Help with Cable/DSL Router Purchase

[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?

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

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]

ugh linksys

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.