Choosing new Router

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Amberstorn

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I have a Billion bipac 7300G that i want to replace.

I am looking for something that will give me a much better range and speed on the wireless portion, as well as a Gigabit connection on the wired portion.

I would also like it to be able to work in half bridge mode.

Are there any suggestions?
 
You'll look at a minimum of R1200 if you'd want an all-in-one device, that includes:
1) ADSL modem
2) Wireless N (802.11n)
3) Gigabit LAN

If your Billion Bipac ADSL modem supports bridge/half-bridge mode, then you can simply use that as your ADSL modem, and then just get a router that has:
1) Wirelss N
2) Gigabit LAN
3) optional USB 2.0 for NAS/3G/Printer
These ones you can get for under R600. eg. TP-Link WR1043ND
 
+1 for the TP-Link WR1043ND. I won one a while ago here on myBB and it's a great router. I believe you can get a discount from Uniterm Direct as you're a myBB member. I'm not sure if this arrangement still holds though.
 
Thanks for the reply's so far, if i were to go that route, where would my existing router plug in, would it use one of the network ports or is there a dedicated port for the adsl? I currently have 4 machines connected hence i would need all the ports or would i also be able to use the network ports on the existing one?

If i did go the all-in-one device approach are there any that you could recommend?
 
The broadband routers, like the TP-Link WR1043ND, has a dedicated WAN port where you'll plug in your existing ADSL modem.

The all-in-one devices that I know of are:
Linksys WAG320N ~ R1200
Netgear N600 (DGND3700)~ R1900 * The Netgear N600 (WNDR3400) that goes for around R1200 does not include an ADSL modem

The only problem is that I don't know if the Cisco or Netgear modems support bridge or even half-bridge modes. Netgear is known for making ADSL modems without bridge mode even.
 
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So you'll be able to use all 4 Gigabit network ports on the TP-link WR1043ND as well as the ports on your current ADSL router, although they will only operate at 100Mbps.
 
Not so sure about that one, they will most likely be running on different subnets..
 
With no disrespect to the op, AS - am also looking at similar setup at one of our branches & would like to know "what max distance can the pc be away from wireless router, to connect & operate effeciently?"
Tks
 
@T-Man:
If you set it up correctly - even if the ADSL modem & gigabit router are on different subnets - then you could plug in the computers on any of the 2 network routers and then it should work.

Btw, I'm using a setup like this at my church:
Netgear DG834GUv5 with an IP address of 10.0.0.2, and it hands out IP addresses from 10.0.0.100 - .254 (or actually my MikroTik does it to have better control)
Then my MikroTik RB750 is connected to the Netgear modem, where my MikroTik has an IP address of 10.0.0.3 on the port that goes to the Netgear modem, and an IP address of 192.168.88.1 for the other 4 LAN ports.
The Netgear modem is dialing my primary ISP account, but I can still dial ISP accounts from my MikroTik too. When I connect to the Netgear's WiFi AP, I get a 10.0.0.* IP address, and I can still access everything on the Internet & on the 192.168.88.* subnet.
The same goes for everything connected to the MikroTik, which gets a 192.168.88.* IP address, where they also have access to the Internet, as well as everything to on 10.0.0.* :D

@2old4this:
If you get a Wireless N router with MIMO support and multiple external antenna's, then I suppose you should get like 30m inside a building. You really can't tell what the distance would be until you've actually tested it! Outside is a different story.
 
Pada said:
@T-Man:
If you set it up correctly - even if the ADSL modem & gigabit router are on different subnets - then you could plug in the computers on any of the 2 network routers and then it should work.

Btw, I'm using a setup like this at my church:
Netgear DG834GUv5 with an IP address of 10.0.0.2, and it hands out IP addresses from 10.0.0.100 - .254 (or actually my MikroTik does it to have better control)
Then my MikroTik RB750 is connected to the Netgear modem, where my MikroTik has an IP address of 10.0.0.3 on the port that goes to the Netgear modem, and an IP address of 192.168.88.1 for the other 4 LAN ports.
The Netgear modem is dialing my primary ISP account, but I can still dial ISP accounts from my MikroTik too. When I connect to the Netgear's WiFi AP, I get a 10.0.0.* IP address, and I can still access everything on the Internet & on the 192.168.88.* subnet.
The same goes for everything connected to the MikroTik, which gets a 192.168.88.* IP address, where they also have access to the Internet, as well as everything to on 10.0.0.* :D

@2old4this:
If you get a Wireless N router with MIMO support and multiple external antenna's, then I suppose you should get like 30m inside a building. You really can't tell what the distance would be until you've actually tested it! Outside is a different story.
Click to expand...

pada i have the exact same.why do you have the microtik router connected?
 
I'm using the MikroTik RB750 for a whole bunch of reasons.
The main reasons are:
a) We have both a Telkom ADSL and Telkom VPN lite connection, and I want the PC's to be able to use both at the same time.
b) To host a VPN

In the end I'm only using the Netgear as an ADSL modem, WiFi AP and DynDNS updater. My RB750 pretty much does the rest: routing, DHCP, VPN, custom DNS entries for our internal network hosts
 
I am looking at a netgear dgn3500 , does anyone know if that can be put into half bridge mode? Nothing I can find gives me a clue either way

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
 
I highly doubt that the DGN3500 would support half-bridge mode if the manual/web interface doesn't even have a bridge option. You can apparently change it into bridge mode by going to the following address: http://192.168.0.1/setup.cgi?next_file=mode.htm

There should be a few users on this forum with that ADSL modem.

I prefer to stay away from Netgear routers, because their web interfaces does not always list all the settings (like bridge mode for instance) and they often don't support bridge/half-bridge modes.
I would also recommend WiFi AP's with detachable antennas above ones with internal antennas.
 
modifying the request a bit, i also need the wireless signal to be able to get to the back of the house and downstairs, the dgn3500 has the same low range as my old billion, so it doesn't make any sense to get it anyway. So what other options can i look at?
 
I highly doubt that you'll get any wireless access points that would give you a decent signal downstairs, because they all transmit the signal in a horizontal plane...

You'll most likely have to setup a repeater downstairs, by running a cable from the ground floor.
 
i get full bars on my NetGear DG834GUv5 when i am downstairs in my place. my router is in the 2nd room on the opposite side of the house.
 
Stevie G, that WiFi AP is most likely using a 3dBi omni directional antenna that leaks quite a bit of the signal vertically too.
As soon as you're using like 9dBi or higher gain antenna's, the vertical signal propagation becomes considerably less.

So using a higher gain antenna should give you a bigger range, but also decrease the signal strength going to the other floors.

It is really almost impossible to suggest a WiFi setup without performing tests with various WiFi AP's and antennas.
 
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