[ALUG] Re: Wireless router recommendations + graphics card.

[cl at isbd.net]

On Tue, Jan 16, 2007 at 06:44:40PM +0000, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-01-16 at 12:53 +0000, Luke Dodd wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Firstly I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good wireless ADSL
> > router. The problem with my current router (dlink 604+) is that it
> > cant seem to handle more than one person using a substantial amount of
> > bandwidth constantly, even though over all there is bandwidth to
> > spare. For example only one person in the house can listen to Internet
> > radio or stream video at once, with a 2MBit link two Internet radios
> > at 128k should be possible! So are there any routers that would share
> > out the bandwidth more effectively to 2-5 computers at once (cheap
> > ones :D)? 
> 
> I recently ditched my 604+ because it seemed to be struggling somewhat
> with MaxDSL. Basically I could crash it on demand. If for example I did
> a random search on Google and then middle clicked each link on the page
> to open in a new tab the Router would die and require power off/power on
> before it would work again. Before my MaxDSL upgrade it was fine.
> Whether this is faulty or just rubbish by design I am not sure.
> 
> My personal favourites are Draytek, ZyXEL and Netgear DG834's (in that
> order) the first two are pretty expensive but rock solid in my opinion.
> The netgear's are mostly ok although they do crash from time to time and
> we have had a few returns (which netgear are notoriously crap at)
> 
Not quite the order I would give as I have found Zyxels to be less
than perfect, in particular a 660H I had would need rebooting
regularly if I used some of the 'less travelled' parts of the
software, in particular Media Bandwidth Management.

I now have a Sppedtouch 716WL which I can't fault and was very
reasonably priced.


> You can buy a factory refurb 834G for £40 from digidave.co.uk..Also your
> local PC World is usually peddling out something with a respectable name
> for about the same money.
> 
My Sppedtouch (also a refurb) was about that price with full firewall
*and* two SIP phone ports.


-- 
Chris Green (chris at halon.org.uk)