{"id":84,"date":"2009-11-23T18:42:04","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T18:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chillingsilence.wordpress.com\/?p=84"},"modified":"2011-09-14T11:55:54","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T23:55:54","slug":"the-importance-of-a-good-router","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/the-importance-of-a-good-router\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of a good router &#8211; Why your internet keeps failing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"8781ca4f97038dd0d58a1ad8af045721\" data-index=\"3\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-6411751809866006\";\r\n\/* BlogHorizontalSlim *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"6442664612\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 468;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>EDIT: Found this in September 2011 that agrees with pretty much all I write, from a major Australian ISP. Well worth the read:\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.internode.on.net\/support\/guides\/internet_access\/broadband_adsl\/optimising_adsl2_\/\">http:\/\/www.internode.on.net\/support\/guides\/internet_access\/broadband_adsl\/optimising_adsl2_\/<\/a><\/p>\n<address>&#8220;But I have a good router already! My ISP gave me it, it must be the best!&#8221;<\/address>\n<p>Man if I had a couple of bucks every time I&#8217;ve heard that, I&#8217;d be so rich by now. Fact of the matter is, it&#8217;s unfortunately far from the truth, and many ISP-provided routers truly suck.<\/p>\n<p>I work with VoIP, and running a Voice call over the internet may be easy with Skype, and you may be OK with choppy calls, but when you&#8217;re running an enterprise-grade telephony system, you don&#8217;t have the same tolerance for bad quality. Same for Home users, you <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>should not<\/em><\/span> have to put up with daily restarts! Same for bad speeds, bad \/ cheap routers usually give worse speeds than a decent router.<\/p>\n<p>What does that have to do with you? Most probably everything! If you&#8217;re here it&#8217;s likely because you&#8217;re having issues with your internet, and either you think it&#8217;s related to your router, or I&#8217;ve referred you here from PressF1.<\/p>\n<p>So let&#8217;s clear the air about a few routers:<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/img97.imageshack.us\/img97\/5213\/dlinkdsl302g.jpg\" alt=\"D-Link DSL-320G\" \/>The <strong>D-Link DSL-302G<\/strong> is quite possibly the worst router of all time. They should be all be burned in one great big bonfire and D-Link publicly mocked for them. Throw the DSL-502T in there too, they&#8217;re nearly as bad.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/img256.imageshack.us\/img256\/996\/dynalinkrta1320.jpg\" alt=\"Dynalink RTA1320\" \/><strong>Dynalink <\/strong>have their overheating <strong>RTA1320<\/strong> that gets so hot the plastic melts and changes from light cream to a rusty looking orange or brown. It&#8217;s not the best choice in router. NetComm (Who now own Dynalink) have suggested it was just a small &#8220;batch&#8221; that they recalled which had overheating issues, and the firmware is semi-decent, however where possible I avoid them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/img513.imageshack.us\/img513\/1999\/2wire2070.jpg\" alt=\"2Wire 2070\" \/> Telecom have been giving away a <strong>2Wire 2070<\/strong>-series Router and <strong>Thomson TG585v7<\/strong> modems. They&#8217;ve got some of the worst web interfaces I&#8217;ve ever used, but at least they&#8217;re semi-reliable. Again though, they must be cheap routers if they mass-produce them and Telecom gives them away. $199 value? Whatever! Nobody in their right mind would spend $199 on them!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/img517.imageshack.us\/img517\/5714\/siemenssx763.jpg\" alt=\"Siemens SX-763\" \/>Orcon with their <strong>HomeHub \/ BizHub<\/strong> router which is a <strong>Siemens SX-763<\/strong>. Best mentioned so far, but again far from the quality that a router should be. It&#8217;s locked-down so you can&#8217;t change the USB port or VoIP settings (Though performing a factory reset with the button on the underside fixed that for me), it doesn&#8217;t overheat, but for a &#8220;VoIP router&#8221; it doesn&#8217;t handle a VoIP server running behind it well at all. Mediocre, but better than the Telecom stuff I must say. Still, not good enough to be giving away though&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/img21.imageshack.us\/img21\/3237\/belkinn1.jpg\" alt=\"Belkin N1\" \/>The <strong>Belkin N1<\/strong> is overpriced and fails to deliver in so many ways. I&#8217;m not sure why, but around 60% of all the N1&#8217;s I&#8217;ve dealt with just seem to have packed up and died. Their ADSL performance \/ reliability was mediocre anyway. suffering from irregular reboots.