New router required to replace D Link DIR 615

[Osem]

My 2 year old D-Link DIR 615 router appears to have a problem. It's been a bit slow and temperemental on and off lately but first thing this morning we could get no internet access via wi-fi on either of our household laptops. I rang Virgin faults and spent an hour on the phone to India going through tests, swapping wires, trying to alter settings and them finding bad IP addresses ??? with the result that a new router is going to be sent out. At first the chap thought it might be a wi-fi issue but connecting my PC to the router via the ethernet cable didn't work either so now I'm now connected to the net via my trusty NTL cable modem via a nice long wire... lol

Being without a router for maybe a week, however, is going to be a problem since my wife and son both need to use the internet frequently for their studies so I'm thinking of getting a cheap new wi-fi router from our local Argos or Maplin to use immediately. I've no idea what VM will be sending but it'll be useful to have a spare and if it's cheap who cares. What I need is something really easy to install and reliable. Although I know it's been slated, we've been pretty happy with the D Link so don't need anything supercharged as it were. Not sure if it's relevant but we're on 20mb BB currently with no plans to upgrade that but I have no idea what the DIR 615 specs are. Anyone got any ideas what cheap modems from Argos or Maplin would suit this purpose and be at least as good as the above? In the short term it wouldn't be too much hassle to connect a couple of our pcs via cable if necessary, just want to get a service up and running ASAP

Would a Netgear N150 be OK? Seems cheap at £30

http://www.maplin.co.uk/netgear-n150...-router-390957


Many thanks.

[Dash: CF noob]

Are they not sending you a Superhub?

[Osem]

No idea. The rep couldn't tell me what I'd get.

Anyway I've just bought the Netgear and am trying to set it up right now.

Update:

Well, all seems to be working but being a paranoid old fart there'll always be a shred of doubt...

[thenry]

you've been ripped off. be sure to return it when you get your equipment through the post. so long as youve secure wifi wpa2 you should be good. firewall should be enabled from the go.

your on 20meg so youll be doubled to 60meg if you havent already been doubled. i'd call in to retentions and tell them youve had troubles all of which should of been logged from your previous call. if you havent yet been doubled then tell them your on 20meg soon to be 60meg and to save hassle could you be upgraded early. that should get your a SH sent out. you can also while your on the phone ask for your mobile number to be added onto the order/delivery of new equipment which will see you receive text messages of tracking number and ETA

[qasdfdsaq]

Yeah, routers like that are not worth more than £5 but if you need one now there's very little you can do.

[Osem]

We were doubled to 20mb a couple of months ago.

Well guys, I just updated the firmware and found that the user interface now looks quite different. Also when I look at the wireless settings it's shows the region as N. America for some reason but it's greyed out and I can't change it to Europe which is what it was set at before the update. A help notice below states the region etc. must be set correctly but not how to change it?

The are selections which can be made for channel i.e. Auto or 1, 2, 3, 4.... etc. and speed i.e. up to 72mbps or up to 150 mbps but there's no advice about which to choose. It's set on Channel Auto and up to 72 mbps.

[thenry]

model number?

[Osem]

Netgear wnr1000

[thenry]

v 1/2/3 ?

[Osem]

V3

[thenry]

open this > http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/other/

and do as marked below in image



when you click on the boxed Firmware Version 1.0.2.54 (All regions except North America) a window will appear, click on download then another window will appear wanting registration, ignore it click on Continue without registering and the firmware will start downloading. an install guide is within the zip file.

[Osem]

OK downloaded it and now have a compressed .chk file in 'my documents'

What do i do with that? I clicked on it but it won't open.

[thenry]

right click the WNR1000v3-V1.0.2.54_60.0.82.chk.zip file and extract

you then have 3 files...

WNR1000v3-V1.0.2.54_60.0.82.chk - Firmware

WNR1000v3-V1.0.2.54_60.0.82.chk_md5.txt - ignore the text file

WNR1000v3-V1.0.2.54_60.0.82NA&WW_ReleaseNote.html - release notes and install guide

Installation Instructions:

Download/move the firmware file to a convenient place such as your desktop.
Log in the router using http://www.routerlogin.net.
Click Maintenance > Router Upgrade.
Click Browse and locate the file you just downloaded.
Click Upload. While the firmware is loading, do not interrupt the upgrade process.
The router reboots when the upgrade is complete.
After the router boots up, log in the router again.
To check that the upgrade was successful, log in to the router again at http://www.routerlogin.net and check the firmware version.

if you can do all the above without the WAN active so no VM to router link. link to the router using LAN1/2/3/4 then link the router to the cable modem once everythings set up. dont forget to secure wifi etc.

[Osem]

Sorry mate, clicking the file doesn't do anything just get a nessage that Windows can't open it as the compressed folder is invalid. Right clicking and hitting extract all tells me the folder is empty and that I must first copy files to this folder but it's showing 315kb. ?

[thenry]

fail download. try downloading again. the zip file size should be 2.83MB