Wifi router reccomendations?

[Adcadet]

Anybody have a particular wireless router to recommend? My old router is dying (ports keep failing). I use an iPhone (802.11g) and my wife uses a netbook (802.11g) around the home, and we have two other PCs connected by ethernet cables. My needs are pretty basic. I know nothing about wifi security. Any reason to get an 802.11n device?
Thanks!

 

[MaxBurn]

I have a positively ancient 3Com 3CRWE554G72T that just never locks up or dies, years ago I recommended that same model to a friend and we both are still using them. All my network problems have been other devices. I wonder if their quality carries over to the new stuff.

 

[Mercutio]

Any reason to get an 802.11n device?

More expensive N devices have faster CPUs, more RAM and nifty things like built-in torrent clients and USB ports for network attached storage and/or printers. I have a WRT300N sitting in my office that I like quite a lot.

However, from what I've been told by my customers who are iphone owners, there are some access points that their phones won't connect to. I have no idea if it's true or just another example of iphone owners being batshit about their hardware, but DLink seems to feature prominently in their paranoid ramblings, so maybe it's best to avoid that brand.

 

[ddrueding]

At home I have a WRT350N running DD-WRT that I haven't thought about since we moved. I regularly deploy WRT54GLs running DD-WRT with minimal failures (a percent or so a year). No point for N unless you have a home file server. Your internet connection is the bottleneck anyway.

 

[Mercutio]

No point for N unless you have a home file server. Your internet connection is the bottleneck anyway.

802.11N offers superior range, which is particularly useful for 5.8GHz devices.

 

[Handruin]

I have a D-link DIR 655 wireless N router that works very well with lots of features. There is a nice review over at small net builder. I have an iPhone that works fine over 802.11 G using WPA. My Lenovo T500 laptop connects fine via 802.11 N along with my xbox and bluray player via linksys wireless N gaming bridge.

The D-Link is located on my third floor and my living room is on the first floor. I get full strength and no problems with internet throughput. I frequently (alomost every day) stream movies and TV via my xbox using this without issue (along side of using my laptop).

 

[ddrueding]

802.11N offers superior range, which is particularly useful for 5.8GHz devices.

Ah, I just turn up the transmit power until it covers what I need.

 

[Mercutio]

I have a D-link DIR 655 wireless N router that works very well with lots of features.

I will remember that for the next time my iphone users are being deranged.

Ah, I just turn up the transmit power until it covers what I need.

Are you using 5.8GHz?

 

[Handruin]

I will remember that for the next time my iphone users are being deranged.

I don't follow? The router works fine with my iPhone over wifi.

 

[timwhit]

I have a Trendnet draft N AP, I have to cycle power on it every few days to get it working right. I might put one of those light timers on it to "automatically" cycle the power for me every night.

 

[Mercutio]

I don't follow? The router works fine with my iPhone over wifi.

I have three customers that I know to have iphones. Two of them have at some point also told me that they had to make changes to their home network setups because their iphones wouldn't talk to equipment they already had.

Both of them mentioned Dlink. One of them also claimed to have problems with a Hawking 802.11 extender as well.

These are the same people who used to call my every time Blackberry had some kind of nationwide outage, like I had some kind of power to control that.

 

[Mercutio]

I have a Trendnet draft N AP, I have to cycle power on it every few days to get it working right. I might put one of those light timers on it to "automatically" cycle the power for me every night.

Trendnet has always been one of the more trouble-free brands for me. Coug had a bad experience with their stuff too though.

 

[timwhit]

It's only happened a few times so far, still annoying.

 

[ddrueding]

It's only happened a few times so far, still annoying.

I would try resetting to defaults using the button on the back and reconfiguring. Don't forget to write down your settings first.

 

[Adcadet]

More expensive N devices have faster CPUs, more RAM and nifty things like built-in torrent clients and USB ports for network attached storage and/or printers. I have a WRT300N sitting in my office that I like quite a lot.

It would be nice to be able to plug in my wife's USB 2 hard drive into the router for the times when I want to use it to back stuff up.

 

[timwhit]

I just configured it a couple weeks ago. I reset it a few times during setup as well.

 

[Handruin]

It would be nice to be able to plug in my wife's USB 2 hard drive into the router for the times when I want to use it to back stuff up.

