the most stable/reliable WiFi router for gaming

SpannerMonkey

hi guys hoping someone can recommend a good wifi router , currently i only have the standard eircom one and its terrible . i use it for gaming and at least 2-3 times a night i get kicked from games . and i loose all internet , until i reset the router and then its perfect again for hours .


so can anyone recommend a good wifi router , my internet speeds are only 7-8Mb so speed isnt a big concern , but it needs to be stable and reliable , i got a belkin N750 play , but it dropped the connection every 30 mins just for a few seconds , apparently a commonish problem , but it ment i was kicked from the game i was playing , not good when your playing arma / dayz and your the chopper pilot for a group of guys that spent a week getting gear in game only to loose it to my dodgy connection , i got some abuse when i logged back in

Monotype

Are you aware of the existence of homeplugs?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT-AV500-Powerline-Adapter/dp/B0084Y9N3O

Better than wireless (for most people) although a dedicated wired connection would be better.

SpannerMonkey

Monotype wrote: »

Are you aware of the existence of homeplugs?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT-AV500-Powerline-Adapter/dp/B0084Y9N3O

Better than wireless (for most people) although a dedicated wired connection would be better.

ya tried them but they didnt work out , something to do with the way the hose is wired

Serephucus

Have you tried them recently? I know earlier ones didn't work if the two devices were on different ring mains, but the newer ones do AFAIK. (I don't use them - yet - so I know very little, take with the usual salt)

Monotype

That's unfortunate. I'm not sure that adding a router on top of the Eircom one will be a solution, now that I think of it. Doesn't the router act as a modem too - i.e., that you have to use that router?
It could be a problem with the connection itself or the router. If it's strictly a wireless problem, then you might want to try changing channels to ensure that it's not interference.
I have my doubts that it's the wireless end is the route of the cause given your description as it is working normally and then not working.
If you know that it is definitely the wireless component, then any access point with reasonable reviews would do. I've usually gone for Lynksys or Cisco ones in the past but they're expensive enough now that I look. There's a few sub ~€25 choices on amazon.co.uk that I'm sure would do the job fine.

SpannerMonkey

Serephucus wrote: »

Have you tried them recently? I know earlier ones didn't work if the two devices were on different ring mains, but the newer ones do AFAIK. (I don't use them - yet - so I know very little, take with the usual salt)

only tried it a month ago got a devolo 500 , but didnt work

Monotype wrote: »

That's unfortunate. I'm not sure that adding a router on top of the Eircom one will be a solution, now that I think of it. Doesn't the router act as a modem too - i.e., that you have to use that router?
It could be a problem with the connection itself or the router. If it's strictly a wireless problem, then you might want to try changing channels to ensure that it's not interference.
I have my doubts that it's the wireless end is the route of the cause given your description as it is working normally and then not working.
If you know that it is definitely the wireless component, then any access point with reasonable reviews would do. I've usually gone for Lynksys or Cisco ones in the past but they're expensive enough now that I look. There's a few sub ~€25 choices on amazon.co.uk that I'm sure would do the job fine.

i dont know to be honest my head is wrecked from it i dont think its the wireless part thats the problem i think its the modem part that just seems to jam up , i know nothing about network lads so i could (probably ) be making little sense. its a new wifi modem i would be looking for

wallyMe

Get another phone socket put in the house to wear you want the modem located. Any electrician could do it or eircom

Monotype

After a quick dig around, it looks like you can actually replace it with what your like, so long as it's an ADSL modem/router.

