Wireless Routers

[furious trout]

Alright people, need some opinions on this one.
I'm planning on getting a wireless router. So looking for reccomendations. If you got one then lets here the good/bad stuff about them ^_^

FWIW i was considering the Linksys WRT54G (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=45023)
Any thoughts before i take the plunge?

[fillip]

Alright people, need some opinions on this one.
I'm planning on getting a wireless router. So looking for reccomendations. If you got one then lets here the good/bad stuff about them ^_^

FWIW i was considering the Linksys WRT54G (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=45023)
Any thoughts before i take the plunge?
BUY IT!!!
Oh yes, i'm gonna buy this one as sson as i have the cash. Heard nothing but great things about this router (only think i would consider is one of those aerials you can buy for a tenner off ebuyer too, helps with reception quality apparently)
This model is the one thats upgradeable for free i belive. The new firmware modifies it to be capable of 108mps speeds.

[Starbuck3733T]

Definitly flash the firmware. the WRT54G has a huge security hole in some of the older firmwares - an INTENTIONAL BACK DOOR. *Spits on linksys*

For my $, and because of this abhorent practice, I would buy a netgear or a dlink, or even low end cisco stuff if you've got the $.

[furious trout]

Thanks for the info Star, i was aware that a lot of people had to flash the firmware, but nobody mentioned that :mad:


Guess it's ltime to look at different kit (much as i'd love some Cisco stuff, funds will not stretch that far! :rolleyes: ) Another question, i've heard that it's best to use kit from one manufacturer (sp?) as this can dramtically improve performance i am considering the purchase of one of these (http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=38&prid=558) (for online Gran Turismo 4 should it ever come out) hence my desire to stick with Linksys, but if this isn't so much of a problem i will probably go for a Netgear or DLink Solution.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

Buy the linksys! Linksys is owned by cisco and is basically ciscos budget kit.

DO NOT GET NETGEAR!!!

Someone at work bought a netgear wireless router and plugged it into our network and it took the whole thing down. Basically it decided that it was every MAC address on the network so every other router had to constantly update its ARP cache and hit 100% untilisation. :rant:

A mate of mine also bought a netgear wireless cable routher and it qould just randomly drop the connection, RMA'd it for a new one and it did the same. Got a refund and bought a linksys and its been running fine for over a year. ^_^

[Starbuck3733T]

anecdotal at best, my friend. Sorry to say it.

So, to add fuel to the anecdotes, I've had more than a couple netgear APs and switches that quite happily hum along w\o any babysitting.

[toby]

i wouldnt go netgear myself after a few bad exps with their stuff but buffalo wifi products always seem pretty solid so i would go for them

[fillip]

I use linksys stuff already which was the basis for my decision. I gather that linksys routers also run a linux based software system which is now open source - has positive and negatives there i guess...


FWIW Dlink also do a games adapter for PS2 and Xbox - but i love the ease with which i setup my Linksys stuff in the past, so i'll stick with 'em for now, and as you say, the security issue has since been fixed with firmware updates

@ Star, don't s'pose you know which version of the firmware fixed the prob?

[furious trout]

update:: Bought the Linksys after all.
Updated the firmware and away we go, have to say i'm mightly impressed with it so far - get a signal all over our house (not bad considering a number of the walls are 2 foot thick :wacko: )

More than happy with my purchase :)

[Starbuck3733T]

latest firmwares should remove the backdoor, and you've done that.

[Greeny]

I like my USR 9106 personally, it supports many simultaneous connections at once (i.e. it rocks the Emule etc) and it runs busybody embedded linux which you can access through telnet. Most pleased with this router.
:)

I had a netgear setup the router/modem did nothing but continually lock up, even refreshing a large list of gameservers would lock it.
:rant: