Best ADSL Wireless Router to buy??

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Im looking at maybe upgrading my wireless router at home. I wasnt sure if this would improve things like internet browsing and playing games on my ps3 but a friend at work has recently purchased a belkin n+ router and he has said it has improved quite a bit. Is this the case that a descent router would improve my overall internet performance over the netgear router i got when i joined sky broadband? If so what would you recommend getting? and why?On the network at home is my macbook pro, my girlfriends pc laptop and my ps3.
 
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Typical DSL speeds run anywhere between 1.5 and 6.0 Mbps. Even the slowest wireless B router from five years ago ran at 11 Mbps. So, typically you don't have to worry about your router slowing down your internet connection--as long as you have a strong signal. While new routers have faster speeds, the speed is often irrelevant when talking about your home internet connection because even the cheap routers are capable of 10x the speed of your internet connection.

The difference in the newest routers today is the strength of the signal at greater distances. You get a full signal much farther away then you used to.

Here's a couple tests that might answer your question:

Plug your Mac into the router via ethernet and check the speed. If it improves, then a new wireless N router might help. If it doesn't, then the problem isn't with your being "wireless".

Disconnect the router and plug your Mac into the modem directly via ethernet and check the speed. If it improves, then it's possible there is still an issue with the router.

If the speed still isn't satisfactory with the Mac plugged directly into the modem, then you should contact your ISP. The first thing they will do is ask you to disconnect the router and plug directly into the modem, which you will have already done.
 
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Jaygray: don't mean to pick up on your post but the ADSL router supplied by Sky has the modem built-in. So there's no option to try the modem separately. Also ADSL speed from Sky can be up to 20Mb depending on distance from the exchange.

Paulmac:
Which Sky router do you have? The white Netgear or the grey Netgear?

While it's 'possible' to replace the router sky supply it does break the T's & C's of the agreement. Like many ISPs in the UK they like to have their equipment in place to ease the tech support load.

You can use various ways to extract the username and password from the Sky routers to then apply to a home bought one. You just need to be aware that Sky don't like it!

If you do have the Sky netgear router rather than the Sagem one they are both pretty good at handling internet traffic so I'd doubt you'd see much broadband speed improvement using a different model. However, I have a 'busy' house as far as wi-fi goes and found that during high demand times, (iPhones, iPods, Macbooks, iMac, laptops) hammering away at the wi-fi the router would get bogged down and wouldn't speed back up until it was power cycled, even once the devices weren't using bandwidth.

I ended up using a tool called netstumbler to find the most uncrowded available wi-fi channel and changed to that on the router. I also got an Airport Express and created a dedicated 5Ghz network in parallel with the G network put out by the netgear.

Taking that load from the wireless side of the router helped immensely and the whole network ran really well.

Another alternative is to leave the Netgear in place as merely a modem and connect a new DSL router by Ethernet and use that to create your wireless network.

But, after all that rambling....... if you're still with me.... I'd trying changing wifi channels first and maybe experiment with changing the orientation and position of the router where possible.

Hope some of that helps.
 
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yeah il try that then, i have the white netgear one. Ive been told about the new bt infinity broadband and that looks very good, fibre optic cable with good upload/download speeds. Maybe once i move house i will look into that option further but for now i will try what you suggested thanks a lot :) appreciate it
 

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