Time to upgrade Internet / Router ?

[Krosigrim]

Alright I just found out that my internet speed is ~15mbps. Seems less sometimes. I had an issue with my router too so im trying to decide whats best.

 

The router is a Belkin Pre N and is ... problematic. Im trying to find some answers, but its not unlike sifting through sand. According to my Xbox, I have 2-3 out of 4 bars in terms of connectivity to the router. The 360 is 25' from the router... Thats retarded. Im pretty sure my walls arent lined with lead.

 

I had an issue before and I turned on the WAP for my box, thanks to your suggestion Sibath and Inky... but still had no resolution. Thought it was the router, but it may also be my internet... I want to play my games in peace!

 

I started to do alittle searching and I see D-link all over the place. Theres the D-link DGL-4500, but thats around $200. Im looking at the 4100. $96/ $76 with rebate at buy.com. (LOL Walmart has it for $130!!!) Anyway, these D-links prioritize gaming traffic. But thats me getting ahead of myself...

 

Back to the internet. We have 15mbps. Now... Verison Fios is in my area now, and I was wondering how much better it might be. Although a few major things concern me. First of which is their bullshit Fios vs Cable adds. They have "20 mbps vs 2" Wtf is that! How about your 15mbps vs their 15 mbps??? I want to know the truth... Fios claims they dont throttle, nor use booster gimmicks. I see peoples reviews on their new Fios and pics of their internet speed tests... but they don't really state the information I need. Short of finding a neighbor who does have Fios and hope to hell they have the same speed as us, and then test the TRUE speed against ours...

 

I'll run more searches and whatnot, but Id like a heads up... again, from you guys. Whats the pros to having fiberoptics? is there less latency? During primetime hrs does my internet speed remain strong? And for the modem... I just pointed my antennas toward my room and I'll test later if that helps, but is a old busted pre N shit for gaming? I am expecting the answer to be yes... and is this Gaming router truly necessary?

 

As for routers... what do you guys use? I mean... your all gamers! What do you use or what do you want?

[emsley]

Im pretty sure my walls arent lined with lead.

 

How can we be sure?

[Krosigrim]

Well hell, looks like Fios is out of the question, there is no talking them into switching...

 

But that still leaves the matter of internet speed. I can upgrade to the next tier, but will that truly help, as Im thinking my issue is more so with the router. My friends have speeds comparable to me but when I play them, it's lagged out, but when they play others, its way better. Fuck...

 

Anyway, what do you guys think about this gaming router?

[Krosigrim]

Im pretty sure my walls arent lined with lead.

 

How can we be sure?

Well I dont have than metal taste when I lick them.

[Inky]

first of all you won't get anywhere near what Fios claims. the internet as a whole doesn't run that fast. 15mbps is fine. I usually get less then that. and never have connection or speed problems.

also I do not trust Verizon to not cap at some point. I used to have thier evdo card for my laptop. 'Unlimited' to them meant 5gb a month. for 50 bucks. with a mean ass 56k speed throttle when you went over. anyways even uncapped and unnthrottled I don't see 20mbps being worth 60 or 70 bucks.

 

I think it's got to be your router. have you tried changing the broadcast channel on it? you said it works fine when you plug the xbox directly into the modem right? if so there is nothing wrong with your service provider. perhaps there is just a lot already going on in that frequency range in your house.

I seem to remember when the pre-N stuff came out alot of people complaining about getting dropped and knocked of the network often. I just use a Linksys g that treats me right. strong signal throughout the house. I got it for like 50 bucks at wally world. the only bad thing is there are no win7 drivers so I have to use genarics.

[Krosigrim]

Well I was thinking about Linksys, pre N is getting on my nerves. I don't really have an issue of multiple users on the net at once, but I wanted to make sure its not a problem when it does happen. I was figuring that with a D-link... I could prioritize my 360 over everything else... including my brother in laws WAW on Wii... lol

 

Well, this is both reassuring and disappointing. HA! It had better be the router... 'cause if I spend that cash and I still have issues, I'm gonna pop my lid.

 

I guess Im living in a fantasy land. Until there is nothing BUT fiber optics at the least... I just wanted to have a perfect connection where I am never the cause of lag. I hope that its not crappy ISP, as they will never change ISP...

 

I'll test my connection in a few hours and see if pointing the antennas at my room helps. Damn this nonsense.

 

Oh, and thanks for the heads up on Verison. I just knew they couldn't be trusted. You should have seen the salesman that knocked on our door after they laid optics!

[VT-Vincent]

I actually own the DGL-4500 and I have to say, it's one of the finest routers I've ever owned. It has everything you could want - tons of options, gigabit ethernet and wireless N. I don't use it's GameFuel technology nor do I find the display on the front to be particularly useful, instead I bought it for the reliability, the gigabit connectivity and the features. In the past, I used to prefer Linksys but since they were bought by Cisco, everything they have made since then has been garbage. I've always avoided Belkin and Netgear as well.

