Routers the ultimate guide! one for the Gurus

[Soul Cruiser]

Greetings Fellow Karoo users.

I am starting this thread for Four reasons;

1. I do alot of online gaming and have done so for about 20 years
2. My kids (now teenagers) use IPlayer and other media sites and also play those games on FB much of the time
3. The wife is a Ebay and online shopping troll errr i mean enthusiast
4. I found quite a few threads where users who have the Thompson 585 have drop out issues as I do.

Just about the normal average family scenario. 

My DL speed is about 4.3Mbs average but still we seem to be over stretching my poor old Thompson 585

I spoke to a gaming bro's who recommended a Netgear as in his words his DL speed increased to 10Mbs from 7Mbs just by switching modems and it is stable.

I know many users on this forum have a good in depth knowledge of the inner workings of routers.

So to the point of this thread: Can we have a pinned thread that would advise everyone from basic users to the average family users exactly what we should be looking for in a router and how we should choose but in layman's terms. I know its a big ask but its got to be easier that repeating yourselves over and over again as each user poses a "Which Router should I buy" question.

Just a thought.
 

[dylan]

Sure, why not? I suggest that anyone who wants to contribute any info does it in this thread, and if we get something useful, we can stick it together and sticky it in the tech support forum.

[TJ]

Be wary of some of the statements that are issued regarding routers and connection speeds.

It is extremely unlikely that you will see any difference ( less than 10% ) in connection speed between different ADSL2+ compatible routers, a change from 7Mbps to 10Mbps is not going to happen unless the original router is faulty or was running at ADSL1 and the new one is running at ADSL2+.
Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise most routers use the same chipsets.

The Thompson 585 is used by the majority of KC customers as it is the standard router that they issue upon installation and is perfectly adequate for the majority of home users.
Because most people use it then most people with problems will have a Thompson 585.
It's a bit like saying most people who have problems with their broadband are under 6ft 6ins in height.
Which obviously is true but not necessarily relevant to the problems that they may have.

Regardless of what you hear from the gaming community using a router for gaming uses very little bandwidth and the overwhelming factor is the latency ( ping ).
A connection at 2Mbps with a 10ms latency will provide a much better gaming experience than a 20Mbps connection with a 40ms latency.

Also there is a big difference between wireless performance on many routers.
In general this is not a great problem as for most people the wireless speed will exceed their broadband connection.
However with people moving on to superfast braodband then the wireless issues will start to raise their ugly little heads.

If people sold broadband the way wireless is sold they would be lynched.
eg 802.11g at 54Mbps wireless is actually only 22Mbps actual speed and 802.11n at 150Mbps is not acually standardised yet and varies greatly if using a different manufacturer for your modem and your wireless card typically only around 40mbps.
Doubtless KC will get slaughtered on this when people connect to their 100Mbps FTTH and 80Mbps VDSL2 and only get 22Mbps download speeds via their laptops.

There are known issues with certain routers so always do your homework and check before buying.
A classic example is the Belkin N1 Vision, absolutely beautiful router with a display that lets you see your connection speed, individual user usage and many many other good features, sadly drops the internet connection every 2 hours to do an update, never resolved by Belkin.

[bobthebuilder]

some good points there tj. i swapped from a edimax to a thompson and got a increase off 1mg in speed and  better reliability

[Hígh Treason]

OK, I'll write some general advice...

Obtaining the highest speed

• Always install the Router and ADSL splitter as close to the telephone socket as possible. If you need to extend the line for a telephone, do this after the ADSL splitter.
• Never install more than four devices on your telephone line, the lines only have a REN (Ring Equivalency Number) of 4, if you still have problems, check your telephony as some devices may have a higher REN - for example, if your facsimile has a REN of 2 it is equivalent to using two telephones on the line.
• Remove your bell wire, telephones used to use two extra wires for the bell, you no longer need them and they cause cross-talk and electrical interference, you can find instructions here.¹
• Only install one router, if you need more Ethernet ports, buy a switch.
• Try to avoid using wireless, wireless/WiFi is a radio technology and although it is convenient, it is plagued with latency.

