Router upgrade - I'm going round in circles.

[Mr.Angry]

My current router (Linksys WAG200G) is in need of an upgrade and I simply cannot make my mind up. I have trawled the net and asked MANY questions and I'm still no further....in fact I'm even more confused. Luckily I happened upon this website mentioned in another forum - can you help ?

I have a PS3, a Squeezebox 3 and a Qnap NAS all connected to my router (and of course my PC via an ethernet cable) - the SB3 is wireless and the other two wired. The SB3 and PS3 are wireless G. I am also hoping to buy a Netgear EVA9150 when it finally comes out and this is wireless N.

Can you tell me which router would suit me the best for my situation ? All my devices are in one room so wireless is not 'essential'. I need to be able to stream music and movies from my NAS with no drop-outs, music to the SB3 and movies to the PS3. With the possible integration of the EVA9150 what should I get ?

 

[thiggins]

Why do you need to upgrade your router?

What is causing you to go around in circles?

Have you read?
How To Choose the Right Router for You

 

[Mr.Angry]

Why do you need to upgrade your router?

What is causing you to go around in circles?

Have you read?
How To Choose the Right Router for You

My router keeps losing connection. I have ruled out other causes such as my ISP and phone line - the phone line has been replaced by BT and is working according to a BT test and my ISP reports no problems (!).

I'm going round in circles because everytime I think I have found a good router I read a bad review on it. Not one has exhibited no problems. I've gone from Billion to Belkin to Netgear to Linksys and to be quite honest find it very difficult to make the right choice. My current router is my very first one and I can't even remember why I picked it.

Yes, I did read that link .

Help.

EDITlus it takes over 70 minutes to transfer 4GB of data to my NAS that I'm hoping I can speed it up.

 

[thiggins]

First, you will never find a product that has no negative reviews. As has been noted many times, unhappy people tend to broadcast their unhappiness more than happy people post about their satisfaction. So don't let a few bad reviews influence you that much. You need to look for trends and lots of negative information about products.

Second, if you can separate the DSL modem out of the router, you will have a much wider range of products to select from. I use the DSL modem provided by my ISP. I have never had a problem with it. And if I did, I would depend on the ISP to fix it, since they supplied it. So if your ISP has a recommended router list or provides a particular brand of router, I would strongly consider it.

Finally, the only part of your router that affects speed between LAN clients is its switch (and wireless adapter). If your computers have gigabit adapters, you should be using a gigabit switch. That can be either in the router or a separate product that is uplinked to the router's switch.

If you are moving data to your NAS via wireless connection, remember that an 802.11g connection is 24 Mbps best case or 3 MB/s. If you are operating at a distance your speed could easily be, say 10 Mbps, which would be slightly over 1 MB/s. 4 GB in 70 minutes is 0.97 MB/s.

 

[Mr.Angry]

Thanks for the reply.

I must say though please excuse my lack of expertise as I am not completely au fait with some of the technical language which you employ.

I have phoned my ISP regarding my connection problem and they don't actually recommend any particular brand or model of router - it's not their field . Plus, for other reasons, I am hoping to move ISP's very soon.

The last two paragraphs of your reply are somewhat baffling to me. My PC doesn't have gigabit adaptors - to my knowledge . Plus the NAS is connected via an ethernet cable to my PC (I think I may have confused myself further up this thread).

So, with this in mind, is there anything which I could do to improve the situation ?

 

[thiggins]

I have phoned my ISP regarding my connection problem and they don't actually recommend any particular brand or model of router - it's not their field . Plus, for other reasons, I am hoping to move ISP's very soon.

Ah. In my case, I have DSL service from my Telco, who supplied the DSL modem. At any rate, if you can deal with having a separate router and DSL modem when/if you upgrade, you will have a wider selection of routers.

The last two paragraphs of your reply are somewhat baffling to me. My PC doesn't have gigabit adaptors - to my knowledge . Plus the NAS is connected via an ethernet cable to my PC (I think I may have confused myself further up this thread).

With a 100 Mbps Ethernet connection, the fastest speed you can get to your NAS is 12.5 MB/s. This would allow you to move your 4GB of data in 327 seconds or a little over 5 minutes, if both your computer and NAS can support that speed.
What does your PC have for a processor and memory and which QNAP NAS do you have?

 

[Mr.Angry]

You see I have learnt lots of things from your posts now - excellent. I mean if I contact a supplier here regarding routers they will just do that i.e. give me advice on routers. I never knew I could get an ADSL (in my case) modem and a separate router - I can live with two boxes.

MY pc has 2GB memory and an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz processor. It's a Dell Dimension 4700.

My Nas is a Qnap TS-109.

Many thanks again.

 

[Mr.Angry]

Five minutes.........holy moly . That would be heaven. Please tell me how - I can't work out what I need and I have researched as you know. I have a whole folder on Firefox regarding routers et al.

I have made a couple of mistakes when transferring movies to my Nas (wrong language, swear words bleeped out, commentary on !) and to have to re-transfer them is a real pain . Mind you I downloaded PowerDVD which allows me to see before I transfer now.

 

[thiggins]

With the products that you have, you should be getting faster transfer speed between your computer and NAS. It is unlikely that the router is the problem.

What do you mean that you made a couple of mistakes when transferring movies to the NAS?

 

[Mr.Angry]

With the products that you have, you should be getting faster transfer speed between your computer and NAS. It is unlikely that the router is the problem.

What do you mean that you made a couple of mistakes when transferring movies to the NAS?

What would you suggest is the cause for the slow transfer ?

By mistakes I meant that when I viewed what I had ripped I would have the commentary running throughout the film or the swearing would be bleeped out or I had inadvertently selected the incorrect language when ripping. I couldn't view the Vob files I had until I downloaded the PowerDVD software which allowed me to view before I transferred the file to the Nas. Nothing serious, just me making mistakes when ripping.

 

[thiggins]

What would you suggest is the cause for the slow transfer ?

Sorry, but I'm out of ideas. Anyone else is welcome to jump in here.

 

[Mr.Angry]

Sorry, but I'm out of ideas. Anyone else is welcome to jump in here.

Thanks for helping though. So a gigabit switch wouldn't help then ?

With regard to ripping (Grr) I just transferred a re-rip to the Nas which I had checked first and it was fine. However, when I viewed it I would need to speak French .

But yes, can anyone please help ?

EDIT:By the looks of things a quick transfer rate cannot be done;

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=345&start=70

Pretty poor by Qnap.

 

[thiggins]

A gigabit switch won't help if you don't have a gigabit adapter on your PC.
But you're not even getting the speed you should be getting with a 100 Mbps connection.

Two other suggestions:
- Make sure your NAS is upgraded to the latest firmware
- Disable any anti-virus software on your PC and try the file copy
- Disable any firewall software on your PC and try the file copy

 

[Mr.Angry]

I tried that and it made no difference.

Now I have bought myself an external usb gigabit adaptor to which I will connect a gigabit switch and hopefully I should get higher transfer rates. It's all so complicated.

 

[Mr.Angry]

Well I have now gone from 10Mbps to 100Mbps ;

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=12159

 

[thiggins]

Congratulations. So the answer was that you were connecting at 10 Mbps?

 

[Mr.Angry]

Congratulations. So the answer was that you were connecting at 10 Mbps?

Yes . Don't ask me why it was like that, must have always been that way. Thanks for your help too . Never did get a new router did I .