[WelshPaul]

Dear All (and especially network techies),

I've just had the little man around to upgrade me to fibre broadband (I'm in the UK and actually he was taller than me).

Previously I was using a Belkin Play Max router, but that doesn't work with fibre so they've installed an EE Brightbox. I've managed to re-set everything so my ATV2 and netbook are working with my Syno NAS. (note if anyone else does this don't forget to update any path substitutions in your advanced settings or like me you may spend some time puzzled as to why XBMC hangs on start up).

The problem I've got is that while the internet speed has unsurprisingly gone up I think I've lost quite a bit in transfer speed across my home network. My netbook connects wirelessly but I've got a wired connection from the router to my ATV2 and I use Belkin Powerline plugs to connect my NAS to the router (as I hate too many flashing led lights in my front room). Previously I could transfer files from my netbook to my NAS quickly (or quick enough for me, say 3 mins per Gb), with no impact on my ATV2. Now when I try it with the new Brightbox it takes about 10 mins and anything playing on the ATV2 at the time starts buffering.

So, not being very techy, could I ask what I should be looking for in the specs of the routers to tell me whether the EE provided router is good for internet but not so good for home networking, or does anyone have a recommendation for a router for the combo of fibre broadband and wired networking?

Thanks

[Glorious1]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "fibre broadband", but if it is cable service that comes in as a coaxial cable, and usually optionally can carry television as well, I have an option to consider. I recently replaced the modem my cable company provides with a Motorola Surfboard SBG6580. It is a cable modem, wifi router, and has 4 ethernet ports available for local networking. It was fairly easy to set up and I've had no problems. When I want to do some heavy file transfers, I plug my laptop into the ethernet (to which my XBMC box, a Mac mini, is also connected with its attached drives) and transfers go much faster than through wifi.

[WelshPaul]

Thanks Glorious1. In the UK we're going through conversion from the Victorian telephone cables, originally laid by Alexander Graham-Bell, to fibre optics (thereby theoretically giving us super-fast broadband). Hence, in celebration of Andy Murray winning Wimbledon they're digging up all the roads and fitting us with new telephone sockets so we can all vote for him to be President. My concern is that the phone companies are giving us el-cheapo routers with which to connect to it.

[mayoman]

I don't know if the brighbox is inherently any worse than Play Max, most likely it's something like they installed a few brightboxes on your street and they are all now transmitting on the same wireless channel. See what options it has for setting different channels/frequencies & play around - for example my old belkin router used to work far better when I forced it onto a specific (fairly clear) channel rather than let it autosence.

Iperf is a good tool for testing wireless bandwidth as well (you will need to run it on both your ATV and netbook). I would recommend connecting the old Play Max briefly to get a benchmark wireless signal and then try and find a setting/frequency on the brightbox that at least matches it.

Edit: If all else fails you could disable wireless on the brightbox & use the old Play Max instead for the wireless end of your network.

[jhhoffma]

You'll want to look at whether the router supports GigE (gigabit) or 1000BaseT network speeds on the wired ports. You'll also want to look at what maximum speeds are supported on the wireless part. 300mbps with MIMO antenna's would be good.

Honestly, I've always found that integrated modem/routers were crap. I get my own premium router and stick with it. Any name brand device (Linksys/CISCO, Netgear, D-Link, etc) will be better than what's inside the all-in-one device.

[WelshPaul]

Thanks Guys,

The specs of the box provided are below - they put this just under the statement "using this router will give you better service than with any other device".

So, I can see that it has up to 300mbps wireless (though nothing about MIMO). I'm assuming that the Ethernet ports are not up to the standards you refer to jhhoffma (unless 10/100 is actually a multiplication). Do you mind me asking how you set up your system. Do you have a separate modem that you then connect to a router so all devices can use it, or do you connect each device separately to a modem and router?

Mayoman there is an option in advanced settings for the router to change the channel so if I get desperate I may try that. Iperf is a little beyond me I'm afraid. Unless it comes with a nice windows installer and a GUI designed for the Tellytubbies audience I get a little lost.

Tech specs
ANNEX A supported
One RJ11 ADSL Port
4 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports
1 USB 2.0 Host
Support PPPoE, PPPoA, RFC1483 Bridge
Traffic shaping (UBR/CBR/VBR)
OAM (I.610) F4/F5 support
Wireless IEEE802.11b/g/n
Wireless encapsulation WEP/WPA/WPA2
Wireless QoS, WMM (WiFi Multi media)
Supports up-to 300 Mbps data transfer

[mayoman]

there is an option in advanced settings for the router to change the channel so if I get desperate I may try that.

I'd try that sooner rather than later. I'd say the odds are better than 50:50 you and your neighbour(s) are fighting for bandwidth on the same channel

[Atomic Zombie]

the 10/100 refers to the speed of the ports, gigabit being 10/100/1000. to get faster speeds you would have to use a gigabit switch, I would recommend this one: LINK

You would plug all your devies into that switch, along with one ethernet cable to your router.


A little bit more in ethernet speeds:

the 10/100/1000 refers to the possible speeds of the port, on most devices this is auto-negotiated between the switch and the device (eg computer, games console, NAS etc.).

10 being 10Mbps (megabits per second)
100 being 100Mbps also named FastEthernet
1000 being 1000Mbps also named GigabitEthernet

both devices should go to their fastest possible speeds, being gigabit on the switch I linked, 100Mbps on your Router.

[WelshPaul]

I don't think it's my neighbour. She's French, and unless her hairdryer is now wifi enabled I doubt it could be her. I know that my Play Max had gigabit ports, and everything is wired except my netbook, so I'm thinking that's the problem. Thanks for the link Atomic Zombie, though the switch alone seems to be the same price as my old Belkin (to who I feel I should show some kind of loyalty to as they've got a team in the Tour de France and might beat Sky).

Thanks all, I'll do some pondering and let you know how I get on.

[mayoman]

Assuming you still have the Belkin, you can show it loyalty and save money!
Set the Belkin to manage your internal network as before & just use the Brightbox as internet gateway. In that case you get the best of both worlds

[WelshPaul]

Couldn't work out how to set up ATV2 with separate internet and router. Main benefit would have been disco lighting from all those LEDs. Anyway, I've managed to pick up a Linksys Cisco E3000 from Maplins for £35. Seems to satisfy most of jhhoffma's recommendations for both wireless and ethernet needs, and works with the BT Openreach modem, on which it appears all fibre broadband routers in the UK have to sit (or maybe I've misunderstood the whole thing).

I was hoping to recoup my losses by flogging the Brightbox, but I see they're only going for £25 on Ebay, which perhaps says something about them.

Feel bad about Belkin, but it looks like Froomy's got the Tour sewn up already anyway.

Thanks all for your guidance.

@mod - sorry for posting in the wrong place, but there are such knowledgeable people here I thought I'd try my luck and not sure many scroll down to off-topics.