KC ADSL Router advice
Kingston Communications will usually provide you with a router, this router is usually a Thomson brand, such as the 585 model, which is notoriously unreliable. You can request a single-port router from KC instead, they will usually send a ZyXel P-660 Series router, this router has no wireless access and only a single Ethernet Port but is substantially more reliable and less latent than the Thomson model, being a single port router is not a limitation, the Ethernet Port is 100 Mbit/s Full Duplex which far exceeds the available bandwidth of the ADSL Connection, if you require more ports, you can buy an Ethernet Switch such as the ones available in Maplin Electronics - Always use a Switch as the alternative is a Hub, Hubs work but they have no logic, as a result any and all data is broadcasted to every machine on that Hub which will cause latency and bottlenecks as only one machine can send at any time.

If you wish to use Wireless - which I do not reccomend - you have several options, you can buy a Cable Router instead of the switch, this will have an Ethernet port in place of the ADSL port you would usually find, this will connect (Via a Cross-over cable) to your ADSL Router, but remember, if you have to forward ports, you will need to do this on both routers, the Cable Router would forward a port from your Computer to the ADSL Router and the ADSL Router would then have to forward that port from the Cable Router to the "Internet" - but this could be costly, the advantage of this is, that you get the speed and reliability of the single port Router as well as increased security, you also have wireless connectivity... There will be a marginal increase in Latency - less than 1millisecond - that you probably won't notice.

Your other option is to not use the Router KC provides, as it's free, take it anyway as it will be good for a spare if something ever went wrong, but buy a different one. A lot of home-users reccomend NetGear, but people in the know reccomend other brands such as D-Link - you can of course go completely overkill and install a £10,000 Cisco or Juniper brand Router but there isn't any point in doing that - My personal reccomendation is D-Link as they have a lot of experience in Business networks and their home Routers are the same ones they sell to smaller office buildings. Never buy a "Gaming" Router, "Gaming" Routers are just the same as the non-gaming types, the only difference is that they have the word "Gaming" printed on them and the price is doubled, you will not notice any difference in performance. D-Link offers a wide variety of Routers, and you need to think about what you intend to do with your Internet Connection, if you use Skype a lot and suffer from call quality issues, maybe a router with QoS (Quality of Service) will work for you, if you want Wireless then you can buy one that has WiFi connectivity. I use a D-Link DSL-2740R which has never dropped out (except for when it was the fault of KC's hardware and not the Routers') - these can be found cheap enough on eBay, and feature QoS, WiFi (802.11n) and 4 Ethernet ports.

If you do use a router from another source, it will not be pre-configured for the KC Network, luckily, most routers come with a manual, so if you are unsure of how to modify the settings in the Router you have chosen, you can consult that, once you know where the property page is for the ADSL Link it's as simple as copying the information from here;

VPI:    1
VCI:    50
Encapsulation:    RFC2364 PPPoATM
Modulation:    ADSL2 PLUS or G.DMT for ADSL1 (Usually leave this on Auto-Select and the Router will chose the best one for your line)
Multiplexing:    LLC
Authentication:    CHAP

And inserting your User Name and Password in the correct boxes, everything else can be left as automatic. On a final note, ALWAYS change the password for your Router, most of the "Hacking"² that you hear of today happens because of System Administrators failing to change the passwords on networking hardware. Just chose something nobody would know, maybe the first two words and 6 digits that occur to you in a random manner, such as "Candle736548Pulsar" - just be sure to remember it.

Another Edit
Also, remember that the Speed that networking hardware (such as your Router) measures is in Megabits (Mb) and not Megabytes (MB) - This is why ISP's only say "Meg" in their commercials. Simply divide by eight to get the result in Megabytes. Here's some information on the schemes used.

A byte is 8-Bits long in Binary;

1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0

Each 1 or 0 in this Byte is a Bit, I could sell you this as One-Byte... That doesn't sound much... How about, I sell you 8-Bits? That sounds like more doesn't it? If we divide 8 by 8 (8/8=1) we get the result of 1 - this means we still have one Byte. This formuala applies further up the Scale. Here's some information for reference;

Kilobytes are written as KB, Kilobits are written as Kb.
1000 Bits (b) is 1 Kilobit (Kb)
1000 Kilobits (Kb) is 1 Megabit (Mb)
1000 Megabits (Mb) is a Gigabit (Gb)

1024 Bytes (B) is 1 Kilobyte (KB)
1024 Kilobytes (KB) is 1 Megabyte (MB)
1024 Megabytes (MB) is 1 Gigabyte (GB)

Your ISP and most software/hardware write these incorrectly, but we know what it is doing now. My router reports that I am connected to the internet at 10240 Kilobits Per Second Download and 1024 Kilobits Per Second Upload. Download is the speed you can recieve data and Upload is the speed at which you can send Data. How many MegaBytes am I connecting at? Let's divide by Eight...

