Pros & Cons of Different Brands of Routers

[PeteF]

Hi All,
I'd like to open this thread to discuss the pros & cons of different
Brands of Routers. I'm mosly familiar with Linksys routers and they
are my personal preference for ease of setup and reliability.

Linksys Routers:
Pro - Easy to setup. Nice user interface in setup.
Pro - Multiple Routers Stack well.
Pro - Good support on vendor website
Pro - Case design w/feet allows for good air flow.
Con - Need a magifying glass just to read the model number.
Con - Manuals in Adobe format, pages do not print well. Text too small.

Netgear Routers:
Con - Odd case design, multiple Routers do not stack well.

Belkin Routers:
Con - I generaly dislike Belkin routers.
Con - Annoying User Interface, keeps asking for password.
Con - Very slow to update settings (compared to Linksys).
Con - Poor tech support. Lacks expertise.
Con - Poorly labeled Led Indicators.
Con - Need a magifying glass just to read the model number.
Con - Poor quality on some RJ45 connectors.

What is your opinion on various brands of routers?

---pete---

[Dan18960]

Pete,

I like Linksys - and did before Cisco bought the company. Cisco has long had the namesake in the industry of being the creme of the crop. I don't think Cisco made a haphazard decision when they decided to challenge the home user market and went after the top of the line in that field also.

I agree with you on Belkin - their routers are who ever got the low bid this week to throw together a circuit board and a plastic case for shipping.

Of course, I work with a router which view here would know about - SonicWall. This is on par with, if not just a hair under, Cisco. The nice thing is that it does have a GUI vs Cisco's text script. You are not going to setup a SonicWall in 2 minutes - each routing consists of 3 parts. (1) Routing Service, (2) Routing rule, and (3) Routing object and you really need a flowchart to keep everything in order LOL. Of course, these routers start just under $500.00 and go up to a couple thousand dollars!

As for Netgear, Dlink, and the others, well I will work on them but won't sell them. It is call standardization on my end not pacification just to sell a client something.

[kelly]

Well, I saw a Netgear wireless router for sale at Staples today and picked it up because my nephew's Linksys has bit the dust (at least that what he tells me).

Since the only con for Netgear is the case design, I feel comfortable using it. It will be the first Netgear I've worked with.

-td

[jcampi]

I've only used Netgear for the two routers I've owned thus far. The new one is a wireless MIMO model. It's a strange product. It can run for months with no issue. Then, I'll start to have problems connecting to the net all of a sudden. I have to power down the cable modem and router and restart both to fix the issue. I'm being honest, the coverage is good and signal strength is excellent. However, if I have to replace the Netgear I'll look a D-Link. I love Cisco, but I just can't get over the odd looking design of the Linksys routers.

[kelly]

That's something I hadn't thought of - I've always assumes all the wireless router had the same signal strength and receiver sensitivity. Is there a difference between manufacturers and/or models?
-td

[dbarrow]

I have to power down the cable modem and router and restart both to fix the issue.

Can't find my post about similar issue with Netgear router.
It had been in service at least 3 years.
Intermittent dropping of the internet connection. The network was up but none of the machines could connect to the web.
Reboot of modem and router required.
It eventually became frequent enough to annoy me.
I had an identical Netgear router I had bought for daughter no longer being used.
Backup of the config on the problem one to machine.
Install the other one.
Import the config.

It was the router all along.
This one has not given me any problem.

The Netgear routers do seem to run hot, as in makes a good coffee warmer, so be careful not to place anything over top of it.

It just eventually bit the dust but for the $30 I paid for it...
Otherwise, no complaints.

[PeteF]

The Netgear routers do seem to run hot, as in makes a good coffee warmer, so be careful not to place anything over top of it.


That sounds like solid advice.
It's been my experience that electronic products that run
hot often have odd problems or they have a short lifespan.
Therfore, anything you can do to cool them down is beneficial.

In my opinion, if a product is running excesively hot, it's a sign
of poor circuit design. This is one reason why I think Linksys has
a superior case design over all the others. The built-in feet allow
for good air circulation underneath the case to ensure it runs
cool. Add to that, the way Linksys routers case design allows
you to stack multiple routers shows their designers place a high
priority on functionality.

