Router question

[AV8TOR]

Okay really settled in now with our new iMac now and I must say the transition from a PC was easy. (Special thanks to this forum for that)

When I set up the iMac I continued to use my trusty old Netgear WGR614 router which always worked fine for my PC and iPhone WiFi connections. Is there any benefit or downside for that matter if I swap out the Netgear for the AirPort Extreme Base Station? What about switching to the the Linksys WRT54G as this seems very popular on this forum?

Thanks

 

[jsgrabo]

If the netgear router is doing what it needs to do and your not having any issues with it, I don't really see any reason to spend money on something you don't need. Nothing wrong with netgear and macs.

 

[QuantumLo0p]

I do not opt for any off the shelf brands. I use Smoothwall, running on an old box with ddwrt running on a Linksys wrt54 for a wap, to keep my wireless and wired traffic separate.

If you feel a bit ambitious, I suggest you try Smoothwall. Its more capable as a router than anything over the counter. As for the the old Linksys running ddwrt firmware, that too is leaps and bounds above anything you can buy at Best Buy. Also, both Smoothwall and ddwrt are free. For Smoothie just find an obsolete computer to load it up on and for ddwrt firmware just find an old Linksys wrt54.

Of course you could buy off the shelf, too. In that case just about any router the Best Buy kid sells will probably suit you just fine. If you are looking for the easiest route I would go buy one. This will be the least hassle but certainly not the most robust.

 

[AV8TOR]

Well I made the switch to the Airport Extreme and wow what an improvement. The internet response is significantly faster now especially when switching between pages. As mentioned the setup was very easy and the USB printer method work perfect. I could not set up my wife's laptop as she is on travel. If it prints as it should this router is well worth the money.

 

[dXTC]

I switched to the AEBS recently from a D-Link DI524, and also noticed significant improvements beyond the obvious jump to N. My signal is much stronger, reaching my iMac 50 feet and 1 floor away with nearly 100% signal (versus the DI's ~60%), and I'm not having to reconnect every 15 minutes in the iMac's Airport menu.

If I could change one thing about the AEBS, it would be adding the ability to set Internet bandwidth limits on the Guest Network. I'd probably set it at 128K down, 8K up-- just fast enough for a passerby in range to get a couple of emails or maybe tweet in a pinch, but slow enough to discourage hardcore leeching and/or torrents.

 

[pilot1226]

Were you having problems with your router before you switched? I personally use a Belkin router and have for a few years now. It works great, though I'm not a fan of the Belkin UI, it's very rigid and considerably more difficult to get things going like Static IP's and port forwarding.

The worst thing I have to do, every few weeks, is restart my router.

Have you tried running WPA2 with the AEBS? WPA? WEP?

Just curious because the price of the AEBS is pretty high compared to others.

 

[AV8TOR]

Were you having problems with your router before you switched?

Yes and No

No problems with my old Netgear router regarding my work, and my wife's PC laptops. Page transitions had no delay

Yes I had problems with that router on our new iMac. It was like the iMac blocked out the internet. I had the same issues on wireless and Ethernet connections. Click on the Safari or Firefox in the dock the program would open but take 15-45 seconds for the page to appear. It was even worse waking up from sleep. When it finally made its connection switching between sites always had a delay. Now you click and boom the new page transitions right now. I ran several speed tests and I did see a small increase of the download speed and the same on upload but the real benefit was instant access.

I should have added that even after coming out of sleep mode the internet is right there now as well with no delays

The Netgear in fairness was old and had no firmware upgrades