I am currently using a BT Voyager 210 ADSL router, and it is excellent. However, it belongs to my daughter who wishes to remove it to her bedroom, so I need another one. As far as I can discover, they don't make them any more. I recently acquired two routers made in China, which were complete rubbish. They didn't work and the idiot who sold them (via the net) obviously didn't know what he was talking about. I don't know the difference between a modem and a router, and neither did he. Please explain. I want one that connects to my Mac with an Ethernet cable, and works. I don't want a wireless one, no matter how wonderful they are, for personal reasons. Help.
The main difference between a router and a modem is that the modem connects you to the internet and the router connects you to the modem. In most cases they are sold as one unit often with several ethernet ports so that you can connect a number of computers and even some printers. The computers could all connect to the internet independently and if you wished, they could all connect to each other too.
A very simple router modem which has just one ethernet port together with a connection for your internet line is the ZOOM X3. You should be able to find one of these quite cheaply at any of the on-line computer stores. There are other non wireless router modems from Netgear, D-Link and Belkin which you may like to look at also.
"it belongs to my daughter who wishes to remove it to her bedroom"
Assuming you only have one ADSL line coming into you property, you do NOT need another router! You need a hub. The 'BT Voyager 210 ADSL router' has a built in modem. You only need one modem per ADSL line! You need to take a network (ethernet) connection from the 210 into a hub (or switch), which will then divide it into many lines, to connect your computers.
You could of course get another router with a built in hub (or switch), typically five or ten ethernet ports, or as Mick suggests get one with a wireless access point so you do not have to run cables around your property.
Thank you all very much, Gentlemen, but in the meantime my daughter has nipped off to PC World and bought me one. A Netgear ADSL 2 + Ethernet Modem, and it is an absolute pig. It has a 'wizard' for setting it up on Windows, but if you need instructions for a Mac it tells you to consult the handbook that came with your computer! I'm hoping that it will work on her Windows machine, because I've just nipped upstairs and nicked the old one out of her bedroom.
I am so thankful that I've got two hard drives, because the damn thing changed all my network settings. In Network Preferences I reached a point where a flap kept flapping down and saying "Your network settings have been changed by another application". When I clicked on OK it flapped up again, and then flapped down again before I could race the mouse pointer across to the Close button on Network Prefs. I had to Force Quit the N Prefs. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to revert them to the previous settings?
So.
I switched to the other drive, connected the old router, checked that all worked OK, and had a look at the Network Prefs on that drive, cunningly intending to write them down and transfer them onto the first drive, and lo and behold, a flap dropped down and said, "your network settings have been changed by another application"!
I think I must have lost my presence of mind then, because I can't remember what I did next, and it was only ten minutes ago. If the settings have been changed how is it that I am writing this now?
I'm afraid to break this connection in case I never 'speak' to you all again. I'll just let it go to sleep and wake it up every half hour in case any of you have answered me. Help.
Eric Jervis 