This is small office/home use, 2 or 3 connections. Max broadband speed available is 1Mb/s.
I'll be buying two units, one will be primarily a router and the other will primarily be an AP, but it suits for redundancy purposes to have two identical units.
Any opinions of which one's to go for? Should I be concerned at the lack of external aerial on the Linksys? I primarily want reliability of connection.
Given that I can buy at similar costs one of the two stated products and that I have had a lot of bad experiences with a number of brands leading to an earlier posting where people recommended that I ditch the C&W product I am using and buy something else do you have a sensible opinion on which, if any, would be a better buy?
PS I tend to buy from suppliers that are easy to buy from in terms of any credit terms, returns policy, guarantees, customer service, goods delivery tracking etc etc, and one of these suppliers is offering the products I am looking at.
Those very considerations are the numerous reasons that I buy most of my electronic goods including routers from my local electronics store.
That store has an excellent returns policy; shortly after purchase the return policy is basically 'no questions asked' - that is, the item doesn't even have to be broken, just that it turned out that I didn't want it after all. Then there is a significantly longer period in which I can return an item and get a refund or a replacement because of problems with the device.
And thus and especially there is no problem about shipping costs or return shipping considerations both of which are huge considerations for something which might not work satisfactorily in your environment.
I also d > I'll be buying two units, one will be primarily a router and the other > will primarily be an AP, but it suits for redundancy purposes to have > two identical units.
That sounds to me like you think that the same device, the DSL modem/router can be used as an access point, as if it were multifunctional in both those capacities.
He may have seen or heard that a wireless router can easily be repurposed as an access point, but I don't think the same is true when starting with a modem-router combo unit, is it?
First; I don't know what he meant. Second; I wouldn't speak 'generically' that there is no such thing anywhere as a router with a DSL modem that can't also be an access point. Third; I still don't comprehensively understand why this discussion is limited to just these two significantly different products and (yet) no others. Fourth: I also don't comprehensively understand exactly what kind of target mission the device we should be looking for should have.
Somehow I sense that some salesman or sales process said, "Here are two different dsl-modems 'on sale'/forsale, which one do you want?" just as the shoe salesman limits his sales pitch to the woman to (just) 2 different shoes so that she won't be confused by being offered too many choices.
There's some more context in the thread "Wireless connection driving me crazy." that started 20th March.
Why do you think that *wouldn't* be the case? All the consumer-grade DSL routers with Wifi that I've seen bridge their wireless and wired ethernet ports, making them access points.
I guess I'll have to look that up. For all I know his 'state of mind' isn't the same now as it was 4.5 weeks ago. I was sorta hoping he would say what his current intentions are.
I looked over the promotional overview for the Cisco N and the Netgear G and the site didn't seem to be 'talking about' such a multimode functionality. Being a wireless access point for a router's function isn't the same thing as being a wireless bridge client.
The only device I have which is multifunctional is (just) an access point, and it clearly promotes itself as that multifunction.
If you feel that both the Cisco and Netgear devices are capable of functioning as anything but a wireless connnectivity for their router function I would like for you to show me that in their docs.
May be other Buffalo but I don't think I can recommend my Buffalo. My Buffalo works pretty well, no problem with connecting to any remoted system. But the only problem that it can only be able to connect to SINGLE wireless system.
Yup! I still have the same problem from day one which was some years ago. I am thinking about replacing it with the LinkSys WRT160N then I read quite afew people saying that Linksys firmware is so bad, and recommand using the
3rd party firmware etc.. And I don't know much about wireless router, or I don't know anything about 3rd party firmware so I still stuck with the Buffalo.
My question would be is it Linksys WRT160N ok with the default firmware? If I have to replace with 3rd party firmware then how difficult? I do upgrade firmware on other hardware like DSLR camera, cellphone, GPS etc.. but don't have much idea about the wireless router.
