ethernet router
I don’t know why I haven’t got one of these before but it makes life so much easier. What is it and why did I need one? Ok, a little back story.
I got broadband a couple of years ago with bt and it was then at the 512 kb/s. Which was a huge upgrade from dial up. With dial up you kind of got into having things to do while pages loaded. I’d have another page open that I would continue reading or I’d have a guitar on a stand next to me and I’d have a strum for the 30 or 40 seconds that the page took to load. Then along came broadband and it all loaded in a snap. The best was downloading large files. Then the speeds started to go up and that’s when the problems started.
Apparently, so I’ve read on various websites, that the usb adsl modem can’t handle the higher speeds as well as an ethernet modem. But a usb is what I had; a first generation bt voyager 100. Did the job fine at 2 Mb/s, but the connection drops started to become more and more frequent. I read about it and researched it on the internet and found that it could be caused by the microfilter. So I got a better microfilter, which did actually help. But the did not eradicate the problem altogether. So I continued to think about the ethernet idea.
My wife started a course last year so needed to use the internet a lot more than usual, so we were kind of taking it in turns. But most of the time we weren’t really specific about our scheduling so we would have to try and juggle our time trying not to get annoyed or frustrated that our time on the net was limited. So now there were two problems to solve, the connection drops and the greater demand. Networking, that was the solution. Seems so obvious now it’s done.
There is a mac g4 desktop and an asus notebook in the house and both have been configured for broadband use. But not at the same time. To be able to speak on the phone and use the internet was a godsend a couple of years ago. (But now we hardly use the phone anyway because of Skype and free minutes with our mobile phone providers, but that’s another story.) I was looking in last years Maplin catalogue and noticed that they were offering an ethernet router and wireless usb for a very good price. At christmas all work ground to a halt, but new year came and we’re up and running again. And after many more connection drops and who was going to use the internet when, I went for it.
I wanted value for money but also good service. I did a bit of research and the reviews were really good for this one. So I ordered it immediately. A few teething troubles but now it works like a dream. No more connection drops, we can both be online at the same time and we can browse each others computers at the same time. How cool is that. Ok, offices do this and some people have had home networks for months or years already. But the freedom and peace of mind is fantastic. I even surfed in the bedroom yesterday. Shame the range isn’t a bit longer or I could go to the park and use it. Not now though in this windy weather, but in the summer.
Anyway if you’re thinking about such a thing then think no more, get one. The best deal is here from a company in Hove called broadbandstuff.co.uk and the product is made by linksys.
Linksys WAG354G Wireless-G ADSL Home Gateway + Free WPC54G Wireless Laptop Card
Everywhere else I looked online were charging a bit more for this. One place was charging almost double. That’s internet shopping for you.