Telkom's Marconi WiFI vs 5102G router

[mikef]

Anyone with experience of these two modems got comments on which is better? AFAIK the 5102G is the same as the Billion model and also supports wpa while the marconi only has 64/128 wep. Any other matters to consider? Which router would you chose of these two?

 

[Surv0]

I would go with Billion as they are far more reliable than Marconi, Also there is always great support available for those routers when u need it. Encryption on either two is equally strong...

 

[mikef]

I would go with Billion as they are far more reliable than Marconi, Also there is always great support available for those routers when u need it. Encryption on either two is equally strong...

Thanks for the reply

Are you sure about the encryption - I know the marconi only supports wep while according to telkom the 5102g also supports wpa. It also seems that the 5102g is a 802.11g (54mbs) as against 802.11b for the marconi (11mbs).

Anyone have any idea if there is any difference in the effective wireless range between the two routers?

 

[mikef]

From Billions site it appears the 5102g originally only supported wep but a new firmware upgrade has included support for wpa

 

[mikef]

Been playing around with the 5102g - it seems you can not connect in route mode and at the same time have a bridge mode connection - is that correct?

 

[mikef]

Some further feedback:
After upgrading the 5102G to the lastest firmware from billionsa I can now let the modem run a PPPoE connection to 1 ISP while connecting to another ISP via bridge mode from one of the pc's on the lan
This, together with the improved wireless speed and security makes the billion the better telkom router IMO.

PS - looks like noone else uses telkom routers?

 

[damian24]

don't know about the Marconi, but the billion 5102G is ADSL2+ 24mbps after you upgrade to .29 firmware. I support annex L which supports 3.5mbps uplink and 24mbps downlink!

irrespective, I had a marconi on my 4mpbs line and had to change it because I couldn't get a stable connection, billion works no problem...

D

 

[mikef]

Thanks for the info

It is starting to look like a one horse race - with the marconi WiFi falling far behind