How much does a Router impact broadband performance?

[Renegade]

Hi.

I've had a Belkin wireless modem router for quite a number of years now, and I was just wondering, how much does a router impact on broadband performance? Thankfully I have no connection issues, but I was considering buying a new router if it would improve loading times etc.

Would I get the same performance from a shiny new Wireless N Router as I do from my dusty old Belkin?

Thanks.

 

[oneman]

What speed is your internet connection ?

 

[Renegade]

"up to 8meg" ... but in the real world it's probably sitting around 4meg.

 

[Pete_London]

What ISP you with? cant see a router making much difference speed wise.

 

[Pete_London]

Could check you've not got a bell wire (normally orange) in the master socket that would improve the speed a bit.

 

[Thommo]

oh it can believe me it can... my netgears (ive a few wiress g) give me a better speed and quicker response times esp ping for gaming, wheras the belkin supposed wireless n peice of crap i bought slowed everything down.

my netgear with dgteam firmware was even better as it had all the settings you dont normally get to tweak.

im currently using a tp-link (not t-link) wireless n even though everything bar the lappy is wired and its doing a good job,

now im not saying you will go from 4 to 7 meg with a different router but router choice does and can affect your speed and by speed im not just talking d/l but ping ect....

 

[Pete_London]

Yeah heard Belkin are crap, if you get a modem/router try and get one with a broadcom chip seems to work better.

 

[Renegade]

I was with Nildram, who then became Opal (albeit for a short time), and I've now ended up with TalkTalk Business. My current router is a Belkin 54g.

Funny you should mention TP-Link because it was actually a casual browse through Amazon that made me post the question in the first place, lol. TP-Link TD-W8960N 300MBPS Wireless N ADSL2+ Modem Router for BT connections: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
That and just to gauge general thoughts on the matter. Whether or not an older router would perform as well as a new one, or would there be a notable different in web loading times, gaming, etc.

The Belkin has stood me in stead but I can't help thinking that newer might be better.

 

[Thommo]

think thats the one i have and i bought it from there after reading some good reviews, it works well albeit with a basic web interface but thats a bonus for some as its simple to setup.

i still prefer my old netgear with dgteam firmware as that has all the bells and whistles but ive stopped using it as it was getting old and started to get really hot.

i'll be on the lookout for another one soon that i can tweak again but for now the tp-link one is doing a fine job and ping times are 22 ms to london from leeds whereas the belkin supposed super duper wireless n one even wired struggled to hit low 30's to the same server, both where set up in the exact same way settings wise.

there was also a noticable speed difference on the wireless side loading web pages, i thought the belikn did well until i used the others and now id say the belkin loading times where slow.

speed wise as in ping is great for gaming i tend to get host 9 times out of 10 using the tp-link and BE* broadband and even when i dont get host i dont seem to get the crap connection my pals do when playing online on someone else's host.

so after typing all that i would say if its not broke dont fix it but if you have a spare 30 odd quid that wont damage your bank account and you want a little boost to your internet whatever your using it for then go for it.

 

[Exos]

Depends on your provider, some ISP's prefer certain chipsets in the routers and it can/does provide an overall speed improvement. BE/O2 for example get better sync speeds from Broadcom.

That said on a 4Mb connection I can't see it making a huge difference, but you might get an improvement on your internal connection to the router (over wireless), but that doesn't necessarily equate to real time access/speed.

Personally I would be looking to another provider, either going down the LLU route or fibre.

 

[nozzer]

For ADSL i'd likely go for a seperate modem and router pair as quite a lot of the combo units have some severe throughput problems. For the router, i'd probably require something that can run one of the larger dd-wrt images, but then I like my router to have extra's like openvpn.

 

[oneman]

on a 4mb connection I wouldn't expect the router to be a bottleneck.