Best Router?

[rikytik]

Somebody said on this forum that Netgear was not good equipment.

I have owned and tried tried Linksys, D-Link, Belkin and SMC. So far netgear is the best, largely because it has a compelte configuration front end, good wireless setup and seems reliable.

Nevertheless, being an impulse buyer, and seeing a US Robotics "g" router on sale this a.m., I bought one. I dont' think much of the front end (configuation features). I'll give it a few days, but think I'll take it back for a refund. I did get a USB unit for my laptop and hope that works good with my netgear. I have at least 5 compteting wireless signals here and my laptop with internal wireless keeps wanting to log onto my neighbor's LInksys signal.

Almost like driving on a crowdeded autobahn in Germany with a speed limit.

So what is the concensus for routers? I vote for NetGear and give a boo and a his for D-Link. I like the Belkin unit, but NetGear has a better setup for wireless. Linksys is good gear, but has less range, at least in my case of passing through a floor full of metal ducting, to the floor below. Front of the building to the back from one floor to the next.

[DoG]

I had major problems with D-Link, it used to drop my connection after 15 mins and need resetting. I bought the USR Sure Connect ADSL modem & 4 port router combined (model 9105). The frontend was shitty for a while but it worked flawlesssly- now they have released a software update which seems to have fixed the bugs in the software and given it a few more configuration oprtions. I tried 4 routers before i got this one and am sticking with it!

All i need to do now is to figure out why it won't let me run an FTP server and i will be happy

[Sony]

I use linksys and love it
is running a sort of linux firmaware and you can really hack it so much and get many extra features and boost the range quite a bit from the stock firmware.

A good place for linksys firmaware is here: http://www.sveasoft.com/modules/phpBB2/index.php

Sony

[rikytik]

Thanks. Brief comments pening other contributions.

Dog, My USR 8xxx something or other seems to have crapped out. I could access the crappy interface, but today I get a failed connect. The wireless usb adaptor is fantastic and my laptop is happily connecting a a good rate to my Netgear router.

The D-Link I tried had a powerful wireless signal, but I did not like the features, and gave it to a buddy of mine who is hard up for bux.

I had a "g" Linksys and it was good except the wireless signal was weak and I have to go diagnally through a long distance from one floor to another.

I still have a Belkin "g" but it has poor security features. I'm not even sure Belkin is marketing that anymore. Good for a back up.

[rikytik]

The USR robotics 8054 crashed, but I got it working again with a 15 second push of the hard boot button. It configured ok for the LAN, plus a couple laptops with WEP encryption. Gave it a fair try, but, nope. It simply doesn't measure up to the Netgear 614v3.

The Netgear has a better thought out front end, clones network MAC address automatically so you can exclude other MAC address--great for wireless setups. In my neighborhood, I'm picking up as many as 5 wireless signals.

I also picked up a "g" USR wireless adaptor, which gives better reception than my Sony laptop's internal WiFi. That unit is pretty nice.

The USR router is going back to the store as a trade in on some other toy!

Sticking with Netgear--at least for now.

[unicorn]

Thank you for keeping us updated. I'm following threads like this with some interest.
Why? Because my D-Link sucks. How can that crap be sold everywhere, getting bundled and be allowed to spread around the Globe?

[rikytik]

cool link sony. I didn't know you could do things like that. Thanks

[rikytik]

Sony, you raised my level of curiosity.

I took my USR Robotics router back for a refund, but noted the new WRT54GS Linksys routers. Couldn't resist.

The signal is 30% weaker than the Netgear in my situation. Which is a lot. The setup screens are typical of older LinkSys and ver user friendly. Like the Netgear the setup screen can read the MAC addresses of attached wireless pc's and it is a sanp to add those to "permitted" netowrk machines.

Now, Sony, how do I amend the o/s o make it work at higher power, and will that shortne its life?

[Sony]

rikytik,
you will need to flash the firmware of the router (wrt54g) with a new firmware from sveasoft (it cost a few $ to subscribe to sveasoft )
if something goes wrong you can always flash it back with the original stock firmware.

I've been running mine at higher voltage for over 7month straigh (no problem so far) i also have a cantenna attached to my lynksy to boost the signal even more.

Now i can effectively get connection always over 70% around my house and withing floors i can even walt down the street and still get reception.
(most probably the cantenna)


here are all the new feature in the latest firmaware:

Quote:

Feature Additions

Compatible with both G and GS models

Linksys "AfterBurner" drivers with DMA

Setup
Default gateway for LAN ports

DDNS
Support for additional DDNS providers

Mac Address Clone
Clone MAC address for wireless device & WAN/Internet device

Advanced Routing
OSPF Routing
- stock RIP routing also supported

Wireless
Power mode selection
Antenna selection
Client mode (Ethernet bridging)
Adhoc mode
WDS peer-to-peer networking (10 links, multiple options)
Auto channel select option
AP Isolation option
AP Watchdog timer option

Applications & Gaming
Modified to forward to any IP address
Four-level QoS/Bandwidth Management
- select on MAC, IP, port, or services
- service packet inspection will track P2P, IM, etc. regardless of ports
- unlimited number of managed MAC's, IP addresses, ports, and services
- add/edit your own services and ports

Access Restrictions
Block P2P, IM, and other services
- service tracking will follow applications regardless of ports used

Administration
Bandwidth Management
Boot Wait
Cron
DHCP with static MAC->IP assignments
DNS Masq
Firewall control
Loopback option
NAS
NTP Client
PPP
PPTP VPN server
Resetbutton daemon
SSHD with public key or password login
Shorewall firewall
Syslog with remote logging
Telnet
Tftp

Diagnostics
Command Shell replaces ping and traceroute
Linux shell scripts rc_startup and rc_shutdown settable from the web

Status
Wireless signal strengths for clients, AP's, WDS links
Wireless Survey of nearby access points, power, etc.

Internal Modifications
BPAlogin fixes
Static DHCP leases
Added approximately 20 iptables filters
- include P2P, connection tracking
Added Quality of Service (for bandwidth mgmt)
Rewrote networking code for better stability
Added wireless connections daemon for client mode and WDS
Upgraded PPPD to 2.4.2
Added PPTP client and server
Various bug fixes to Linksys codebase
Latest Busybox
ADM6996 /proc interface
Replaced buggy Linksys PPPoE

New in Alchemy-pre5.2.3

VLAN and bridging support
- up to 16 vlan's supported on the 5 hardware ports

Remote monitoring and statistics (SNMP and remote Ntop)

Captive Portal

IPSEC (compile time option)

Client support
- support multiple attached hardware devices
- PPPoE, PPTP, Static, DHCP, or Heartbeat wireless client connection to other AP's

Multi-level QoS downlink support improvements
- support IMQ pseudo device for ingress policing
- SPI on all incoming data
- supports 4-level QoS for both Uplink and Downlink
- optimize HTB quantum for optimim rate policing

Port Triggering

IF you have a linksys is a good idea investing in subscribing at sveasoft to get access to all these goodies.

Hope it help as i just woke up and i'm stil sleeping ......


Sony