DG834G right?

It should, provided you're all connecting to it via 802.11n wireless adapters. It'll work with standard 802.11b/g kit, but performance may suffer as a result.

Have you considered adding a few HomePlug AV adapters to your existing setup instead? It might actually work out cheaper!

piggeh

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

It should, provided you're all connecting to it via 802.11n wireless adapters. It'll work with standard 802.11b/g kit, but performance may suffer as a result.

Have you considered adding a few HomePlug AV adapters to your existing setup instead? It might actually work out cheaper!

Might upgrade to n spec then, and not worry too much about QoS (although out of curiosity and future proofing I might get a router with such features). Cheers for advice all.

-TangleFoot-

piggeh wrote: »

Might upgrade to n spec then, and not worry too much about QoS

In that case, check out the prices at Ebuyer. They have some nicely priced bundles on offer at the moment.

johncolescarr

if you cant get good coverage in the house you might need to put in signal boosters around the house or use power over ethernet (which is where you use the electricity cables to carry the signal).

-TangleFoot-

johncolescarr wrote: »

power over ethernet ... is where you use the electricity cables to carry the signal

Actually, PoE is almost the reverse of PLC systems such as HomePlug. But we both know that's what you were talking about, don't we?