Router for home

[MisterGoof]

I'm looking to buy a router for home, with wireless (>54mbps) and wired capability. Budget is upto £70.

Are thre any makes I should avoid or any recomedations as good'uns.

MG

[WxMan]

Go for a Linksys

WAG54G

[dazza12]

Unfortunately £70 doesn't give you many options. I'd seriously think of adding a bit to it. It's your main gateway, your firewall (possibly) and a possible entry point into your network (wireless) so you need something that works properly.

If you don't get the Linksys, avoid Netgear like the plague. DLink tend to be mostly poor, Buffalo seem to be too new to comment on.

I've had my best results with a particular Belkin model. Can't remember the exact model, but PC World were selling it. They have 2 models, the cheaper, only 54g model which seems to be problematic. There is another one that goes up to 108Mbs which I've had no problems with. Only problem is that you'll need to increase your budget by £20. But it's worth it. I've also heard some good reports about the BT kit, unsuprisingly it's not actually made by them so don't let the name put you off.

Untimately it depends on what you are going to run on it - if you are thinking of P2P, forget it with a cheap router, as they can't handle the number of connections that'll be going through it.

So, I'd agree with WxMan's recommendation, or go for the Belkin 108Mbs unit. Whatever model you go for, do a search on the make and model number on Google - the best place to find out if you're going to have a problem is to see if it's being slagged off in a tech forum.

[HankWangford]

Netgear

dazza,
and your problem with netgear is.....

[MisterGoof]

Re: Netgear

Just orderd WRT54GS
The belkin 108mbs was nearly twice the price.

Thanks

MG

[fiddleabout]

Re: Netgear

You do realise that although the name is "Wireless broadband router" that that model does not include an ADSL modem I hope. As you never specified you needed one I guess it's no problem. The Belkin one Dazza mentioned includes the modem.

[dazza12]

Re: Netgear

and your problem with netgear is.....

Have you got all day?

I have owned 2 routers from them, one wireless and one without. With both routers, I found them to be highly unreliable, very often needing a power off reset on a daily basis. The memory in these routers is low, combined with the chipset they use it has a problem coping with multiple connections - as used in P2P, games or a few other applications. The wireless unit simply could not maintain a signal for more than a minute, with encryption the signal was almost non-existant.

The Belkin kit that has replaced it has never suffered from slowdowns or dropped connections on the router side, and the wireless side seems to be able to maintain a signal. Due to the design of my house, I have a 2nd access point at the other end of my house, a D-Link unit, which again I have no problem with. My laptop and SPV M2000 PDA/phone connect to both with no problems at all. Skype is no problem for them, which generally tends to be a good test for wireless equipment.

A Google search will show I'm not the only one who's vowed never to own a Netgear product again. Check out the official (and the various unofficial) Netgear forums. Their support is also non-existant, refusing to admit my router had a problem despite proof to the contrary.

Added to that, I've recently binned my Netgear 5-port switch. I was recently getting slowdowns to various parts of my network, after replacing the hub with a more expensive Netgear model, I shortly had the same problems again. I've replaced this now with a different switch, and have not had any problems in the 2 months it's been installed.

[fiddleabout]

Re: Netgear

I had the "cheaper" Belkin model that dazza referred to and it was completely useless for reasons I posted here and I took it back for a refund.

I currently have a Draytek Vigor 2600G which is obscenely overpriced but it is absolutely rock solid.

[dephunked]

Re: Netgear

Some of the newer (or upcoming) DrayTek models have phone sockets so you can utilise your existing phone over VoIP; it can also switch between that and the PSTN.

[AtW]

my router

I used to use cheap 4 port Belkin that was dieing from time to time on Blueyonder, then switched to SMC Barricade -- a better router but still it was dieing sometimes, plus it was not efficient at handling multiple connections -- now my mate build a Linux router and its by far better thing -- latency (hello snaw!) reduced and it seems to be very stable all around. The cost might be higher than standalone router and you will have to know how to set it up