Best wireless router for Virgin media 50meg service UK

I would like some advice on which router to buy to use with Virgin medias 50meg internet service, also can you use wired and wireless at the same time on the one router. I ask this because we want to keep the two desktop pc's wired and have the games consoles and laptop wireless.

Thank you in advanced

 

The majority of routers have 4 ports in the back through which wired access is available. A router with no wired access is usually called an access point.
As to the type, I'll defer to the UK members on their choices.

 

One thing to remember: Virgin may advertise 50meg, but you're never going to get that, even on a good day. OFCOM dropped the ball on that, and is allowing providers to advertise maximum possible speed in a lab environment, not the actual speed the punters get. They've also advertised it as "no traffic management", but Virgin doesn't yet have the backbone that can handle all their clients at 50Meg, so something is going to have to give.

Notes about wireless: The wireless G standard is the current fastest official one. One wireless G should work with other wireless G of the different brands. Wireless N is NOT a standard yet, so every manufacturer is going their own way. It'll be dumb luck if one brand works with another. So you first need to see what type of wireless your console and laptop are currently using.
Also note that for gaming you're ALWAYS better off wired.

Me? I'm a big fan of Linksys, and feel that at the moment you can't go wrong with the WRT54GL wireless router. However, it might not have the "priority path" setting (or it might, don't have a newer one handy for testing) you need in order to give highest priority to your gaming system (so that someone downloading something on another port doesn't cause your session to lag).

I'm also hearing a few good things about the DLink DGL-4300 and DGL-4500. They're getting pretty good reviews for wireless gaming. I'm NOT generally a fan of Dlink (customer support sucks. really.), but that's the ones I've seen mentioned most often as being "very good".

Good luck. Happy fragging.

 

thank you very much for the detailed response, looking into the WRT54GL and will probably go with that if I can find some firmware with priority path

Thanks

 

I've got 20mb broadband from Virgin and on a broadband speed test i'm getting about 12-15mb speeds and 800 kb/sec upload speeds. My dad plays poker and i play World of warcraft at the same time and both are pretty demanding games and i've never had a problem with this router;

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=272220

It's cheap, reliable and was the easiest thing I've ever installed to my pc, it's pretty much plug and play one thing i would advice is go to http://192.168.2.1/ to enter the routers settings and go to "Protected Mode" and enable it because for some strange reason on the setup of the router there isn't a prompt for security settings.

It's easy to do go to http://192.168.2.1/ set your own PSK (Pre-Shared Key) for you and the other computers in your household that will be sharing the same connection so nobody on your streed/road can use your internet.

If you decide to get this router and need any more questions message me.