Summer is coming soon, some of my grandkids from different states and country (one of mine is studying oversea for Master degree) will come to stay with us for few weeks.
if you just want something that works, dont you already have a dsl modem with an ethernet port? why do you need another dsl modem? first look for wap's (combo ap and router in the same box) instead of wag's, and just look for which is on sale/cheapest/available locally (i ended up with a linksys cuz they sell em at walmart/can get another in a few minutes), plugs into either my dsl modem or cable modem or sat receiver or voip box ((all have ethernet ports)), and theres a walmart a few blocks away)
have no clue why you would even want the alternate firmware, but have had several previous models over the past few years and now a 160, works great with all 6 of my puters, 3 tivos, ipod, tablet, pda, powerline network etc... , and did right out of the box, never used the alternate firmware, no problems, and even recovers nicely after a power failure
tried a buffalo once, it died, and happened to be when they weren't selling em in the us, then i found they have netgear and linksys stuff at walmart
Sorry if I've confused people, I tried to keep the question simple but here is the situation.
I have the following arrangement:
C&W AP (home) -> Linksys WAP54G -- 400m wireless bridge mode -- Linksys WAP54G (office) -> C&W router -> ADSL and LAN
The basic arrangement has been in for around 4 years. The two items that have caused me problems are the home AP, and the router.
For the home AP I have used a DLINK DWL-700AP which gave me lots of connection problems. It failed on a power cut (the transformer still works).
For the router I have used a Safecom SAMR-4114 router, which just after being out of guarantee failed to deliver the ADSL signal.
When the Safecom failed (before the DLINK did) I was obviously without ADSL internet and I popped into town and the Cable & Wireless ADSLR10CW3XI Wireless ADSL2 + Modem router seemed to fit the bill. Cable & Wireless was a name I knew and as I was in a hurry I did no prior research. It installed immediately and as my wife was passing the same store next day I got her to get another one as backup.
When the DLINK AP failed I put the C&W backup there, simply disabling the ADSL feature. As per the DLINK I would get strange results* connecting hence the earlier thread.
So it has been in my mind the past few weeks to replace. If I replace with identically flexibile units then if the office router fails I will sacrifice internet at home and use that unit until I get a replacement.
This week I have seen offers of the Linksys and Netgear which seem well priced. I have assumed that either of them would act as either AP on its own (why wouldn't it?), or as a non-wireless router on its own. The 4-port switch option is handy.
So both are well known names, the Linksys having the Cisco name behind it would in my mind give it the edge but I worry about the lack of external aerial. The bridged Linksys units have been faultless (touch wood).
Someone has mentioned Buffalo, but my original, and I thought, simple question was opinions on Linksys v Netgear. If neither then what?
It is a small lightly used system, 2 - 3 users and as the village is miles away from the exchange then 1Mbit/s is about the best I can get so I don't believe I need the top latest state of art box. Just something pretty basic and reliable both as an electronic device and in performance.
The most usual strange result was the the wireless would say "Connected" but I could not ping the AP even if I used a static IP. I most often got this if on the home laptop shared with my wife. She would get a proper connection most times but when I logged in I would get the "Connected" but not be connected to the network. Usually a repair connection would fix it. A reboot of the AP (whether DLINK or C&W) always fixed it. Also most times if I brought the office laptop home that would connect even if the home laptop didn't.
Usually both machines at home do work.
If you've got this far many thanks for your patience.
Linksys or Netgear (or what else would you suggest please).
It may sound easy for you guys, but as I said I don't know much about Wireless Router to start with. So, I believe I have upgraded something from Buffalo itself (the setting has option upgrade some software via web setting) and that's all I did.
And I don't know anything about Tomato or Potato. IOW, I believe the firmware is newer than the original version as I tried to increase the number of connection (to somewhere around 64 or so) and changing the security which I though it may be the problem, and the setting has option to UPGRADE some newer software (firmware, WRT?) which I believe I did TWICE.
3rd party firmware, NO I don't have any clue what I suppose to do so I never tried any 3rd party WRT (is it DD-WRT?).
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