I'd say all of these would work:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TD-W8951ND-150Mbps-Wireless-connections/dp/B004FPMXU6/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TD-W8960N-300MBPS-Wireless-connections/dp/B0031SUB4S
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TD-W8961ND-300Mbps-Wireless-Router/dp/B004ERXXHC/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-Wireless-N-Router-Modem-connections/dp/B003FS40KU/

Or you could just go for a wired router on its own and place it closer to your PC and/or buy a separate access point.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TD-8840T-4-Port-ADSL2-Router/dp/B0041435XU/

First one is cheaper because it's not wireless n. The Netgear one offers 1Gbps on wired connections while the others are limited to 100Mbps. 300Mbps on wireless is usually an exaggeration, but they should be sufficient for a while. There doesn't seem to be much between those two N TP-Link ones apart from different manufacturers for the internals, but here's the spec pages.
http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/?model=TD-W8961ND#spec
http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TD-W8960N#spec

Tea_Bag

I'm all for Home plugs, but this is most certainly an eircom router problem. back in my original COD days (top 1% yeeeah) I had many a fight with the eircom techs about their routers.

they are under powered in processing power and actual ram, and literally reset themselves whenever they feel they are getting flooded by peers. this happens even more regularly than you might think as a router never really closes a peer connection (even if data isn't being transmitted) for an extended period of time. not very useful in p2p games, as after a few hours session you might technically have connected to many many peers.

I've been out of the router knowledge for a while, but I remember Pog mentioning a few routers a while back, I think the general rule of thumb, is that if the router can run DD-WRT it's going to be decent. they have a search function on their website. I'd look up more for you but I'm on my phone at 4am

Serephucus

Tea_Bag wrote: »

I'd look up more for you but I'm on my phone at 4am

And surprisingly sober sounding! :P

http://www.dabs.ie/products/linksys-by-cisco-e2500-5-port-gigabit-ethernet-switch-7QDN.html?q=cisco%20router&src=16

That's the cheapest router that supports DD-WRT according to their wiki, at least it's the cheapest I could find after a quick google.

belcampprisoner

belkin is crap

Serephucus

Informative, constructive, well written, with correct grammar. These are all of the things that post isn't.

Monotype

Is that link right? That's a switch. That wouldn't solve the problem... would it?

Edit: The blue TP-Link one works, apparently:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/tp-link-300mbps-wireless-adsl2--modem-router-77S0.html

See the reviews. Not too dear overall.

Looking at the DD-WRT website, it looks like they mostly aim for routers rather than modem-routers. So you'd need two separate boxes for that, I reckon.

Serephucus

Monotype wrote: »

Is that link right? That's a switch. That wouldn't solve the problem... would it?

And that's why I shouldn't be awake this early... In my defence, it was listed as having wireless B/G/N on their supported devices list.

http://www.dabs.ie/products/linksys-by-cisco-wireless-n-broadband-router-with-storage-link--powered-by-linux--628D.html?q=cisco&src=16

That's the next best one I could find. There are, I'm sure, cheaper alternatives to Cisco routers, but they seem to be one of the better ones for support, as they all have install guides on the DD-WRT wiki.

Monotype

I think you'd want to get rid of the eircom modem as well though. If you wanted a long term solution, get a decent wired modem-router that supports gigabit speeds and then another wireless router with all the features that you want.
For a shot term, the TP-Link probably works okay, but you could be limited when eircom rolls out their fibre. Should be okay for just small scale.

Does eircom upgrade the routers with their new network?

Edit: To answer my question, it does look like eircom is replacing modem-routers with their network updates, so if your area is soon on the list, I'd be hesitant to invest a lot in any modem, although you could still use a good router.

Tea_Bag

get a stand alone router, attach it to your current router, put it's IP address in a DMZ and make it static, then disable WiFi, dhcp and firewall on the eircon router.

connect only to the new router.

alternatively, more expensive but a better solution, is to get a new router and modem to do the same thing. do not get a dsl modem/router combo. you'll have to chuck it out as soon as you ditch eircon.

Tea_Bag

send vibe666 a pm to check out this thread actually. he knows his networking **** and where to save money too. I think he runs a set of Linksys e3000 or something.

SpannerMonkey

Tea_Bag wrote: »

get a stand alone router, attach it to your current router, put it's IP address in a DMZ and make it static, then disable WiFi, dhcp and firewall on the eircon router.

connect only to the new router.

alternatively, more expensive but a better solution, is to get a new router and modem to do the same thing. do not get a dsl modem/router combo. you'll have to chuck it out as soon as you ditch eircon.

