ADSL Connection / Router problems
Discussion
I live right at the edge of our broadband connection which means my connection is a little "dodgy". Once connected it will usually stay on for days, but can take several hours to sync to the line. Spoken to BT about it and they basically say it's the best they can do any to cancel if its no good!
The above is with a Voyager 2110 router and as I say, most of the time its fine.
When I use the cheapo Voyager 105 modem I got free from BT things are a little different. It connects usually quite quickly (10 - 15 mins) and very rarely drops the conection.
This seems strange as I would have thought the more expensive router (and I have tried several, netgear, belkin, freecom etc and they're much of a muchness) would be better than the cheap modem?
This got me thinking and I wonder if there is a "quality" router available which would make better use of the suposedly "quiet" signal? Would spending, say £300 on something like a Cisco router make any difference or would it ba a waste of money.
All thoughts and possible solutions (dont say move house!) appreciated!
The above is with a Voyager 2110 router and as I say, most of the time its fine.
When I use the cheapo Voyager 105 modem I got free from BT things are a little different. It connects usually quite quickly (10 - 15 mins) and very rarely drops the conection.
This seems strange as I would have thought the more expensive router (and I have tried several, netgear, belkin, freecom etc and they're much of a muchness) would be better than the cheap modem?
This got me thinking and I wonder if there is a "quality" router available which would make better use of the suposedly "quiet" signal? Would spending, say £300 on something like a Cisco router make any difference or would it ba a waste of money.
All thoughts and possible solutions (dont say move house!) appreciated!
It's anecdotal but I've known Vigor routers to be quite good at not dropping connections, though its difficult do proper comparisons. Also maybe try using a short good quality cable from the first phone socket in the house to the router, if you're not allready.
In answer to your question though, yes IME there can be quite a difference in different routers tolerance of broadband signals.
In answer to your question though, yes IME there can be quite a difference in different routers tolerance of broadband signals.
Smartie said:
All thoughts and possible solutions (dont say move house!) appreciated!
Have you got your line test results? This should tell you the line length, noise, capacitance, and attenuation. If the results are marginal, it might be worth asking BT if line gain is enabled on your line. Allegedly, DSL performance is improved by turning it off - but the analogue quality will suffer.
Other than dodgy wiring somewhere it unfortunatley sounds like your right on the limit (maybe a bit beyond) of the ADSL signal. A quick google doesn't show any form of home user signal booster a few commercial ones for the teleco industry but that's it.
As to why one modem/router syncs faster than the other: despite being the same brand you might well find the innards of them are quite different, different firmware revisions, control IC's and such.
I'm probably wrong but my gut feeling is that dropping £300 on a uber router won't make much difference to your situation; the only thing I can honestly think of is to see if NTL/Telewest operate cable in your area... or to wait for BT or other teleco company to signal boost your area at the exchange.
Not a telecome engineer so probably speaking out of my you know what
As to why one modem/router syncs faster than the other: despite being the same brand you might well find the innards of them are quite different, different firmware revisions, control IC's and such.
I'm probably wrong but my gut feeling is that dropping £300 on a uber router won't make much difference to your situation; the only thing I can honestly think of is to see if NTL/Telewest operate cable in your area... or to wait for BT or other teleco company to signal boost your area at the exchange.
Not a telecome engineer so probably speaking out of my you know what
Edited by thepassenger on Monday 26th June 02:24
its absolutley nothing to do with the price/brand of the product - its the chipset in the router and its interoperability/compatibility with the line card/software in the DSLAM in the exchange - you can have a £25 modem out perform a £500 modem router just because (for example) the modem is Texas Instruments AR7 based and the DSLAM has Broadcom chips in it.
Generally the best performance/least hassle will be with the modem that the ISP supplies or recommends as they will have tested it with their infrastructure........bottom line is that even though ADSL is many years old now and 'standards based' some stuff works better than others
with the recent upgrade on BT lines to support BT MAX 8Mbps service you will find a lot more people having problems with poorly performing CPE.....
