Recommend Wireless Routers

First, I'm quite amazed at how much all of the routers cost in the UK (~ twice as much as in the US).

That having been said, my advice is as follows:

  • buy from a major manufacturer (i.e. one that sells numerous different wireless products and has shown a commitment to providing firmware updates to make their current products work properly)

  • buy the router and any wireless adapters from the same manufacturer

  • as is almost always the case with technology, assume that the throughput of whatever you buy will be slow compared to what will be available a year from now for the same price; so buy only what you need now (not in the future)

  • go with at least 802.11g (54Mbit/sec); anything faster currently uses proprietary methods that are usually only supported by the devices of one or a few manufacturers; this is not a problem if you buy everything from the same manufacturer but may affect the wireless networks of people living within a 100 feet or so of you

  • make sure that the device supports WPA (or WPA-PSK) encryption; just about all wireless devices should support WEP encryption but you want something that supports WPA as there are problems with WEP; when buying a wireless adapter, make sure that it supports WPA encryption under the OS you are using (an issue with anything prior to Windows XP); ideally, the devices would also be compatible with WPA2 (i.e. WPA using AES encryption as opposed to TKIP).

  • buy the cheapest device (or combination of devices) the satisfies the above points

Once you get the router...

  • turn on WPA-PSK encryption

  • change the default password of the router

  • change the default SSID of the router

-Yves

Reply to
Yves Konigshofer
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Hi guys,

I'm ready to venture into the world of wireless, however I am unsure of which wireless setup to buy. I'm probably going to buy a wireless router from this site - which wireless router should I go for. It will need to be compatible with windows. I am not the biggest expert when it comes to wireless so be easy on me :) thanks

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Reply to
***JB

Wow!

Thanks Yves, I'm sure all that information will come in handy when I purchase one - I'm probably gonna go for the 'NETGEAR DG834G v2 54Mbps ADSL Wireless Router'.

Reply to
***JB
***JB:

They are currently £45 at PC World, probably a fire sale before a replacement arrives ? Please note that Netgear make tons of cheap stuff, their firmware is flaky at best, needs to be constantly updated, and their support is non existent. So if it doesn't work out of the box, don't hesitate to take it back to PC World. That's what I did after wasting seven days, phoning Netgear support in India etc.

If you want to have piece of mind, buy Draytek Vigor 2600G, it's lot more expensive but solid enough for professional use. You should also consider the 2600VG with 2 VoIP phone sockets, you are likely to want VoIP in near future. Regards, Martin

Reply to
Martin²

Where is the best place to buy in USA? and what is the best model?

Best regards

Reply to
ma

Currently, Belkin's "Pre-N" router, F5D8230-4, is blowing away all others in the consumer-grade WiFi router market. It's range, throughput-at-a-distance and stability seem to be unrivaled. (note: it's NOT 802.11n - the standard for this has NOT been ratified yet - however the Pre-N router uses some of the key concepts that will likely be part of 802.11n, most notably MIMO - a multiple antenna technique, combined with digital signal processing, that takes advantage of the additional multipath information that multiple antennas introduce in order to get better range and throughput).

I've personally had great experience with it for the past 10 or 11 weeks in a large, complex, mixed environment. Also, the tests and reviews it has been receiving are all unanimously positive.

It's available at LOTS of retailed stores in the US, and as I recall, about the best price could be found at

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Highly recommended.

- Jon

Reply to
Jonathan Strong

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