I'd recommend you ditch the Belkin, I'm in the IT support business and all the Belkin routers I've come across are carp. If you have a BT Broadband account, I'm not sure why you aren't using a Homehub - no frills but reliable.

Billion's 7800N router has an excellent ADSL modem and very reliable wireless.

or if wifi is continuing to be a PITA it might be worth considering some ethernet over mains plugs, such as the Devolo range. I know that they are sort of evil , but they do work. I use them at my parents (old house with thick walls), and I use it to get internet access in the garage, via about 50m of T&E in the house and another 50m of armoured cable to the garage.

or if wifi is continuing to be a PITA it might be worth considering some ethernet over mains plugs, such as the Devolo range. I know that they are sort of evil ™, but they do work. I use them at my parents (old house with thick walls), and I use it to get internet access in the garage, via about 50m of T&E in the house and another 50m of armoured cable to the garage.

Personally I'd never use power/mains plug networking as it is seriously insecure. As in someone miles away can intercept your data.

I wouldn't have thought that was possible, since I know people who've had problems even using them on separate ringmains in the same house (works fine in my house though). Also most decent ones are encrypted, my devolo dLAN ones certainly are. Is it secure enough to stop the Government spies watching me use the Internet; probably not. But it'd be good enough to stop Johnny Big*******s down the street who thinks he's a hacker with his copy of Wireshark.

I wouldn't have thought that was possible, since I know people who've had problems even using them on separate ringmains in the same house (works fine in my house though). Also most decent ones are encrypted, my devolo dLAN ones certainly are. Is it secure enough to stop the Government spies watching me use the Internet; probably not. But it'd be good enough to stop Johnny Big*******s down the street who thinks he's a hacker with his copy of Wireshark.

I had problems with mine initially, as the wiring in the house was terrible, but once I sorted out the "special" wiring with a new ring main per floor then things worked fine for me.

I use mine for internet traffic primarily, so I am not worried if they are secure or not, as if BB wants to watch what I am up then they will!

Personally I'd never use power/mains plug networking as it is seriously insecure. As in someone miles away can intercept your data.

Never heard of that and since the CIA & FBI developed the encryption for it so they could use them in their own sites I would say that's not the case. I use them myself around my own home and have done for years, and I've installed them in many many locations (homes, businesses, colleges) without any problems of security. I would suggest anyone always uses the provided encryption button though. Don't forget the signal only travels upto 100metres in the mains ring and since neighbouring houses in a street are on a different phase to each other then tapping into another network is virtually impossible. It's way easier to hack a wireless network than a powerline one. Security just isn't a problem with powerline. And you always get full speed unlike wireless that is often very variable.

And you always get full speed unlike wireless that is often very variable.

Small quibble here, you won't always get full speed. Depends on the wiring, my 200Mb/s devolo AV adapters actually do about 70Mb/s in my house because my electrical system is old. However 1) it's still faster than wireless and 2) (more importantly) it's consistent. It won't suddenly drop down to 1Mb/s just because it feels like it. So although I don't get the full speed from them they're fast enough for Internet use on my desktop upstairs and the only slight limit is when I'm shifting stuff around on the LAN.

Mine seems to be working pretty well at the moment:

Guys & girls,

Thanks for all your help on this one. It looks likely that I will acquire a BT HomeHub which will go on order on Tuesday.

Dave

Small quibble here, you won't always get full speed. Depends on the wiring, my 200Mb/s devolo AV adapters actually do about 70Mb/s in my house because my electrical system is old. However 1) it's still faster than wireless and 2) (more importantly) it's consistent. It won't suddenly drop down to 1Mb/s just because it feels like it. So although I don't get the full speed from them they're fast enough for Internet use on my desktop upstairs and the only slight limit is when I'm shifting stuff around on the LAN.

Yep, Gac. It's a given that you need reasonable wiring to achieve best speed results. But you are right too in that you just don't get those big fluctuations in speed that you often get with wireless. In every case where I have installed a network using Devolo plugs, the customer has always had full speed instantly in even very old houses that might be expected to have wiring that's not the best. So I think wiring has be quite bad for it to have any real impact. You make a very valid point though.

So I think wiring has be quite bad for it to have any real impact. You make a very valid point though.

In my experience the lack of decent ring mains and/or multiple long spurs seems to have the worst affect. That said, I have in affect a 50m spur down armoured cable to the garage and everything is hunky-dory there. The wiring in my current Victorian place was (literally) shocking when I bought it!

A small update on this saga.

I was away 7th - 9th April and therefore not on my PC or the network. During that time my parents - who are the other users of the wireless connection - reported that they had no problems with the network whatsoever! Now that I am back on the problems have started again. The mystery deepens! :wonder:

HomeHub not yet on order as I have not had the time to see to it. Any ideas welcome. I ran a virus scan that picked up several things and cleaned them but the problems persist and, in the words of my Mum, are worse than ever.

Dave

Dave, if your near Cardiff soon I got a belkin router you can have, my mate gave it to me as he changed to sky so as far as I know it's good to go,

Although reading the above it does sound like your pc is messing with it all !!

Let me know if your interested

Dave, if your near Cardiff soon I got a belkin router you can have, my mate gave it to me as he changed to sky so as far as I know it's good to go,

Although reading the above it does sound like your pc is messing with it all !!

Let me know if your interested

Thanks for the offer on that router. I live in Bristol (not far from Cardiff) so I could do but I will see if my Mum thinks it is worth considering. Out of interest, is it a G or an N router? The one I am currently using as a G but I gather that N routers have wider coverage.

Dave

I know you scoot past here from time to time !!

It's only a G but hey it's works and it's free lol.

I got an N hanging around but it's for Virgin cable not BT stuff sorry mate(and it is still worth a few quid lol)

Dave,

A brief update on the score. If u check your PMs you will see that I took up the offer on the router. Things have now taken another twist though.

After I had been online last night I left things in working order and went to the pub. When I gpt back I found my Dad had plugged a network cable that I keep in my room into two of the router ports leaving two lights flashing. I unplugged the cable and then went to bed after resetting the router. This morning I find that there is no light for the phone line (although the line still works) and no internet light either.

I presume therefore that the router may well have completely given up the ghost (in which case I will end up buying another one ASAP) or I simply have to redo the configuration. I am writing this from my phone so I will see what happens when I get home, plug a laptop into the router and access the router's home page.

In the meantime, could I ask if my Dad was unwise to do what he did?

Thanks.

Dave H.

I know you scoot past here from time to time !!

It's only a G but hey it's works and it's free lol.

I got an N hanging around but it's for Virgin cable not BT stuff sorry mate(and it is still worth a few quid lol)

I have a belkin N modem/router and it keeps dropping if used by more than one laptop connects to wireless connection

Router and power transformer also get really hot and starts dropping even changing channel makes no differance

That sounds liked your router is knackered Volvomeg. Are the laptops connecting to a lot of remote IP addresses, and thus generating a massive NAT table, and causing the router to fail (ie. p2p traffic).

BT HomeHub ordered this morning. Will post back as to how I get on but it wont be delivered before tomorrow. Here's hoping.

Dave

Edited 16 April, 201214 yr by DaveHarries

Personally I'd never use power/mains plug networking as it is seriously insecure. As in someone miles away can intercept your data.

Every fourth house ,to be exact. Was a big problem in the early days of mains networking for baby alarms . But very handy if you've got a mate on the same phase as you ,and you can secure the network .

Now back online from home: the BT HomeHub turned up this afternoon so the Belkin router I had is now decomissioned.

Dave