Advice on Wireless Router

Lago

We got a new ISP a few months ago and they've been great so far. When they came to set it up they didn't set up wi-fi so I had to set it up myself. I used homeplugs to connect the wireless router to my computer and I bought my mother a laptop.

The problem is when using the internet on the laptop, it's constantly disconnecting or the download speed just randomly drops to 0kb/s and it can't load basic webpages.

This problem only happens when using the laptop. It works fine on my IPhone and fine on my PC using the homeplugs. However, I don't think it has anything to do with the laptop. I tried it in my girlfriend's house, they have UPC, and it was extremely fast and I never had these problems. I've also made sure no one else is using the internet when I'm testing it.

So I'm certain it's not the ISP, it's not the laptop and the wireless router is the only thing left. A friend of mine has the same ISP and a bigger house with more people using it and their's works perfectly so I feel it must be this cheap router we have:

http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=190_TEW-651BR

Now I'm ready to go get a new router but I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for in one. The specs on product pages don't seem to give any indication of range or support, at least not to me (or realistically). So can anyone advise me on what router I should be looking for or even what price range I should be looking in?

yomamasflavour

Lago wrote: »

We got a new ISP a few months ago and they've been great so far. When they came to set it up they didn't set up wi-fi so I had to set it up myself. I used homeplugs to connect the wireless router to my computer and I bought my mother a laptop.

The problem is when using the internet on the laptop, it's constantly disconnecting or the download speed just randomly drops to 0kb/s and it can't load basic webpages.

This problem only happens when using the laptop. It works fine on my IPhone and fine on my PC using the homeplugs. However, I don't think it has anything to do with the laptop. I tried it in my girlfriend's house, they have UPC, and it was extremely fast and I never had these problems. I've also made sure no one else is using the internet when I'm testing it.

So I'm certain it's not the ISP, it's not the laptop and the wireless router is the only thing left. A friend of mine has the same ISP and a bigger house with more people using it and their's works perfectly so I feel it must be this cheap router we have:

http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=190_TEW-651BR

Now I'm ready to go get a new router but I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for in one. The specs on product pages don't seem to give any indication of range or support, at least not to me (or realistically). So can anyone advise me on what router I should be looking for or even what price range I should be looking in?

Depends on the sort of features that you want and how much you wish to spend.
Most routers wont cover even a small/medium house entirely.

Does the laptop connection work when you're close to the router?

Lago

yomamasflavour wrote: »

Depends on the sort of features that you want and how much you wish to spend.
Most routers wont cover even a small/medium house entirely.

Does the laptop connection work when you're close to the router?

In terms of features, I'm not even looking for any. I just want to stop the constant disconnecting and slow down of the wi-fi on the laptop so something that holds the signal well. At most I was looking to spend about €50.

Yeah it seems to work better. I sat about two feet from it and used it for a few minutes and it didn't disconnect and only slowed down once.

same ol sh1te

Have you tried changing wireless channel to one with less interference. It's always ythe place to starr. Get inssider to see what channels are in use nearby
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

Lago

same ol sh1te wrote: »

Have you tried changing wireless channel to one with less interference. It's always ythe place to starr. Get inssider to see what channels are in use nearby
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

I haven't I'm not really sure what that is if I'm honest. Sorry for my noobishness.

What I can't understand is that streaming and loading Youtube videos works perfect on the laptop but loading simple webpages is a problem. It will try loading for ages and then just fail. This seems to happen a lot when going into secure log in. Like going into online banking or email etc.