Wireless Router/AP recommendation?

[petenet]

Howdy, all.

Pretty new to Mac, just bought my first one a few weeks back and I'm just loving it.

Anyhow.

I am debating going wireless in my house- never really had a need for it previously, my home was wired for Cat5 when I moved in.

That being said, I'd like to go wireless - what would you recommend? Is the Airport Extreme worth the cash? Or will a linksys work? I firmly believe that you get what you pay for and I have no problem paying more for quality.

I don't know if this matters, but current network design is:

DSL -> Cisco PIX-515 -> Catalyst 3500XL (LAN)

The AP would connect into the 3500.

Thanks in advance!

- Peter

 

[ingenious]

Howdy, all.

Pretty new to Mac, just bought my first one a few weeks back and I'm just loving it.

Anyhow.

I am debating going wireless in my house- never really had a need for it previously, my home was wired for Cat5 when I moved in.

That being said, I'd like to go wireless - what would you recommend? Is the Airport Extreme worth the cash? Or will a linksys work? I firmly believe that you get what you pay for and I have no problem paying more for quality.

I don't know if this matters, but current network design is:

DSL -> Cisco PIX-515 -> Catalyst 3500XL (LAN)

The AP would connect into the 3500.

Thanks in advance!

- Peter

I'm not an expert by any means, but I have set up and maintained a few networks. One thing I've discovered is that it pays to get an Apple router. They just work better (for that matter, they actually work, which is more than can be said for some cheap Netgear jobs) than the competition and they're super-simple to set up and maintain.

I wouldn't go with anything less.

 

[Platonist]

I would have to agree with the previous poster -- the Airport Extreme is worth the money. I switched from a Netgear to the AE and the difference in speed is noticeable. Also, the utility used to manage the AE has the typical Apple feel to it and is vastly superior to the Netgear utility (though I cannot speak to the usability of other companies' utilities). The range of the AE is pretty good, and the signal is rock solid whereas the Netgear would drop intermittently (I know of others who said similar things about Linksys routers). Add in the USB port for network drives or printers (I have my LaserJet plugged into mine) and you end up with a network that is easy to setup and use.

 

[petenet]

Great, thanks for the replies!

I'll take a look at the AE.