So, divide that by eight; 10240 / 8 = 1280 It seems I am connecting at 1280 Kilobytes Per Second, now how do we get this in Megabytes? Divide that by 1024! 1280 / 1024 = 1.25 so I am connecting at 1.25 Megabytes per second. As a general rule, you should then divide this by Eight and remove that figure from the total sum of Megabytes for a more realistic idea, 1.25 - ( 1.25 / 8 ) = 1.09 Megabytes per second, so I should be able to download at this speed. The same applies to your Upload speed, but keep in mind, some of it depends on line stability and where you are downloading from.



I may add more advice later, such as how to forward ports on some routers

¹ Remind me to update that page with one relevant to KC's sockets, I'll just make my own on my old freewebs site until I can be bothered to move it, at which point I'll implement a redirect.
² The use of this word in such cases offends me, it isn't Hacking if you know the password.

[chriscoates81]

OK, I'll write some general advice...

Obtaining the highest speed

• Always install the Router and ADSL splitter as close to the telephone socket as possible. If you need to extend the line for a telephone, do this after the ADSL splitter.
• Never install more than four devices on your telephone line, the lines only have a REN (Ring Equivalency Number) of 4, if you still have problems, check your telephony as some devices may have a higher REN - for example, if your facsimile has a REN of 2 it is equivalent to using two telephones on the line.
• Remove your bell wire, telephones used to use two extra wires for the bell, you no longer need them and they cause cross-talk and electrical interference, you can find instructions here.¹
• Only install one router, if you need more Ethernet ports, buy a switch.

• Try to avoid using wireless, wireless/WiFi is a radio technology and although it is convenient, it is plagued with latency.

[/b]
[/list]

KC ADSL Router advice
Kingston Communications will usually provide you with a router, this router is usually a Thomson brand, such as the 585 model, which is notoriously unreliable. You can request a single-port router from KC instead, they will usually send a ZyXel P-660 Series router, this router has no wireless access and only a single Ethernet Port but is substantially more reliable and less latent than the Thomson model, being a single port router is not a limitation, the Ethernet Port is 100 Mbit/s Full Duplex which far exceeds the available bandwidth of the ADSL Connection, if you require more ports, you can buy an Ethernet Switch such as the ones available in Maplin Electronics - Always use a Switch as the alternative is a Hub, Hubs work but they have no logic, as a result any and all data is broadcasted to every machine on that Hub which will cause latency and bottlenecks as only one machine can send at any time.

If you wish to use Wireless - which I do not reccomend - you have several options, you can buy a Cable Router instead of the switch, this will have an Ethernet port in place of the ADSL port you would usually find, this will connect (Via a Cross-over cable) to your ADSL Router, but remember, if you have to forward ports, you will need to do this on both routers, the Cable Router would forward a port from your Computer to the ADSL Router and the ADSL Router would then have to forward that port from the Cable Router to the "Internet" - but this could be costly, the advantage of this is, that you get the speed and reliability of the single port Router as well as increased security, you also have wireless connectivity... There will be a marginal increase in Latency - less than 1millisecond - that you probably won't notice.

Your other option is to not use the Router KC provides, as it's free, take it anyway as it will be good for a spare if something ever went wrong, but buy a different one. A lot of home-users reccomend NetGear, but people in the know reccomend other brands such as D-Link - you can of course go completely overkill and install a £10,000 Cisco or Juniper brand Router but there isn't any point in doing that - My personal reccomendation is D-Link as they have a lot of experience in Business networks and their home Routers are the same ones they sell to smaller office buildings. Never buy a "Gaming" Router, "Gaming" Routers are just the same as the non-gaming types, the only difference is that they have the word "Gaming" printed on them and the price is doubled, you will not notice any difference in performance. D-Link offers a wide variety of Routers, and you need to think about what you intend to do with your Internet Connection, if you use Skype a lot and suffer from call quality issues, maybe a router with QoS (Quality of Service) will work for you, if you want Wireless then you can buy one that has WiFi connectivity. I use a D-Link DSL-2740R which has never dropped out (except for when it was the fault of KC's hardware and not the Routers') - these can be found cheap enough on eBay, and feature QoS, WiFi (802.11n) and 4 Ethernet ports.

