Wireless Router

[Buckeyefan 1]

I'm not sure if anyone here can help. I purchased a laptop and am in need of a wireless router. I've got broadband cable right now. What's the latest and greatest for a reasonable price? BB has the Linksys WRT54G for $49, and a RangeMax MIMO for $79. Any advice? Any of them to avoid?

 

[MDS]

I've always used NetGear and they've never given me any trouble. LinkSys is now owned by Cisco and the quality has improved a lot. I have a LinkSys switch which works perfecty but I've never owned a LinkSys router. I'd say either LinkSys or NetGear are your best bets but other brands may work just as well.

The first thing you need to do is determine which flavor(s) of WiFi your laptop network card supports. If it is new, most likely it supports 802.11G (54 Mbps) and you want a router that also supports G.

 

[zildjian]

Don't know the model #, but I bought a LinkSys one last summer from Newegg, and at the time they had the best price on them that I could find, course that was 10 months ago... but I've been very pleased with my LinkSys equipment, and they freqently have rebates so check their website.

 

[jonnythan]

I'm not sure if anyone here can help. I purchased a laptop and am in need of a wireless router. I've got broadband cable right now. What's the latest and greatest for a reasonable price? BB has the Linksys WRT54G for $49, and a RangeMax MIMO for $79. Any advice? Any of them to avoid?

The WRT54G is an outdated POS that has been consistently downgraded throughout the years.

IMO the best routers for the money are the Buffalo WHR-G54s ($40 or so), the Zyxel X-550 (what I use, you can usually find it for less than $80), and the D-Link DGL-4300. The latter is widely considered one of the best consumer routers on the market ATM. It and the X-550 handle lots of connections and lots of throughput without breaking a sweat.

 

[jonnythan]

BTW, concerning the WRT54G:

http://smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/26843/51/

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Thanks guy. Your router seems to have excellent reviews. Set up seems to be the biggest complaint concerning the other routers. I've not set up my house yet for wireless, so this is all new to me. It's a fairly large house, so I wanted to make sure I got a good one. I appreciate the advice.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I've always used NetGear and they've never given me any trouble. LinkSys is now owned by Cisco and the quality has improved a lot. I have a LinkSys switch which works perfecty but I've never owned a LinkSys router. I'd say either LinkSys or NetGear are your best bets but other brands may work just as well.

The first thing you need to do is determine which flavor(s) of WiFi your laptop network card supports. If it is new, most likely it supports 802.11G (54 Mbps) and you want a router that also supports G.

It says 802.11b/g

I added 1gb pc5300 of memory which really helps. I'm not sure why HP would sell these units with 512MB b/c Vista crawls. It's just a very basic laptop for work, but I'm sure I'll use it and abuse it as I do my home PC.

HP Compaq Presario C504US Intel Celeron M 440 1.86GHz Notebook Intel Celeron M 440 1.86GHz 1MB L2 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 100GB 5400rpm SATA SuperMulti 8x DVD RW DL 15.4 WXGA HD BrightView display 802.11b/g 10/100 NIC Windows Vista Home Basic

 

[GlocksRock]

I've always liked Linksys stuff, and I've had pretty good luck with D-Link products, but have had issues with Netgear stuff.

 

[jonnythan]

All of the networking product manufacturers make really awful cheap stuff.. but most of them make some very nice equipment as you get higher in their ranges.

I've used some excellent Netgear stuff, excellent Linksys stuff, excellent Zyxel stuff, and excellent D-Link stuff. I've also used barely-operable D-link stuff and Netgear stuff.

 

[solomr2]

From my experience, and I've installed about 8 different wireless routers, the Linksys are not that great. For my own use at home I tried a LinkSys a few years ago and had quite a few problems. I then tried DLink, they were very poor also. I then switched to Netgear routers with the built-in stateful packet inspection (SPI) firewall. They're not the easiest to setup, but they are the most consistent and reliable I have used, and I feel more secure. You can also setup the router to email you when it senses suspicious activity going on or someone trying to spoof IPs.

