New ADSL modem: 4 (5*)Mbit/s faster DLs...
My connection started dropping out a lot over the course of the summer, the router lost its IP, and I would get kicked out of whichever online game I was playing at the moment, skype calls would get interrupted, downloads and web page updates timed out and so on. Roughly 30-40 secs later everything would work again. There was no real pattern, it would just happen every so often.
So I called up my ISP, and was told I was producing tons of bad packets, literally tens of thousands per day, and that was probably the reason for my connection drops. Since I hadn't changed anything in my setup, the blame was pointed at my ADSL microfilter, my modem<->wall plug phone cable, or the modem itself.
I had an old Ericsson ADSL modem on a shelf in my warderobe. These things must have cost a shitload for my ISP to buy back in late 2000 when I first got broadband, they have built-in power supplies, steel casings and so on. Real classy stuff. Unfortunately it only supports bog-standard ADSL; 8mbit/s downstream, 1mbit/s up tops, on a 10mbit/s half-duplex ethernet link to the host. When doing serious downloading, the packet collision indicator glows like a christmas tree, lol! Anyway, I switched modem, problems ceased. Of course, it could still be cable or filter that are causing this; 24mbit/s ADSL2+ pushes the equipment significantly harder than the earlier standard, but I chose to put the blame on the modem anyway coz' it's an el-cheapo Zyxel unit, and the Zyxel wifi/100base-T router I got as a combo dealie from my ISP years ago was shite. The built-in firewall blocked the server browser of every online shooting game I tried on it, there were no firmware upgrades, and it was just generally a bad router.
It did have a proper on/off switch though at the back. Its one redeeming feature... Still not enough to save it however, I junked it long ago.
So I bought a new modem, a Netgear el-cheapo unit (hey, they're all cheap these days) and plugged it in. Had to do a setup procedure first before it would let through my internet connection, but it was painless, although fairly lengthy. I had time to play a round of Spider Solitaire while the auto-configuration did its thing.
So far I've not noticed any issues, and running a quick bandwidth test my download speed went up from about 12.5Mbit/s to 16.5, and that's during the afternoon! I should be able to get even higher speed during off-peak. Upload speed also went up, to over 2Mbit/s, from...I can't remember. Probably around 1.5.
Interesting! You'd think such a dumb piece of equipment as a modem shouldn't affect performance in any major way. These things are all built using off-the-shelf chipsets and other components after all, and should follow the same standards and tolerances and whatnot. But, I was wrong. Whee!
So, just switching modem could be a cheap speed upgrade for more people out there, at least if your modem is a couple years old. Try it, see what happens...
*Edit:
Checked later in the evening, connecting straight to the modem and not through router (not sure that makes a diff tho), speed is now 17.65Mbit/s...! Preeeeettty good I should think!
My connection started dropping out a lot over the course of the summer, the router lost its IP, and I would get kicked out of whichever online game I was playing at the moment, skype calls would get interrupted, downloads and web page updates timed out and so on. Roughly 30-40 secs later everything would work again. There was no real pattern, it would just happen every so often.
So I called up my ISP, and was told I was producing tons of bad packets, literally tens of thousands per day, and that was probably the reason for my connection drops. Since I hadn't changed anything in my setup, the blame was pointed at my ADSL microfilter, my modem<->wall plug phone cable, or the modem itself.
I had an old Ericsson ADSL modem on a shelf in my warderobe. These things must have cost a shitload for my ISP to buy back in late 2000 when I first got broadband, they have built-in power supplies, steel casings and so on. Real classy stuff. Unfortunately it only supports bog-standard ADSL; 8mbit/s downstream, 1mbit/s up tops, on a 10mbit/s half-duplex ethernet link to the host. When doing serious downloading, the packet collision indicator glows like a christmas tree, lol! Anyway, I switched modem, problems ceased. Of course, it could still be cable or filter that are causing this; 24mbit/s ADSL2+ pushes the equipment significantly harder than the earlier standard, but I chose to put the blame on the modem anyway coz' it's an el-cheapo Zyxel unit, and the Zyxel wifi/100base-T router I got as a combo dealie from my ISP years ago was shite. The built-in firewall blocked the server browser of every online shooting game I tried on it, there were no firmware upgrades, and it was just generally a bad router.
It did have a proper on/off switch though at the back. Its one redeeming feature... Still not enough to save it however, I junked it long ago.So I bought a new modem, a Netgear el-cheapo unit (hey, they're all cheap these days
) and plugged it in. Had to do a setup procedure first before it would let through my internet connection, but it was painless, although fairly lengthy. I had time to play a round of Spider Solitaire while the auto-configuration did its thing. So far I've not noticed any issues, and running a quick bandwidth test my download speed went up from about 12.5Mbit/s to 16.5, and that's during the afternoon! I should be able to get even higher speed during off-peak. Upload speed also went up, to over 2Mbit/s, from...I can't remember. Probably around 1.5.
Interesting! You'd think such a dumb piece of equipment as a modem shouldn't affect performance in any major way. These things are all built using off-the-shelf chipsets and other components after all, and should follow the same standards and tolerances and whatnot. But, I was wrong. Whee!
So, just switching modem could be a cheap speed upgrade for more people out there, at least if your modem is a couple years old. Try it, see what happens...
*Edit:
Checked later in the evening, connecting straight to the modem and not through router (not sure that makes a diff tho), speed is now 17.65Mbit/s...! Preeeeettty good I should think!
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