Buying a Wireless Router

[Nolan]

Copy and pasted from a PC forum, but I'm not sure if any of you guys have Networking experience/opinions. So without further ado.

 

Well, for about a year the supplied wireless router from Verizon worked great, 5 bars everyin the house, basement or upstairs. Now...1-2 bars if I'm lucky in my room and basically speeds rivaling 28.8K (honestly, coming off of 56K last year, sites did load faster then). If I go and sit right next to the router though, 5 bars and full speed, so either the router is going kaput or my wireless card is. I'm going to get a router I suppose.

 

My problem is though, I don't know a whole lot on the manufacturer side of things, along with a couple other things.

 

Right now I'm thinking Newegg TrendNet

I'm pretty sure my brother-in-law got a Treendnet, and it works great and gives service through most of his house(even with it's brick walls and tin roof and whatever other 1900's nonsense old houses have).

It's got two external antennas which can only be good for reception, and hopefully the range is good.

Wireless b/g/n.

4 Ethernet ports, etc.

 

$35+Free Shipping. Good Deal/Brand/ect?

Feel free to make suggestions, my budget could go upto probably 70, but I'd realy really rather not go higher than $50. Wireless N isn't really needed either since my laptop only supports a/b/g.

 

The other thing is....when we got DSL we got a Modem/Wireless Router in one. Phone line comes in and that's that. So, without a separate modem from the router...whatdoido? How would I disable the routing of the modem and send the connection through a dedicated router? I hope that makes sense I feel I didn't articulate it very well.

 

Hopefully a router will fix the problem and it isn't my laptop's wireless, but if it is I suppose I'd get a Wireless N USB Dongle.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124284I'm also thinking about that but I'm unsure of the Internal Antennas...otherwise there is This which is practically the same.

[Shorty]

I don't think TrendNet is a (big) brand over here so I don't know if you'll get many recommendations from us Europeans.

 

However, if you previously had a modem/router all-in-one, and the router you have selected is only a wireless networking device and not a DSL/cable modem, then I think you'll need to look for a different product. Over here it is much less common to get routers without modems built in, but I've never had a problem with any product by Netgear, Belkin or Thomson.

[Nolan]

Hmm :/

 

I'm thinking unless someone says otherwise, I'll need to get a separate modem, but the only brands with DSL are TrendNet and D-Link, as stand alone modems and D-Link and :? ASUS have modem/wireless router combo. I'm kinda hoping for something along the lines of I can just turn the current modem/router into just a modem and use whatever I buy as the router, I'm just unsure of all of this networking stuff.

[Raining_again]

you have an all in one modem/router, that's broken... and you want to use the modem part of the current one? I'm 95% sure that won't work, and it may be the case that the modem bit is broken (or all of it) so your only real option is getting a replacement for it all.

[david.dakota]

Have you bought any new home appliances? I've read somewhere that things like christmas lights, florescent lightings and microwaves can affect the speeds you get with broadband (please correct me if i've dreamt this!). Just a thought.

[Nolan]

you have an all in one modem/router, that's broken... and you want to use the modem part of the current one? I'm 95% sure that won't work, and it may be the case that the modem bit is broken (or all of it) so your only real option is getting a replacement for it all.

Works fine via Wired or Wireless if I'm right next to it. It may be my Laptop's wireless is what's dying idk though and have no simple way for checking with my laptop's screen being broken.

 

Have you bought any new home appliances? I've read somewhere that things like christmas lights, florescent lightings and microwaves can affect the speeds you get with broadband (please correct me if i've dreamt this!). Just a thought.

 

Nope, nothing new it's just been slowly getting worse.