Replacing Router and going wifi questions

[Short Bus]

I moved last year and got a new ISP. The hardware my ISP gave me is a terrible Lucent DSLPipe that comes with two problems. The first is that the firewall prevents me from passing files through IRC and IMs. The second and much bigger problem is that if I connect to too many servers at the same time, like using bittorrent, pinging a server list for certian games, or even opening too many tabs it will lock out all new connections until I pull the plug. So, say with Bittorrent it will let me keep uploading/downloading from any peers I am already connected to but until I yank the plug no website will load. It's not a lack of bandwidth issue, even if the downloading/seeding is at 0kb/s I still can not load new connections. They won't fix it and they won't give me the password to telnet into it to try to figure out what it wrong. My neighbor who is also using the Lucent DSL Pipe also has this problem. It's crap.

Though I am competent enough to install it myself and set it up I have never messed with the hardware before. My old ISP gave me a nice Linksys model and I had no problems with it. I am wondering if I buy a router (a wifi one preferably) will I have to connect it to through the Lucent or will it solve my problems?

Also, I have a Nintendo DS and I want to be able to get online with it so even if it won't fix my problem I need to get a wifi router. What is a good one to buy?

 

[ColKurtz]

I'm not sure what the ISPs are doing with Bittorrent but I have a similar problem, where I can't do any surfing while bittorent is running -- even if my upload/download speed are in the single digit bytes/second. If I kill bittorrent, things are fine again (it usually takes about 60 seconds after killing bittorrent for me to be able to surf again.). But at the same time I can get really good speeds (2Mb/s+ down, 64Kb/s up) so it's not a pure bandwidth problem.

P2P does use up a majority of an ISP's bandwidth, so there's a good chance they're doing traffic-shaping or something else to dissuade you from using bittorrent all the time. But I'm not sure what.

As for the firewall blocking IRC/IM, is the DSLPipe the DSL modem or a router? If its the latter, why don't you just get your own router? If the DSLPipe is a modem that has it's own firewall -- then I'd tell them either give you the password so you can forward the ports or get another ISP.

 

[Short Bus]

It's not just bittorrent though. Also, I can shut bittorrent completely down and wait an hour but I still can't connect to any websites.

I THINK it is a router but I don't really know how to tell the difference.

 

[Short Bus]

bump

 

[nweaver]

does the phone line plug into that box? If so, then it's a modem. If you have a private IP (usually 192.168.X.X) then it may also be a router.