Router questions – home internet diabolical !!

[seadragon]

I will be honest, I don’t really understand what a router actually does, can someone please explain to me their purpose? (in plain speak).

I am starting to do some research as I believe you can use them for travel and always be online, but I don’t get how that would work.

1) I wouldn’t mind something that would pretty much guarantee me access when I am on the train or tube.
2) Most importantly however we only have basic broadband in my village. There is no high speed or fibre. It generally hovers around 1-2mb download speed at night, if you are lucky.


Can I please have suggestions how my internet speed could be improved, if at all?

I have tried ringing BT, but the internet is an issue throughout the village.

Any help to alleviate some pain at home and also for a travel purpose, would be amazing. Any tips gratefully received

Thanks

[Bullett]

The BT box you have plugged into the wall is normally a router/modem (the terms get used interchangeably but are different things), it connects the outside world to your local network. So, it generally won't make any significant difference to the speed BT are providing you.

You obviously can't use it on the road.

You can use a mobile dongle or mifi (a portable wifi hotspot) which will run off the mobile data network in either 3g or 4g.

[seadragon]

Thanks, the MIFi is I guess what was being referred to. It was called a travel router when I googled, as I saw that Belkin and others do one. They look like little boxes and some even double as chargers, with little usb plug-in points I will look at the dongle/mifi route.

I kinda had a feeling that if the connection speed coming it was already bad, that nothing really would improve things. I guess I have heard of changing channels on my BT modem, but I have no idea how to do that.

Thanks for the help

[Emeye]

Check out all the mobile carriers to see what 3G/4G speeds you may be able to get at your house (inside!).

I have a friend using a Vodafone 4G SIM for his data instead of his crappy home broadband quite successfully, and you would then be able to take this on the road with you.

He just uses his iphone as a mobile wifi hotspot and connects his laptop and streaming box.

As for coverage when you are out and about, I find EE has great coverage for 4G, but it all depends where you are when you want to use it.

Strong 3G is good enough for most uses - browsing, email etc

If you can get your hands on an unlocked phone then you could get a free or cheap SIM from each provider and check out the 3G/4G coverage in your house before you sign up for a contract.

Just make sure you get a contract with lots of data.

[eps]

How far are you from the exchange? When you say 'normal broadband' I guess you mean ADSL?

Can you try this website - it *should* indicate what products are available and there is a 'Locality' tab on the results page, this should indicate roughly how far you are from the exchange - which will have a bearing on how much deterioration you will experience.

https://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_check...

We had ADSL but it was relatively quick - 7-8Mbps but now have FTTC and it's even better now.

Are you likely to get Fibre any time soon or can you register your village or area for an alternative provider such as Gigaclear?
Although that could take 6-18 months...

Modem and Router are used interchangeably, quite often this is complicated by a Router having Modem capabilities. You will always need a Modem (Modulater - Demodulater) to connect to the outside world and sometimes need a separate router in order to 'route' all the traffic to the modem (either a separate physical device or integrated in the Router).

Of course sometimes you need the tech. in the Modem to match the tech you can attach to the outside world - e.g. an ADSL vs ADSL2 vs FTTC vs FTTP... Especially if ADSL vs. ADSL2 as this could make everything a lot quicker. Not sure what Modem / Modem Router or Modem and Router you have or the connection type you have...

this might help explain things.. http://pc.net/helpcenter/answers/difference_betwee...

[seadragon]

Hi thanks eps and Emeye for all the info

We only have ADSL. We hear we might get fibre, but not for another year or 2.

We have the latest BT homehub and apparently we are pretty close to the local exchange. I don’t understand how a phone could be a mobile hotspot, so I will look it up. I have 4g on Vodafone, as apparently it’s the best in our village. I was on a BT sim but it was awful.

I will look up gigaclear too.

Thank you all for the suggestions, much appreciated.

[SidJames]

seadragon said:

Hi thanks eps and Emeye for all the info

...I don’t understand how a phone could be a mobile hotspot, so I will look it up. I have 4g on Vodafone, as apparently it’s the best in our village. I was on a BT sim but it was awful.

Your 4G on Vodafone might be a better speed than your router, so you csan make your phone be the router. Then your other devices hook up to your Vodafone "router".

Here's an example.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/iphone/how-create...

[King Herald]

Few years ago we had BT broadband installed, and it was basically pants. Several phone calls to Indian call centers, to no avail, so long story short I called BT Billing number to tell them I was cancelling our 2 year agreement due to their breach of contract. We signed up for two years in return for broadband, BT were not delivering Broadband, so we were cancelling. End Of Story.

A day later a technician was at our house......

Indian call centre fkwit tried to tell me our computer HAD to be plugged directly into the hall socket, or it would not work. I guess that was normal in his cardboard box in Delhi....