Hi there,

I'm currently in a flat in Dunedin, with 5 of us.
We are using a Thomson TG585v7 (yes very old).

The problem at the moment is that wireless cutting out occasionally (i.e actually disconnecting and the network not being available for a min or so, but then it will come back automatically and work fine for a while before happening again), the other thing is the internet seems to be being hogged at times (I suspect one of the flatmates gaming or downloading, but don't want to go accusing anyone at random).

I have read about DD-WRT (and QoS) which I believe would help the second (main) problem. The first problem is no real biggy, but would be nice to fix (I have tried wifi analyser; and our wifi is channel 13; with all other neighbouring ones being either 2 or 6, so interference doesn't appear to be a problem [I have noticed one popping in and out occasionally on channel 11 however]. The router doesn't have a filter, but I have a filter installed between the phone and the jackpoint (so I'm assuming this is right?)).

Thus, I am happy to buy a new router, but have no idea where to start or which specs would be best. People have told me routers barely matter in NZ because our speeds are so crap, but I'm not so sure.

Are there any recommendations on specifications that will cope with 5 people on the internet better (I will be  using QoS to stop hogging by games/youtube/torrents)? I am looking to spend somewhere between 50-100 [on trademe or something as second hand doesn't bother me]; maybe more if this really would make a difference and be worth spending extra money on (ie for future proofing etc).

Not really too sure of the benefits of dual-band etc, and have tried researching but still don't really understand it, so if you are recommending to spend a little more for a feature like this I would appreciate an explanation on how this would be an improvement on one without it.

Thanks so much in advance!