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Can anyone recommend a wireless modem router?

R

Rigsby

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 30, 2007
153
0
I've been trying in vain to find a good replacement to an old Netgear 834G that has finally given up the ghost but have been struggling and wondered if anyone here had found a good replacement?

The Netgear G worked flawlessly, my network stayed up, fire transfers worked perfectly, I never lost the internet and my home was a wireless nirvana for various Macs, iPhones, my Apple TV and Wii.

But nothing I've tried as a replacement has come close.

I was using the opportunity to upgrade to a draft N device. The first attempt was a Netgear 834N, but that would drop the network regularly. I then returned to a G and used my ISPs supplied device (a Thomson) which provided less than stellar performance. I'm about to return a Belkin N1 vision which I'm rebooting every hour or so as it decides my iMac and MacBook really shouldn't be communicating or that I don't really want to be on the internet.

I'm not a networking expert, but am fairly computer literate, and given that my original Netgear worked for 4 years without a problem I'm fairly certain it's the new devices rather than the computers or me.

Can anyone offer any recommendations (or even any tips on what I might be doing wrong with the network)?
 
I've always had Netgear routers until recently, when I got an Apple Time Capsule. The last one I had was a RangeMax N, which seemed to do the job. I've always had odd times when the network has dropped, but it has been down to having around 3 or 4 brick walls between my iMac and the router.

Have you tried setting up your mac closer to the router, to check if this is the problem? It could also be intereference if neighbours etc. have recently set up their own networks.
 
dborja said:
PM me if you ever decide to get another DG834GT. I just moved from DSL to cable and I have a spare...
Click to expand...

Thanks, while I'm beginning to think I might have to go for a straight replacement I'm still keen to 'upgrade' if I can. In any event, I'm in the UK, so the postage cost would be pretty prohibitive!

Bad Panda said:
I've always had Netgear routers until recently, when I got an Apple Time Capsule. The last one I had was a RangeMax N, which seemed to do the job. I've always had odd times when the network has dropped, but it has been down to having around 3 or 4 brick walls between my iMac and the router.

Have you tried setting up your mac closer to the router, to check if this is the problem? It could also be intereference if neighbours etc. have recently set up their own networks.
Click to expand...

That's the thing, they've all been in exactly the same place, in the same room as the iMac and, most of the time, the MacBook as well. It seems just as unreliable a metre away as it does when I'm in a different room on the other side of the house and a floor away.

It seems odd to me that I've had three routers from three different manufacturers all be unreliable, but I've carefully replicated the set-up, gone through endless support and Googling and cannot see why I can't get them to be as reliable as my old Netgear.
 
It does sound as if something other than the router could be to blame. I would consider the possibility of interference, if you haven't already. I was having frequent drops in network connection a while ago, changed the channel on my router and what do you know, fixed it. That was just after my next door neighbour set up his wireless network and he was using the same channel.

I think they should switch automatically, but you never know, could be worth a try.
 
I'm also looking for a wireless modem router, I think? (Not a very technical person)

My set up (in about 2 weeks) is a mac pro, with a separate internal 1TB hard drive which has all my itunes on (music, movie tv etc), then an :apple:tv in the lounge. At the moment I just use the wireless router that my internet provide supplied (sky, uk). Does seem to drop connection all the time.

I run a design company, so really need something that is going to be reliable both for network transfers and also for internet connect.

I don't really know what I should be looking for? The brands I have seen are, D-Link and Belkin. Could I get a few recommendations of products and what to look for.

Reading through the forums, AirPort Extreme always seems to get good write ups but, I would still have to buy a separate modem?

Many thanks for reading my ramblings and your response,

Keith
 
I would wait until you have the new Mac Pro in place and see how it performs. I'm obviously not an expert, otherwise I wouldn't have posted in the first place, but it does seem to me that there's a significant element of 'luck' and some routers seem to work and others don't, even though the standards and settings involved are identical.

I'm very much inclined to put this at the router's door - especially as I can currently only transfer one way (my iMac can see and connect to my MacBook, but not vice versa, despite having identical sharing settings).

I would guess that an AirPort would work, since you only mention Apple devices on the network - so there should be no compatibility issues - but you are right, you would need a separate modem if you went down that route.
 
Stridder44 said:
Stay the crap away from Linksys.
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm. I was actually thinking of going for Linksys (having not had much luck with others). I don't suppose you could offer a little more information: poor build quality, bad radio, appalling support?
 
Actually, I've had better experiences with Linksys than Netgear. I had the WRT54g and the Access Point (I forgot the model# now) and they're basically "set up and forget". I even have the Linksys doing WDS with my Apple Extreme Base Station (though I am stuck with WEP as the Linksys box won't do WDS and WPA - I just password protect anything with storage on my LAN). With the Netgear 614, I had to reboot once in a while as it would hang. Of course, YMMV...
 
I love my Motorola modem/wireless router combo, but it is "g". I don't think they have an "n" version yet. I thought of disabling the wireless function and connecting it to a new Airport Extreme Base Station to get "n", as well as my 1TB hard drive for Time Machine.

By the way, is there any risk with "Draft N" not being as compatible when N is finalized next year? Will software updates correct any changes once that happens, or is it best to wait for the final N next year? :confused:
 
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