Can someone recommend a router?

[annc]

Hi - wonder if someone can recommend a router that has a long range. At the moment I am using my daughters Addon router GWAR-3500 but a couple of my laptops that I have over the other side of the house can't connect - the signal keeps dropping. Thanks for any help on this.


Ann

[Chaz]

Morning Ann,

There's plenty of scope on routers these days as to which one works for you is a bit of a guessing game.

I've not had any problems with the Netgears / D-Links / Zyxel ones I've used but find Linksys a bit of an issue. Some other people will vouch for linksys but not the netgear etc.

Best bet is to nose around the offers on the net and read some reviews for yourself.

[atsw]

Hello Ann,

I'm one of the Netgear fan-club that Chaz refers to! I have a DG834G, and find it works very well in most areas of my 1930's style house (i.e. very think brink walls). To cover the areas where wifi reception is not so good Ive installed a Netgear Wireless Access Point in my attic. This is wired to the router that's downstairs and extends the range to the parts the router does not always reach consistently.

I'm not a great fan of Wireless dongles (for old laptops with no built-in wifi), or the wireless pci cards that can go inside desktop's (I find an antenna stuck at the back of a box that's hidden away in a corner of a workstation is next to useless!), so to connect non-wifi enabled laptops/desktops I use a wireless bridge (I've found the Belkin F5D7330 to be very good). You can connect it to a Network Switch (I use a Netgear FS105) to supply Ethernet feeds to multiple devices from the one bridge.

As Chaz said, some other people will vouch for different types of kit, perhaps rubbishing the brands I've mentioned, but it's the general principle of extending your existing wifi network that's important.

Andrew

[stuart120]

I use a Billion 5200G (f2s supply) at home and a D-Link DSL-G604T in the office. Both have a good range and I have found them very reliable.

[annc]

Thanks very much everyone Being a complete router moron - setting the things up just freaks me out - I shall investigate your suggestions.

The laptop that I am having the most trouble with is very old and has a Linksys usb wireless adapter which I find very frustrating to set up - anyway - it keeps saying it is connected to the router but not the internet - duh Also had problems with my husbands state of the art hewlett packard laptop, although an old imac with an airport card and my daughters sony laptop have no trouble whatsoever. Arghhhhhh! (Routers are the work of some malicious force that just wants to confuse me!!!!)

Thanks again

Ann