HELP to ADSL Newbie!!!

[Deluxxe Legend]

About two weeks ago, I got my telephone line installed and had planned to get the 6 months ADSL special from MWEB. Because I was not sure how long it would take to activate the ADSL, I let the deal go, only to have my ADSL activated on Monday (really surprised about Telkom's turn around times compared to others on this forum).

Since I chose the self-installation option (as per mybb suggestion), I am now thinking of getting the Openweb Gold options which seems popular on this forum. Since I am new to ADSL, I only have a 384k line and now realise I need a router/modem as well. I want to be able to share the network with my wife on our laptops and mobile as well as connect my PS3 for online gaming.

Unfortunately I am on a *tight* budget and never factored buying a router as well.

Any suggestions on a best setup for my ADSL (384, Openweb) as well as reasonable router to buy? My line is downstairs, PC upstairs, PS2 downstairs, dreading this whole thing already.

Please help!!

 

[NeonNinja]

What? You were getting ADSL and didn't know it needs a router? A cheap 500 bucks wireless should do, should wireless be insufficient, install AP's, also you can always run a cable.

 

[Gtx Gaming]

http://www.dbg.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=1_55_57&products_id=693

very good router for the price, excludes vat that price.

 

[Deluxxe Legend]

The Mweb deal came with a router,...but did not plan to buy one!
Please explain AP's?

 

[Deluxxe Legend]

Thanks for the link. Will check it out!!

 

[NeonNinja]

Why didn't you plan? Since ADSL requires a router? By AP's I mean wireless repeaters / signal enhancers.

 

[Deluxxe Legend]

Oops,... out of stock!! Damn!

 

[mpower111]

Check out bob. Good range of items at market prices. Here's a link to a decent one thats rather cheap http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/31529999/D_Link_Wireless_G_Router_with_4_Port_10_100_Switch_DIR_300.html

If you don't like anything on bob, just pm me and will work out a deal for you

 

[Deluxxe Legend]

Great news, just received my TP-LINK W8960N 300MBPS WIRELESS N ADSL2+ ROUTER today and about to start cracking. Now deciding which ISP to trial with before deciding on which plan/option I will use from now on. Any suggestions? Thinking of trying Afrihost with their R1 plans, but doubt any of them are available. Also looking at Web Africa and OpenWeb for now.

 

[Pada]

Deluxxe Legend, you can always have a look at the WebAfrica 3GB trial (14 days) accounts: http://www.webafrica.co.za/home/adsl/trial/

It seems like Afrihost still have a few R1.00 steal offers left: http://www.afrihost.com/site/page/groundbreaking_offers
which gives you cap/uncapped for R1 until end of 23rd of August.

 

[Deluxxe Legend]

Just got the Afrihost 5GB cap for R1 for now. Happy to be running, but thinking 384k is too slow already. Might need to upgrade sooner than I thought, maybe next month, Telkom pending. How do I read speeds anyway? I did the speedtest and it gave me .22mbps download and .19mbps upload and am not even sure if this is good or not. Forgot to read ping but have seen people on this forum talk about other things like lag, etc. How do I read all those?

 

[Deluxxe Legend]

Oh, and another thing, how do I make sure that my network is secure? Been reading some threads but think some of them might be too technical e.g MAC. Just want to make sure no one is going to steal my bandwidth.