wireless routers

This is a real tough question because if you ask 100 people, you'll get 100 different answers.

Questions as to reliability, for example, are difficult to answer because reliability seems to vary even within a single manufacturer. For example, some Linksys models are rock solid and others are extremely flaky. Sometimes, a newer version of a particular model is more or less reliable than the previous version.

I think it just boils down to what are your needs, what features do you want, what's your budget, and try and buy from a retailer that has an easy return policy.

Paradime said:

This is a real tough question because if you ask 100 people, you'll get 100 different answers.

Questions as to reliability, for example, are difficult to answer because reliability seems to vary even within a single manufacturer. For example, some Linksys models are rock solid and others are extremely flaky. Sometimes, a newer version of a particular model is more or less reliable than the previous version.

I think it just boils down to what are your needs, what features do you want, what's your budget, and try and buy from a retailer that has an easy return policy.

Click to expand...

aw c'mon, don't exaggerate, maybe 80 different answers.

Linksys, Dlink, Belkin are usually cheaper than an Airport, but I've experienced a few routers from both Linksys, Dlink, and one from Belkin. As Paradime says it's up to you. I was looking for an upgrade to my old linksys and tried a few from those companies, I was rather dissapointed by Linksys stability, it tended to crash with large file transfers (even with a firmware update), returned it, Dlink didn't play nice with my modem, tech support was quite useless, returned, I got a Belkin, a few problems, but they were ironed out over time, it was the best wireless network I had at the time, all of them dissappointing and they were all draft N. I would say the best network, I've had is the Airport Extreme.

I've had Linksys and two different D-Link wireless models. At various times, all had conniptions. I got quite fed up troubleshooting wireless issues.

Best by far is my trusty Airport Extreme (802.11g). Worth every penny, in my books.

The most reliable non-Apple wireless router I've ever had was an Asanté. Unfortunately, Asanté no longer supplies wireless routers. As has already been mentioned, the next most reliable, and by FAR the easiest to manage and configure, is an Apple Extreme Base Station. All others would appear to be hit and miss.

I shelled out for an Apple Extreme (802.11n) Base station a few months ago, and not only was it amazingly easy to set up, it's faster than I expected and it has been working flawlessly 24/7 since day one. Just yesterday, I was video chatting with friends on the West Coast, and decided to show them around our yard, and then some of our neighborhood by walking around our crescent with my MBP.

The only drawback I can comment on is that I just bought a 500GB disk to hang off of the router as a shared network drive, and it turns out that the enclosure I purchased is not compatible with the 'AirDrive' feature of the router. So check that out in advance if you plan to use the network drive feature.

Cheers

airport extreme it will be...

but a quick question, do i still need my telus adsl modem or can I connect directly through the airport?

spotted dogs said:

but a quick question, do i still need my telus adsl modem or can I connect directly through the airport?

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You will still need the telus dsl modem. Basically it's phone line -> dsl modem -> network cable -> airport . The airport is just a wireless router, it only routes to and from the modem.

thanks

thanks..that is kinda what i figured.
cheers,
P

spotted dogs said:

outside of airport, any recommendations? I am running a d link 524 and it is coming to the end of its life so I am looking for an upgrade and getting some first hand experience/ suggestions?

I have an ibook g4 and telus high speed (d link 300g modem)

cheers,
P

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Bought one hasn't let me down so far... and under $20 bucks.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=506421&Sku=N100-1473

spotted dogs said:

outside of airport, any recommendations? I am running a d link 524 and it is coming to the end of its life so I am looking for an upgrade and getting some first hand experience/ suggestions?

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In what sense does your D Link 524 get to the end of its life?

I just started to hook up a wireless network that will eventually have six Macs on it and I'm starting with a 524 because I had one kicking around.
So far things work fine, but I just hooked up the first two Macs with airport cards today.
Is there anything I should be aware of as far as the 524 is concerned?

krs,

The DI-524 is likely the most reliable non-Apple wireless router on the market. It's my second choice after Apple. No tricks or hoops to jump through.

I don't know about the DI-524, but the DI-624 isn't very good with the Apple cards. I've got a MacBook and since some patch they pushed out about 8 months ago, it keeps dropping when connected with the D-link. Do a Google search on "MacBook D-link problem" to see some comments. It's a known problem.

No Problem, now
go enjoy the wonderfull world for wireless networking. Just don't forget to use WPA (WPA 2 if your router supports it) and password protect your internet.

Di 524

it seems to be dropping signals and slowing down some (but that may be a telus issue) but from the outset it would not play nice with my mac setting up a wpa/wep keys. I would keep dropping me so eventually I gave up and set up MAC filtering and disabled my ssid. Other than that issue it has served me pretty well the past two years.

spotted dogs said:

.............but from the outset it would not play nice with my mac setting up a wpa/wep keys. I would keep dropping me so eventually I gave up and set up MAC filtering and disabled my ssid. Other than that issue it has served me pretty well the past two years.

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Oh boy............
Shows you what I know about wireless networking, namely zip.

I just installed the first airport card into the eMac, stuck the D-Link router between the DSL modem and the MacMini which was connected to the modem directly previously, went to the eMac Airport setup on the eMac where I found my neighbour's network and one called "default" which I assumed was the D-Link one.
So I selected that and internet access seemed to work fine on the emac now.
Then went to the D-Link website to add a password. selected the same password on the eMac, enabled encryption and that was it.
Up till now anyway.
No clue what wpa/wpe keys are, why I need MAC filtering and what ssid is.
Do I need to worry about any of that?
And is there any way to m easure the speed of the wireless link?

KRs, check this review out, it should answer most of your questions. One thing I would suggest is to switch from WEP (the encryption method )to WPA which is much more secure..

Modify the instructions here to set up WPA-PSK.

SSID- Service set identifier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Very simply put this is the name of your wireless network, currently yours is "default". It can be changed to whatever you want.

MAC filtering--This is denying access to your network to any (wireless) network card whose unique number (Media Access Control) is not on the approved list.

Hiding the SSID and using MAC filtering will not do much to hold of most people interested in your network. There are tutorials all over the internet.

What works well is WPA2 encryption.

I've been running Netgear Routers and switches for years now, never any problems and that was even in a mixed Mac & PC environment. All Mac now and still all good. I'm sure the router you guys are referring to is functionally great as well. This is a minor point but I think the Netgear products just look WAY better and aesthetically fit into a Mac environment more nicely.

Daktari said:

KRs, check this review out, it should answer most of your questions. One thing I would suggest is to switch from WEP (the encryption method )to WPA which is much more secure..

Modify the instructions here to set up WPA-PSK.

SSID- Service set identifier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Very simply put this is the name of your wireless network, currently yours is "default". It can be changed to whatever you want.

MAC filtering--This is denying access to your network to any (wireless) network card whose unique number (Media Access Control) is not on the approved list.

Hiding the SSID and using MAC filtering will not do much to hold of most people interested in your network. There are tutorials all over the internet.

What works well is WPA2 encryption.

Click to expand...

Thanks - that's great info and tells me what I need to know.