I have non-technical friends on Vodafone ADSL. A relative installed their broadband. It has worked well in the past but they are now having some issues and have asked me for help. My knowledge is limited so I am passing the request on here.

I believe the router is called a Home Gateway device. Model number is HG 556. It was supplied by VF and is maybe 7 or 8 years old. My friends wonder if a newer router would work better for them. They also are thinking about upgrading to VDSL, which is available to them. Would this be worth doing?

They also rent out accommodation and share their broadband with their tenants. There are three LAN connections from their router to the tenants. At least one tenant is a heavy user. They have unlimited broadband.

The router is plugged into the first phone jack, which is in the garage. My friends use the router’s wi-fi as there is no good way to run a LAN cable to the work table in the house. There is a second phone jack close by, however, which has a phone in it and they wonder if they could plug an identical second router into that. They cannot move the router in the garage because of the LAN connections to their tenants.

A recent problem with the wi-fi is the sudden dropping of connections. This seems to have got worse and now occurs frequently, especially on one of the computers. My friends wonder if it is possible for the router to be overloaded by the demands on it. When the wi-fi is working, signal strength is good, 3-5 bars. As far as I know, there are no phone filters on the line. Any suggestions or comments are welcomed.