Router - How much difference does it make?

[bodhi]

Hey,

I've got the standard router that came when I signed up for internet a couple of years ago. I've now got 8 devices connected wirelessly and my wireless hard drive hooked up to it. My internet is pretty slow and wondered how much was crap aussie internet at how much is my router probably being a bit crap.

Would a new router make much difference and if so what's the best way to find out which one is for me?

Thanks!!

 

[Ian]

Hey Bodhi, long time no see .

It could be related to your router, but 8 clients isn't many - and I guess they won't all be active at once. However, if you're heavily accessing your wireless HDD then that may take up a large chunk of wifi bandwidth and limit the perceived internet speed. Might be worth disconnecting everything except your main PC and run a few speedtests (http://www.speedtest.net/) and see if anything changes.

Which router have you got BTW?

 

[bodhi]

Hey Ian! Glad to see PC Review still alive and kicking

It's just the generic ISP branded router. Not sure who makes it. It's fine. Just wanted to know if there was any massive changes in the router world I was unaware of and if I should be getting some new fan-dangled router that would make everything magically faster and increase the distance (not that distance matters a great deal in my tiny apartment haha).

 

[Ian]

I don't think you'd get much improvement tbh - there are no doubt better routers out there, there are some that would certainly increase range over wifi, but I doubt it would make much of a difference in a flat. If you get different speeds over wifi and wired, then it may be worth it though.

Where abouts in Aus are you? I know so many people that have moved over there in recent years!

 

[bodhi]

I'm in Sydney mate. So clichéd isn't it ?!

Have you been out here!

 

[Ian]

Nice . I know about 5 people that have moved to Melbourne in the past few years, although a couple of moving back in a few months.

What do you think of it?

I've not been there yet, but hoping to go when I head to Hong Kong to visit some other friends (plus a stop in Indonesia for tons of tasty food ).

 

[bodhi]

I like it out here. It's an easy way of life. I have a 5 year old son out here so I guess I'm staying too

You'll have to let me know if you come out here.

 

[bodhi]

Hello again!

So I'm moving out of my tiny flat and into a bigger house now. Woo!

So range is now definitely going to be an issue with my current router. Does anyone recommend a particular router for fast speed and long range? Is there anything to look out for / avoid?

Also, how difficult is it changing over to a new router?

Bodhi

 

[V_R]

Either one of the modern decent routers, Asus, Netgear etc sould do you fine. It kind of depends what you want to spend and what you what to do with it.

If its just general internet access round the house then pick a budget and buy the best in that price range. - What do you want to spend? Also you're in Australia aren't you?

If yoiu want to go high end with the best coverage and speeds you can get then you could go for a dedicated AP like a Ubiquiti: https://www.ubnt.com/products/#default

Just bear in mid that they need PoE so you will need a router/switch that supports PoE.


Generally speaking changing router is easy, usually Its just a case of putting the User/pass into the router and it will do the rest, but you can go deeper and set DNS etc yourself if you wish. But some ISP's don't make it that easy, it depends who you use.