[Resolved] Wireless routers...

tekky

Yup I'm taking advantage of the EL!!!! 😃

I'm about to be setting up wireless at my home for my wifes laptop, and I have been trying to find a place that compares them more than just saying "some people say this... others that"

so does anyone have any facts (or opinions so long as they are labled as such) regarding which wireless routers are best... my 3 prime features....

good range/sig strength
works with M$ and Unix (Mac isnt important)
have a few wired ports for desktops that are near it

Let the off topic replies begin! 😃

no really... I would appreciate some input on this 😉

LordShryku

Well man, your requirements are a little off base. The signal strength/range is valid, so that's the statistics to look for. I don't know what the full range of my Linksys is, but it handles everything I need. As for working with MS and Nix, that isn't going to be affected by the router, but by the card receiving the signal. Then for the wired ports, most of them have this in there now that people are using them for routers instead of just access points.

tekky

well unfortunately the ones I have found that I liked (either aestetically or because of functional reviews) have claimed to be M$ only, and or did not have wired ports grumble so I had to list them

LordShryku

Which ones are you looking at?

I can't see how a router could be OS specific. They shouldn't need a computer to run, let alone a certain OS. I'd say that if something says MS only, I'd steer far clear of it. They probably have some interface that requires MS to install it on, and it that's the case, they're probably in MS's pockets. Damn dirty apes :mad:

tekky

well I was lookig at IOgear, but they dont have switched ports, so I was looking at either netgear or DLink or linksys (since the MS ones claim M$ only even though I heard the best about their signals)

piersk

Linksys all the way! I've never had a problem with any of their stuff and (off the top of my head) I know of about 5 or 6 different households who have a Linksys wireless router.

goldbug

I'd say it's hard to go wrong with Linksys these days. Good price/value, and often have Cisco guts. 🙂

That being said, I personally use a really weird old device from back in the 802.11b-only days. It's by Hawking, tis a 802.11b wireless access point and 3-(parallel)-port print server. It's definitely served it's purpose and been reliable. It uses a web interface for configuring, so it doesn't matter what OS I use. Unfortunately, its print server duties will be phased out soon, as a lot of new printers don't have parallel ports any more.

tekky

Originally posted by piersk
Linksys all the way! I've never had a problem with any of their stuff and (off the top of my head) I know of about 5 or 6 different households who have a Linksys wireless router.

how good is the signal/range though?

piersk

Originally posted by tekky
how good is the signal/range though?

It will last fine throughout a house. Having re-read my last post, it sounds like I meant that there was one router between 5 or 6 houses...

Originally posted by goldbug
a really weird old device

Sounds like the owner :p

LordShryku

Here's the one I have. I don't think a number could acuratly be put to signal range, but like I said before, no problems here. I hooked one of these up for a VP here as well, and his house is at least 3000 square feet. Last I heard, he hasn't had any signal problems.

Also, saw the min requirements say Windows, but that's crap. It's for the bundled software they send you, which I've yet to figure out what that even does. It has a web based interface, so there's no need to install anything.

And as a bonus, they're the only networking company I know of that releases their firmware code under the GPL...

tekky

Originally posted by piersk
It will last fine throughout a house. Having re-read my last post, it sounds like I meant that there was one router between 5 or 6 houses...

Eh, you read to deeply into your own words 😛

and I think I may have to go with Linksys... Shryku has some valid points and I believe the bundled software is similiar to the DLINK site survey app... (gives a fairly detailed graph of the signal strength over a short period of time and lists all the SSID's in the area)

incidently that is the linksys router I was looking at (between it and the DLINK)

LordShryku

Just as an afterthought, while the router works great for me, if you plan to use Linksys adapters as well, you should know that they're not natively supported under most Linux distributions. I've gotten them to work under Fedora and Gentoo though, using ndiswrapper.

tekky

well how about the "super" G modes that support 104Mbit... are those interchangeable with router brands and wifi cards? Ie linksys super G router and a dlink super G card....

tekky

hmmm another thought....

what advantage do I have by having open source firmware? are there any nice hacks/mods out there for them etc?

LordShryku

Well, you're one of the last people I thought I'd have to explain the beneifts of open source software to....

But yes, there are a lot of firmware mods out there. Just look around.

tekky

Originally posted by LordShryku
Well, you're one of the last people I thought I'd have to explain the beneifts of open source software to....

But yes, there are a lot of firmware mods out there. Just look around.

i know i know just doesnt seem like something many people would bother with....

and yah I just got home pretty much been in and out between home and work so I couldnt look anything up :p

AstroTeg

If I remember correctly from one of my Best Buy friends, if you pop the hood of a Linksys, DLink, and Netgear router, you'll find they're all using the same exact chipset mounted on very similar boards. The main difference being the packaging and case. Which to me means you can go with either of these brands and do just fine.

The Linksys WRT54G has 3rd party firmware available. I'm not sure about the other flavors of Linksys (there's a newer version of WRT54G that is firmware friendly as well). The older models can have their firmware upgraded as well, but I don't believe there's any 3rd party ones available for them (yet). I have a cheap B version which I've upgraded the firmware on already, but there's no 3rd party ones available for it.

As for signal strength, I think you won't find much of a difference in performance if you're strictly looking at the routers. My guess would be antenna configuration would be the big factor in performance (and as you've probably noticed, the antenna config is about the same on most of the WAPs out there). Something to look at is your wireless network card's performance. How much power is available to the antenna? Can it accept an external antenna?

Another thing to think about is the WAP's physical placement. If you put it in a corner in your basement, you won't have the best performance. If you have a small house, you have nothing to worry about. If you have a large house, then you'll want to place the WAP in the center of your computing activity.

Elizabeth

A bit late for this reply, and it's a clear violation of the general bulletin board guidelines since it really adds nothing new to the conversation, but I'm a mod so :p.

All I have to say is we've been using Linksys routers at home and at work for quite a while now and haven't had any problems - and the range is quite good on both counts.

piersk

Originally posted by Elizabeth
but I'm a mod so :p.

And I'm going to stick out my bottom lip and stamp my foot if you say otherwise 😃

tekky

Originally posted by Elizabeth
A bit late for this reply, and it's a clear violation of the general bulletin board guidelines since it really adds nothing new to the conversation, but I'm a mod so :p.

All I have to say is we've been using Linksys routers at home and at work for quite a while now and haven't had any problems - and the range is quite good on both counts.

aye, but I dont recall the EL being part of the bulletin board that Buzzly refered too... thats in the Help section... :evilgrin: