D-Link, Netgear, Linksys

I've been reading the newsgroup for a while, trying to work out which
company to choose for my 54g wireless router. However, I can't seem to
narrow it further than these 3 (D-Link, Netgear, Linksys)....

I would really appreciate some experienced opinions to help me here :

1. Which company has the overall best reputation
2. Do any of them have bad reputations for customer service?
3. Do their 54g routers perform roughly equally - e.g. signal strength,
ease of setup, features / logging details.

Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to help me out here!

Cheers,

Mark

1. Netgear, Dlink, Linksys (in that order)
2. Linksys
3. best is Netgear FWAG114 a/b/g (most expensive), then DLink DI-774 a/b/g
(about $100 less) and last Linksys WRT55AG a/b/g
(not so good - flakey performance and many dropouts).

I have all three.

paul m diener, D.Sc.Information Technology
MS Beta ID: 386727
Windows XP Associate Expert

"Mark Grigsby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bodies$pb7$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been reading the newsgroup for a while, trying to work out which
> company to choose for my 54g wireless router. However, I can't seem to
> narrow it further than these 3 (D-Link, Netgear, Linksys)....
>
> I would really appreciate some experienced opinions to help me here :
>
> 1. Which company has the overall best reputation
> 2. Do any of them have bad reputations for customer service?
> 3. Do their 54g routers perform roughly equally - e.g. signal strength,
> ease of setup, features / logging details.
>
> Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to help me out here!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mark
>

"pdiener" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:wNwqb.89$(E-Mail Removed)...
> 1. Netgear, Dlink, Linksys (in that order)
> 2. Linksys
> 3. best is Netgear FWAG114 a/b/g (most expensive), then DLink DI-774
a/b/g
> (about $100 less) and last Linksys WRT55AG a/b/g
> (not so good - flakey performance and many dropouts).
>
> I have all three.

I have the DI774. My only complaint is that it is extremely difficult to get
technical information out of D-Link, and the config interface help is a bit
cryptic. Not all 802.11 Mib tuneables are exposed, and there is no SNMP
agent support.

As an example, I asked them what chipset my DWL-AG650 card uses, and tech
support couldn't or wouldn't tell me. The MAC address OUI prefix say
"D-Link" for the AG650, and it says "ANI Communications, Inc." for all 802.3
and 802.11 interfaces on the DI-774. I finally looked in the AG650's driver
..ini file, and confirmed that it uses an Atheros chipset. I still don't know
about the 774, but since it supports 802.11a, I'm guessing it's Atheros
(because AR500x supports all three net types, and I think D-Link
standardized on it for all devices supporting 802.11a).

Atheros is something I'd look for in tri-mode devices. They've been doing
802.11a perhaps longer than anyone else. The OFDM coding technique used in
802.11g is the same used in 802.11a, so Atheros' implementation takes
advantage of all that experience. Plus, the chipset supports onboard AES for
the future, when 802.11i is finalized and stronger encryption kicks in.

Sidebar on DWL-AG650 - I'm very happy with the performance, but the
configuration utility lacks performance measurement and troubleshooting
diagnostics. Also, certain MIB tuneables are simply non-existent. You can't
specify fragmentation or RTS/CTS threshold, which means you can't control
this in an adhoc network. I'm not even sure if RTS/CTS kicks in at all in
adhoc - geting that info from D-Link is like pulling teeth from a snake.

>
> paul m diener, D.Sc.Information Technology
> MS Beta ID: 386727
> Windows XP Associate Expert
>
> "Mark Grigsby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:bodies$pb7$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > I've been reading the newsgroup for a while, trying to work out which
> > company to choose for my 54g wireless router. However, I can't seem to
> > narrow it further than these 3 (D-Link, Netgear, Linksys)....
> >
> > I would really appreciate some experienced opinions to help me here :
> >
> > 1. Which company has the overall best reputation
> > 2. Do any of them have bad reputations for customer service?
> > 3. Do their 54g routers perform roughly equally - e.g. signal strength,
> > ease of setup, features / logging details.
> >
> > Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to help me out here!
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Mark
> >
>
>

> "Mark Grigsby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:bodies$pb7$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>I've been reading the newsgroup for a while, trying to work out which
>>company to choose for my 54g wireless router. However, I can't seem to
>>narrow it further than these 3 (D-Link, Netgear, Linksys)....
>>
>>I would really appreciate some experienced opinions to help me here :
>>
>>1. Which company has the overall best reputation
>>2. Do any of them have bad reputations for customer service?
>>3. Do their 54g routers perform roughly equally - e.g. signal strength,
>>ease of setup, features / logging details.
>>
>>Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to help me out here!
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Mark
>>
>
>
>


pdiener wrote:
> 1. Netgear, Dlink, Linksys (in that order)
> 2. Linksys
> 3. best is Netgear FWAG114 a/b/g (most expensive), then DLink DI-774 a/b/g
> (about $100 less) and last Linksys WRT55AG a/b/g
> (not so good - flakey performance and many dropouts).
>
> I have all three.
>
> paul m diener, D.Sc.Information Technology
> MS Beta ID: 386727
> Windows XP Associate Expert

Paul,

Many thanks for that. However, I'm looking to get a 'b/g' router,
rather than a tri-band unit (can't quite afford it. Have you had
similar experience with the dual-band units from these manufacturers?

