Router Life?

[Bassman]

I've had a Netgear Router for what must be about 10 years (since getting Broadband). Recently I seem to need to reset the thing fairly frequently to get my devices (wireless and wired) to get on the internet.

This raises a couple of questions... Is there anything I can do to sort it out? If not can anyone recommend a reasonable (price-wise!) replacement.

I am with Talk Talk (originally Pipex).

[charlesr]

I can recommend ignoring the price and getting a Netgear Nighthawk

Since I got this, my wireless range even on band G is much improved, now being usable outside the house, in the garden etc.

[charlesr]

You could try upgrading the firmware on yours, or doing a factory reset and rentering the settings.

[charlesr]

Are you sure it's the router though? When it's down, try calling Talk Talk and ask them if there's a problem. Given that it's Talk Talk, the first thing I'd do is suspect it's a problem at their end.

[Bassman]

I know there are problems occasionally on their end, but a reboot seems to cure the problem in the majority of cases.

Have there been more problems with Talk Talk of late?

[charlesr]

When I was with them (a few years ago), I had to reboot the router every couple of days because their connection would drop. They admitted a fault and "fixed" it, but a month later it started again, so I ran away to vivaciti.

Can you access your router menu? Does it say the connection is up, but you are not getting anything? If so, is there an option to disconnect the connection and then reconnect?

Is the DSL connection still lit while the internet is down?

[QualityChimp]

TalkTalk are awful.

They force you to use their search engine if you type an address wrong (e.g. Guugle), which stops our work VPN from connecting.

You can't opt out online, as it says there's an error. I explained this to an "expert" and he said to just type Google correctly!

[Bassman]

Being on the Pipex side, I've not had issues with Search engines. I'll check the router next time I have a problem, though I suspect it is my end as some devices can still connect. The other day the PS3 was fine, as was the Xbox One, but I had to reboot the router to get the PS4 to connect.

[Lebowski]

I can recommend ignoring the price and getting a Netgear Nighthawk


Since I got this, my wireless range even on band G is much improved, now being usable outside the house, in the garden etc.

This thing is a beast too, i got it to replace my super hub as it had terrible range the twin usb means you can set up a portable HD on it to stream media around the house too which is a nice feature.

[gunrock]

My netgear had to be rebooted on a bi-weekly, then weekly, then every 2 days near the end. It died completely one day and I bought my own TPLink router and it gets rebooted once a month at worst.

[Anpanman]

Our Belkin lasted about ten, think the problems came from the fact you couldn't set the internal clock and it was stuck on a date in something like 1980.
Had to keep resetting at least twice a week,

Virgin gave me a free superhub as part of a price match deal so I'm happy.