 

Regarding your connectivity issues though, my personal recommendation would be to go to a hard-wired connection. For any uses where a persistent connection is critical, I have found wireless to be far too unreliable. Issues can be intermittent and can stem from any number of causes. I would only use wireless for casual use and set up a hard-wired connection anywhere you know you'll need one.

[Shibathedog]

Okay first of all, Belkin is garbage. I would avoid Netgear when possible too but Belkin is by far the crappiest, tons of problems everywhere. So get rid of that shit. D-Links ARE good, I have read a lot of people whining about D-Link on the internet but I have never had a problem with any D-Link product. Linksys is good too but I think D-Link has surpassed them in recent years. I would recommend either the DIR-655, DGL-4300, DIR-825, or if you want to get REALLY crazy the DIR-855. The 655 is probably your best bet/most bang for your buck. As far as the gaming features go it's basically just QOS with a list of popular games pre-programmed in. Don't buy a router just because it has this because you can do it yourself in the QOS menu. In fact if you DO get a router that has this I recommend turning it off and setting it up manually anyway.

 

About your internet, 15mbps should be more than enough for gaming. I used to game fine on my 10mbit line and now I have a 20mbit that I upgraded to primarily to speed up usenet downloads. I see a huge difference in usenet downloads but its usually only slightly better in games. You have to think of it this way, just because YOU can go 15mbps doesn't mean the server your connecting to can for many various reasons. If it can then you will see a huge benefit, but if not it will be the same.

 

About that comparison 20mbit is 20mbit, 2mbit is 2mbit. There is no difference, that is the exact speed. It isn't really fair to compare a 20mbit line to a 2mbit line though. What your asking is like asking what the difference is between Car A going 20mph and Car B going 20mph. They are both going 20mph. Assuming neither ISPs servers are overloaded and you get a good signal from both, There should be no difference between 15mbit from either. Like others have said and I explained above though, you don't always get your maximum speed for various reasons that can be out of your or your ISPs control.

 

Oh and BTW, Even plain ol' wireless G should be good enough unless you have an unusual amount of interference in your area.

[ken_cinder]

When it comes to networking, I can't really help beyond common knowledge. I have one of THE weirdest network setups you'll ever come across, but from a security standpoint while retaining useability...if you could wrap your head around it, it makes so much sense.

 

WiFi is a PITA really, and G although the fastest option outside of N (Which is still too costly for home use IMO) it's interfered with easily as cordless phones and other crap reside in that band. Put your router up as high as you can and picture a donut around the antenna(s)...that donut is your signal spectrum so angle the donut optimally.

 

I have 2 G routers in bridge mode here that join two levels of my house together and the only thing that connects wirelessly to them are themselves and my laptop. Everything else is wired to them. One is under my bed lol, the other on my wall behind my entertainment center. The antennas are pointed right at eachother on that donut azimuth and the signal strength is great given I know my floor causes interference.

 

And the obligatory...try to stay 2 or more channels away from what other routers in your area are using. If you don't know how to find that out, just try using a channel for a bit and see how it fares versus using another.

[emsley]

I never got my head round the router and port stuff.

[Shibathedog]

I used to have a similar setup to you Cinder. The cable modem had to be plugged into a specific coax jack downstairs away from the office/my room. So I plugged it in down there and plugged this nice D-Link router I had into it. I did some benchmarking and it outperformed my Linksys as a main router so that is why I chose it. I also had a VOIP router plugged into the D-Link and a phone plugged in there. Anyway, In my room I had a Linksys WRT54GS flashed with various custom firmwares, whatever I was messing with at the time that would connect to the D-Link and give access to my computer/xbox/etc. It saved me a lot of money because I didn't have to buy a ton of wireless adapters for everything. Also because I was able to tweak the Linksys so much and I was basically only using powerful router radios that I could boost I was able to easily get my connections full bandwidth with no interference ever. I had a very efficient QOS System set up on both routers as well. I haven't been able to match QOS that efficient since, like it was completely bulletproof I could do anything without lag/the voip phone always worked well. I had also built some of these for the D-Link:

 

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

 

As you can see I was able to aim the signal much better with these. The office was right next to my room upstairs so the wireless PC in there and the router in my room was able to get a good signal. The laptop was usually used in the living room right next to the room the D-Link router was in so it too got a good signal all the time. Streaming things between PCs/Consoles was never a problem either.

 

HOWEVER...As nice as this setup was and as well as it worked, it will never come close to a good wired home network. Especially with gigabit LAN that we have now. It really isn't as hard as it sounds and if you have the time and you are allowed to (Ask you parents/landlord!) hardwiring your house is the best option.