More control over my Netgear router

We have a whole house network with a FutureSmart distribution panel and a
Netgear WPN824 router. I need more access control than the firmware seems to
give. For instance:

- I can set up a schedule for certain types of access, but I can't create
more than one schedule. If I want, say, to limit AIM during afternoon hours
and web browsing in the evening, I cannot do that.

- If I want to schedule the total shutdown/wakeup of all wireless activity,
I cannot. I can manually turn the radio on or off, but it's all manual.

I don't think that the things I'm asking for are unreasonable, but the
router I have does not seem to provide them. Should I look elsewhere? Are
these capabilities typical of what advanced users expect out of their
wireless routers? If so, is there a way to bring those capabilities to my
current router or do I need to buy a new one, and if so, what should I be
looking for?


Many thanks...



Rick A.
Pleasanton CA

Rick Altman wrote:

>I don't think that the things I'm asking for are unreasonable, but the
>router I have does not seem to provide them. Should I look elsewhere? Are

Maybe they aren't but the point is that those "consumer routers" are very
limited to exactly those features which are sufficient for 99.9% percent of
the users - who mostly don't even know what the router does.

I've also been using some Netgear routers during the last years but I came
to the conclusion that I wouldn't ever buy such a thing again for at least
the following reasons:

- they are "all in one" devices who heard about all the terms "WLAN"
"router", maybe "VPN" etc. but don't provide any of them reliably
- they have _very_ limited functionality and config options (e.g. port
forwarding but no port translation for incoming traffic)

That's why I'll replace the Netgear thingie by a Cisco ASA and a Cisco AP.

For your scheduling tasks, my first thought is CheckPoint FW-1 (I know it
can do that) but it's very pricy. It is also available as a Nokia appliance
but I don't know the price of it. Maybe other "real" FireWall apps can also
provide such schedules.

Good luck!

fw