Wireless Routers: Which One?

[stevento]

So I want a wireless router.
So my first stop to look at the online apple store and found two.

1. The AirPort Extreme which is $200, up to 54 mbps
2. AirPort Express with AirTunes which is $129

the express has the itunes thing which i love. not sure if the extreme has it.
but the problem is they are both so expensive and it seems to me that apple charges for the look of their products.

are either of those worth the money?

i found some for $40-$70
they are all both b and g routers.
i found this one :http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...outer&lp=4&type=product&cp=1&id=1134701703049
and it has upto 125 mbps while all others are just up to 54 mbps.
does that matter?
also its a smart router which means it configures your dsl for you (whatever that means) and it has one touch secure network, which i dont know if i'll need

 

[ziwi]

Any wireless router will do. It won't do the air tunes thing, but there are other methods for that. Get a nice 'g' router or better and save the bucks to buy tunes...

 

[Reflow]

Well I guess it all depends on what features you want and what price are you will to pay for it. As for the buffalo one you mentioned you have to buy more equipment to make it run @ 125

 

[ste6168]

Any wireless router will do. It won't do the air tunes thing, but there are other methods for that. Get a nice 'g' router or better and save the bucks to buy tunes...

what is another way to do the airtunes thing? Currently i own an airport express because it is very portable and I also hook speakers up to it at school so i can play music for our parties and have my computer in an "undisclosed" room ( just my room with the door locked), but I really like it.

 

[Motley]

If you can it might be worth it to wait until after the keynote speech. See if with the intro of iTV apple revamps it's wireless basestations.

Or if you want an apple basestation cheaper, wait for one to pop up in the refurb store.

 

[umiwangu]

Why not get a Linksys router? They looked as ugly as crap, but at least they run well. If you are considering getting a non-Apple router, DO NOT get a Netgear. They look great but overheat very easily (especially when doing heavy browsing or P2P or file transfers).

My $.02

 

[notmenotyou]

get the Linksys WRT54GL, and make sure is the GL, not the regular G, it will cost you a little bit more, but it worth it.

 

[aquajet]

We just bought this today and it works fine. Only about $40 too.

 

[Reflow]

get the Linksys WRT54GL, and make sure is the GL, not the regular G, it will cost you a little bit more, but it worth it.

What's the difference between the two?

 

[Mav451]

ZyXEL X-550.

Don't waste your time with Linksys...I spent half of my summer finding out that my Linksys was the sole reason for dropped connections.

 

[robcts]

Hands down.. D-Link DGL-4300 or ZyXEL X-550 - both the same thing mostly. You won't find a better one.

 

[Reflow]

On my part I would say Belkin is the best since they have lifetime warranty on there products

 

[i4k20c]

Hey i actually got that buffalo one from bestbuy like a week ago! I love it so far, had to call tech support for something, and they were great too!

So far, i must say i would definitely recommend that buffalo router...

I was also looking into getting that belkin from BB posted above, but check out the reviews from customers on both products at newegg.com (just search for each router) and you'll see why i went with buffalo's...

here is also my thread when i was debating what router to get, as it may help you some..

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/265288/

 

[Shotgun Pete]

with any non apple wireless router you purchase, skip the installation software, ive never seen it go over well on an apple computer, just plug the router in and let OS X do the rest.

 

[stevento]

We just bought this today and it works fine. Only about $40 too.

can you share a printer with that one?
i'd like to be able to share printers.
so Lynksis is out, and so is any apple router,

 

[stevento]

Why not get a Linksys router? They looked as ugly as crap, but at least they run well. If you are considering getting a non-Apple router, DO NOT get a Netgear. They look great but overheat very easily (especially when doing heavy browsing or P2P or file transfers).

My $.02

are you saying you had a linksis and it ran great?
because someone else said that his linksys dropped connections.
maybe linksys is like dell, hit or miss.
i found a $45 linksys that can share printers, which i want to do.
but then again, maybe its cheap for a reason?

 

[aquajet]

can you share a printer with that one?
i'd like to be able to share printers.
so Lynksis is out, and so is any apple router,

No, it won't share a printer. It's only got wireless routing capabilities along with a four-port ethernet switch.

However, both the Airport Express and Extreme base stations will share a USB printer.

 

[RockTheGlobe]

get the Linksys WRT54GL, and make sure is the GL, not the regular G, it will cost you a little bit more, but it worth it.

Best Buy has the WRT54GS on sale this week... does anyone have any experience with this one?

 

[DEXTERITY]

are you saying you had a linksis and it ran great?
because someone else said that his linksys dropped connections.
maybe linksys is like dell, hit or miss.
i found a $45 linksys that can share printers, which i want to do.
but then again, maybe its cheap for a reason?

LINKSYS ARE FINE AND POSSIBLY THE BEST FOR VIDEO GAMES ONLINE. The DS Lite supported very few routers and Linksys happened to be one of them. I have had two Linksys (wired for over 7 years and wireless for over 2) and never had any dropped connection problems. the 54g works great.

 

[Hunts121]

LINKSYS ARE FINE AND POSSIBLY THE BEST FOR VIDEO GAMES ONLINE. The DS Lite supported very few routers and Linksys happened to be one of them. I have had two Linksys (wired for over 7 years and wireless for over 2) and never had any dropped connection problems. the 54g works great.

I also have a linksys wireless router and I have never had any problems with it. I have the older WRT54G which I am told is different somehow than the newer one?

 

[Mav451]

Hands down.. D-Link DGL-4300 or ZyXEL X-550 - both the same thing mostly. You won't find a better one.

QFT.

My horrible experiences with Linksys serve as a testament against their networking devices. Hell, I even had their terrible USB Adapter for some time. Replaced it with a Hawking HWU54D.

Honestly the one, and ONLY one reason to use Linksys is if you are willing to put dd-wrt on it, then maybe it is worth it. I would like the months of trouble that Linksys gave me, in unreliable and dropped connections back, but I never will. It caused an unforgivable amount of lost productivity.

 

[Zygon Gambit]

I've been very happy with my Airport Express. I wanted to make sure it would work seamlessly with my Mac and, of course, it does. It costs more, but it was worth it for me...

 

[QuantumLo0p]

Do not forget about encryption

It surprises me that nobody has talked about encryption.

To be honest I have not kept up on wifi lately but I would have to imagine that any halfway decent wireless router would have decent encryption. WEP is crackable in a minute by first graders. I would make sure you can use WPA with AES encryption on your router and your computers. Of course if you wish to have a wide open connection then decent encryption is not needed.

Personally I use a WRT54GX4 with WPA and AES which works great for me. (except I bricked it once during a firmware upgrade that was not my fault. that sucked) but it sounds like other people have had a lot of problems. That said I would look at other routers besides Linksys.

If you are thinking about having a wide open access point but need decent security on the rest of a wired network you may want to consider using a proxy server with a segmented network to keep the wireless traffic seperate from your wired computers.