Router Problems

As Dave says, but to prevent a red face thoroughly check all connections before the engineer arrives (Ethernet, broadband and electrical). I would also check that the position of the router is not going to result in overheating.

Get it up high if you can John, and in clear line of devices. This shows my Sky router (small black object) on top of the bookcase. It is diagonally opposite the Q-box, which is at the far end of the lounge. Two rooms and a hall away in this room, I get 72 Mbps on both phones and my tablet. At the kitchen, on the far side of the bungalow, SWMBO gets a full Wls signal on the lappy and 72 Mbps on her phone.

Before I moved it up from the bottom of the bookcase, Wls was poor at around 23 Mbps. I think Dave gave me that advice (Re: putting router up high) in MM forum.

SWMBO loves cushions …. what can I say?

I’m surprised my router works at all, it’s in the far corner of the house behind a TV, pc, PS4 and surround sound, all the wires (cough rats nest) probably create some type of Faraday shield.

They must of upped their game. As the original unit TT sent me with FTTC, was terrible. I’m sure when I was talking about mine, you lot had the better version, probably a revision.

Ive never had luck with provided Routers, always having my own, the current asus one I have had been fantastic. Money well spent. Abit old now, and wasn’t topend, but it keeps up with out house just fine. That’s around a TB a month.

JOHN

This is the Amazon UK page for the PCI Wireless adapter in my last:

https://tinyurl.com/kag3ema

Don’t worry about Cat 6 John, it’s a cabling standard and doesn’t need “support” from anything attached to it.

Cat 5 or Cat 6, it will make no difference to you.

Cat6 is a more difficult option for the DIYer. It offers little over the much easier Cat5e  for the average  home user. It is quite easy to make poor Cat6 connections – avoid if you can.

Bob, I’m not saying that it cannot be used but Cat5e gives as near as damn-it the same performance in the average home. The cable is however much less flexible and it is far more difficult to make good terminations. This link better explains the issues which I just glossed over but the main point is extracted below:

” The need for more controlled terminations hasn’t existed for Cat 5 or Cat 5e installation standards. Often work practice variation would amount to some degree of variation within the tested result, but sufficient headroom ensured adequate buffer for such anomalies.”

If you are experienced in wiring Ethernet cables and don’t mind the much ‘stiffer’ cat 6 and its higher price then by all means use it. Really the only time you must use cat6 is if you know fibre to the door is coming to your house and you want very high speed broadband throughout your home.  Spec comparison. If this does not apply and you are new to terminating and installing Ethernet cable then for the sake of sanity use cat5e. (does not apply if you are buying finished cable if the prices are roughly the same.

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Cat 6 is a pig to put RJ45 plugs on. It has a stiff plastic X piece in the middle that has to be dealt with. I only use it for punch down to punch down cabling i.e. no plugs and only when it’s in a written specification from the customer (only the military so far and God knows why).

It’s quite simple, no-one here needs Cat 6. specification cables, it will not speed anything up. I know quite a few older places running quite happily still on Cat 3 to the desk.