Help with Cable/DSL Router Purchase

[AmbitiousLemon]

Hello folks. I am very dissatisfied with my current router (SMC 4 port barricade). It overheats and stops working, it loses its settings, it is very slow, port mapping doesnt work.

So i am looking to purchase a good router. I am not very familiar with most fo the companies so I'm not sure who is good and who is crap (like SMC). I know many people have linksys and belkin but i do not know if that means they are good. Also there seems to be huge discrepancies in prices (from $40 to $250 US$).

I need at least 4 ports. Need pppoe support for my dsl isp. and good port mapping. 3 (all osx) macs and 1 pc (win2k) will be hooked up to it. also i hate firewalls so i need to be able to turn that off.

[a monkey plugging and unplugging cables in and out of the dsl modem is not a practical solution for a router so dont suggest it]

[edesignuk]

I would advise Linksys (http://www.linksys.com), all my gear is Linksys (WAP, Router w/4 Port Switch, & 2 x 8 Port hubs).
All of it has been very reliable and is very easy to setup, management of the router is done via a very easy to use web interface and can be as simple or complex as you would like.
Features include port forwarding, Mac filtering and so on...
Check 'em out! :D

BTW...This (http://www.linksys.com/Products/product.asp?grid=23&prid=173) is an all round great solution, WAP, Router and 4 port 10/100 Switch!

[Draft]

I have used a linksys router for nearly 2 years now, and I've never had a problem with it. No overheating and no resetting, other then after firmware updates (which happen very infrequently). Also it is extremely easy to set up and use. Hope that this helps.

Draft

[mmcneil]

RF114 - 18 months, no problems - no detectable heat, 4 ports 10/100, this one has a firewall which I prefer since I am running OS X. I don't think you can go wrong with either Netgear or Linksys. Netgear setup is via browser.

[me hate windows]

I would go with the Linksys router, model: BEFSR41 V.2
I have had it for 6 months and it has been on nonstop. It has 4 ports and has a built in switch. I use it to share files between an iMac and a G4, and to get on the internet.

[Draft]

Originally posted by me hate windows
I would go with the Linksys router, model: BEFSR41 V.2


This is the exact same model that I use. I like it a lot.

Draft

[evildead]

I have a wireless 4 port router from linksys. I love it. The last firmware update for it helpled out a lot. What I like about it is the simple web interface, the abillity to port forward, DMZ options, concurent DHCP and static IP adressing (I like using static IP's but I like to run DHCP for when I just need to plug in a box for some quit networking) , encription, and its reliable. I have had mine running for several months with out ever powering it down. Its a great consumer router. I saw the non-wirles model on sale at BestBuy a few weeks ago go for $50.00. Pretty good deal. Your old router had a built in firewall? Or are you talking about not being able to get in computers bedhind the router for some web services like ftp, telent, ssh, carracho, AIM.. etc. You can forward all the ports if you want to to all of your computers (using static IP's) Or you can put computers in the DMZ so the world can seem them compleetly and you can take care of firewalling at each box localy. I have 3 Macs (OS9/OSX) and 3 PC's (98/2000/XP) currently on my network.


-evildead

[Choppaface]

got a linksys router+4 port ethernet hub and it works great

got my XP box, G4, phaser 740 [printer], and my laptop on it, and everybody's happy

[edesignuk]

You may want to take a look at this (http://www.macrumors.com/forums/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=4601&highlight=network) , a thread I started a while back about home network setups, you may find it usefull.

[AmbitiousLemon]

hm according to that link you posted seems like people have a lot of problems with linksys. similiar to the problems i have with my current router.

[Draft]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
hm according to that link you posted seems like people have a lot of problems with linksys. similiar to the problems i have with my current router.

I think that problems come more with the wireless routers.

Draft

[AmbitiousLemon]

well the linksys router got here today (cost me $75 with tax and shipping) and i must say i most certainly DO NOT reccommend this router. Im really surprised you guys would reccommend this POS.

Cant turn off firewall

no mac support

no mac software

need a pc to set it up

terrible tech support

ships with out of date firmware

conflicts with many dsl modems

when it does work, its buggy.


so all i have to say is, what were you guys thinking when you reccommended this thing? its probably the worst router a mac user could buy, seems like every other router out there supports macintosh. if anyone else is in the market now, i must say stay far away from linksys. dont listen to these fools. they already found one victim.

[Solipsys]

"Cant turn off firewall..."

DMZ Host...try it.

"no mac support"

Universal HTML front end.

"no mac software"

As above.

"need a pc to set it up"

Ditto.

Just turn on DHCP and let all your comps get onboard...I have had my Linksys router for over a year and I've had to restart it no more than 3 times... and those times were more than likely due to Pacbell. I run my web and email server from one mac (with DMZ on) and have two other macs, plus a pc connected to it. Give the thing a chance, those of us who recommend it can't all be wrong :)

[chibianh]

I have a wireless linksys 4port router... works great! no problems whatsoever

[evildead]

you dont need any software!?

everything is web based for configuration. There is a mini webserver running inside of it. It doesnet come with any Windows software ether. As for the firmware... thats kind of expected. Thats not Linksys's falualt unless you ordered it direct from them. They cant controll if MacZone.com sends you over stock. Just update the firmware your self.

