Draytek 2910G - Opinions Please

Hi

I am looking at upgrading an old router, switch and AP for one of these.
The spec looks good and the VPN and WPA2 support would be useful however, I
saw a test recently in one of the magazines that didn't really rate the
wireless capability of the Draytek - OK subjective to some extent as each
users physical building will impact performance but they're tests where
back to back on a number of products. Admittedly a different model, 2500 I
think, but I doubt they do things that differently between models.

What experience do users have of this unit - is it reliable and worth the
extra money?

The mag rated the Belkin unit as the best but I have had varying success
with Belkin cards when used commercially and don't like their products or
support.

Thanx

Jay

Drayteks are utterly reliable, so much so I just buy them on Ebay at half
price.
The WiFi performance on my 2600VG is excellent, in fact I went back to it
because Zyxel 2602 HW, which being ADSL2+ could maintain higher speed,
wasn't cutting the mustard in the WiFi dept.
The 2500 was a cheaper model, with just one aerial, now superseded by 2700
range.
Regards,
Martin

(E-Mail Removed) declared for all the world to hear...
> Drayteks are utterly reliable, so much so I just buy them on Ebay at half
> price.
> The WiFi performance on my 2600VG is excellent, in fact I went back to it
> because Zyxel 2602 HW, which being ADSL2+ could maintain higher speed,
> wasn't cutting the mustard in the WiFi dept.
> The 2500 was a cheaper model, with just one aerial, now superseded by 2700
> range.
> Regards,

I'll echo that - Draytek 2600VG has been rock solid from day one. One
slight annoyance is that the print server is not compatible with my
printer, but I could have found that out before I bought it, and I don't
print that often anyway.
--
Regards
Jon

"Martin²" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote

>Drayteks are utterly reliable, so much so I just buy them on Ebay at half
>price.

They are good, but as a 2600Gi and 2900Gi users I can tell you to not
necessarily expect every one of the hundreds of little features to be
working

They shipped the 2900Gi with the whole ISDN subsystem totally
non-working. The latest firmware for the 2600 range stops wifi working
totally if you disable SSID broadcast, and wpa/psk is stuck at wpa2
even though there is a separate wpa2 mode.

"Jay Hendry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news8G1h.70713$(E-Mail Removed). uk...
> Hi
>
> I am looking at upgrading an old router, switch and AP for one of these.
> The spec looks good and the VPN and WPA2 support would be useful however,
> I
> saw a test recently in one of the magazines that didn't really rate the
> wireless capability of the Draytek - OK subjective to some extent as each
> users physical building will impact performance but they're tests where
> back to back on a number of products. Admittedly a different model, 2500 I
> think, but I doubt they do things that differently between models.
>
> What experience do users have of this unit - is it reliable and worth the
> extra money?
>
> The mag rated the Belkin unit as the best but I have had varying success
> with Belkin cards when used commercially and don't like their products or
> support.
>
> Thanx
>
> Jay

I always spec and use Draytek routers.
I have a 2910 VG myself andd swear by it. And the wireless is good.
I have had a couple of issues with the latter 2800G re firmware but was soon
sorted.
As another poster has already said, the older ones are that good you can fit
a s/hand one and forget it.
Several of the ones I have supplied have nearly 2 years uptime on them when
I log into them remotely for a check.

Alastair

Jay Hendry wrote:
> Hi
>
> I am looking at upgrading an old router, switch and AP for one of these.
> The spec looks good and the VPN and WPA2 support would be useful however, I
> saw a test recently in one of the magazines that didn't really rate the
> wireless capability of the Draytek - OK subjective to some extent as each
> users physical building will impact performance but they're tests where
> back to back on a number of products. Admittedly a different model, 2500 I
> think, but I doubt they do things that differently between models.
>
> What experience do users have of this unit - is it reliable and worth the
> extra money?
>

Excellent. Great value for money compared to things like 3COM and
Cisco....

occassionally-(E-Mail Removed) declared for all the world to
hear...
> >Drayteks are utterly reliable, so much so I just buy them on Ebay at half
> >price.

> The latest firmware for the 2600 range stops wifi working
> totally if you disable SSID broadcast

Sorry mate, but thats not true. My SSID is hidden and the wifi works
just fine.
--
Regards
Jon

Jon <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>> >Drayteks are utterly reliable, so much so I just buy them on Ebay at half
>> >price.
>
>> The latest firmware for the 2600 range stops wifi working
>> totally if you disable SSID broadcast
>
>Sorry mate, but thats not true. My SSID is hidden and the wifi works
>just fine.

Well, that's what I spent half a day on, with several laptops, and
with their nonexistent tech support (the unofficial forum at
www.seg.co.uk where most questions are never answered, and the
Taiwanese end which responds to emails only extremely selectively) I
was unable to verify it.

I agree Drayteks are very good routers; the best around, but that's
only because most of the rest of the consumer IT stuff is such crap.

<occassionally-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Jon <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>> >Drayteks are utterly reliable, so much so I just buy them on Ebay at
>>> >half
>>> >price.
>>
>>> The latest firmware for the 2600 range stops wifi working
>>> totally if you disable SSID broadcast
>>
>>Sorry mate, but thats not true. My SSID is hidden and the wifi works
>>just fine.
>
> Well, that's what I spent half a day on, with several laptops, and
> with their nonexistent tech support (the unofficial forum at
> www.seg.co.uk where most questions are never answered, and the
> Taiwanese end which responds to emails only extremely selectively) I
> was unable to verify it.
>
> I agree Drayteks are very good routers; the best around, but that's
> only because most of the rest of the consumer IT stuff is such crap.

You have to have SSID enabled before you set up the wireless clients.
Having set them up, you can then disable the SSID. Is this what you tried?

--
Graham

"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>You have to have SSID enabled before you set up the wireless clients.
>Having set them up, you can then disable the SSID. Is this what you tried?

This depends.

In general, you can start off with SSID disabled, enter the SSID (and
any WPA/PSK password etc) into the wifi client, config it to "connect
automatically" and (I am talking about the usual WinXP laptop) it will
eventually connect. It can take some minutes, or much longer. I have
an ls800 tablet computer which takes 10-30 minutes to auto-connect to
an SSID-disabled network, especially if there is another network(s)
nearby whose SSID *is* broadcast.

Occassionally the connection is made only after the laptop is
rebooted.

It's not a particularly reliable process; standalone-software wifi
adaptors e.g. the Netgear 511 can be a lot better. The Linksys WPC54G
was OK but was quite selectively compatible.

Otherwise, yes, it is often easier to start off with SSID enabled,
allow the client to find the network and then you can set it up more
easily.

Historically, a lot of clients would not work at all if SSID was
disabled. Some would work if it was enabled initially and then it
could be disabled but if the client was turned on when SSID was
already disabled then it would never find it. I have an HP4700 PDA
which is known for this, but it depends on the AP. I have one 2900Gi
to which it connects reliably and another one to which it connects
about 50% of the time.

For maximum compatibility between devices, it's best to leave SSID
enabled.

I don't think I was getting confused by this stuff; I've spent enough
time playing around with wifi.

One can understand who so many corporates just go for Cisco and pay
the $$$.