The router I linked allows for a USB drive to be connected to the router with the latest firmware. I can double check when I get home. I've not tried it, but I can.

 

[Handruin]

I have three customers that I know to have iphones. Two of them have at some point also told me that they had to make changes to their home network setups because their iphones wouldn't talk to equipment they already had.

Both of them mentioned Dlink. One of them also claimed to have problems with a Hawking 802.11 extender as well.

These are the same people who used to call my every time Blackberry had some kind of nationwide outage, like I had some kind of power to control that.

I have my d-link set to auto on most things. I never made any specific changes to the router to get my iPhone to connect. It's worked perfect every time I enable the wifi function in my phone. I've tested download speeds in a speed test app to confirm I was using wifi and not AT&T.

 

[blakerwry]

I've had good luck with Linksys WRT-54G and WRT-54GL models. I've used 3 netgear products (both b and g variations) and all became flaky after a couple years.

Regarding compatibility, never had an issue with either of these brands, but I do have a problem getting my blackberry Perl Flip to connect to a Meraki (atheros chip, running open WRT) at work.

 

[Mercutio]

I just recently found this, which I found to be all kinds of interesting.

 

[Handruin]

That's a nice tool.

 

[Adcadet]

So many things to consider:

- I'm still debating if I should go 802.11n or just 802.11g.

- A USB port to plug in an external HD would be nice, but not critical.

- Any reason to get gigabit ethernet? There's only 2 (soon to be 3!) people in the home, and if I recall, HDs still can get flooded with 100M.

- Do any consumer-level routers provide good security features that are worth talking about? I realize that all routers provide some degree of security just by their very nature. If I could offload more of our security details to the router so I don't have to worry about the individual computers, that would be helpful.

 

[Mercutio]

So many things to consider:

- I'm still debating if I should go 802.11n or just 802.11g.

- A USB port to plug in an external HD would be nice, but not critical.

- Any reason to get gigabit ethernet? There's only 2 (soon to be 3!) people in the home, and if I recall, HDs still can get flooded with 100M.

- Do any consumer-level routers provide good security features that are worth talking about? I realize that all routers provide some degree of security just by their very nature. If I could offload more of our security details to the router so I don't have to worry about the individual computers, that would be helpful.

n gives you additional range and DOES offer better throughput than g, even if the 300Mbit connection is bullshit. 802.11 is shared bandwidth (and worse, overhead claims about half the protocol's specified speed), so while you won't get that 300Mbit, you might get a couple legitimate 50Mbit connections.

Your high end routers will have a USB port. Some of them can be used for printers and data storage. Some of them are data storage only.

Gigabit is very useful if you find yourself pushing massive quantities of data around because of backups or your media collecting needs. It's not likely to impact anything else, except that gigabit devices tend to have more capable switching backplanes, and probably won't melt from normal home user traffic.

No, consumer level devices don't have worthwhile security functions. If you want that, you're looking at a Sonicwall, a Fortinet or a Symantec end-point device. Consumer level devices do NAT. NAT is helpful all on its own.

 

[Adcadet]

Anybody have a suggested gigabit NIC? Preferably one that I can use in XP, Win7, and Linux? Any reason to favor a gigabit NIC that sits on a PCI-e versus PCI bus? I may be interested in doing large-ish backups afterall.

 

[Handruin]

Anybody have a suggested gigabit NIC? Preferably one that I can use in XP, Win7, and Linux? Any reason to favor a gigabit NIC that sits on a PCI-e versus PCI bus? I may be interested in doing large-ish backups afterall.

Check out Stereodude's "The Great Gigabit Ethernet Shootout". He put a lot of effort into it, and it's worth reading if you want to know.

 

[Stereodude]

Anybody have a suggested gigabit NIC? Preferably one that I can use in XP, Win7, and Linux? Any reason to favor a gigabit NIC that sits on a PCI-e versus PCI bus? I may be interested in doing large-ish backups afterall.

You don't have an onboard PCI-e NIC in your system?

In terms of throughput the onboard Realtek variety do as well if not a tad better than the Intel PCI-e variety (in terms of performance consistency across a variety of NICs on the other side). The Intel PCI-e cards have lower CPU usage but seem to be more particular about what's on the other side. With a modern CPU (Core2Duo) you won't saturated the CPU with any gigabit NIC, so that's probably not a big concern.

