NTL broadband 6meg, speed dropping

bonkers

I got in ntl 6meg bb yesterday.. my problem lies with the router being upstairs and my computer downstairs.. the speed were fine yesterday but today its not connecting so well. the signal is 3 as opposed to 5 on the netgear wireless... do i just need to get another router with longer range or is there anything i can do with it... as i presume ntl wont take back this router now..

MrVestek

Most routers have the same basic transmission range unfortunately. You could try your luck and trying to get a high gain antenna either for your wireless card or for the router itself but they can be quite expensive.

Just checked on the netgear site and it doesn't look like they sell high gain antennas for that particular router (WGR614v7) which is the router that NTL currently supply with their connections so looks like you're out of luck I'm afraid.

You could go down the whole Devolo route of using ethernet over the power system in your home but that can be very expensive, almost €90 for ONE of the devices when you'll need two...

Either that or just get a much better router, something along the lines of the linksys WRT54GS, and I know for a fact that you can buy higher gain antennas for that particular router.

bonkers

thanks for the reply

but should it be this slow its at 18.0mbps on wireless network connection status.. and its just like underneath the room where the router is.. wooden floors.. the ntl guy told me to put the router as high as possible.. but that moves it away from the pc..

tman

Achilles wrote:

Either that or just get a much better router, something along the lines of the linksys WRT54GS, and I know for a fact that you can buy higher gain antennas for that particular router.

QFT
I had the NTL Netgear router, but got sick of having to constanly power cycle the damn thing to get my connection working again. (it bizarrly seemed to die every time someone sent me a custom emoticon on msn messenger )

The Linksys WRT54GS is a damn fine replacement, I'm chuffed with my purchase.

MrVestek

tman wrote:

QFT
I had the NTL Netgear router, but got sick of having to constanly power cycle the damn thing to get my connection working again. (it bizarrly seemed to die every time someone sent me a custom emoticon on msn messenger )

The Linksys WRT54GS is a damn fine replacement, I'm chuffed with my purchase.

I had that problem too. The trick is to disable any of the built in firewalls and just use a software firewall like AVG or ZoneAlarm. Never had any trouble with it after that.

Also in relation to OP, your Internet connection isn't anywhere close to 18Mbps anyways so why is it such a bad thing?

Also the NTL engineer was right about the whole putting it up higher thing, think of the signal like a spherical beacon, if you have it on the floor half of the signal is just going into the ground... I'd make more sense if I wasn't so hungover :P

jimbob

Achilles wrote:

You could go down the whole Devolo route of using ethernet over the power system in your home but that can be very expensive, almost €90 for ONE of the devices when you'll need two...

You can get 2 plugs on ebay for about 96 euro delivered. just search for homeplug. I got them and it is a fab system. solwise is the name. brand new perfect.

You could also try this on play.com

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3363095/Dynamode-HOMEPLG-E85-Bridge-Homeplug-Twin-Pack/Product.html

Also my homeplug system seems to boost the wireless in the house for some reason.

lucernarian

I was pretty dissapointed with the WRT54G. We were struggling to get a good signal in about half the house (bungalow). I thought this must be normal for WiFi.

When eircom started selling their wireless routers for €25, I got one to extend the range to the other end of the house. But the coverage was much better, so much so that I switched off the wireless on the WRT54G and used the eircom 2247 router to cover the entire house!

Btw I don't have DSL. I just switched off DCHP on the eircom router and plugged it into the linksys.

If it's possible to run a length of cable, you could use the €25 router to cover the area better.

dub45

Surely the most important thing in this case is to establish what speed the NTL modem is actually connecting at? There is absolutely no point in blaming the Netgear router until it can be established what speed is actually being received.

As a previous poster has pointed out even if the Netgear is only operating at 18Mb this is still far in excess of what would be required to deal with the full ntl speed if it was being attained.

You could also try checking to see if any of your neighbours have a wireless network operating on the same channel. Try downloading Netstumbler - this will show any wireless networks near you. http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/