---pete---

[mylanta]

I use US Robotics and have found they have the best hardware firewall in my opinion and a stronger signal for more trouble free operation. In the same year and 1/2 I have been using USR 5461 Max, I had 3 DLinks and I noticed the better signal right away!

[jcampi]

I didn't even know US Robotics still existed. They made some of the best hardware (modems) once upon a time. Where did you get the USR router?

[mylanta]

No John still very much alive....
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=222243

[Freehold Fred]

Linksys - most reliable, worry-free, can always depend on your neighbors for an unsecured wireless connection

Belkin - difficult but successfully configured wireless bridge, recommend saving configuration file for unusual setups (goes for all routers including Linksys), tech support excellent when and if they answer

US Robotics - wired dependable, wireless print server unreliable (used to work)

[mylanta]

"can always depend on your neighbors for an unsecured wireless connection"

and which side is this a plus for?

[dbarrow]

Linksys - can always depend on your neighbors for an unsecured wireless connection



Since you mention that Fred, I notice on our toughbooks at work while driving around, that Linksys default wireless connections abound! It is the most common open wireless network.

Does this suggest that the control panel or setup instructions for Linksys are too complicated or too simple?
For whichever reason, Linksys owners seem the most likely to expose themselves with a wide open network.

They also seem to have terrific range!
Of course I can't see which model is the visible network, but in many cases, you can drive blocks to a couple of miles down the road and still maintain the connection!

We were laughing one night when my partner was browsing the list of open routers while returning from a call. He found the name of one of the gals who works day shift, her father's Linksys with an open connection (but he put his name on the SSID). Going past the house, a block away, we logged onto it and maintained the connection almost 2 miles further down the road. He has since secured that following my advice!

Just as anecdotal evidence, I would have to rate Linksys as the best for strong wireless!

[mylanta]

Good Point Doug, though since I haven't seen any other brands available wirelessly like this it's possible that Linksys is the only one encoding it's name to the network by default.

[Freehold Fred]

I suppose Linksys is the most popular brand and people simply don't know about encryption. By default, it is not turned on.

I think configuring the router is relatively simple, but not all adapters out there are so simple. Some come with their own software. Then WZC interferes, doesn't disable, or doesn't work and leaves the client to figure out how to reenable WZC.

I had one client that no matter what I did, I could NOT disconnect them from their neighbor's network when I was at their house. I took the router and an older laptop with a dongle adapter to my office 10 miles away, reset the router, connected the laptop wired okay, but could NOT connect it wirelessly. Replaced the adapter and all was well. Like Dan says, "but it worked yesterday...if only on the neighbor's network."

I had another problem with, I think Dlink, which comes with its own s/w. I set up a Limited User Account. No way was this connection going to fly with the Dlink s/w and the Limited Account. Back to WZC, all was well.

Then I have run into older adapters that don't support encryption.

And so it goes...



Since you mention that Fred, I notice on our toughbooks at work while driving around, that Linksys default wireless connections abound! It is the most common open wireless network.

Does this suggest that the control panel or setup instructions for Linksys are too complicated or too simple?
For whichever reason, Linksys owners seem the most likely to expose themselves with a wide open network.

[kelly]

What is WZC ?

[Freehold Fred]

One way I've upped the signal/range is by changing channels.

I don't know if we want to start a new thread, but who is using GMax and other souped-up protocols?



They also seem to have terrific range!

[Freehold Fred]

Windows Zero Configuration. WZC automatically detects wireless connections. WZC is to wireless what Plug and Play is attaching a new piece of hardware.
What is WZC ?

[dbarrow]

One thing about Netgear wireless cards, they use their own configuration instead of Windows. Profiles stick nicely.

WZC can be a pain when it pushes the "preferred" network connection down to the bottom of the list having clicked on other ones.
We have a real problem with our "default" connection in the toughbooks that is supposed to access the hospital wireless with a VPN.
People tend to fire off their uploads using whatever connection WZC happens to pick. The "preferred" connection gets pushed way down on the bottom of the list and had been deleted so many times.
Quite often, we can stand outside the ER and go to do an upload and can connect to any number of connections except the hospital system!

[Freehold Fred]

That's what I mean. It's a menagerie on the adapter side!

One thing about Netgear wireless cards, they use their own configuration instead of Windows. Profiles stick nicely.

