Zyxel Prestige 660H or Netgear DG834 ?

I'm not a newbie and have read up on these routers including the manuals.

Both are said to have proper SPI firewalls, etc, which is a must but I've
read conflicting comments about whether they are truly stealthy (eg. what
the checks at grc.com say). Also, a scan through the manuals suggests that
the Zyxel is more sophisticated (maybe except for VPN support).

Is there any reason in particular to go for or not go for either of these
routers ?

Are there any other obvious choices in the region of £45 ? Wi-Fi is not
necessary and cannot be included in the router.

Thanks

Kev wrote in
(E-Mail Removed):

> I'm not a newbie and have read up on these routers including the
> manuals.
> Both are said to have proper SPI firewalls, etc, which is a must but
> I've read conflicting comments about whether they are truly stealthy
> (eg. what the checks at grc.com say). Also, a scan through the
> manuals suggests that the Zyxel is more sophisticated (maybe except
> for VPN support).
> Is there any reason in particular to go for or not go for either of
> these routers ?
>
> Are there any other obvious choices in the region of £45 ? Wi-Fi is
> not necessary and cannot be included in the router.

I can certainyl recommend the DG834 and its various wireless cousins the G,
GT and PN. It's easy to set up: in many cases it autodetects the VPI/VCI,
encapsulation and multiplexing. It has a good log (which can be emailed each
day is required) so there's good information about why a connection has
failed.

I've run GRC's ProbeMyPorts and found that all the ports are stealthed -
unless you set up specific port-forwarding rules, of course!

My DG834GT works perfectly well at 8Mbps. I presume the basic DG834 can do
this too - either with the built-in firmware or after a firmware upgrade.

I wonder whether it might be worth you considering a router with a wireless
access point built in (eg the DG834G), but to turn the wireless off since
it's not needed at present. That way, you've got a router which has the
capability of supporting wireless if this is needed in the future. Probably
cheaper than buying a wireless AP later on.

<snip>

Thanks for the response. Are you satisified with the UI ? Looks a bit
weird (and uncomprehensive) to me compared with, say, the Draytek offering.

> I can certainyl recommend the DG834 and its various wireless cousins the
> G, GT and PN. It's easy to set up: in many cases it autodetects the
> VPI/VCI, encapsulation and multiplexing. It has a good log (which can be
> emailed each day is required) so there's good information about why a
> connection has failed.
>
> I've run GRC's ProbeMyPorts and found that all the ports are stealthed -
> unless you set up specific port-forwarding rules, of course!
>
> My DG834GT works perfectly well at 8Mbps. I presume the basic DG834 can do
> this too - either with the built-in firmware or after a firmware upgrade.

I don't want to hear from anyone who can do 8Mb/s thanks ;-)

>
> I wonder whether it might be worth you considering a router with a
> wireless access point built in (eg the DG834G), but to turn the wireless
> off since it's not needed at present. That way, you've got a router which
> has the capability of supporting wireless if this is needed in the future.
> Probably cheaper than buying a wireless AP later on.
>

I've been using a Draytek 2600 plus on the other line and that's been a top
router and I've already added an AP but it's hardly ever on. I'd consider
letting the next router have wifi built in but I'd need to know that not
only was it not talking but also that it was not even emitting any radio
waves. May sound strange to some but that's what I want !