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Turnpike

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 2, 2011
587
326
New York City!
Is there a top brand, configuration, or something else I don't know about, to figure in while looking for a DSL modem? Someone important to me has DSL (it's all that is available where they are) and they are hard wired into it with an eithernet cord for a Windows desktop and use an iPad on it by wifi (a lot). If money is no problem, what is the best performing (for wifi connection/range) modem for purchase outright I can buy?

Of course the DSL company wants to rent one to her, I want to buy one outright and a better one if there is such a thing. Any brand and model number someone knows about would be super helpful. Or anything else I need to consider.

Thanks!

(The company is Windstream, it's pretty common in Pennsylvania, and their service leaves a LOT to be desired.)
 
Does Windstream allow for 3rd party DSL modems on their network?? My DSL service provides the modem...no rental price broken out in the bill... I hook up a Linksys WRT310N to it - and the rest of my network goes through that.
 
I just called, and they will allow any DSL modem that's ADSL Capable, whatever that means.... so is there an awesome brand or model, or is one as good as another? It needs to be able to connect to a desktop with one eithernet cable and wifi would probably be good, but I do have an airport thing, the small square wifi box from Apple.
 
Based on a cursory search, the Netgear DM111PSP modem is pretty highly rated. But that's just a modem; not a router with wifi. To go with that, I typically recommend something from the ASUS line. An ASUS RT-N66U would probably be fine, or if you want to go cheap you could probably get away with the RT-N12. Honestly the biggest bottleneck here is going to be the DSL, and in my experience ASUS offers very good wireless coverage.

Also worth noting you will probably need to setup the router for PPPoE when you set it up with the DSL modem. You may need to get PPPoE login information from the ISP — typically matches the default email login on the account.
 
Is the current DSL model just a modem or a modem/router combo unit? If it is just a modem, connect a wifi router to it and configure it for use. If it's a combo unit it surprising that it doesn't have wifi already.
 
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