WZC can be a pain when it pushes the "preferred" network connection down to the bottom of the list having clicked on other ones.
We have a real problem with our "default" connection in the toughbooks that is supposed to access the hospital wireless with a VPN.
People tend to fire off their uploads using whatever connection WZC happens to pick. The "preferred" connection gets pushed way down on the bottom of the list and had been deleted so many times.
Quite often, we can stand outside the ER and go to do an upload and can connect to any number of connections except the hospital system!

[jcampi]

I don't know. The ugly look of the Linksys wireless router may not be so bad. This is so strange. I can go months without issue. Then, today I had to power off the modem. Wait a few minutes...power the modem back on. And power up the router to get a signal on the desktop pc linked to the router with cat5 cable and enable the wireless signal to the laptop. I've almost had it with the router.

[Freehold Fred]

Can happen to the best. I've ruin some days with routers that REFUSED to reset. Just as I am ready to heave them, they cough up and get rejuvenated for several months w/o any rhyme or reason.

I don't know. The ugly look of the Linksys wireless router may not be so bad. This is so strange. I can go months without issue. Then, today I had to power off the modem. Wait a few minutes...power the modem back on. And power up the router to get a signal on the desktop pc linked to the router with cat5 cable and enable the wireless signal to the laptop. I've almost had it with the router.

[dbarrow]

That was exactly the intermittent problem I started with on the faulty Netgear. It was very sporadic at first. It would happen overnight when nobody was on. It required rebooting the modem, then the router, then each of the machines.
Only when it became an almost daily annoyance did I swap the router and find the cure. I even had Comcast digging back through modem connection status logs looking for a bad modem problem.
After the reboot sequence, things would work perfectly for days on end and then suddenly it would start doing it again.

With the price of routers these days, just swap it out with a new one!

[mylanta]

I have had the same thing happen with DLink. I have never had this happen even once with my Usr GMax Router.

[PeteF]

I have had the same thing happen with DLink. I have never had this happen even once with my Usr GMax Router.

Thanks Rich, I'm going to give USR a try as a second to Linksys.
Back in the mid 1990's US Robotics was the best when it comes
to modems, so maybe now they have come up to speed on routers
too.

As for Netgear routers, I also know of instances where they
can do weird things and the solution was to do a reset to
factory settings or eventually swtich to another brand.
To be fair, these were issues about 2 years ago. I have
no current experenece with Netgear routers.

I recently had a very bad experience with a new Belkin router
and their lousy tech support. Now Belkin is definitely off my list
for recommended routers.

It's good to hear what other people are experienceing with
the different brands of routers.

---pete---

[mylanta]

I could not agree more Pete. I have heard nothing but the same story about Netgear in that they are well priced and they don't hold a signal and require constant rebooting.
Over the years I have sent back about 6 Dlink usb adapters that stopped working and finally the 624 modem which was my mainstay for many years for same issues. I also read that this Usr 5461 had a stronger signal, best internal firewall, and never needed resetting, and so far all have been true.

[jcampi]

It's my second (and last) Netgear router. Sometimes I can be stubborn. I like the design, price and performance of the Netgear MIMO router - when it's working. Trouble is - I have had to reboot the modem and the router too often. Last night I finally get fed up and started all over again. I disconnected EVERYTHING and re-installed the software and connections again. So far so good, but I have a plan to dump this 'dog' on ebay hopefully soon.

[PeteF]

I also read that this Usr 5461 had a stronger signal, best internal firewall, and never needed resetting, and so far all have been true.

Now that sounds like the USR brand I used to know.:)
Back in the 1990's, before the days of Internet, we used our
home computers on phone lines networked as BBSes. USR was
the top brand for modems based upon their stability.

Nothing could be worse than coming home from work to find
your BBS was down because the modem has frozen up and
needed to be reset. With USR modems you had the best
stability possible.

Oh, those were the days..... NOT!
US Robotics was the king of modems and Micropolis was
the king of hard drives. SCSI drives were the best.
In those days we paid $600 for a 350mb HD and
$200 to $400 for a good USR modem.

Hahahaa, anyone need a x1 speed, six CD drive?
I only paid about $1100 for that in the mid 1990's.

Glad those days are behind us now.:D

---pete---