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what wireless router do you recommend i buy?
Hello all!
Can I have some advice please? If you have a mo….
I need to purchase a wireless router for my two laptops and also an external hard drive to try to relieve one of the many thousands (ha) of customer files. Could somebody please save me from the minefield of information online and point me to a product that I will be happy with? I’m on virgin cable connection by the way. Ta.
Gareth
ps. not too pricey now…
edited to add cable info.
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23 Replies
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Hi Gareth
I have a netgear wireless router as is was recommended by a friend in the computer trade. Cost was under £50.00 and it has lots of features apparently, but I don’t need these so cannot tell you what they are. Anyway I have had no problems with it and if it went down tomorrow I would buy the same again.Steve
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Thanks Steve, so if I buy this will I be able to have two laptops wireless and on line at the same time through the one router?
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quote Gareth Lewis:Thanks Steve, so if I buy this will I be able to have two laptops wireless and on line at the same time through the one router?should be ok gareth..i run 4 on mine ok its also a netgear and works great
😀nik
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I have a belkin, but go for a netgear by all means, they are one of the top brands out there, go for wireless G++ and mimo, for greater signal strength and range.
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Thanks Nicola, Steve Mc and Steve U.
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I notice that no one has suggested a drive. I’ve got 2 Lacie external drives they seem to be quite reasonably priced and they’re dead easy to get going.
My first one is over a year old and although I admit it isn’t run every day, it’s given no problems. A rather minor point is that they are very nice looking.
Downside is all the cables to and from the drive for power and data and also the mains lead to the transformer.
Steve -
Yes, sorry.
Pretty much any external drive will be sufficient, most will contain one of the top manufacturers drives anyway, western digital, seagate, maxtor etc the only difference is the external casing and connections, (firewire, usb, lan) -
Thanks Steves (I’ve always wanted to do that!)
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Hi
We have a wired and wireless network setup. We bought a network hard disk enclosure from Maplins it sits on the network to be accessed by all computers, works a treat. If you want the name i can get it when i go to work tomorrow.By the way as recommended by others Netgear is a good bit of kit.
Cheers
Neil
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personally I would, not use wireless for anything that is important, for example backing up your files,
I tried wireless, and used netgear, but if it lost the signal it screwed the backup, up. I also tried Belkin and one other (£400 quids worth) but I reverted to a wired connection for reliability, PC world agreed with the problems I was having, and after trying the different makes without success, refunded my expenditure.
The two computers on my network are less than 8m apart, and almost, but not quite in the line of sight with each other, but wireless would just not work.,
Perhaps it was to do with ghosts, but whatever it just would not work.
Peter -
Have to agree with Peter, my router is hardwired to the PC, the wireless connection is so Lisa can go to lovefilm, and ebay and all the other sites women love.
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Oooh, now, Peter, there’s something I hadn’t even thought was possible. I thought wireless was just for the internet. This is not the case, i gather from your comments.
I imagine it could be a little risky backing up files etc wirelessly if half way through the connection was lost.
Couldn’t this problem occur when sending emails etc using wireless internet?
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My network is mainly wired, but we use two laptops wirelessly.
I’ve never tried a major data transfer, like a complete backup, but for everyday use, like transferring single files, internet, email etc. never had a problem.
My wired computers are set to look for wired as default then, if they can’t find it, try wireless. Like that, if I ever get a problem with my ethernet hub, I can still access all my files, albeit at reduced speed. Failsafe.
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I have used wireless quite a bit in all sort of places and not had any real problems with it and that’s the old slow stuff too.
Nick.
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Thanks all.
I have just purchased a lancie external hard drive (80gb) and a netgear wireless router adsl (mimo) whtever that means.
I can’t wait to post my first message while sitting on the bog.
Cheers!
Gareth
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you sure it was 80gb gareth? theres loads of very cheap ones with a substantial diference in size around 😀
nik
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quote Gareth Lewis:I can’t wait to post my first message while sitting on the bog.Cheers!
Gareth
You’ll be talking sh**e as usual then! 😀 😀
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Lacie do a 500gb one for 65 quid….
How much did you pay? -
Gareth, I take it both your laptops are fitted with WIFI cards or you have a PCcard or USB type wireless connection.
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If your on cable you got a adsl modem? I might be wrong but I think you needed a router with a cable modem inbuilt.
Isn’t cable optic fiber and adsl over copper lines?
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Jason is right, you need a different model if you are on cable rather than copper telephone line. You can just use the Virgin modem and plug the router part into that, the wireless will work.
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Jason
Oops!
Just cancelled my order and placed another for the correct type. Ta very much.
Martin – I guess I’m about to find out. I’m pretty sure I have the thingies that I need.
Steve – 80gb will be fine for what I want to do, surely. I haven’t got that many files to back up.
Ta again all,Gareth
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You’ll find having your modem in your router alot easier to configure. Plug it all in type in your username and password and your done.
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