Network-Noob needs help! Will my new router save me?

[ArakkAttack]

Hey guys, I've been having a look around this forum and there seem to be some very knowledgeable people here, I was hoping one of you could help me.

I'm from the UK, and I have Sky Broadband. My speed is not brilliant, but adequate when it is working. Here is my speedtest.



However, the connection is very inconsistent- when streaming it is fine for a while but has very slow periods, and when gaming there are 10 second lag spikes intermittently, where my ping will jump to 900+, then return to normal.

I'm having difficulty figuring out whether it is the connection itself or the wireless router that is the problem, as the one computer in the house that is wired seems to be less affected than the others. But it is still somewhat affected, therefore I am puzzled.

I have therefore purchased a new router, so that I can eliminate one variable at least. Besides, my current router is very old and we are probably well in need of a new one.

The router I have gone with is the ASUS RT-N66U router. From looking at the specs and reading reviews, I am confident that this is a good router. I am aware though, that I need a modem to use with this (my previous model was combined router/modem). I understand that the 'best' modem choice can vary based on your connection. Firstly, can anyone suggest what a good modem choice would be for me, based on the below information:

http://imgur.com/6wY4cI8

The second bit of help I need is that I would like to know if any of my statistics or numbers look problematic; if the new router does not solve my issues, is there likely to be something wrong with my line based on the following?
http://imgur.com/3ZD2FAv

The exchange is 2.7 mi miles away from me according to google maps, it is this exchange:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/MYRPP

Is there anything that stands out as problematic in there?


Additionally, and this may be a really stupid thing to do, but we are currently using the test socket rather than the usual socket. I know you are advised not to do so, however using the test socket in our house we get something like a 25% increase in download speed, and our speeds are pretty slow anyway, so I am begrudged to give this up. Is there a harm to doing this?

Lastly, our house has two 'master' phone sockets, as it is a barn conversion - the 'old' house and the barn both seem to have one. I don't believe we have two phone lines however, so one of the sockets must not be the true master. Is there any way to check which is which for sure?

Thanks in advance very much for your help. I apologise if my questions are stupid, but networking is very new to me. I just would like a stable connection, really. Anything else is a bonus.

 

[Razor512]

the router will not improve your speeds because the slowdown is happening between the DSL modem, and the ISP. If you re getting consistent less than what you are paying for, then start building a list of alternative ISP's available to you so that you can threaten to switch. Then have the ISP look into the slowdown, if the speeds are a little low, then they may be able to overprovision the connection to allow for a higher speed. e.g., when I had verizon DSL and the speeds were bad, they eventually resorted to moving me to a different router on their end, and to fix the speed issue, they increased the over provisioning (required a worker to come to the home, and then call in.
while they were making changes, I was getting over 20mbit/s (on a line where they said that I was too far for the 7mbit plan) and eventually they got me to pretty much my full 3mbit down and 768k up. (threatening to switch to time warner was good motivation for them)

lucky for me, I was eventually able to switch to fios.

Anyway, fine other ISP's and then bother your current ISP until they fix the speed issues. They may start by replacing the modem with a newer model if available, and eventually take further steps to fix the issue.

PS if you are going to be using DSL a lot and have a residental house where you can make holes, see if you can go to the phone box on the side of the house and run a direct line from that box, to a phone jack that you install. This will allow for the lowest noise levels, and improve speeds.

(When I was on DSL, one of the first mods I did, was installing a new jack using some brand new wire, and cleaning all of the contacts in the phone box on the side of the house)

For the DSL modem, I ended up replacing the actiontec gt704wg (primarily due to a firmware bug which caused the router page to be available from the WAN side with no way to disable it, and the default login always worked regardless of what was set)

I moved to a netgear DGN3500 which improved speeds slightly, but the largest boost came from verizon adjusting the provisioning to fix the speed.

edit: here are some images from my DSL setup (about 6-7 years ago)

Image 1: the light colored cable is he new one which was run to a phone jack installed in the bedroom
http://i.imgur.com/Kq06hXu.jpg

Image 2: here is a wider view, not the best looking, but at the time, significantly improved the snr
http://i.imgur.com/4sntVdf.jpg

(in home wiring was extremely old)