As for the DMZ, it has nothing to do with the OS that your running. All the DMZ does is put a system on your network on the front line and alow all ports to be talked to as if it was the only system on your network. You have to run a firewall on that system if you want to bolck ftp as and example.

Once I updated to the latest firmware on my linksys Wireless router, things got nothing but better. I can run DHCP and have static IP's (something that didnt work before the firmware upgrade) I have Mac's and PC's running OS9/OSX/98/2000/XP with no problems at all. I forward ports to any box I need to and maintain security to my primary box via a firewall on it. I run a hotline server so all the PC's on my network can get to my Primary Mac. (its cheeper and simpler than running Dave or something like that) I run an internal private Hotline server and block any requests for that port from non private IP's to my G4.

[Choppaface]

what comp do you run the hl server on?

i could never get my mac to see a server running on my pc, but it worked the other way around

[me hate windows]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
well the linksys router got here today (cost me $75 with tax and shipping) and i must say i most certainly DO NOT reccommend this router. Im really surprised you guys would reccommend this POS.

Cant turn off firewall

no mac support

no mac software

need a pc to set it up

terrible tech support

ships with out of date firmware

conflicts with many dsl modems

when it does work, its buggy.


so all i have to say is, what were you guys thinking when you reccommended this thing? its probably the worst router a mac user could buy, seems like every other router out there supports macintosh. if anyone else is in the market now, i must say stay far away from linksys. dont listen to these fools. they already found one victim.

What router did you get? Was it wireless or wired? the Lynksis router that I have, I plugged it in and it worked.

[Gelfin]

Ditto on the Linksys BESFR41. Lemon, buddy, the thing did come with a manual. ;) I stopped using my Linksys because I wanted multiple static IP addresses to be truly public, so I'm just using a plain switch (also a Linksys) and securing each machine individually. For most people, however, something like the Linksys is absolutely the way to go.

[DavPeanut]

Originally posted by me hate windows
What router did you get? Was it wireless or wired? the Lynksis router that I have, I plugged it in and it worked.
Same. I have the 4 port, and its perfect.

[gernb]

not sure what kind of intricacies you are looking for in a sub $100 router/cable hub.

i am a freakin' idiot and i have had great luck with the BEFSR41.

set up was easy and the thing is working perfectly, however i am not using it to connect a web server, etc.

no software needed...simply use ie or another browser to login and set preferences. guess i assumed they didn't include pictures and a step by step set up for the mac because they knew we'd be able to figure it out on our own.

apparently you have to add TCP/IP functionality to Windows machines to get this router to work on them...not the case with macs as it's already loaded as a control panel.

anyway, for the love of god, give this piece of harware a chance!

[AmbitiousLemon]

router came. had old firmware on it that didnt work properly. so i had to upload new firmware. guess what you need a pc to do that. also while on the phone with the idiots they repeatedly tell you that they dont support macs, and they its not their job to get it working for me since i own a mac. thats what i mean by no mac support and no mac software. if you ever need to actually manage your router you have to do it with a pc. also when i was on tech support they couldnt figure out what was wrong and decided to tell me that the router doesnt work with my dsl modem (cant figure it out blame it on the other guy) and started to try to convince me to buy their dsl modem. this is just a ****ty company that doesnt care about mac users or any customers. if you have a mac its just an incredible pain to set this up since you need windows to do it. i think a mac user would be much better going with any other company as all the rest have mac support.

[evildead]

the problem with the Firmware was that it uses a java applet to transfer it. I did have problems with it at first but they were resoved with the latest beta version of java support for netscape. And there needs to be faster and better updating of the OS X browers. If I remeber right, I used my OS 9 Netscape4.7 to to the firmware upgrade at the time.

As for the tech suport that only suports windows. Unfortuanly that sounds like most tech suport. They read from a script and are most likely not even computer users let alone a crossplat form user. I know that Linksys does not support macs with tech support and they dont have drivers for their wirless cards ether. When you said that linksys didnt suport Mac's, I thought you ment the router didnt support Mac's. The router does, just not the vender

[AmbitiousLemon]

there si no way to send firmware to the router with a mac. they use a .exe file to send the firmware.

and the whole not being able to turn off the firewall bothers me. i dont need or want a firewall but it seems i am stuck with one. sure i can use the dmz host thing but obviously that only works for one computer. my other machines are firmly stuck behind an iron curtain.

[AlphaTech]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
there si no way to send firmware to the router with a mac. they use a .exe file to send the firmware.

and the whole not being able to turn off the firewall bothers me. i dont need or want a firewall but it seems i am stuck with one. sure i can use the dmz host thing but obviously that only works for one computer. my other machines are firmly stuck behind an iron curtain.

You CAN update it from a Mac, just download the MacTFTP Client (http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=8122&db=mac) software and do it that way.

As for choice in routers, I haven't used the Linksys personally, but I was able to use it at my sister's place as well as configure it using my Mac laptop without issue.