Having said all that, however, if I was buying a new firewall today, I would recommend buying the newer models with 802.11n support. These are much faster, which is insignificant to most people since their Internet bandwidith is limited to about 1 megabit anyway, but the key is their range. With 802.11b/g routers, I have a hard time with signal strength in various parts of the house. But the new 802.11n routers have eliminated that, and they are also compatible with 802.11b/g network cards, so if your laptop is already equipped you can still use the older technology.

 

[jonnythan]

802.11n doesn't do much for you when the card installed inside your laptop is 802.11g.

It also doesn't do anything at all for you unless you are doing a lot of transferring of files on the local network. Even 11Mbps 802.11b will saturate virtually every internet connection available in homes in the US.

 

[solomr2]

802.11n doesn't do much for you when the card installed inside your laptop is 802.11g.

It also doesn't do anything at all for you unless you are doing a lot of transferring of files on the local network. Even 11Mbps 802.11b will saturate virtually every internet connection available in homes in the US.

As I said earlier, 802.11n is supposed to be interoperable with b/g, so you shouldn't need to buy any new cards for computers already equipped with b/g.

The key benefit is broader coverage (1000' versus 100'), even with b/g interoperability, and as you said, if you move a lot of files across the network the greater bandwith will save you a lot of time also.

802.11n is still quite new and subject to change, but if I was making an investment for the next 3-5 years I would perform some due dilligence on this emerging standard before putting money into a spec that has already been sunset.

 

[solomr2]

DISCLAIMER:

For those reading this and hearing about the emergence of 802.11n for the first time, there are a few things you should know;

1- 802.11n is not yet a fully ratified standard. The 1.0 spec was released over a year ago, and many wireless manufacturers jumped onto the fray to get some early revenue.

2- 802.11n spec 2.0 was released earlier this year, and it addresses many of the interoperability issues with earlier 802.11a/b/g equipment.

3- The WiFi alliance has moved the date to complete the ratification and certification program for 802.11n from mid 2007 to Q1 2008. In the meantime, they are allowing manufacturers who adopt the 2.0 spec to achieve certification for their interoperability with earlier 802.11a/b/g protocols.

So, any 802.11n equipment you buy today may not be fully compliant with the complete and final 802.11n spec due out in early 2008. However, if you do buy any products today that are spec 2.0 compliant and certified, they will be fully interoperable with 802.11a/b/g products.

Also, it should be noted that many of the manufacturers are guaranteeing their 802.11n products will be upgradable to the final spec with a simple software upgrade, or they will replace the product free of charge with one that is fully compliant.

So, if you are looking to buy one of these 802.11n devices, be sure to read the fineprint and talk to the manufacturer about their compliance to the final spec when it comes out.

 

[lcdguy]

i would tend to agree with what is being said here. until 802.11n is an finalized official standard i would stay away. Besides 802.11g should be fast enough. considering i don't think you have a 54mbps internet connection .

For brands. It depends on how much money you want to spend, how many features and what kind of range you expect from the device.

If it were me i would either get a decent linksys or netgear router. or if you could afford it get a cisco one. The cisco one will probably be more expensive but it would offer you the highest quality barring getting something from juniper networks (providing they even make this sort of product)

The other thing to take into account is the encryption standard. For the love of god don't use WEP or leave it open. VERY VERY bad. I would recommend setting up either WPA-PSK with TKIP or AES or WPA2.

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty i can but it would make for a much longer post

 

[jonnythan]

Yeah, once you get it:

WPA-PSK or WPA2 if your card supports it.
AES > TKIP
Do not broadcast SSID
The WPA/WPA2 key should be at least 8 characters and not a dictionary word.

 

[lcdguy]

for the key 8 characters is way to short. I would start with 26 i personally use all 64 allowed

 

[solomr2]

I think the most important thing to do to protect your network is don't broadcast SSID. I don't know how many people still have "LINKSYS" as their SSID and they broadcast to the entire neighborhood. Sometimes I jump on my neighbor's broadband just for the heck of it. I figure if he's going to invade my airspace with his broadcast, then he can't stop me from using it. I've told him more than once, but he doesn't know how to change it or he just doesn't care.

If you get past this hurdle, then consider the WEP or better still WPA.