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/img21.imageshack.us\/img21\/7117\/netgeardg834g.jpg\" alt=\"Netgear DG834G\" \/>The <strong>Netgear DG834G<\/strong> has firmware issues, wireless isn&#8217;t reliable, average broadband performance and reliability, but to be honest it&#8217;s probably the most reliable router I&#8217;m recommending people avoid. They&#8217;ve got some other open-source stuff that doesn&#8217;t have ADSL Support which is actually pretty decent. Still, even these drop their internet connection under load far too often.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/img101.imageshack.us\/img101\/2518\/linksyswag160n.jpg\" alt=\"Linksys WAG160N\" \/><strong>Linksys<\/strong>, yes I love Linksys stuff but man did they mess up badly with the <strong>WAG160N<\/strong>. That thing falls over almost as much as the Dynalinks. Sure, I&#8217;ve seen ADSL Sync speeds go up when compared with the likes of a Telecom Thomson TG585 by around 3m\/bit, but that means nothing to me if it&#8217;s not going to function day in and day out reliably.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s the solution then? So many bad routers out there, most free, what can you do about it?<\/p>\n<p>Well don&#8217;t take the free stuff that your ISP gives away. There&#8217;s a reason why it&#8217;s free, and that&#8217;s not because it&#8217;s a good, quality router!<\/p>\n<h1>Tell me what I SHOULD buy then? What are good routers?<\/h1>\n<p>If you&#8217;re a <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">home user<\/span><\/strong> or <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">small-business<\/span><\/strong> and want an all-in-one solution that &#8220;just works&#8221;:<br \/> <a title=\"NetComm NB6Plus4Wn from PBTech\" href=\"http:\/\/pbtech.co.nz\/index.php?item=MODNCM1065\" target=\"_blank\">NetComm NB6Plus4Wn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re a <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">geek<\/span><\/strong> or a <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">business<\/span><\/strong>, or perhaps you want a little more control over your router, maybe you give your internet connection a hammering, or if you want QoS (Quality of Service) to <em>prioritize VoIP \/ Gaming<\/em> above other traffic, then you want:<br \/> A <a title=\"Linksys AM300 from PBTech\" href=\"http:\/\/pbtech.co.nz\/index.php?item=MODLKS5116\" target=\"_blank\">Linksys AM300<\/a> in Halfbridge to a <a title=\"Linksys WRT54GL Open-Source Wireless Router from PBTech\" href=\"http:\/\/pbtech.co.nz\/index.php?item=NETLKS4618\" target=\"_blank\">Linksys WRT54GL<\/a> running <a title=\"Tomato Firmware homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.polarcloud.com\/tomato\" target=\"_blank\">Tomato Firmware<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gargoyle-router.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gargoyle Firmware<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you can&#8217;t get the Linksys AM300 then you can use the Draytek DV120 in PPPoA -&gt; PPPoE Passthru mode instead. They sync a little slower but are generally just as good.<\/p>\n<p>Please drop me a comment and say Hi, let me know if this has helped you or got you thinking in any way, or perhaps if you&#8217;ve got one of the routers then just say so. Always happy to hear from readers.<\/p>\n<p>Cheers<\/p>\n<p>Chill.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EDIT: Found this in September 2011 that agrees with pretty much all I write, from a major Australian ISP. Well worth the read:\u00c2\u00a0http:\/\/www.internode.on.net\/support\/guides\/internet_access\/broadband_adsl\/optimising_adsl2_\/ &#8220;But I have a good router already! My ISP gave me it, it must be the best!&#8221; Man if I had a couple of bucks every time I&#8217;ve heard that, I&#8217;d be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[7,11,13,25,28,30,44,45,48,52,53,75,86,103,115,119,121,122,132,143,144,146,151,152,155,170,171,172,173,175,177,187,191,198],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-tos-guides-tech-info","category-personal-rantings","tag-2wire","tag-adsl","tag-am300","tag-belkin-n1","tag-biz-hub","tag-broadband","tag-crashing","tag-d-link","tag-dg834g","tag-dsl-320g","tag-dynalink","tag-gaming","tag-home-hub","tag-linksys","tag-modem","tag-nb6plus4wn","tag-netcomm","tag-netgear","tag-orcon","tag-qos","tag-quality-of-service","tag-reliability","tag-router","tag-rta1320","tag-siemens","tag-sx-763","tag-telecom","tag-tg585","tag-tg585v7","tag-thomson","tag-tomato-firmware","tag-voip","tag-wag160n","tag-wrt54gl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWi3e-1m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.c2s.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}