Hi Folks,

I am quite new to this forum so please bear with me as My PC knowledge is a bit rusty and am not the most technical!,

Anyhow I was initially on a decent NTL freedom ADSL broadband package for a couple of years on speeds of around 1-1.5MB (which was the speed I was advised based on distance from my exchange) was running very smoothly before being switched over to Virgin Media ADSL service in February after they had closed the freedom service down.

However - Since then ive switched over to VM’s service I have had nothing but MAJOR problems with slow download speeds with the Netgear DG3484-G routers they supplied me ( which were free with the package plus one free warranty replacement and have since both broke down and lost power). The speeds I were getting were painfully slow and inconsistent i.e something like 160kps and it takes about 10 mins just to download short 2min wmv video clips, the confusing thing is that it still took this long to download anything even on the rare occasion my speed was around 1mb!.

…I would be really grateful for some advice/opinions etc based on the information I can give you:

• I phoned Virgin media and they advised that I should have my router plugged into my master socket downstairs to get best performance as exension it not reccommended as wiring upstairs could be causing slow speeds.  (my desktop PC was initially connected to an extension socket upstairs in my room). As I much preferred a wired connection rather than wireless I decided to buy some solwise homeplugs to connect the router to master socket downstairs and signals were fine regarding connection to other plug upstairs.. My speeds were showing just under 1MB which was again ok but yet still had a nightmare streaming short wmv video clips!!. To make things worse, after a couple of days the 2^nd replacement router they sent me lost power in the same way as the first one!

• Im on the looking for a for a new router to purchase but before I splash out and and potentially end up wasting money on an expensive one, I would just like to know  whether the best download speed you can pick up is solely based on the line quality coming into the house or the spec of a router is a significent factor?...in other words are certain models of router not designed for heavy users and downloading videos etc? (I would have thought all routers could do simple jobs like that??).  all I could do with these netgear routers was surf the net but nothing else.

As you can imagine, before I start thinking of changing ISP I would rather make that ive got the best possible in-house set-up than get the best possible speeds hence why I am asking if the router spec is very important. All I simply want is something that’s good for heavy/regular usage, allow me to be able to download/stream normal video files/clips..for example like the small headline files from the sky news website, and would also be fine for online gaming..i.e PS3 etc.

Sorry to ramble on a bit but I hope most of the above makes sense. One thing I can’t understand is that I never had any of these speed issues when I was on the old freedom package that I had previously used on my initial set-up i.e the router being directly connected from the PC into the extension socket in my room.

Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated to help me solve this ongoing problem and like many other people, actually get what I pay for!

Many thanks in advance J

James K  

You shouldn't need the TalkTalk CD for your router but you will need to log into the router and enter your talk talk account details to get it to connect.

Hi Folks,

I am quite new to this forum so please bear with me as My PC knowledge is a bit rusty and am not the most technical!,

Anyhow I was initially on a decent NTL freedom ADSL broadband package for a couple of years on speeds of around 1-1.5MB (which was the speed I was advised based on distance from my exchange) was running very smoothly before being switched over to Virgin Media ADSL service in February after they had closed the freedom service down.

However - Since then ive switched over to VM’s service I have had nothing but MAJOR problems with slow download speeds with the Netgear DG3484-N routers they supplied me ( which were free with the package plus one free warranty replacement and have since both broke down and lost power). The speeds I were getting were painfully slow and inconsistent i.e something like 160kps and it takes about 10 mins just to download short 2min wmv video clips, the confusing thing is that it still took this long to download anything even on the rare occasion my speed was around 1mb!.

…I would be really grateful for some advice/opinions etc based on the information I can give you:

• I phoned Virgin media and they advised that I should have my router plugged into my master socket downstairs to get best performance as exension it not reccommended as wiring upstairs could be causing slow speeds.  (my desktop PC was initially connected to an extension socket upstairs in my room). As I much preferred a wired connection rather than wireless I decided to buy some solwise homeplugs to connect the router to master socket downstairs and signals were fine regarding connection to other plug upstairs.. My speeds were showing just under 1MB which was again ok but yet still had a nightmare streaming short wmv video clips!!. To make things worse, after a couple of days the 2^nd replacement router they sent me lost power in the same way as the first one!

• Im on the looking for a for a new router to purchase but before I splash out and and potentially end up wasting money on an expensive one, I would just like to know  whether the best download speed you can pick up is solely based on the line quality coming into the house or the spec of a router is a significent factor?...in other words are certain models of router not designed for heavy users and downloading videos etc? (I would have thought all routers could do simple jobs like that??).  all I could do with these netgear routers was surf the net but nothing else.

As you can imagine, before I start thinking of changing ISP I would rather make that ive got the best possible in-house set-up than get the best possible speeds hence why I am asking if the router spec is very important. All I simply want is something that’s good for heavy/regular usage, allow me to be able to download/stream normal video files/clips..for example like the small headline files from the sky news website, and would also be fine for online gaming..i.e PS3 etc.

Sorry to ramble on a bit but I hope most of the above makes sense. One thing I can’t understand is that I never had any of these speed issues when I was on the old freedom package that I had previously used on my initial set-up i.e the router being directly connected from the PC into the extension socket in my room.

Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated to help me solve this ongoing problem and like many other people, actually get what I pay for!

Many thanks in advance J

James K