Help on choosing a router

[Makis]

I'm searching for a router with the following requirements:
- N-series dual-band as my wife's laptop only manages WEP and our minilaptop only likes WPA/WPA2 (the laptop will be replaced at some point, but not right now),
- SPI firewall, and I would like decent logging & control of the firewall features,
- A chance to connect a hard drive so that I can connect to it outside the network (e.g. from my workplace). Buffalo's WebAccess looks nice, but if there are other ways, I'm game.

I looked first at Buffalo's Nfiniti wzr-hp-g300nh, until I realised it's a single-radio solution. Other than that, it looked pretty much what I've been looking at.

The second is NetGear WNDR3700 which seems to have been doing well at SNB as well, but what about my third bullet? Can I do that?

Any others I should consider?

 

[tipstir]

I'm searching for a router with the following requirements:
- N-series dual-band as my wife's laptop only manages WEP and our minilaptop only likes WPA/WPA2 (the laptop will be replaced at some point, but not right now),
- SPI firewall, and I would like decent logging & control of the firewall features,
- A chance to connect a hard drive so that I can connect to it outside the network (e.g. from my workplace). Buffalo's WebAccess looks nice, but if there are other ways, I'm game.

I looked first at Buffalo's Nfiniti wzr-hp-g300nh, until I realised it's a single-radio solution. Other than that, it looked pretty much what I've been looking at.

The second is NetGear WNDR3700 which seems to have been doing well at SNB as well, but what about my third bullet? Can I do that?

Any others I should consider?

Here's some advise on the subject


Do you own 5GHz wireless devices?
2.4GHz devices can't use 5GHz band

The choices are DIR-685, Vigor 2130n, ESR-9850 and WNDR3700?

Narrowing it down: DIR-685, Vigor 2130n, ESR-9850 and WNDR3700
Low down: WNDR3700

But if you need AP in wireless you'll need to buy a real AP to perform that task unless the all-in-one router can handle that feature.

 

[Makis]

Sorry, I feel stupid, but AP?

And no, I don't think I own 5GHz devices, unless the minilaptop is one (haven't checked). What I basically need is two SSID's that work simultaneously. AFAIK, the only way to do this is to have two radios.

 

[thiggins]

Sorry, I feel stupid, but AP?

And no, I don't think I own 5GHz devices, unless the minilaptop is one (haven't checked). What I basically need is two SSID's that work simultaneously. AFAIK, the only way to do this is to have two radios.

AP is Access Point, which is a wireless LAN device that doesn't perform routing.

You cannot use a dual-band router with two radios set to the same band. If you need to support 2.4 GHz N and G devices, which need different security settings, there are two options.

One is to get a router that supports "Guest" access. This is just a second SSID usually just connects to the Internet, but not to wireless clients on the other SSID or wired clients. Options here include the Cisco Valet, and new Belkins, among others.

If you need both G and N devices to have equal access to the LAN, they you'll need separate radios. You can convert your existing router to an Access Point (How To Convert a Wireless Router into an Access Point) and use it to handle the G clients and buy a single-radio N router.

 

[tipstir]

Sorry, I feel stupid, but AP?

And no, I don't think I own 5GHz devices, unless the minilaptop is one (haven't checked). What I basically need is two SSID's that work simultaneously. AFAIK, the only way to do this is to have two radios.

I use the Belkin N+ for DHCP I was testing another brand but gone back to the trusty Belkin N+. That has a Guest Mode you can also use Hotel Like Mode too. Where users log on as the Guest but on the Browser a Hotel Like Access passocode (password) is required. This way you can keep your guest(family-in-law, friends and the kids) off your network if you use the Guest mode additional SSID feature. So Guest can also be setup with just basic connection without any fancy web page also. Some wireless routers have Hot Spot mode pretty much same. AP mode is wireless access point hardwired from the main router. I say buy a router with that feature. I know you can disable DHCP, NAT, SPF, but sometimes it doesn't work out so well. Might work on some models.

Belkin now has Play MAX Router, you can read Tim review on it. Anyway that's about it.

 

[Makis]

Hm, I have the Wippies box as my router at the moment. I will (probably) need to leave that, my plan was to put the new router between that and my network. Maybe I could use the Wippies box as the other access point? It would be more or less what the guest access does, i.e. no access to my home network, only to the internet.

So I gather WNDR3700 would be a good choice for me as well?

 

[thiggins]

Hm, I have the Wippies box as my router at the moment. I will (probably) need to leave that, my plan was to put the new router between that and my network. Maybe I could use the Wippies box as the other access point? It would be more or less what the guest access does, i.e. no access to my home network, only to the internet.

If you convert a router to an Access Point, it will still be on the same network. To create separate networks, you either need to use VLANs (which would require a "smart" or managed switch) or leave the second router as a router and configure it as described in How To: One Internet connection - Two Private LANs . The routers that tipstir refers to basically use VLANs to create the separate "guest" LAN.

So I gather WNDR3700 would be a good choice for me as well?

Sounds like you want to buy it. It's the best performing dual-band N router I've tested.

 

[Makis]

OK, I think I'll go with the NetGear router. Thank you everybody for your advise!

 

[bbear]

Wndr3700

Does anyone know if the Netgear WNDR3700 can download and run Tomato?

 

[occamsrazor]

Does anyone know if the Netgear WNDR3700 can download and run Tomato?

I don't think so yet... I'd also like to see it... there's a thread here:

http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showthread.php?t=62935