Speed: ADSL USB modem versus router

[ChrisIB]

I have two boxes, one with the USB modem that came free from my ISP and one with a non brand router. I've not noticed much difference but one is Windows and one is Linux.

Does either give a faster / more reliable connection. Does the answer vary on whether you are on 1, 2 or 8 MB broadband?

Cheers

[Ann*]

In my experience, my wireless router is much faster than my old modem used to be. Even if I use it as a wired router, it's still faster.

[GrinderBloke]

Router every time, USB connects are notoriously unreliable, beside you only need on router to connect all your computers to the net.

 

I bet you are using the router on your Linux box?

[ChrisIB]

Yep, it is on Fedora Linux

The odd thing is that on long downloads, say a couple of hours, the Windows ME USB gets it every time but the router will drop occasionally. I know the routers Conexant interface quite well but guess some of those settings need fine tuning. Ho ho

[Azrael316]

Simple answer.. YOu will get the same speed but more reliability and flexibilty with the ROuter and Ethernet than USB.

 

USB 2.0 - upto 480 Mbit/s

 

Ethernet - upto 100GBit/s

 

Its a no brainer with Linux really.

[ChrisIB]

Yep the top speed of the router is much faster but neither is approached by the current speed of ADSL so is it not down to the interfaces.

If so, is a USB 2 and USB modem driver any more or less reliable than a router and ethernet driver? (leaving aside the wonderful discussion of Windows versus the Linux TCP stack!).

[sallonoroff]

I would go for an ethernet router over USB everytime.

 

Ethernet was made for networking, USB wasn't.

 

My brother-in-law used to suffer with endless connection problems using his Wanadoo-supplied USB modem... now we sorted him with a router he has no (ok, very few) problems connecting.

 

 

.

[fnkysknky]

As above go for Ethernet over USB. USB will create extra load on the CPU (not a lot but a bit). A lot of USB functionality is taken care of by the drivers.