[ubuntu-za] Which ADSL router?

[Robin Bownes]

Hi All,

I must say, that in 20+ years of IT support (not all involving ADSL 
obviously), I've found that ADSL routers either work, or don't. The one 
exception that I've experienced, is when ants invade a router (or PC) 
and take up residence. Then one is likely to experience some very 
strange failures and recoveries as the ants move around, build nests, 
etc. Sometimes, bugs are still literal.

On the other hand, I've found that that ISPs and Telkom can be relied on 
to lie about problems that they may be experiencing. After many 
thousands of calls to multiple ISPs and to Telkom, I can assure you that 
their "unpressured" response is almost always to blame the client's 
hardware/software/etc., and deny any fault on their part. Again, in my 
experience, ADSL connectivity and speed problems that are solved by a 
router reboot, are usually Telkom related - port reset, faulty earthing 
on a cable or connection box, etc. Telkom's copper network, including 
many of the boards at their exchanges, are not in great condition, 
whatever their protestations. Urban areas are generally better than many 
rural areas. I've just moved (year & half ago) from Fish Hoek, Cape 
Town, to Eshowe in Northern KZN, and while I and my clients experienced 
these kind of problems in Cape Town, I can vouch for the fact that they 
are far worse rural towns like Eshowe, and Cradock (Eastern Cape), where 
my parents used to live.

As to which modem/router I'd recommend - NetGear & DLink are obviously 
very good (but pricey), however, my go-to modems/routers are TP-Link. In 
all my years of recommending and supplying them to clients, and using 
them myself, they have remained reliable, stable, easy to set up, 
feature-full (depending on model), and the best value for money. My own 
TP-Link router has been running continually, without problem, since 2007.

Well, that's my two cents worth. Hope it's helpful.

Robin

On 01/26/2016 09:54 AM, Matthew French wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 9:41 AM, dave.apter <dave.apter at gmail.com 
> <mailto:dave.apter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Do routers die slowly/gradually? Or are they 'binary',  ie either
>     work or not.  I believe the latter.
>
>
> I think the more common case is sudden failure. It either works or it 
> doesn't.
>
> But there are many reasons why electronics can die slowly. Moisture, 
> dry joints, expansion cracks from heating, etc. I remember one server 
> that had a microscopic crack on the motherboard and would reboot at 
> random.
>
> High frequency applications such as WiFi can be especially tricky as 
> electrical flaws can start to have radio effects.
>
> But with today's manufacturing volumes it doesn't make sense to try 
> understand why something fails unless you are the manufacturer. Just 
> replacing the router is a fraction of the cost of doing a thorough 
> technical analysis.
> Talking of which: a common problem with ADSL is water in the phone 
> lines. A new router won't solve this problem. Getting fibre will - if 
> you are lucky enough to have that option... :-)
>
> - Matthew
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-za/attachments/20160126/193f77f8/attachment-0001.html>