Thanks again!


Mark.

Mark

Had a WRT54AG which performed quite well after an upgrade to the latest
firmware; prior to that used the BEFW11S4 (wireless b) which was the best
of the lot. Both are Linksys. Have a couple of clients using the DI-624
from DLink (it's b/g) which work pretty well.
Try going to the Dlink, Linksys, and / or Netgear forums on
www.dslreports.com for more comprehensive analysis of these various routers.
Real users sharing their experiences, plus many of the companies' tech
support staff hang out there and offer some good advice.

Best of luck.

paul

paul m diener, D.Sc.Information Technology
MS Beta ID: 386727
Windows XP Associate Expert
"Mark Grigsby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:boee0p$q40$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > "Mark Grigsby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:bodies$pb7$(E-Mail Removed)...
> >
> >>I've been reading the newsgroup for a while, trying to work out which
> >>company to choose for my 54g wireless router. However, I can't seem to
> >>narrow it further than these 3 (D-Link, Netgear, Linksys)....
> >>
> >>I would really appreciate some experienced opinions to help me here :
> >>
> >>1. Which company has the overall best reputation
> >>2. Do any of them have bad reputations for customer service?
> >>3. Do their 54g routers perform roughly equally - e.g. signal strength,
> >>ease of setup, features / logging details.
> >>
> >>Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to help me out here!
> >>
> >>Cheers,
> >>
> >>Mark
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> pdiener wrote:
> > 1. Netgear, Dlink, Linksys (in that order)
> > 2. Linksys
> > 3. best is Netgear FWAG114 a/b/g (most expensive), then DLink DI-774
a/b/g
> > (about $100 less) and last Linksys WRT55AG a/b/g
> > (not so good - flakey performance and many dropouts).
> >
> > I have all three.
> >
> > paul m diener, D.Sc.Information Technology
> > MS Beta ID: 386727
> > Windows XP Associate Expert
>
> Paul,
>
> Many thanks for that. However, I'm looking to get a 'b/g' router,
> rather than a tri-band unit (can't quite afford it. Have you had
> similar experience with the dual-band units from these manufacturers?
>
> Thanks again!
>
>
> Mark.
>

I recently took the wireless plunge and had decided to choose from the three
you mentioned. All I will say is there are so many variables, I purchased
the equipment from local retailers that have liberal return policies. Two
routers and three PCI cards later I have a functioning, though buggy
wireless connection. The router I am using is the third version of their
54G type.


"Mark Grigsby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bodies$pb7$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been reading the newsgroup for a while, trying to work out which
> company to choose for my 54g wireless router. However, I can't seem to
> narrow it further than these 3 (D-Link, Netgear, Linksys)....
>
> I would really appreciate some experienced opinions to help me here :
>
> 1. Which company has the overall best reputation
> 2. Do any of them have bad reputations for customer service?
> 3. Do their 54g routers perform roughly equally - e.g. signal strength,
> ease of setup, features / logging details.
>
> Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to help me out here!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mark
>

So which brand and model router did you finally choose?

Frank
--
(E-Mail Removed)

"Oliver" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<TkXqb.42266$(E-Mail Removed)> ...
> I recently took the wireless plunge and had decided to choose from the three
> you mentioned. All I will say is there are so many variables, I purchased
> the equipment from local retailers that have liberal return policies. Two
> routers and three PCI cards later I have a functioning, though buggy
> wireless connection. The router I am using is the third version of their
> 54G type.
>
>
> "Mark Grigsby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:bodies$pb7$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > I've been reading the newsgroup for a while, trying to work out which
> > company to choose for my 54g wireless router. However, I can't seem to
> > narrow it further than these 3 (D-Link, Netgear, Linksys)....
> >
> > I would really appreciate some experienced opinions to help me here :
> >
> > 1. Which company has the overall best reputation
> > 2. Do any of them have bad reputations for customer service?
> > 3. Do their 54g routers perform roughly equally - e.g. signal strength,
> > ease of setup, features / logging details.
> >
> > Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to help me out here!
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Mark
> >