Generally the best performance/least hassle will be with the modem that the ISP supplies or recommends as they will have tested it with their infrastructure........bottom line is that even though ADSL is many years old now and 'standards based' some stuff works better than others
with the recent upgrade on BT lines to support BT MAX 8Mbps service you will find a lot more people having problems with poorly performing CPE.....
bogie said:
its absolutley nothing to do with the price/brand of the product - its the chipset in the router and its interoperability/compatibility with the line card/software in the DSLAM in the exchange - you can have a £25 modem out perform a £500 modem router just because (for example) the modem is Texas Instruments AR7 based and the DSLAM has Broadcom chips in it.
Generally the best performance/least hassle will be with the modem that the ISP supplies or recommends as they will have tested it with their infrastructure........bottom line is that even though ADSL is many years old now and 'standards based' some stuff works better than others
with the recent upgrade on BT lines to support BT MAX 8Mbps service you will find a lot more people having problems with poorly performing CPE.....
Generally the best performance/least hassle will be with the modem that the ISP supplies or recommends as they will have tested it with their infrastructure........bottom line is that even though ADSL is many years old now and 'standards based' some stuff works better than others
with the recent upgrade on BT lines to support BT MAX 8Mbps service you will find a lot more people having problems with poorly performing CPE.....
So would it be fair to say that the BT branded stuff is likely to work best? Is something newer (my router is 2 years old now) likely to be any better?
Thanks for that. Borrowed a Etec (?) router from my dad and left it overnight and it never connected! Voyager was back up in just 5 hours LOL!
Might try a netgear from Argos then I can always take it back if its no better.
Thanks for all the advice, confirmed my suspicions really , just have to wait until BT come up with a solution!
Might try a netgear from Argos then I can always take it back if its no better.
Thanks for all the advice, confirmed my suspicions really , just have to wait until BT come up with a solution!
FYI - Ive just been upgraded to MAX 8MB . BT tested the line and told me that I might get up to 5MB but no more due to distance from the exchange. Well Im getting 7748 (or therabouts)using my bog standard old Netgear router/modem. Give netgear a go you never know what might happen.
One other thought, I have seen problems with ADSL filters before now. Some of the cheaper ones (and I include the BT ones here) can break down after a while. Make sure you use the filter that comes with the netgear router when you try it.
One other thought, I have seen problems with ADSL filters before now. Some of the cheaper ones (and I include the BT ones here) can break down after a while. Make sure you use the filter that comes with the netgear router when you try it.
Smartie said:
Already into master socket - only way it works at all!
Looks like the way to go is a faceplate filter & a netgear DG834!
Looks like the way to go is a faceplate filter & a netgear DG834!
If you take the lower half of the faceplate off and plug your router/modem into the test socket that is hidden behind the faceplate, you'll be able to see if a new ADSL faceplate would offer you any benefit. If you see no change, it really won't be worth you getting a new ADSL faceplate.
I'm using a Netgear DG834G too
Reading around on the net, they do appear to have a better signal handling capability and mine's been rock solid (and so was my old FM114P 
)......and no, I don't work for them, just a happy customer BliarOut said:
Just on the off chance, you haven't got a booklet which details hot to enable PPTP passthru on the Voyager 2110 have you?
Trying to find a PDF with it in and I'm not having much luck. Would be a huge help if you can provide details.
Trying to find a PDF with it in and I'm not having much luck. Would be a huge help if you can provide details.
Threw the box/book away etc ages ago - sorry!
Smartie said:
BliarOut said:
Just on the off chance, you haven't got a booklet which details hot to enable PPTP passthru on the Voyager 2110 have you?
Trying to find a PDF with it in and I'm not having much luck. Would be a huge help if you can provide details.
Trying to find a PDF with it in and I'm not having much luck. Would be a huge help if you can provide details.
Threw the box/book away etc ages ago - sorry!
Thanks anyway.Hanslow said:
Afraid not... It's a windows .chm file and all that's in it is the table of contents 
Thanks for looking though.
Edited to add:
Scrub that, I just found something of interest
Edited by BliarOut on Wednesday 28th June 21:26
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