If you do use a router from another source, it will not be pre-configured for the KC Network, luckily, most routers come with a manual, so if you are unsure of how to modify the settings in the Router you have chosen, you can consult that, once you know where the property page is for the ADSL Link it's as simple as copying the information from here;

VPI:    1
VCI:    50
Encapsulation:    RFC2364 PPPoATM
Modulation:    ADSL2 PLUS or G.DMT for ADSL1 (Usually leave this on Auto-Select and the Router will chose the best one for your line)
Multiplexing:    LLC
Authentication:    CHAP

And inserting your User Name and Password in the correct boxes, everything else can be left as automatic. On a final note, ALWAYS change the password for your Router, most of the "Hacking"² that you hear of today happens because of System Administrators failing to change the passwords on networking hardware. Just chose something nobody would know, maybe the first two words and 6 digits that occur to you in a random manner, such as "Candle736548Pulsar" - just be sure to remember it.

Another Edit
Also, remember that the Speed that networking hardware (such as your Router) measures is in Megabits (Mb) and not Megabytes (MB) - This is why ISP's only say "Meg" in their commercials. Simply divide by eight to get the result in Megabytes. Here's some information on the schemes used.

A byte is 8-Bits long in Binary;

1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0

Each 1 or 0 in this Byte is a Bit, I could sell you this as One-Byte... That doesn't sound much... How about, I sell you 8-Bits? That sounds like more doesn't it? If we divide 8 by 8 (8/8=1) we get the result of 1 - this means we still have one Byte. This formuala applies further up the Scale. Here's some information for reference;

Kilobytes are written as KB, Kilobits are written as Kb.
1000 Bits (b) is 1 Kilobit (Kb)
1000 Kilobits (Kb) is 1 Megabit (Mb)
1000 Megabits (Mb) is a Gigabit (Gb)

1024 Bytes (B) is 1 Kilobyte (KB)
1024 Kilobytes (KB) is 1 Megabyte (MB)
1024 Megabytes (MB) is 1 Gigabyte (GB)

Your ISP and most software/hardware write these incorrectly, but we know what it is doing now. My router reports that I am connected to the internet at 10240 Kilobits Per Second Download and 1024 Kilobits Per Second Upload. Download is the speed you can recieve data and Upload is the speed at which you can send Data. How many MegaBytes am I connecting at? Let's divide by Eight...

So, divide that by eight; 10240 / 8 = 1280 It seems I am connecting at 1280 Kilobytes Per Second, now how do we get this in Megabytes? Divide that by 1024! 1280 / 1024 = 1.25 so I am connecting at 1.25 Megabytes per second. As a general rule, you should then divide this by Eight and remove that figure from the total sum of Megabytes for a more realistic idea, 1.25 - ( 1.25 / 8 ) = 1.09 Megabytes per second, so I should be able to download at this speed. The same applies to your Upload speed, but keep in mind, some of it depends on line stability and where you are downloading from.



I may add more advice later, such as how to forward ports on some routers

¹ Remind me to update that page with one relevant to KC's sockets, I'll just make my own on my old freewebs site until I can be bothered to move it, at which point I'll implement a redirect.
² The use of this word in such cases offends me, it isn't Hacking if you know the password.

I can say that while it might introduce 'some' its next to nothing, i can happily play games on my wireless connection on something like bf2 and have a pong of 23ms which isn't exactly high.

[miken]

AFAIK the problem with WiFi is that lost packets can cause problems with gaming whereas a wired connection is very consistent.

I recently bought a Billion 7800N (old Netgear died and the Thomson 585 was very buggy no idea if I was running the latest firmware but it kept screwing up my LAN configuration) it's quite expensive though but I was sick of cheap rubbish routers that would lockup or drop adsl, I've helf 16mbps @ 3db for 4 days now.

[moggers]

There are known issues with certain routers so always do your homework and check before buying.
A classic example is the Belkin N1 Vision, absolutely beautiful router with a display that lets you see your connection speed, individual user usage and many many other good features, sadly drops the internet connection every 2 hours to do an update, never resolved by Belkin.

they did sort it but you have to use the beta firmware, I bought one because it was very cheap (I think it was about £40 at the time) had the 2 hour problem until I put the beta firmware in, and now it is flawless, don't get me wrong I don't usually like Belkin gear but it keeps connected now for a minimum of 2 weeks on a 4 km line length with attenuation at 53db at 5120 Kbps (forced onto ADSL2 not ADSL2+)

[TJ]

they did sort it but you have to use the beta firmware,

I stand corrected ( didn't do my homework  )

Might have a look for one of these then, look nice.

[superleeds27]

People still recommend the 7800n?