router recommendation invited from installers

There are many experienced and knowledgeable people on this forum who
install and maintain routers for a living/hobby. Perhaps you can give a
definite recommendation for ADSL modem/router models based on your
experience? Need reliability more than speed or wireless coverage. It's
hard to make a judgement from reader reviews of vendor sites as there
are always bad ones among the many good. e.g Netgear DG834G and Linksys
WAG354G look good, but are they really? Thanks.

len

--
Len Packman (E-Mail Removed)
Biochemistry Dept
80 Tennis Court Road
Cambridge CB2 1GA

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:27:21 +0100, Len Packman <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>hard to make a judgement from reader reviews of vendor sites as there
>are always bad ones among the many good. e.g Netgear DG834G and Linksys
>WAG354G look good, but are they really? Thanks.

I have had a Linksys WAG345G Wireless Router for about a year now and
it hasn't given me the slightest problem. Its range is really
excellent (I live in a stone-built house) but you can also get an
extra aerial for it if you need more power. It was really easy to set
up and I was online within minutes.

I leave mine switched on all the time, (there is no on/off switch,
instead its just a power connector that you would have to pull out if
you wanted to turn it off) and my only criticism is that it always
feels a little warm to the touch. Good unit though. Fit and forget.

HTH

Travec

Travec the Dacian wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:27:21 +0100, Len Packman <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> hard to make a judgement from reader reviews of vendor sites as
>> there
>> are always bad ones among the many good. e.g Netgear DG834G and
>> Linksys WAG354G look good, but are they really? Thanks.
>
> I have had a Linksys WAG345G Wireless Router for about a year now
> and
> it hasn't given me the slightest problem. Its range is really
> excellent (I live in a stone-built house) but you can also get an
> extra aerial for it if you need more power. It was really easy to
> set
> up and I was online within minutes.
>
> I leave mine switched on all the time, (there is no on/off switch,
> instead its just a power connector that you would have to pull out
> if
> you wanted to turn it off) and my only criticism is that it always
> feels a little warm to the touch. Good unit though. Fit and
> forget.
>
> HTH
>
> Travec

Had one of those & it couldn't handle heavy traffic & was rebooting
every 90 minutes, they didn't want to know (in fact I'd say the
Linksys after sales support is one of the worst I've ever had the
pleasure to deal with) & the supplier wasn't keen on me taking it
back...

If you want something rock solid, with a reasonable wifi range there
isn't much which touches the old Draytek 2600 (the newer 2800
apparently has a few issues) which are still to be had on Ebay & such
places at a reasonable price

"Travec the Dacian" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> I have had a Linksys WAG345G Wireless Router for about a year now and
> it hasn't given me the slightest problem.

In stark contrast perhaps, our 'establishment' has had no less than 9 54G
access points (AP) from said firm die within the last week. COD was either
the power adaptor, or the AP itself. All were of the same age, all were
*just* outside warranty. Not routers admittedly, but of the same ilk...

We are now using Buffalo kit which is actually giving us much better
coverage. I also use Buffalo NAS equipment, which has been flawless.

Tx2 wrote in
(E-Mail Removed):

> "Travec the Dacian" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>> I have had a Linksys WAG345G Wireless Router for about a year now and
>> it hasn't given me the slightest problem.
>
> In stark contrast perhaps, our 'establishment' has had no less than 9
> 54G access points (AP) from said firm die within the last week. COD
> was either the power adaptor, or the AP itself. All were of the same
> age, all were *just* outside warranty. Not routers admittedly, but of
> the same ilk...

And I've got two customers who've have Linksys routers die on them recently.

One had a WAG54G which intermittently lost its ADSL connection. This seemed
to be related to overheating: the customer had it in the direct glare of the
sun in the very hot weatehr in mid-July. Then last week it failed further:
first its DHCP server failed, then it failed to be detected by PCs which
were plugged into it ("Ethernet cable unplugged"), and finally its wireless
access point stopped broadcasting ("no wireless networks"). In all these
cases, the relevent lights (Ethernet, wireless, ADSL) contnued to light as
normal.

The other Linksys was a small square slab-shaped router with a just one
Ethernet port and no external "rubber duck" aerial (that's all I know about
it - don't know its model number). This intermittently dropped some wireless
connections while allowing connections from other PCs. Rebooting allowed a
different set of PCs to connect wirelessly. Then suddenly it would allow all
PCs (all four of them) to connect wirelessly, or else it would refuse all
connections. Such unpredicatable behaviour wasn't acceptible to the customer
so she returned it to PC WOrld in exchange for a Netgear DG834 which has
worked perfectly.

Oh well, I guess I must have been lucky then.

Travec.

"Len Packman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:lcp2-(E-Mail Removed)...
> There are many experienced and knowledgeable people on this forum who
> install and maintain routers for a living/hobby. Perhaps you can give a
> definite recommendation for ADSL modem/router models based on your
> experience? Need reliability more than speed or wireless coverage. It's
> hard to make a judgement from reader reviews of vendor sites as there
> are always bad ones among the many good. e.g Netgear DG834G and Linksys
> WAG354G look good, but are they really? Thanks.
>
> len
>

Never buy Belkin, netgears are generally pretty good and reliable. 3coms
also tend to be pretty good if you are tempted for a lower price.

Gaz

"Travec the Dacian" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Oh well, I guess I must have been lucky then.
>
> Travec.

Not really.

I had a WAG54G for 18 months. Earlier this summer it was overheating
frequently, so I spoke to Linksys support.. They send me a UPS label; my old
router was sent back to base and I got a new WAG54GS in return. OK, it took
a few weeks to get replaced, but there were no quibbles. Prior to the
problem, and since it got replaced, I've had no problems at all and both
routers performed well and were easy to use.

I've also heard good things about Netgears. I've also used a Belkin, but it
was a bit ropey - In fact, it wouldnt work on my line at first, so swapped
it for a very old Linksys. I've heard bad things about 3com routers, which
surprised me because they are otherwise a very good manufacturer.

CJM

Gaz wrote:
> "Len Packman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:lcp2-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> There are many experienced and knowledgeable people on this forum
>> who
>> install and maintain routers for a living/hobby. Perhaps you can
>> give a definite recommendation for ADSL modem/router models based
>> on
>> your experience? Need reliability more than speed or wireless
>> coverage. It's hard to make a judgement from reader reviews of
>> vendor sites as there are always bad ones among the many good. e.g
>> Netgear DG834G and Linksys WAG354G look good, but are they really?
>> Thanks. len
>>
>
> Never buy Belkin, netgears are generally pretty good and reliable.
> 3coms also tend to be pretty good if you are tempted for a lower
> price.
But be careful about the power supplies (3Com that is)...

The consumer brands are much the same, cheap, but if you unlucky you will
find the service and support is pretty well useless. e.g. Ahmed in India
will read the installation manual to you !
For utter reliability you have to buy 'office class' equipment. The only one
that is reasonably priced is Draytek.
As already said, you can find the older models on Ebay at sensible prices,
the 2600 range is best for ADSL or 2900 for cable. That's how I got both of
mine, neither missed a bit for some 3 years.
Regards,
Martin