Will upgrading my router speed up my internet connection?

I'm with Sky on their unlimited broadband package in what is, unfortunately, a low-speed area until BT get their act together and put fibre-optic cables in.

I had a D-link wireless-g router, which gave me a maximum download speed of 1.5 Mbps and with a connection that dropped on a daily basis.

I managed to get Sky to replace the router with a Sagem wireless-n router and my line speed has increased by 33% to just over 2 Mbps with no dropped connection so far.

So, in answer to your question, a better router should give you a better line speed, but whatever you have you are still at the mercy of what your ISP can provide, which in turn is determined by the current infrastructure.

re poor speeds

Its a real problem in the UK the way ISPs quote speed as 'up to 20Mbit' etc where you get 20Mbit next door to the telephone exchange, then it drops off with distance eg 2km = 5Mbit. Of course the 5Mbit depemds on condition of the copper wire, junction boxes etc.

Fibre, having greater capacity, has less contention issues than ADSL. My friend is on a budget (high contention) adsl deal and her speed drops from 2M to 0.5M at peak times. I don't see any drop on FTTC.

Living in a large city, I'm 200m from the FTTC box. People out in the country will not see FTTC for years, and some are still on dial-up.

see what speed your neighbour is getting

UK Broadband Speed Test with Broadband StreetStats

Thanks guys! It helped a lot. Now i'm gonna replace my router with this : Linksys by Cisco Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54G2 - Cable, WiFi, Virgin Media | eBay or this: WGR614 I still have to decide

whs said:

You are talking about a $40 investment for e.g. a Netgear N router. I think it is worth a try and it should be faster. And if you have no N capability on your system, get a dongle for little money (preferably also from Netgear or the same make as the router).

then i'd have to buy 3 dongles. not worth it. all of the computers are pretty close to the router

They're not THAT close but i get 5 bars on every single one, if i ethernet them thee will be too much wires. One of the computers is a laptop

3D Jed said:

re poor speeds

Its a real problem in the UK the way ISPs quote speed as 'up to 20Mbit' etc where you get 20Mbit next door to the telephone exchange, then it drops off with distance eg 2km = 5Mbit. Of course the 5Mbit depemds on condition of the copper wire, junction boxes etc.

Fibre, having greater capacity, has less contention issues than ADSL. My friend is on a budget (high contention) adsl deal and her speed drops from 2M to 0.5M at peak times. I don't see any drop on FTTC.

Living in a large city, I'm 200m from the FTTC box. People out in the country will not see FTTC for years, and some are still on dial-up.

see what speed your neighbour is getting

UK Broadband Speed Test with Broadband StreetStats

Hi all
Then IMO it's FALSE advertising to charge the customer for something at the time the customer is likely to want to use it --i.e Evenings and Weekends after work when 99% of the time the speed will be DRASTICALLY reduced and is totally different to what the "Sales Spiel" offered.

I'm not saying that it's possible to upgrade creaking infrastructure in 5 Mins -- The London Underground system is an example of that where it will take YEARS of massive investments and Engineering work to fix it -- often a penalty of being the first in the World to implement something --like a Metro system -- later implementations in different places can build on more modern technology / equipment and experiences of the original implementors -- but the customer should be made aware of LIKELY speeds at times he wants to use the system -- not the theoretical maximum and be charged accordingly.

To me the whole charging policy of B.T is being dishonest in the extreme -- but like Politicians -- do we actually EXPECT commercials to contain elements of truth in them.

Some countries do a lot better than others in this regard but it's still not overall satisfactory ANYWHERE (not just in the UK).

Cheers
jimbo