SG Broadband Community

Hi everyone,

Given the following choices of router to work with comcast@home equipment, which one will you pick for its:
------IMPORTANT-----------
- easy setup (no more than 2 hours for a novice person)
- reliability (regular firmware update, minimum breakdown time etc)
- important features that would make your LAN as much secure as possible
- price $200 max
------OPTIONAL------------
- good technical support (either e-mail or phone) and speed (are all router created equal?)

Netgear RT314, Asanté's FriendlyNet FR3004LC, Zyxel P314, SMC Barricade, and Lynksys BEFSR41

Thank you for your time and your vote is greatly appreciated.

Netgear RT-314

netgear RT311/RT314

Linksys by a mile !!!

Just installed a NetGear RT314. Was up and running in minutes — not hours — on two machines. Add another 90 seconds per machine for setup.

The 314 is rock solid in performance and the strong metal box it's encased in. The one feature it does not have that people complain about most is the lack to forward a port ranges, but there's a new firmware in the works to take care of that. And some features are only available throught Telnet, but that interface is very straight-forward and easy.

The new firmware is awesome and makes setup even easier, so you might take that setup time down to 60 seconds per machine.

Reviews have the RT314 winning the speed tests and securing the LAN is a breeze with DrTCP's filters. I have not had one probe reach my computer since setting this baby up.

4 port Linkys here, up and running in 15 mins.Lotsa cool blinking lights too.

3Com 510
from a name you can trust

Linksys

My SMC Baricade is AWSOME! By far the best piece of networking hardware (for the money) I have ever bought. The quick setup guide is kind of weak but complete instructions are in the readme file in MS Word & Adobe PDF formats, should you need them.

linksys baby, make it happen!!!!

after poring though the reviews and posts i'd say the netgear rt314 is the best router for your money and yes i have one

[ 04-28-2001: Message edited by: nightowl ]

I couldn't say which is best because I can't afford to buy them all and test to see which I prefer.
I bought the SMC Barricade and have had no problems with it at all.
The benefits of it that stood out to me was the inclusion of a Print Server, which means that I don't have to dedicate a computer for the printer and also don't have to have a dedicated computer running just to be able to print from any machine.

Linksys BEFSR41 works great with my DSL,no slowdowns and was easy to install. Couldn't tell ya about the others.

Netgear RT314 fan here also.

But if I had the money, I'd be in Netopia

Used an old 486 with 16MB Ram and two old Linksys Cards. Software is Freesco Router (www.freesco.org) Time: less than 15 minutes!
Cost: ZERO!!!!!!

I used the old 486 with Freesco software. Worked great for several months. I was looking for a print server (forget Freesco for this) so I found the SMC Barricade for $89 and must say I am very please with it. Setup was very easy and it has a built-in print server which works great. It also has room for a dial-up modem which I have already used when my cable went out temporarily.

Plus, most of my ports were scanned as Closed at grc.com when using Freesco but now with the Barricade all the ports tested were Stealth!

There is a rebate of the router until Midnight tonight at J & R Computer World but even without the rebate it is a real bargain at $89 considering others are selling it for $139 - $179.

I just installed a SMC Barricade. Had some setup problems because I didn't realize that my old "server" could keep the @home address. Anyway, all is working now and the Barricade was the best buy of all the routers in the Ottawa area.

Algernnon

Linksys, because it has the best logging software available.

NOT LINKSYS!
Way too many problems and the firmware blows chunks.

I have a Kingston 7 port router with 1 uplink. It also has some cool mail software for routing mail throughout your network. Not needed if you have a small LAN in your house, but would kick booty in an office enviro. It may still be more than $200, so I would look at other models.

Anyway, don't go with the linky. No matter how many good experiences you may hear.
Do a search on these forums and look at all the trouble people have.
Mine died and had to be resurrected.
It looks to me like the netgear 311 / 314 is the way to go.

Peace,
FunK

I've installed over 30 of the Linksys routers...easiest to manage, setup, super easy firmware upgrades. The stories you hear about bad experiences are usually from people who try to host something behind the router, like a server for something like gaming, FTP, PcAnywhere host, etc. If you don't have those server needs, the Linky works well. The Linky provides basic protection with it's NAT. All admin is done through it's easy to use web interface.

I've also done several NetGear RT314 routers. Less bells and whistles than the Linky, but I feel it is of better quality, a bit faster, and I had one for almost 4 months, never had to reboot it, it was always on. The Linky would need an occasional reboot. The RT314 provides basic protection with its NAT. They released a better model, the FR314 I believe, which also has a true firewall on top of the NAT, so much better protection. It has a basic web interface for basic admin setup funtions, more advanced settings are done through the old fashioned telnet.

I currently stepped up to a Netopia R910 at home, because it's very robust for running servers behind it. Fast, reliable, has a 33mHz CPU, 4 megs of RAM, full featured NAT and full firewall. Very steep learning curve, difficult to admin, but rock stable. Everything done through telnet.

My vote for you would be the NetGear FR314.

I have been reading about the FR and the techie-users don't like it. You don't have near the control over it as you get with the FR. There are no filters allowed and it looks mainly like a Family Router, for filtering contents for your kiddies. There are also some speed issues being discussed on the various boards.

For more onthe FR314/RT314 comparisons, read this: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,772968;root=equip,9;mode=flat

I would avoid the FR314. Go with the RT.

Interesting find there, tnx for throwing that link. I was about to start using the FR for new installs thinking the advertised firewall was better. Was good to read that users are disappointed with it.

I'll still totally back the RT314 also, it did work well.

Yeah Stone, I almost took back my RT for the FR and am very happy I didn't, and that was before reading that discussion. I read a reviewer complaining about some speed issues with the FR, but I don't remember where is was at.