PC World - does the service provider affect router performance

[Nemoshibati]

Was just in PC World (overpriced compared to the internet) and saw a wireless belkin n 300+ router on special offer. I also saw a signal booster and since my router occasionally messes up (a netgear dg834g) which is only 54mbs with a LOW range in my house I was considering between the two. I asked a sales assistant (who had been exceptionally rude to my friend a week earlier - she bought some headphones and two of them had problems with them, the cord split apart where it met the jack and the other one had a crack on the plastic going round your head which we saw the day after buying and her first instinct was to implicate my friend of mishandling and accusing her instead of considering they had a faulty batch of Saitek headphones) if I could speak to another collegue (one that I felt had at least a bit of experience as we talked about a failed memory controller on my micro sd and data recovery).

So she attempted to help me and I said I was wondering what that guy would reckon is a better solution (I reckon it is a new router as there should be no need for a booster and the router will also recieve an upgrade instead of having to deal with a router that malfunctions every so often. She asked me what internet service provider I use and I asked her what did that have to do with anything. She then started to insist it matters a lot and started to argue with me so I called her out on her extremely limited knowledge and told her my ISP gave me a linksys router which was not better than my current router (which is why I still use my router), it just had the WEP key and new password configurations set up (which I had to change in the settings of my old router). I then proceeded to tell her that the only 3 things that matter about router performance day-to-day is the range, the speed of the connection which have the main effects on performance. If a router was going to be better for my provider it was going to be better for all providers (all it does is send and recieve data packets after all and o2,virgin etc still use belkin/netgear and linksys anyway it's not like they have their own special brand routers and they always give you rubbish cheap ones with a small range free upon signup)

Has anyone ever heard that your ISP provider is important in choosing a router or was that annoying woman just being difficult as usual?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Wireless n will get you the best range and performance!

 

[Guest]

I was in a PC World store last week and the miracle is you found someone to talk to. There's something about the atmosphere in those retail barns that exhausts and depresses one.

In the end went to Staples and found nice staff -- and noticed rather better prices on a couple of items.

The reason for asking who your provider is ?

a) to establish whether you need an ADSL or Cable type router.
b) To establish the likely speed of ISP and whether there'd be any advantage in choosing a faster router and adapter.

 

[Saga Lout]

I was in a PC World store last week and the miracle is you found someone to talk to. There's something about the atmosphere in those retail barns that exhausts and depresses one.

In the end went to Staples and found nice staff -- and noticed rather better prices on a couple of items.

The reason for asking who your provider is ?

a) to establish whether you need an ADSL or Cable type router.
b) To establish the likely speed of ISP and whether there'd be any advantage in choosing a faster router and adapter.

She might also have wondered if your ISP was Sky, if it was worth selling you a router which wouldn't work when you got it home. They still seem to tie their cheap Netgears into their system to the exclusion of all others.
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