BT Total Broadband?

[Jim-D]

I use BT, its fine, i ditched the home hub and use a belkin

But the phone looks so cool

[RichEO]

Buy one of these if you don't mind openning you PC up
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/120977

Or if you don't want to open it buy a USB wireless dongle
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/115832

The PCI card (the 1st one) will have a better range as it has an external antenna, but only just. Either will work fine.

[Jim-D]

Thanks RichEO,  Is the dongle you state the best one or does it really not matter? (ie, more you spend, better the product)

[RichEO]

No difference. I just go for the cheapest assuming it doesn't have any really bad reviews.

[snoopy1239]

I had bt hub installed a couple of weeks ago. Range seems petty good.

[Tractor]

Ive had BT Homehub, never had a problem, router actuallyy is pretty good wirless range. Cannot fault it, havnt had to use customer service as it worked straight away

[kinboshi]

My Dad has this and his desktop is connected via an ethernet cable (I'm not sure why you'd want to go to the extra effort and expense of making your desktop wireless?).

Whenever I go to their house my laptop connects fine.  There were problems initially, but my Dad spoke to their helpdesk who called us back and took us through setting it up.  It took 20 minutes, and has worked perfectly ever since.  I think it would have worked from the off if my Dad hadn't played around with it when he got it...

[doubleup]

Hmmmm

I have had it for a while.

I removed their software as it puts a load of crap on the pc that I don't want.  I tried to set up the router as secure but couldn't get connected when I did this so I just reverted to using the modem.  Everything worked fine till a few weeks ago when the speed drooped and constantly got disconnects.  Customer service absolutely appalling - the worst I've experienced.  It has stabilised a bit but still getting more discos than I did b

[robbiebox]

BT Broadband has been great~ no problems.

Had to get my username and password from customer services on Saturday and I spent about 20 min trying to understand a strong Delhi accent for what should have been a simple 2 min call. It is just so frustrating and I almost got to the point of just hanging up , and would have done if it hadn't been so important to me.

[RichEO]

My Dad has this and his desktop is connected via an ethernet cable (I'm not sure why you'd want to go to the extra effort and expense of making your desktop wireless?).

Because the hub and PC will be in different rooms and tbh, it's easier to stick in a wireless card than to run a cable where you can't see it / trip over it and for about £10 a wireless card will save that hassle But like you say, use a cable if they are next to each other, I know a few people that got confused about wireless allowing multiple computers to share the connection (thinking you can't do it with a cable) and so had their router on top of the desktop which was connected wirelessly

[Jim-D]

Thanks for your replies guys, Mixed reviews really but seems more people find it good then not so will order it before i move

[lazaroonie]

sorry, have come to this a bit late.#

I like BT Home Hub. The range is better (in my experience) than any 3com, netgear or belkin product I have used. Also I seem to get better connection speeds with BTHH than 3rd party routers.

My advice is to avoid usb dongles. from a technical perspective the PCI cards are better, as they are native TCP/IP based. the USB stuff has to make a conversion which, however small is an overhead in terms of performance.

[Jim-D]

Thanks Laz,  Are the PCI cards easy to install or do I need to take it to a specialist?

[KingPoker]

Thanks Laz,  Are the PCI cards easy to install or do I need to take it to a specialist?

They are a piece of piss. I did it for mine and my housemates'  pcs and lappies in my student house. Takes bout 10/15 minutes tops!

[lazaroonie]

Thanks Laz,  Are the PCI cards easy to install or do I need to take it to a specialist?

yeah, just be careful before you rip the cover off your pc and stick the card in - some of them want you install the software/drivers first before putting the card in. IF you do it the wrong way round you can be stuck in a horrible driver limob world.

your only other question is whether you should allow you cards manuacturers software control your wireless network access, or get the microsoft utility to do it. I honestly dont know the answer to that one. I would be interested to hear different views on it, but maybe I should just toddle off to a techy forum software and quickly lose the will to live.....


pm me if you need anything else.