 

[time]

No, consumer level devices don't have worthwhile security functions. If you want that, you're looking at a Sonicwall, a Fortinet or a Symantec end-point device.

Hmmm, I guess it depends on the device. Vigor 2100n is the baby of the DrayTek family, but it still provides Stateful Packet Inspection and DoS protection. And a whole heap of other stuff that's probably more suited to a small business rather than a home user, but it's nice to have the option in case you do need it at some stage.

Looks like it also includes VOIP and QoS capability, but not gigabit ethernet. I'd suggest a separate gigabit switch for that; it's cheaper and gives you far more choices.

Adcadet hasn't stated whether or not he's DSL-connected, but there's another model (2710n) that includes a DSL modem. I've been using the predecessor to that for 3.5 years. It handles two handsets, switches between multiple VOIP providers and a physical telephone line on demand, auto-dials IPSEC VPNs, supports two laptops via 802.11g, balances throughput and sessions between several users (and VOIP), and turns off MSN after 11pm weekdays and after 11:45pm weekends (kids). I don't need to reboot it, it just works.

I've had a more powerful model at a client's site in a different country for 5 years now. A week ago, I actually had to ask them to power cycle it for the first time. They hadn't been using the wireless capability, and when I remotely switched it on, it didn't work. Its webserver wouldn't talk to me the day before, but I was able to use telnet to reboot it - another first. Probably time to consider replacing it.

 

[Mercutio]

Hmmm, I guess it depends on the device. Vigor 2100n is the baby of the DrayTek family, but it still provides Stateful Packet Inspection and DoS protection.

I'm about 99% positive that everything that's been sold in the last five or so years does those things as part of the built-in firewall crap that's in pretty much all consumer-class routers.

Being able to forward L2TP is an example of something that would be present in a business-class product but not a consumer one.

 

[time]

You mean like this?

Because the DrayTek functions as a VPN endpoint (host), you obviously need to disable that as well if you want to forward.

You're probably right that most routers now include some form of SPI and DoS protection, at least ones that aren't bargain basement anyway. What sort of worthwhile security functions are you talking about?

 

[Mercutio]

L2TP forwarding is an oddball because it's not just a matter of forwarding a TCP or UPD port, but correctly forwarding an IP subprotocol that the firmware may or may not allow.

Also, as far as I know, Draytech products are not sold in the US. At least not under that brand name. The screenshots remind me a lot of SMC's, though.

But anyway, wider security features might include virus/malware scanning for incoming traffic or some kind of configurable proxy server. That's the kind of stuff you start to see on $500+ devices, but short of building your own Linux-based system you probably aren't going to get it in cosumerland.

 

[Adcadet]

Just got back from Ohio - whew!

I was asking about NICs because I thought my wife's PC only had a 10/100 onboard NIC. Now that I'm home, I've realized that it is indeed a 10/100/1000 adapter, just like mine.

Also, I'm on a cable connection.

 

[Mercutio]

We're pretty far away from what you were asking about, but in your case I'd probably recommend something like a Linksys WRT160. I'm not sure you'd need or use the USB or Gigabit ports on the 600-series Linksys routers.

 

[time]

L2TP forwarding is an oddball because it's not just a matter of forwarding a TCP or UPD port, but correctly forwarding an IP subprotocol that the firmware may or may not allow.

Yes, it supports this.

Also, as far as I know, Draytech products are not sold in the US.

The link I included is actually to one of the US distributors, you can buy it directly from there at least.

But anyway, wider security features might include virus/malware scanning for incoming traffic or some kind of configurable proxy server. That's the kind of stuff you start to see on $500+ devices, but short of building your own Linux-based system you probably aren't going to get it in cosumerland.

You mean like this?

 

[time]

The pictures were for general interest, BTW. The fact remains that even that entry-level DrayTek is nearly US$200, and the feature set just isn't what most home users need.

Adcadet, given that both your PCs are gigabit-enabled, I'd have to second Handruin's suggestion of the D-Link DIR-655. It incorporates a gigabit switch, is easy to configure, extremely popular and recommended by Handy himself. And it's available for around US$100.

This may be too obvious, but I guess you do realize that you need N on the wireless clients as well?

