Belkin, Dlink, Netgear, or Linksys

Hi!,


I am a student and am about to make a huge investment (close to $100)
into buying a wireless router for my home network.

My house is frequented by friends carrying laptops with 802.11b
wireless cards, and they have all suggested me to get a 802.11g
router, cause its cool or whatever. I am confused by the prices
though. Which one is supposed to be the best? I am hoping to hear from
someone who has dealt with equipment from some or all the above
companies, and can suggest which company is the most appropriate.

thanking you,
Craig

In article <(E-Mail Removed) >, C++ Shark
wrote:
> I am a student and am about to make a huge investment (close to $100)
> into buying a wireless router for my home network.
>
> My house is frequented by friends carrying laptops with 802.11b
> wireless cards, and they have all suggested me to get a 802.11g
> router, cause its cool or whatever. I am confused by the prices
> though. Which one is supposed to be the best? I am hoping to hear from
> someone who has dealt with equipment from some or all the above
> companies, and can suggest which company is the most appropriate.

You won't notice the speed difference between b and g if you only use
your computers to access the internet (rather than sharing files between
local machines), because even 802.11b is faster than ADSL. If you get
802.11g equipment, the presence of one 802.11b laptop will slow the
whole system down to 802.11b speeds anyway, so you may not have the
advantage of the faster system if your friends frequent it a lot. The
faster unit would be more "future-proof", but you need to decide how far
into the future you can provide for with the "huge investment" you are
able to make now.

Can't advise on brands, because I only have experience of a few,
Broadcom, Belkin and US Robotics, and they all work well for me.

Rod.

C++ Shark wrote:

> I am a student and am about to make a huge investment (close to $100)
> into buying a wireless router for my home network.
>

If you shop around, you should be able to find one for a lot less than that.
A few months ago, I picked up an SMC 7004VWBR for $20 (CDN), after rebates.

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

If you are looking for a recommendation, I'd say Linksys or Netgear.
I've used most of them and those two give me the least problems.
D-link is one of the worst (for me) as it fails to pass a simple IPSEC
VPN connection to my company's network.



On 29 Jan 2004 19:56:46 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) (C++ Shark) wrote:

>Hi!,
>
>
>I am a student and am about to make a huge investment (close to $100)
>into buying a wireless router for my home network.
>
>My house is frequented by friends carrying laptops with 802.11b
>wireless cards, and they have all suggested me to get a 802.11g
>router, cause its cool or whatever. I am confused by the prices
>though. Which one is supposed to be the best? I am hoping to hear from
>someone who has dealt with equipment from some or all the above
>companies, and can suggest which company is the most appropriate.
>
>thanking you,
>Craig

Roderick Stewart <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> In article <(E-Mail Removed) >, C++ Shark
> wrote:
> > I am a student and am about to make a huge investment (close to $100)
> > into buying a wireless router for my home network.
> >
> > My house is frequented by friends carrying laptops with 802.11b
> > wireless cards, and they have all suggested me to get a 802.11g
> > router, cause its cool or whatever. I am confused by the prices
> > though. Which one is supposed to be the best? I am hoping to hear from
> > someone who has dealt with equipment from some or all the above
> > companies, and can suggest which company is the most appropriate.
>
> You won't notice the speed difference between b and g if you only use
> your computers to access the internet (rather than sharing files between
> local machines), because even 802.11b is faster than ADSL. If you get
> 802.11g equipment, the presence of one 802.11b laptop will slow the
> whole system down to 802.11b speeds anyway, so you may not have the

Why is this so? Shouldn't 802.11b card in a laptop slow down the laptop only?

> advantage of the faster system if your friends frequent it a lot. The
> faster unit would be more "future-proof", but you need to decide how far
> into the future you can provide for with the "huge investment" you are
> able to make now.
>
> Can't advise on brands, because I only have experience of a few,
> Broadcom, Belkin and US Robotics, and they all work well for me.
>
> Rod.

"C++ Shark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hi!,
>
>
> I am a student and am about to make a huge investment (close to $100)
> into buying a wireless router for my home network.
>
> My house is frequented by friends carrying laptops with 802.11b
> wireless cards, and they have all suggested me to get a 802.11g
> router, cause its cool or whatever. I am confused by the prices
> though. Which one is supposed to be the best? I am hoping to hear from
> someone who has dealt with equipment from some or all the above
> companies, and can suggest which company is the most appropriate.
>
> thanking you,
> Craig

Id recommend a Netgear DG834G (G/B) (I dont think you can get the the DG824M
802.11b anymore) ive used both without problems. All the above manufacturers
have products with similar feature sets - it probably boils down to
price/appearance/ease of use/setup etc.

cheers

Mark

On Fri, 30 Jan 2004, James Knott wrote:
> C++ Shark wrote:
> > I am a student and am about to make a huge investment (close to $100)
> > into buying a wireless router for my home network.
> >
>
> If you shop around, you should be able to find one for a lot less than that.
> A few months ago, I picked up an SMC 7004VWBR for $20 (CDN), after rebates.

Also consider such places as "eBay". I picked up an "AG" card last month
(including shipping/tax) for about half of its current list price. Alot of
still-factory-sealed stuff is being blown out via on-line auctions.

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004, C++ Shark wrote:
> Roderick Stewart <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> > In article <(E-Mail Removed) >, C++ Shark
> > wrote:
> > > I am a student and am about to make a huge investment (close to $100)
> > > into buying a wireless router for my home network.
> > >
> > > My house is frequented by friends carrying laptops with 802.11b
> > > wireless cards, and they have all suggested me to get a 802.11g
> > > router, cause its cool or whatever. I am confused by the prices
> > > though. Which one is supposed to be the best? I am hoping to hear from
> > > someone who has dealt with equipment from some or all the above
> > > companies, and can suggest which company is the most appropriate.
> >
> > You won't notice the speed difference between b and g if you only use
> > your computers to access the internet (rather than sharing files between
> > local machines), because even 802.11b is faster than ADSL. If you get
> > 802.11g equipment, the presence of one 802.11b laptop will slow the
> > whole system down to 802.11b speeds anyway, so you may not have the
>
> Why is this so? Shouldn't 802.11b card in a laptop slow down the laptop only?

By "fallback interoperability design" of the .11g protocol.