Linksys, Netgear, Ugate Broadband router... which one?

[smaier69]

okay, i have never set one of these up, and a freind of mine from work just got DSL and wants me to set up a way to share the connection over his LAN (which i also have set up). the LAN aspect is no issue for me.

what i am lo0oking for is this......

a Cable/xDSL router that is fairly easy to configure. more for my freind's sake than mine. i just dont want to have to go over there every time he or his son (who like to play internet games) want to add some software or want to host a server. it should be at least somewhat understandable to an advanced computer user. or at least easy(er) to learn than some i have read about. i will set it up with the basics for him/them and explain whats going on and what how to configure the router. i'd like to have the "basics" up and running for him in one day (with the LAN already wired and communicating prior to this).

his son sounds fairly computer "literate" and so i will probably be doing most of the talking to him.

i am just looking for a router thats not going to fill the Networking Forum with "Help me!" threads.

he has PPPoE service, and 5 comps (the # of ports is not important as he already has an 8-port hub or switch - he's not sure which it is).

just lookning for the "easiest" option. the budget is $200 or less for the router.

[YeOldeStonecat]

For clients, I've done over 30 installs of the Linksys. I find it the easiest for users to deal with, in case something happens, it's so easy to walk them through the full featured web admin page to check things or hit the reconnect button over my cell phone. The later firmware since 1.35 has made it a pretty reliable box as far as maintaining connections. Honestly, I find things run much more reliable giving all the clients a static IP address, gateway, and DNS....not using the routers DHCP. It seems to always be working that way, if you set IP to obtain, the routers DHCP server seems to forget or expire it's lease a lot, resulting in frequent client reboots to release/renew the IP.

I found the NetGear to be faster, higher quality, but the web admin page is a bit limited, so you need telnet for more advanced funtions, something which can be daunting for your newbie clients.

In reality, once you set something up, shouldn't have to go in there much. But it's easy for a newbie to check out the Linky's web admin to check on status, harder to do on the NetGear.

Don't have experience with the UGate.

You mention run a game server now and then. Well, in my opinion, no routers under 200 dollars do a good reliable job of running a game server.

The Linksys has had horrible issues with Unreal Tournament based games (very bad graphical glitches for the clients), but a couple of months ago some beta firmware was released which was to fix that, and reports have been pretty good re: the graphic glitches, although it still disconnects a bit under heavy load.

The NetGear has an issue where it burps randomly under heavy load and drops the WAN clients from the game, although LAN clients stay connected fine.

Myself, after several routers, I decided to skip getting these home consumer oriented entry level routers, and go mid range. Spent about 300 dollars for a Netopia, not easy to setup or configure at all, so I wouldn't do it of you expect frequent support calls. But she's rock solid, very robust and flexible, and hardly breaks a sweat running my server.

[smaier69]

very nice dissertation, StoneCat. thank you for the assistance.

for awhile i remember seeing endless threads regarding problems with the Linksys solution (configuration i mean). this was when it was still fairly young to the market and there were BIOS issues as i recall. hopefully those have since been resolved.

thus far it looks as if the Linksys may be the choice.... until i get someone with experience with the Ugate that is (would just like to see what the consensus is on that one as well).

anybody have experience with the Ugate 3200?

[nightowl]

i highly recomend the netgear router, alittle harder to setup then the linksys but well worth the extra money, has a faster NAT processor then the linky aswell as less problems with the firmware....here is a link to help ya diside
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/hwrouter_chart_pg2.htm

[Dakota]

The NetGear FR314 is on sale at CompUSA, but I did read about some speed problems in one of the million reviews I have read over the past few days.

I considered trading my RT314 back for the FR, but then decided against it and after reading further the RT314 is definitely the best bang for the buck for me as speed is my #1 concern.

The Linky, however, is an excellent choice and it comes with built-in tech support from YeOldeStonecat! :D :D And, is easier to manipulate advanced features.

[Dakota]

Did you read the Ugate review at: http://www.speedguide.net/reviews/umax_3200/index.shtml

[YeOldeStonecat]

Hah....funny one Jetta....lol.

[badboyben]

i have the netgear rt314, no prbs with it, im a newbie to networking.

game servers, i have only had a CS server up and runing with no probs.


everyone i personnaly know who has the linky has probs with it, but ive also heard of ppl ith zero probs with it too.

heck reviews on all the routers that u r considering and get the the one that appeals and suite your needs.

[theINSPECTOR]

I'm for the Netgear rt-314, also. The setup was a breeze, and it works like a charm. I bought a Linky to begin with, and ended up taking it back......... :)

[Dakota]

I finally got my new puter and setup my NetGear RT314. Super easy setup. Was online with both systems in just a couple of minutes and totally networked with file and print sharing a few minutes after that. So far, I am very impressed, but now I have to Telnet the filters and firmware upgrade, and that's a bit more trouble than the setup, but still not that bad for what you get with this rock solid router.

[Dakota]

Filters and flash bios upgrade on a NetGear? A sweet breeze man! This router rocks. :D

[nightowl]

Originally posted by BlueJetta:
I finally got my new puter and setup my NetGear RT314. Super easy setup. Was online with both systems in just a couple of minutes and totally networked with file and print sharing a few minutes after that. So far, I am very impressed, but now I have to Telnet the filters and firmware upgrade, and that's a bit more trouble than the setup, but still not that bad for what you get with this rock solid router.


with the latest firmware you don't have to telnet into it now for upgrading the firmware

[jaco]

YeOldeStonecat: when you were talking about the linksys loosing the dhcp ip for the computer, instead of rebooting you should try
running winipcfg at the run box, release it from there, and renewing it. I think this will save you time, effort, and sanity? :)

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah, I'm familiar with winipcfg, I build networks for a living. But I shouldn't have to do that, and I don't want my clients calling me on my cell phone every other day to have me walk them through running winipcfg to release/renew...so I either run with the much more dependable NT Server DHCP services if they have a server, or I statically assign all the IPs of the workstations. Then I never get a call about loss of internet access unless the service is down.

Been around the block just a few times to know what works, I'm past 40 Linksys router installs so far.

BTW...glad the NetGear is working well for ya Jetta...it's a rock solid unit. Just feel the weight of that box, compared to the little Linky...ya can tell the quality difference.

[ 04-27-2001: Message edited by: YeOldeStonecat ]

[Dakota]

Originally posted by nightowl:

with the latest firmware you don't have to telnet into it now for upgrading the firmware

Oh! Sweet. I'm upgrading the F/W tonight, so I'm looking forward to those new options. Even so, Telnet wasn't all that bad.

[Dakota]

Originally posted by YeOldeStonecat:
BTW...glad the NetGear is working well for ya Jetta...it's a rock solid unit. Just feel the weight of that box, compared to the little Linky...ya can tell the quality difference.


And thanks again for all your help. Yes, I am very impressed with the NetGear RT314. I almost traded it for the newer FR model, but read some speed issues with it and decided that it had too much filtering crap that I'd never use anyway, so it would have been a waste of money for my purposes.