Just a note on brands: D-Link routers used to be shockers, with poor firmware, poor performance and excessive heat. Things have changed an awful lot. Last year, I was looking for 802.11g PCI adaptors (802.11n was too expensive, and as other people here have said, pointless for internet access). Incredibly, Netgear hadn't updated their 802.11g drivers for years, and hadn't bothered to write one for Vista or Windows 7. At the time, I could not even find a driver on Cisco's Linksys site! D-Link, on the other hand, was able to supply everything, the drivers worked perfectly first time, and there's been none of the subsequent problems that seem to plague a typical Netgear deployment. :roll:

Having said that, it looks like D-Link's expensive DIR-685 'storage' router must suck an awful lot of power for a network appliance. They don't admit how much, but I notice that maximum ambient operating temperature is limited to 30C! Ouch.

Fortunately, the DIR-655 is rated up to 55C ...

 

[Adcadet]

Time and Handy - thanks for the opinion on the D-link 655. The thing the 655 lacks is dual-band and dual-radio - but I honestly don't think I need that and would prefer to save the $50 that something like the Netgear 3700 would cost me. I'm off to Newegg shortly to use my Christmas gift card - my family finally got the hint that I prefer Newegg gift cards to Best Buy ones!

Yes, I realize that I need an N client for N's benefits. Right now I have no equipment that are N-capable, but I would hate to spend money now on a G device only to wish I had an N router in a short time.

 

[Adcadet]

Any reason I can't use my old (some >10 years old) Cat5e (one cable says "enhanced Category 5 350 MHz") cables for gigabit ethernet? Any reason to buy new Cat6 cables?

 

[ddrueding]

no problem. it will work fine.

 

[Handruin]

I've had the DIR-655 for over a year, if not close to it. I've been really impressed with this unit. Like time, I used to regard D-Link as something to avoid. I took a chance after reading lots of reviews on this router. I didn't care about the extra dual-band or dual-radio as the price wasn't worth it. I was also taking a chance while the N was still in draft phase so I didn't want to be hosed multiple hundreds of dollars if this device became incompatible once it was finalized. My need to upgrade came when my cable internet speeds were upgraded to 16/2 Mb. My old Netgear was not able to communicate faster than 10Mb over the WAN -> LAN connection which was ridiculous. Not to mention that Netgear was in constant need of being restarted because of loss of connections. When I read the review on small netbuilder on how good the WAN -> LAN speed was with the DIR-655, I was sold. That and it was also a GigE switch helped seal the deal.

Anyway, for my needs, my following network is fairly simple, but has been very reliable. The user interface works very well and the unit has plenty of features for home use. It even has a customizable guest wifi access if you want to let friends in, but separate them from your home network and also restrict them during certain hours.

The way I have everything configured is as below:

Cable modem connects directly into the DIR-655 via Cat5e cable.

A cat 6 cable runs from the DIR-655 over to my netgear 8-port 10/100/1000 switch. My three computers connect to that switch, sometimes it is four when I use my laptop upstairs at my desk.

Downstairs I have Linksys WGA600N gaming adapter configured to use WPA encryption. It's single port connects to my linksys 10/100 switch via cat 5e that sits right next to it. I might also add that this little gaming adapter has also been rock solid. Before getting the bluray player, it was directly connected to the xbox and also worked perfect.

Both my xbox 360 and my Samsung bluray connect to the Linksys 10/100 switch via cat 5e. They can both connect simultaneously over the Linksys 600N to the D-Link DIR-655 without issue. I've also connected other systems into the 10/100 switch and they all seem to work fine over the WGA600N. I also use my Lenovo via 802.11 N at the same time.

 

[Handruin]

Any reason I can't use my old (some >10 years old) Cat5e (one cable says "enhanced Category 5 350 MHz") cables for gigabit ethernet? Any reason to buy new Cat6 cables?

I agree they should be fine. If not, monoprice.com has cheap prices on cat 6 cables. I bought a bunch of 25' @ $4/each and one 100' for $11-$12 and they all work fine at GigE speeds.

 

[Adcadet]

Thanks, Handy. A 655 will be delivered later this week from Newegg, and I hope to install it shortly thereafter depending on my degree of sleep deprivation. I've read about the ability to give friends internet-only wifi access, which will be a nice plus. Thanks for the reference to Monoprice; the prices seem fantastic. I'll see if my old Cat5e cables give me gigabit speeds and if not, I'll hit up Monoprice.