Reccomend a Router for no more than £60-70

[OllB]

Sorry if this is on the wrong forum section but this seemed like the right place.

I need a decent router than will last me a couple of years (hopefully).

I've been looking at a couple and cant decide which one to get. I don't use the wireless very often as i prefer to have things connected by cat 5 cable to make sure gaming is reliable. But figure that if i ever get a new laptop in the next couple of years it will probably come with the option to use wireless N.

Netgear DGN2000 ADSL Wireless-N Modem Router. From the few reviews I've managed to find it seems ok.
Next is a Linksys WAG160N Wireless-N ADSL Modem Router. Some people have complained about the DHCP functions.
Next is a ?

[Steve]

I know of at least a couple on here with the Netgear PSP83- Paul and I think David,if you don't get any responses try a PM.

[Niall]

Netgear generally do good routers. Occasionally you'll find a duff one, but for ease of use I'd say the DG834 series is a good bet. I've actually just got home to mine playing possum. I think it's dying, so it looks like I'm not buying anything I wanted to on my next payday, just another Netgear

[PuncH]

Avoid the DG834 V5 though. Different chipset from V4 and not as good.

[Sebby]

Netgear DG834Gv4 is always a good choice.



Smiley sorted.

[PuncH]

Agreed Seb...my DG834G V4 has been nothing short of excellent for the two years I've had it so far.

[Supanova]

I'm also looking but mine must deal with ADSL2+ connections as well (from o2/BE). The router they gave me is alright but I can't adjust some key settings that are affecting a couple of my games.

Does the DG834G V4 work with adsl2?

[Rik]

It does.

[Supanova]

Great, thanks Rik.

[PuncH]

It works very well. Especially with the 5.01.09 firmware.

[Supanova]

I want to do this:

change one port in your ADSL router to BRIDGED mode (which is to say that router doesn't ROUTE the connection to the port, but that port is directly connected to the connection to the internet). Of course I connected my PC to the said BRIDGED port. Problem solved.

I also want to be able to change the TCP timeout values manually.

Now I know very little about the first point. I know what bridging is but only in reference to using a router with a separate modem. Is it possible to bridge a single port or is this fix all a nonsense? I really know very little about routing or networks.

My current router can't do anything that 'advanced' (it's a Thomson 585 - works but no advanced options), so I'm wondering if the above router would let me do that.

[Steve]

If I understand, you'll need more than one static IP address on the WAN side and a router that will handle more than one. I think the BT 2700HGV can. You can place a device outside the NAT firewall by using the DMZ function which is available on some home routers. Perhaps if you explain why you want to do this we can think it through.

[Supanova]

I'v used the DMZ - didn't solve the problem. I'm pretty sure it's not a firewall problem.

Basically its a gaming problem, or rather a game problem. All the battlefield games by DICE use the same netcode for their multilplayer and they all have the same problem but they can't be arsed fixing it because it only affect a few of their users (plus they already bought the game, so they don't care).

I can play a game for anything from 5-25 minutes before I get a message saying I have been disconnected from the server.

The current theories among the community that seem to have fixed the problem for some people are:
1) The way some routers go about their business is causing the problem and removing the router seems to fix the problem.
2) The TCP port used for connection management in the game becomes congested and because the TCP timeout is set too low this results in a disconnect.

Either way it's the router that's causing the problem and if I convince myself a new router will fix it then I will happily shell out for one.

[Steve]

Have you had a look at DGTeam firmwares for the Netgear? They may offer additional functionality (not version 5) before you decide whether its suitable.
http://dgteam.ilbello.com/index.php?pid=18

[Supanova]

Had a look Steve but it's pretty difficult to make heads or tails of it.

From reading vast (vast vast) numbers of forum posts and solutions it seems the prevailing solution is to increase the TCP timeout value on the router.

The problem is that the keep-alive packets for the game are too not frequent enough, falling slightly short of a lot of router defaults. If anyone knows their router allows the user to change their TCP timeout value (default will be something like 2000ms probably) then please let me know so I can buy one.

I keep hearing use of the telnet network protocol used to send more advanced commands to a router/modem, would that help? If so does anyone have any information on this? Nowhere actually tells me where to type these commands. I assumed it was the command prompt however 'telnet' is not recognised.

[Steve]

There is a CLI interface for the 585v6 and is accessed via Telnet. Telnet is missing from Vista and 7 but can be turned on.

This is from http://dgteam.ilbello.com/

Advanced TCP/IP settings, oriented to: web browsing speed-up, VOIP optimization and P2P management. Settings available are: timestamps, fast recycle, conntracks limit extension, keepalive, probes, tcp/udp/voip/icmp timeout.

[Ted]

To give you an idea how telnet is used, here's an example of how to change the DNS servers to "Open DNS".


Open a Terminal / Command prompt

Login as Root / administrator
---------------------------------------------------

telnet 192.168.1.254  *logs into router CLI interface*

dns server route  *changes to dns server directory*

list  *shows list of dns servers*

flush  *deletes dns servers*

add dns=208.67.222.222 metric=1 intf=Internet  *adds primary open dns server*

add dns=208.67.220.220 metric=1 intf=Internet  *adds secondary open dns server*

list  *check list of new dns servers*

saveall  *saves all changes to the router*

exit  *logs out of telnet*

exit  *logs out of root mode*

exit  *closes terminal*
________________________________________________________________________________



Replace the above servers with those below to revert to IDNet dns servers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

add dns=212.69.36.3 metric=1 intf=Internet  *adds primary IDNet dns server*

add dns=212.69.40.3 metric=1 intf=Internet  *adds secondary IDNet dns server*
____________________________________________

[Supanova]

Alright thanks a lot guys. Got into the router using telnet and had a good poke around. Looking through every section in the menu the closest thing to tcp timeout I came across was in:

timer config
       timer = tcpidle

the value was blank (it seems to not show the current values) so I stuck 300 seconds in there for whatever it is. If it goes wrong I'll just put it back. Fiddling is the best way to learn right? 

The other options in there were 'tcpneg', dunno what that is and neither does google afais, and tcpkill (sounds the reverse of what I want).

The only other section that seemed to have anything like what I was after was the CWMP section...but I'm pretty sure that doesn't have my elusive setting in it.

Thanks again for the help.

[OllB]

I ended up getting the Netgear DGN2000 after i found it very hard to find a DG834Gv4 most places i looked either had the V5 or did not specify what version it was , It works with Router stats and DMT seems like an ok router so far.

My friend is going to give me a wireless N adapter so i can see how much better it is in my thick walled house than g. hopefully it will get past a couple of rooms and out to the garden . Not that i plan on sitting in the garden with the weather as it is, just an excuse to get my laptop out again and move from this worn out computer chair once in awhile 

[Rik]

Aw, go on, a bit of frostbite never did anyone any harm.