Need a router, which one?

Jo4

My sister has just bought a brand new desktop. Her Isp, Tesco, had provided her with an external broadband modem which worked with the old desktop but does not work with her new one. Could someone please tell me which router would be best for her or what would she need to connect the new desktop to the net as the existing modem will not let the new desktop connect?

I purchased a lead to connect my laptop to my router and it only shows amber, not green and therefore I have a slower connection. Did I purchase the wrong lead or what have I done wrong?

BTW my sister and I reside at our own houses and therefore this is 2 seperate issues.

jonesMUFCforever

IMO any router will do.
My BY voyager 205 stopped working so got a Sweex router (non wifi) from a local independent computer shop.

Jo4

Would a DG834G be alright for her then or would she be as well getting a newer version?

fwor

If your sister wants to get the most from future higher-speed broadband, she should look for a router that supports ADSL2+, as this will go up to 24Mb/s (when the ISPs do at their end, of course).

Your problem is ~probably~ because your laptop only has a 10Mb/s Ethernet port, and your router will support both 10Mb/s and 100Mb/s connections. You can get plug-in 100Mb/s Ethernet PCMCIA cards to get around this, but personally I wouldn't bother for now, as your ISP probably only gives you around 2Mb/s on their part of the link, so that will be the bottleneck at the moment.

Jo4

fwor wrote: »

If your sister wants to get the most from future higher-speed broadband, she should look for a router that supports ADSL2+, as this will go up to 24Mb/s (when the ISPs do at their end, of course).

Your problem is ~probably~ because your laptop only has a 10Mb/s Ethernet port, and your router will support both 10Mb/s and 100Mb/s connections. You can get plug-in 100Mb/s Ethernet PCMCIA cards to get around this, but personally I wouldn't bother for now, as your ISP probably only gives you around 2Mb/s on their part of the link, so that will be the bottleneck at the moment.

Which router would you recommend then?

Thanks, you're probably correct as the laptop will be 5 years next month. :eek: It doesn't seem that long ago from I purchased it.

fwor

Jo4 wrote: »

Which router would you recommend then?

Actually, the Netgear model that you referred to above is fine for non-wireless use - it supports ADSL2+ and has (at a glance) all of the features she might need.

On the wireless side there are more recent developments that can give better range and/or higher bandwidth, but if wireless isn't her priority then she can ignore that.

albertross_2

DG834G is wireless

If you have a router already, that should work once configured

Jo4

fwor wrote: »

Actually, the Netgear model that you referred to above is fine for non-wireless use - it supports ADSL2+ and has (at a glance) all of the features she might need.

On the wireless side there are more recent developments that can give better range and/or higher bandwidth, but if wireless isn't her priority then she can ignore that.

Thanks for responding! :T If she wanted wireless which one would you recommend?

cajef

Jo4 wrote: »

Would a DG834G be alright for her then or would she be as well getting a newer version?

If she is using ADSL and not cable the Netgear DG834G would be fine, the latest version v4 gets very good reviews, I have been using the v2 version for over three years now without any problems and would recommend it.

Amazon price £44.30 inc free delivery http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-DG834G-54Mbps-Wireless-Firewall/dp/B0000TZ8Z8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1213136748&sr=8-1

albertross_2

on your second issue, do you have an old laptop with a 10mbps ethernet card?

Jo4

albertross wrote: »

on your second issue, do you have an old laptop with a 10mbps ethernet card?

I don't know, is there any way of finding out? It is a Compaq Presario 2143EA, if that helps.