Monotype

Basically he says get yourself a decent router. Then attach it to your current one and pass all the traffic directly onto the new one. This router could be reused regardless of you ISP or if Eircom upgrades you.

It takes some of the work off your old modem-router, but I'm thinking that it might be better to take it out of the equation altogether.

In case I wasn't clear earlier:

• You have a modem+router+wireless combo which takes a phone cable and allows you to connect PCs etc. via network cables and wireless.
  
• A router allows you to make a new network. You can't replace your existing modem-router box with a plain router as it won't have the ability to take the phone line input.
• You can attach a router to the existing box to add new abilities and pass functions onto a new router. The best routers are not in combo form.
  
• A modem+router combo takes a phone line and allows you to set up a network. You could replace you existing box with this. It would not be compatible with Eircom's new technology or, say, UPC.
  
• Not every router is wireless. You could get a cheap non-wireless modem to tie you over and a good router which would last.
  
• You could also get an access point to give wireless capabilities to the router. E.g., I found that UPC's box was causing some terrible problems with wireless. Wired connections were working as expected. So I used an access point and disabled the wireless on the UPC box.

Here are the best options:

• Cheapish modem+router combo to replace your Eircom one. E.g., the TP-Link.
• Good router which will last. Connect it to your Eircom box.
• Cheap modem non-wireless modem and a separate good router.

Serephucus

This calls for a Paint diagram!

SpannerMonkey

hahaha cheers exactly what i needed thanks
can you recommend a good modem and a good router?

Serephucus

Well the idea with the drawing above is that you'd use your current router/modem as a modem, and just pass everything through to the new router, so that's all you need to look at.

This one looks decent:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/tp-link-tl-wr1043nd-n-wireless--gigabit-router-with-usb-7725.html?refs=4294948694&q=gigabit%20router&src=16

So you'd have a single ethernet cable coming from your modem, into the blue port on the router there, and then run everything off that (the new router), the same way you do with the modem currently.

SpannerMonkey

Serephucus wrote: »

Well the idea with the drawing above is that you'd use your current router/modem as a modem, and just pass everything through to the new router, so that's all you need to look at.

This one looks decent:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/tp-link-tl-wr1043nd-n-wireless--gigabit-router-with-usb-7725.html?refs=4294948694&q=gigabit%20router&src=16

So you'd have a single ethernet cable coming from your modem, into the blue port on the router there, and then run everything off that (the new router), the same way you do with the modem currently.

bear with me here im not good with this stuff , but what makes it use the new router instead of the built in one ? would i not be better off getting the stand alone modem and stand alone router?

Serephucus

The only thing a modem does is take internet data, and pass it through to something else. In this case, all you're doing is basically telling your current modem to not bother looking at anything, just sending it on through to the new router. The new router then does all the work, as it's higher quality, etc. There's no point getting a stand-alone router, because it's doing a very simple, dumb job. The router is where it counts.

Think of it almost like the modem is just an adapter, converting the signal from something you can't read (the coax cable that comes out of the wall from a UPC connection) to something a lot more network-friendly (ethernet).

Monotype

You could get a router too and see how it goes. If your problem doesn't get sorted out, you could buy a new modem afterwards.

PyeContinental

As far as the most stable and reliable router goes, the best I have used is the Billion Bipac 7800N.

It's larger than an average router, and one of the most expensive, but it's got all the features you'd ever need and never needs to be rebooted.

I bought it after reading so many good reviews. Check out the unanimous praise it gets on Amazon and elsewhere.
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/wireless-routers/278557/billion-bipac-7800n

The review above says it doesn't support 5GHz spectrum by the way, but I think it actually does.

Aka Ishur

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-RT-N66U-Wireless-streaming-Warranty/dp/B007W16SMO/ref=pd_cp_computers_0

This one is awesome. I got one for myself and it was so good i got one for the folks at home too.