Upgrading router - Will we notice a difference?

powerful_Rogue

Hi,

I currently have a Linksys WRT300N router, which is roughly 8 years old now.

We live in a 3 story house and have the following:

Downstairs -
Virgin Modem + Router
Wired Connection to Xbox 360
Wired Connection to PC
Wired Connection to NAS

Middle Floor -
Wireless Xbox 360

Top Floor -
Wireless Xbox 360
Wireless PC
Wireless Xbox 360

Misc -
2 x Mobile phones
3 x Tablets

Reason for the number of Xbox's is because we use them to stream material from the NAS and also because of iPlayer, Netflix etc etc.

Considering we live in a 3 story house and the router is downstairs, we still get 4/5 bars signal strength on the top floor. Occasionally the signal will drop and we have to restart the modem and router.

Is it worth upgrading? Would we notice much of a difference?

Thanks in advance

Cycrow

if you already get a good enough signal in all the rooms you need it in, then upgrading probably wont help you much at all.

is there a reason you want to upgrade, is there something that isn't working how you would like ?

powerful_Rogue

Ideally I wanted a router I could hook my printer upto so anyone on the network could use it, but it appears none of the big names support my printer.

Apart from that, no other reason to upgrade. Just wondering whether im missing out on anything as the router, although very good, is getting on a bit now.

Mulder00

Upgrading would at the very least get rid of the problem of having to restart from time to time.

Sinhanada

What printer do you have? Does it have an inbuilt network port or wireless? If so, then as long as you have an assigned IP Address you should be able to print to it from your devices. If not, I'd suggest you get one with.

What you will need to do is add a reservation on your DHCP server. Setup the printer as a local printer on the devices you want to print from and then instead of using local ports (LPT\USB etc) add a TCP/IP port

powerful_Rogue

I have the Epson SX415. Its not wireless, only connection it has is a USB connection.

Looks like only way to print from network will be to replace my printer as well.

Sinhanada

You will struggle with that - unless you add it as a local connection (Preferably a desktop) and share the printer.

To add this, browse to it from a different computer using it's UNC path

e.g. \\COMPUTERNAME\Sharename

This should add it as a local connection.

You will need the connected PC on to print.

This of course is assuming you're using Windows!

An updated printer would probably work the best, otherwise you can get something like an external jet direct box - found one on Amazon for £8 but I couldn't tell you how good it is:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Jetdirect-External-Print-Server/dp/B00024K07C/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1392813908&sr=1-3&keywords=usb+jet+direct

powerful_Rogue

Sinhanada wrote: »

You will struggle with that - unless you add it as a local connection (Preferably a desktop) and share the printer.

To add this, browse to it from a different computer using it's UNC path

e.g. \\COMPUTERNAME\Sharename

This should add it as a local connection.

You will need the connected PC on to print.

This of course is assuming you're using Windows!

An updated printer would probably work the best, otherwise you can get something like an external jet direct box - found one on Amazon for £8 but I couldn't tell you how good it is:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Jetdirect-External-Print-Server/dp/B00024K07C/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1392813908&sr=1-3&keywords=usb+jet+direct

Might try it that way. The computer downstairs is always on 24/7 - so that might be the best option.