Wireless networks suck big time.

Finally lost the plot with the wireless router and jammed a cable in my computer and one into the router. I'm sick to death of getting 60 KB\s downloads with a 4 meg connection. Wireless might be great for going on msn or emailing, but really falls short, in my opinion, when downloading files and getting the most out of your connection. Especially LARGE files. Just bloody spent 5 hours downloading one, and the wireless connection went offline. Not amused. Not amused one bit ( i do realise you can restart IE downloads by keeping the page with the link on it open, but IE closed due to an error, multiplying my rage) .

Problem is, it's wireless, so i can't get annoyed with anything that i can grab and choke and kill and burn :o) So, just have to put that aside for now.

I'm happy with my wired connection. Even if many accidents are caused by the wire. Thank you for listening.

I found that I get faster download speeds if I set my router to 802.11g only rather than 802.11b/g.

I have 3 PCs in my house are none are within a reasonable distance of the router so I have to use wireless. That said I don't have too many problems with download speeds. It mostly depends where you're downloading from.

I'll try maybe in a couple of days and see if that helps. Just effin annoys me when the router gets disconnected. Tried most of the different channels too.

I actually put my cable modem and router in my garage because it was central in my house. Now all 4 of the PCs in my house get good connections and I never get drop outs. The best thing to do is find a good central point you can put your router. I was able to put mine in the garage because that is where the cable line first comes into my house so I could plug my cable modem in out there as well.

Don't use IE, Firefox is better for downloads.

Well, my router is in my room, and i'm about 2 - 3 meters away from it. Does anyone recommend getting a better router? I got a netgear one just now, but i hear the Belkin routers are supposed to be the best ones.

The router is disconnecting? Not the wireless adapter connection dropping?

Changing the channel won't make a jot of difference - since the channel relates to data sent between router and wireless adapters connected to your PC, rather than traffic between the router and DSL carrier.

If your router is losing ADSL sync (normally indicated by a light on the router itself), that would indicate a possible line fault.

Netgear are a bit of a mixed bag - some swear by them but I hear an increasing number of stories about them - many models disconnect at midnight, every night, and there's nothing that can be done to stop it.

Heard a lot of tales about Belkin routers overheating so I'd steer well clear of those too.

I have a D-Link one which hasn't given me too many problems over the last three years or so.

As for wireless in general, lots of things can cause problems especially if you live in/near flats with a large concentration of people. Cordless phones, mobiles, microwaves - even wireless door bells/intercoms and a host of other things all can cause interference with wireless networks.

Its worth paying out for a decent router, Cisco, Netgear (not the cheapest ones) etc, i bought a more expensive netgear one and its never had any problems. Dlink and belkin on the other hand... well.. the cheapo d-link is now a nice paperweight and the belkin felt the full force of my size 12. (boot that is :)

I could have lived with the d-link one despite the occasional and unexplained dns dropouts but it was only 54Mbit and I have a 100Mbit hardwired internet access so i found it a little slow to access blitzbasic.com :P

I dont want to even speak about the belkrap. Horrible things, avoid.

Ross C never get belkin, I had one of those and no end of problems with it.

D-Link are the worst ... offering "WPA" and "WPA2" but through a software implementation thats actually not even following the WPA2 standard (-> Vista can not connect, Linux can not connect, my Wii can not connect. Only XP with through the drivers can. not even the WPA2 support from Vista is able to connect. All have the same problem: the WPA2 is seen as WEP when comming from a D-Link)

Best I had so far were netopia and zyxel. Outperform anything else I touched.

Hmm, definetaly worth considering a new router then. What about wireless cards? Do they differ in performance greatly?

Btw, i meant to say the connection to the router disappearing time and again :o)

My D-Link DWL-G122 is great. The D-Link G650+ cardbus adapter was great (I got a new laptop recently with built in Wifi, so don't need it any more).

The Netgear PCI card in my other desktop is shockingly bad. It claims to only be receiving a 'poor' signal despite it being one floor directly above the router, yet my other desktop over the other side of the house gets a 100% signal.

Anyway - you say you've tried all the router channels. Have you restarted the router between channel changes? If not, you should have done since the router was still probably broadcasting on the same channel it was before.

I've got a fairly inexpensive Belkin wireless router, and I haven't had any problems with it at all. I get 100% of my connection (160 KB/s) on both my computers (laptop with a Broadcom wireless receiver and desktop with a cheap $15 no-name PCI wireless receiver from eBay), and it hasn't "dropped out" yet.

It almost seems the success of the various wireless routers is almost random; some people will say Belkin is great, LinkSys/D-Link/etc. is bad, and others will say just the opposite.


I don't know much about them, but I know my cheap wireless card in my desktop gets a 4/5 signal strength at ~40 feet while my fairly old laptop only gets 2/5 or 3/5.