Is it worth upgrading your wireless router?

[Grimspoon]

I have been mauling this over in my head for a few days now and I am curious to know if it is worth upgrading a "old" router.

I currently have a Telkom Mega 105 which I got about 3 years ago and I have noticed a few things, there is a high pitched noise that comes out of it all the time, not sure if this is an issue but its weird. My line has been struck by lightning in the past and fried the telephone cable, but the modem still works.

I also find my wireless seems a bit poor lately.

I also find my pages keep timing out and I have to refresh every so often. Not sure if this is ISP or router related.

Is there significant benefit to upgrading your modem? I was looking at a Netgear DGN2000-100PES OR the WN802T-200ISS.

Any thoughts?

 

[Roadrunner]

I upgraded my setup that consisted of a Billion 5200 ADSL modem and Linksys WAP54G access point to this one last week:

http://www.dbg.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=1_55_57&products_id=383

Also bought a few wireless network USB adapters of the same brand to go with it.

It is performing excellent, and I am glad I did it. Synching with the exchange used to take up to 2 minutes, but now it only takes 5s.

You get an ADSL splitter with integrated filter with the modem, so you can switch out your existing one with this one to check and see if this solves the high-pitched noise issue.

 

[Grimspoon]

Wow only 1 response

Thanks for your reply Roadrunner. I won't really be using it for work, mostly home use and online gaming. Although I do log into my exchange server now and then.

 

[McGuywer]

I would also advise to upgrade.
Reason being it is a Telkom router.

 

[Grimspoon]

I would also advise to upgrade.
Reason being it is a Telkom router.

Yeah, enough said

I see you with Web Africa Mc, do you play online games at all? I find my ping is really crap online. Dunno if it is WA, but I remember on Telkom I had a AWESOME ping when playing online games.

 

[Dan C]

I just upgraded mine to a Netgear DGN2200-100PES N300 . The wireless is much faster and better quality than my old 802.11g. Also a nice feature of this router is that you can just plug in a usb drive at the back and share it across your network. Currently got a 1gb external drive attached and even my Mede8er sees it and I can stream MKV's with no problems. So all that said , yes maybe it's worth upgrading.

 

[HavocXphere]

No don't upgrade. You're in jhb...wait till it gets fried w/ lightening.

Wireless...use netstumbler to check signal. Someone prob got adsl in your area & result is you've got interference on your wireless channel.

High pitched noise...thats usually the power brick/transformer.

DGN 2000...don't particularly like it. Heat issues. Slow reboot. No attainable rate info. telnet access disabled by default. Wifi slightly weaker than my previous DLink. And worse of all: Something really shtty going on w/ the transfer rate. Over g wireless it maxes at 2.5MB. Over wired lan its either 2.5mb or ~5 depending on whether the g laptop is connected. Thats on PCs that make 12mb w/ a crossover cable. Do not want.

 

[McGuywer]

Yeah, enough said

I see you with Web Africa Mc, do you play online games at all? I find my ping is really crap online. Dunno if it is WA, but I remember on Telkom I had a AWESOME ping when playing online games.

Unfortunnatly I do not game.
And the account is used at another office. (Where I am not).
I have always had a great service from WebAfrica.

 

[Grimspoon]

Unfortunnatly I do not game.
And the account is used at another office. (Where I am not).
I have always had a great service from WebAfrica.

Cool Thanks McGuywer,

Their service has been great, just not sure about the quality of the connection I am getting. Telkom seemed better.