can someone help me pick a router, please?

hi, i need to get an ADSL router. i don't really want wireless but if it can easily be disabled then it's not a problem. i've wanted to get one for ages but i knew there was something i was forgetting when i was looking (it turned out to be the ADSL bit )

can you help me pick one from one of these links?
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/search.asp?q=ADSL router
http://www.savastore.com/catalog/search.aspx?initial=true&keyword=ADSL router&x=0&y=0

i don't want to get something cheap and rubbish! just whatever's best. thanks.

 

i have little experience with router but D-Link is generally a reliable and trustworthy brand. go for their DSL-504T.

Netgear is another good brand, so look at their DG834UK or the cheaper RP614.

 

My Belkin has'nt missed a beat in 18 months running 24/7.

One thing to look out for is a proper SPI firewall rather than just firewalling by NAT (something my Belkin has).

Also seperate to the SPI firewall, my belkin allows blocking of ICMP traffic or not.

A good test for a router is how well they run emule/edonkey, searching their respective forums is a good start. http://forum.emule-project.net/index.php?showtopic=33645 is a good thread for starters (its not 100% complete by anymeans).

I bought a sitecom cheapo brand from Maplin and even though it supported port forwarding to open a port for emule it would'nt even allow emule to connect !

My old Linksys did'nt have an SPI firewall and would crash if emule maxed its connections out (instead of gracefully refusing anymore than it can handle like my Belkin does), had to be rebooted for every config change. You have to be careful of picking the right model when it comes to linksys.

 

Nick, i have one question about those routers, will or are they able to handle linux?
I was looking for another one too and i bumped into the linksys WRT54GL as being suiteable for linux.
Do you have any advice on this?
I've looked thru the links iceni provided, but i cant say, based on that information what is a good or a bad router.

Lamehand

 

Should'nt matter what OS you use its all TCP/IP

My Belkin router works fine with Windows and Linux btw.

 

thanks for the help, i think i've left it too late - i'm going away in 30 minutes lol. i'll order one when i get back.

Lamehand, if you can use the WRT54GL then get it, it will run fine with Linux. can you still get them new?. here are some podcasts about hacking it
http://twatech.org/shows.php?ep=74
http://twatech.org/shows.php?ep=62

 

I have been useing Linksys routers for years and have never had a problem with one of them. You can't go wrong with a Linksys.

 

thanks, BigC. i'll order something when i get back.

 

The uTorrent FAQ mentions possible problems running P2P with certain Linksys routers. Further down they list other routers to avoid, and there's more information in the stickies in this forum.

Shame they don't have any recommendations!

 

since 96% of all torrent downloads are illegal software, movie or music downloads I don't have a problem with my linksys blocking or not allowing these apps and sites.

 

i dont have a router, but the info could be of use later on. thanx

 

iceni,I've been snooping around there (linksys) site and they still make the WRT54GL as far as i can gather.
Unfortunately it is a wireless router, not my first choice, and i couldn't determine if that could be switched off.
I have some more snooping around to do.

Lamehand

 

I followed those links from Meltdown and now think that this is not the way to go.
Not so much because of the P2P trouble itself, but the wilingness of linksys to do something about it, not a good sign.

Well there are more routers under the sun.

Lamehand

 

Wireless and wired. For the $55 price its a good deal since it leaves open the wireless option.

 

Been looking at speedtouch-routers (Thompson), looks rather good, but the cheaper models don't have SPI, only the more expensive ones, business-models have this feature and then whe are talking about prices in the range of 300$.
Compared to this you are quit right in what you said berng.

I have to look further and compare.

 

I'm using the WRT54G router where one computer is hard wired and the other two are wireless. I only have Linux on the wired computer.

The two wireless are used by my wife and kid with XP which has the drivers to support AES encryption between the router and wireless cards. I don't know if there are drivers for Linux that include AES.

 

Any WPA compatible card with wpa_supplicant should work (not too sure) I spent all morning trying to get wpa-psk working in ubuntu and connected for about 2 minutes, then it got dropped

Alphalutra1

 

hi ice et al
I also want to pick up a router for cable connection.
it will be the last part of the layers for me.

any bodys got any advices ?
dont want wireless option.

I also saw this while roaming around, could this be a good option?
http://www.trusteli.com/

thanks

Lbd.

 

I've decided to give the WRT54G(L) a try, if i can get my hands on it.I'm going to ask my supplier to get me one to give it a test.
Alphalutra, since you are the one using this device i want to ask you a question.
I use Boclean as one of my protections on XP, they use FTP for updating, won't this give any trouble?.
I ask this because of the things i've read in the post from Meltdown.

Lamehand

 

I never have had any trouble with downloading any FTP file, and kaspersky which uses ftp to update never has had any trouble. I haven't had any problems with torrenting either, everything has been running smooth for me.

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

 

Oke, thanks Alphaluta1, then it's of to the computer vendor to get me such a device.

Lamehand

 

If you are adventerous, you can try flashing it with Thibor's firmware which makes it think its a wrt54gs (which is 20 bucks more) for free . Also, it has a ton more options, configurability, etc. My favorite is probably the static dhcp.

Alphalutra1

 

well, quite the manual to read then.