Help! need router rcommendation

Without getting really excited about them, I see that Linksys has a line of "better" routers for a few more bucks. For instance;

If you are going up to 40 machines you need to seperate the router from the switch. Pick a model of 24 port switch and buy two. Cross connect them so the router doesn't see any packets it doesn't have to process.

Now that you've seperated the PC cabling from the router function, you might shop for a router/firewall/spam filter product if it solves a problem you have.

Thank you sir. I want to try the setup that you suggested. Let me just make sure if i got you right. I will run a cat5 cable from a port in switch A to a port in switch B. Connect most of the pc's in switch B and connect the router in switch A. Thereby the pc's would access the router only if they connect to the internet. Do i got it right? Hope you will bear with me. Im a newbie in networking. Thanks again.

I think you might need a crossover cable to go between switches in this case. The extra switch also adds some redundancy.

Randy R

As suggested by Al Dykes, I tried using two switches. One Dlink 24 port and 1 Cnet 8 port. I distributed the pc's among the two switches. And as suggested by the Dlink website, i connected the two switches to the router. The 2 switches are not linked to each other. It seems to work, no more disconnections so far. Many thanks.

Althoug I think this may work only for the current number of pc's.

Glad to hear I got something right, but in this case I think someone else said that.

How many people do you have now and what is your growth plan.

Do you have any servers?

Switches come in 16, 24, and I guess 48 port flavors.

Pick a professional brand and model switch so that you can get a second identical unit when you've outgrown the first one. Use the switch-to-switch crossconnect feature (which may be a propriatery cable or may be a gigabit link) to give yourself more ports. This will give you a some advantages. One of them is that your router only handles traffic as needed and your company LAN will continue to operate if you have to reboot the router.

If you have your own servers this is very important.

I like the HP procurve line and there are tons of them on Ebay for cheap. They have a lifetime warranty from HP, so you can't go wrong. They run forever.

Get yourself an HP4000m Procurve switch on eBay for a couple hunred bucks (40 managed ports with lots of expansion capability). Buy a second one as a spare later and you're set for life. If and when you get gigabit ethernet machines you'll be able to buy GBE modules for the HP4000 as needed.

You will also need to make sure you dont in advertanty create any loops and/or that STP is running

That's something that I was wondering about. How does a non-managed switch handle something like this, and how can you avoid this?

Randy R

Yes. A Cisco CRS-1 or Juniper T-640, or even a Nortel BCN (wellfleet/bay networks) can all handle that sort of load quite easily at wire speed, do NAT, etc.

(next time specify what your budget is!)

I suppose a non managed switch could implement STP, and just use defaults that cannot be changed, but I have not seen such.

Other than that, only getting managed (or smart switches, as they call the ones that seem to do all the normal managed switch stuff EXCEPT for SNMP, so you can't really call them "managed") is your best bet. They can be cheap enough in this day and age.

Oh my!! crs-1 is around $450,000. I think even my country's government cant afford that. LOL. Anyway I think I got your point. :)

I wnt to buy the best router But Not More Than what I need. Im sorry but I cant convert this into dollars.

My requirements are:

1. Can handle maximum 40 pc's.
2. Dual WAN ports
3. Load balancing
4. Security
5. Reliability, Stablility. (doesnt lose connection from time to time )
6. Simplicity ( All I know about a router is that its a box that allow internet sharing :)

Have a nice day. :)

Oh my!! crs-1 is around $450,000. I think even my country's government cant afford that. LOL. Anyway I think I got your point. :)

I wnt to buy the best router But Not More Than what I need. Im sorry but I cant convert this into dollars.

My requirements are:

1. Can handle maximum 40 pc's.
2. Dual WAN ports
3. Load balancing
4. Security
5. Reliability, Stablility. (doesnt lose connection from time to time )
6. Simplicity ( All I know about a router is that its a box that allow internet sharing :)

Have a nice day. :)

Oh my!! crs-1 is around $450,000. I think even my country's government cant afford that. LOL. Anyway I think I got your point. :)

I wnt to buy the best router But Not More Than what I need. Im sorry but I cant convert this into dollars.

My requirements are:

1. Can handle maximum 40 pc's.
2. Dual WAN ports
3. Load balancing
4. Security
5. Reliability, Stablility. (doesnt lose connection from time to time )
6. Simplicity ( All I know about a router is that its a box that allow internet sharing :)

Have a nice day. :)

Have you looked at the Netgear FVS124G?

And don't forget to scan the support forums at the Netgear web site. I started looking at that unit until I read how much fun folks were having with them. And these forums are run by Netgear!

Thanks for the tip. I visited their website and I'm inclined toward the FVX538 which seem to have amazing specs and price.( $380 at amazon.com. ) Can I really get such value for that price? I would be glad to know what others have to say about this model. Thanks

I also found these routers from

TL-R4000+. Its got all i need and more. Has anyone tried these? Thank in advance

Search the Netgear forums. They seem to be uncensored and very candid about some of the on going problems with various products. I decided against the FVS124G after reading about it there.