Personally, I love my Airport Base Station, which does everything the router does, except with one LAN port. I have the LAN port on mine connecting to a Netgear 8 port switch. Works beautifully for both Mac's and peecee's as well as network printers. :D

[Choppaface]

when i updated my Linksys router's firmware i used my pc, but the control panel thingy also has an upload form where you upload the file right to the router, so I dunno if it would work on a mac, but I wouldn't be surprized if it worked. I think they even recommend in the manual to upload it instead of using the little pc-proggie thingy

as to setting it up with a mac, I haven't tried this, but this here might work:http://www.methodshop.com/games/features/cableShare/index.stm

I've never had a problem so far with my router, although it is kinda annoying when my stuff gets re-IPed occasionally...cuz then I have to reset my printer and everything.

as far as the firewall goes, does it even have one? I thought it required zone alarm for that? cuz it certainly hasn't stopped me from doing anything...

[mymemory]

I just got a Linksys 4 days ago, it is giving me some problems but it is because of the configuration. I'm new settiong up networks, I'm just playin with the html interface that results very friendly. I know I can get a long with it. I'm reading the manual just to adjust some details.

Finally I can have DSL for my PowerMac and my Pismo at same time and be able to transfer files that easy.

I recomend this unit, it has 4 ethernet ports for mac and pcs. The manual is for pcs not for macs but... when was the last time you needed a 20 pages manual to set up a mac to something?:D

I recomend the unit, besides, if every body has it you can ask for help if there is a problem.

[AmbitiousLemon]

every router i have looked at has an html interface so thats is nothing special. what you wnat is something that wont break and that will offer tech support so that when you call they can help. linksys does not offer tools to manage the router they sell while others do. linksys tech support does not offer mac support which others do. linksys does not allow you to turn on and off the firewall which others do. any router will be able to supply a mac with an ip so there is nothing special about that, but if you can not manage the router with the mac then every time you run into a problem it turns into a huge ordeal. i would suggest finding a mac friendly company, thats all.

[Dr. Distortion]

I'm using an Asante FriendlyNet router/10/100baseT 4-port switch/firewall for over a year now. At first it didn't work with my cable company's dhcp servers. After some phonecalls and emails with Asante we were able to resolve the problem. The Asante tech support team made a new firmware update, and after installing it over the neat http interface it worked like a charm.

Look for the FR3004 Series router on
this page (http://www.asante.com/products/routers/index.html)

there's even a comparison matrix on the page to compare Asante to Linksys and Netgear routers.

Cheers!

-Dr. D.

[Edit: typo fix]

[AmbitiousLemon]

o wow. they have some cool stuff. wish i had talked to you before buying this linksys pos.

[evildead]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
there si no way to send firmware to the router with a mac. they use a .exe file to send the firmware.

and the whole not being able to turn off the firewall bothers me. i dont need or want a firewall but it seems i am stuck with one. sure i can use the dmz host thing but obviously that only works for one computer. my other machines are firmly stuck behind an iron curtain.


I sent my firm ware from a mac. It dose not need to run on the computer you send it from. You just use the web interface on the router and load the java appplet. Then tell it to send it to the router. Thats it. No running of any apps on your local mac. I did it no problem. At least thats how it works on my Wireless router. Im plugged in to one of the port directly for this Mac.

As for the firewall. Its not really a firewall. Ports are not turned off and there are not rules that you can apply to it. The reason why your computers that are behind it cant see the outside world just like you would if they each had there own connection is that ... they each have a subneted private IP address. you probably have the same IP address as I do right now but it on a private network. You cant see it from the outside world. the router lets you see the world. You have to give it rules (port forwarding) to tell it that when it gets a request on a port, lets say port 22( the ssh port) , your router needs to know what IP on the private network to send it to. On my linksys, you can forward ports to any IP you want. If you want every computer to be compleetly visable to the outside world then you ether have to forward a port range of 0-60000 to all of your computers or you need to contact your ISP and pay for a buch of static IP adresses. Thats just the way routers work. Its not a Linksys thhing.. its a router thing. It gives your more power and proformace than many others. If you open all port to all IP's then all packet requests will be sent to all your computers. You only have 4 ports so thats not too bad, put I have a wireless so I could have as many as 254 computers for forward the request and packets to.

-evildead

[Apple][Forever]

I had bought the Linksys router (the besfr41 v2) and had nothing but problems with it. Setup went OK, but it just didn't like my Ameritech DSL (that is, computers would get their IPs and talk to each other, but the PPPoE connection wouldn't work.) Even with the settings recommended by linksys, no dice. BTW, in its favor you CAN easily upgrade the firmware vis OS X terminal. go into the HTML setup and disable the password, then open up the terminal and use the tftp command. I tried that to see if that would fix my problems but no dice.

I returned it a couple days later (funny thing is the guy in front of me and the guy behind me were also returning it. i figure the store either had a bad batch, or linksyses don't like ameritech dsl, which is the dominant carrier in Chicago.) and got an SMC Barricade (which AFAIK is the same as the asante) because it was 40 bucks cheaper. it works well, much more stable than the linksys in both PPPoE and the HTML interface.