More fibre in my diet

[floppybootstomp]

Coupla weeks ago was browsing my ISP's home page and noticed that the price for cable now almost the same as what I was paying for ADSL 2. In fact a bit less but the line rental was a bit more.

A quick call to the people at Zen confirmed I could get fibre for another £3 a month. Well, £3 won't even buy a pint of Guinness in any of my locals (except maybe Wetherspoons but I never go into Wetherspoons pubs) so I thought I'd have me some.

The BT engineer was supposed to arrive yesterday between 8am and 1pm but eventually showed at 2.15pm complaining he'd had a very hard job inside my green box. Er, no comment. He was only in here about 15 minutes and basically just unpacked a modem and connected it. He told me 'As soon as the DSL light comes on you're good to go' and left.

Zen had told me my Technicolour TG582n Pro ADSL 2 Router would be ok to work with the BT Modem. But I could not get on line. To cut a very long story short after many phone calls to Zen support and a lot of ker-fuffing about, I had to reach the conclusion that my router will not work in this setup. There is no new firmware available for it.

So I plugged the BT Modem directly into my main computer's ethernet port, went through the setup in Win 7 and I'm now online with this machine but have lost connectivity on my other two networked machines and my wireless capability.

Must admit the wireless is rarely used, daughter sometimes uses her Netbook on it and we both sometimes use our phones with it but that's it. I do, however, use the Network connections a lot.

So, I'm going to buy this router V_R recommended cos it looks the bizness and I'd just like to confirm with his V_R-ness that this is suitable for working with cable/fibre and a BT Modem before I order.

I can't be home to receive an order til Monday or Tuesday now so I can wait a little while. It's this one, the Asus RT-N66U Black Diamond Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router

Anyhow, pix show my speeds and ping before and after, still not the best I've seen but one hell of an improvement eh?

Before:

After:

Things are very definitely snappier, I've downloaded a free game (Red Faction or summat, free on Steam til 10am tomorrow) and it downloaded very quickly and I seem to have an edge playing CoD4 online now, which is good, I'm getting pings from servers as low as 6 whereas previously best ping I could get with CoD4 was around 25.

So there we are, I've joined the modern world

 

[muckshifter]

Welcome to the club.

 

[V_R]

Good times Mr Stomp!

Yet the RT N66U will work with FTTC, and it works very well i tell ya!

That Technicolour router you have is ok for ADSL/2 but for VDSL (despite Plusnet giving it away to new FTTC customers) its not much cop for Fibre by the looks of it.

So you've got the BT Modem (white box, 3 green LED's on it) yes?

You will just need an Ethernet cable from that (LAN1) to the blue port on the Asus. then connect all your devices as you would normally after setup.

I assume your main PC is a wired connection?

Speaking of which setup is dead easy, it should open a browser window and run you though a quick setup when the PC see it. 30 seconds max,

Then update the FW, latest official is 3.0.0.4.374.5517 (important!) or better still install Merlins custom - http://www.lostrealm.ca/tower/node/79 (is what i'm running at the mo) which adds a few more options etc but keeps it as close to stock Asus as possible, unlike DD WRT or Tomato FW's.

Think i posted this before, but you can demo the routers interface here - http://event.asus.com/2012/nw/dummy_ui/en/Advanced_OperationMode_Content.html

You probs know this but you will need to setup the connection as PPPoE, under the WAN tab. The setup should pick this up for you tbh, but worth mentioning. Use your ZEN User and Pass.

I recommend you use either Googles DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or Open DNS (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) Change them under WAN > WAN DNS Setting select No add your own there - as they will be better and faster than ZEN's own.

Other than that you can tweak as much or as little as you like to suit.

Feel free to shout if you need anything.

 

[crazylegs]

Super stuff!

 

[Anon_F]

Did wonder if this was to do with food!
But yes fibre is the way to go and since we have had it speeds have been very good!

 

[Abarbarian]

You guys make me sick with all your fancy speeds

You do realise that your brains will wear out quicker than mine

Neat upgrade by the way Flops.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for comments folks

New Asus router should arrive Monday.

Which I'm looking forward to as I have to setup my net connection each time I start Windows as things are, which is annoying.

 

[V_R]

Its a great router Flops, nice little hand warmer too...

 

[floppybootstomp]

Aye, that Technicolour one ran hot as well. The BT Modem is a white box thingie, three led's on for Power; DSL & LAN 1. LAN 2 is blocked off.

Used OCUK to buy Asus router, £108.65 inc postage. Got email from them late afternoon today telling me that it had been dispatched but that orders sent on Friday after 4.30pm will probably be delivered Tuesday. Not impressed, I placed the order at 09:15 and still it's dispatched after 16:30? I will be able to stay in both days unless something crops up but I'll still have to wait another day. Ho hum.

Oh well, all good things come to those who wait, they say.

 

[V_R]

How was it sent, DPD? Got a tracking number? Sounds like you'll get it Monday to me.

 

[muckshifter]

a Penny says it's delivered today.

 

[floppybootstomp]

a Penny says it's delivered today.

Well not so far it hasn't, which is just as well really cos I been out grafting all morning which left nobody at home to collect parcels. As I mentioned earlier in the thread

They might call later today but doubtful.

 

[floppybootstomp]

It's here, it's installed, it's working

Haven't checked out wireless function or broadband on other two networked computers yet. Firmware updated to latest Asus version, will be checking out the Merlin thingie when the dust's settled.

I was stymied briefly, no automatic window popped up on connection, but when I opened a browser to access router's menu, the auto setup screen was there. Entered passwords and stuff, updated firmware and set time zone.

Have also yet to configure wireless printer. But first let's try the other machines.

So far, so good, liking this Asus RT-N66U

 

[V_R]

Good times flops.

Theres plenty of time for custom FW, as long as you have the latest Asus one that fixes that bug (which was a little blown out of proportion imo) then your all good.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Update, three networked machines are all seeing and reading/writing each other, transfers are faster than with the Technicolour or Netgear routers; mine and daughter's phones on Wi-Fi; daughter's netbook on the wireless connection, stronger signal with no dropouts compared to previous routers; downloads much much quicker; haven't tried any uploads yet; I seem to have an unfair advantage in CoD 4, now regularly getting a podium finish, so to speak, whereas previously most common finishing position would be 4th or 5th (from between 20 to 30 players on average).

It does run hot doesn't it? I have placed four small 'L' shaped thick metal brackets underneath as feet raising it around 25mm from the top of the BT modem, that seems to be keeping it at an acceptable temperature.

All good so far

 

[V_R]

Its a little warmer than normal. Nothing mental though, just make sure its got good air flow underneath and dont cover it up or sit it on anything that warms up.

Also, if you dont use it turning off the 5G wireless radio will lower the temps.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Radio? Que?

I need to investigate this...

 

[V_R]

Yep, theres the 2.4 and the 5G bands, 2.4 being the older/slower one. But not all devices can see or use the 5G bands.

By default they are called Asus (2.4Ghz - usual standard 11 channel job) and Asus_5G (5Ghz, faster but not usable but a lot/older devices). If you dont use or have nothing connected to the 5G one then disable it. On the left goto Wireless, then go to the professional tab at the top, choose the 5G channel with the drop down and disable it via the button below that, hit apply at the bottom and your done.

E:

This page...

http://event.asus.com/2012/nw/dummy_ui/en/Advanced_WAdvanced_Content.html