A GOOD router, but not TOO EXPENSIVE?

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agi_shi

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I'm looking for a plain and simple, but powerful and stable router.

This is the situation - I have an old crappy eMachines which I'll let my dad use to read news and stuff (and email and all that stuff that doesn't require power), and I'll use my new powerful (self-built) pc for games.

Now the thing is, I want it to be stable AND powerful. Reading news doesn't really need that, but I want to be able to game (FEAR and other FPS games that require high-speed internet).

What I mean is that I do NOT want ANY disconnections whatsoever. ANY.

See, the reason is that when I am playing some game (or programming, that is my other hobby - plan on being a professional game programmer in a 5-10 years [when I'll be 18-23]) my dad or mom decides that they want to check their email and I have to stop the game for nothing...

Note that I need a very STABLE but feature-less router. I only need to connect 2 computers to it, and DO NOT need ANY other features other than well.... routing. That is, no complex software or ports and anything like that. 4 or less ports is GREAT!

Thanks!
 
Hmm... any specific routers you can recommend? Preferebly from NewEgg? (I checked on newegg, but Billion Series Routers turned up with nothing...)
 
RealBlackStuff said:
Newegg: get Netgear

Get Billion from Taiwan or Australia or UK
http://www.billion.com/
Most of their products can run circles around the competition!
Only Netgear router I could find had horrible reviews (disconnected people)...

You see, what I'm scared of is:
a) Horrible Performance [or]
b) Horrible Stability - I DO NOT want it to disconnect me every 20 minutes...
 
go wired man, screw those wireless routers----they always cutout. i just got a D-link EBS-2310 DSL/ROUTER to repleace the Netgear one that died....only $39 at Best buy

I play UT-04,Fear, quake 4(yea i know I bought QUAKE while waiting for UT-07).....
 
"Cheap router with no disconnects"... Is there such a beast? I like Cisco/Linksys but D-Link is better than Netgear :(
 
half_fish said:
go wired man, screw those wireless routers----they always cutout. i just got a D-link EBS-2310 DSL/ROUTER to repleace the Netgear one that died....only $39 at Best buy

I play UT-04,Fear, quake 4(yea i know I bought QUAKE while waiting for UT-07).....
I never really wanted a wireless one - all I want is a simple way to split my internet connection. But ofcourse, to do that I need a router and then come problems. I don't really care what it looks like or how many features it needs - as long as it doesn't disconnect me (and can split into atleast 2 computers)...

As for cheap, I meant as in non-hundreds of dollars for a router (no more than 60$).
 
agi_shi said:
...What I mean is that I do NOT want ANY disconnections whatsoever. ANY.
in the real world, this is an unreasonable expectation.

there are many reasons for networking issues and whatever router you have in
the link, it too may be a victim just like any other component.

just like there's no such thing as absolute security, there's also no perfect network.
Web servers go to great lenghts to provide fault tolerance and for
continous connectivity, they install multiple NICs with different upstream connections
and use round-robin DNS resolution to route traffic.

you just don't get his level of service for $1.95usd
 
jobeard said:
in the real world, this is an unreasonable expectation.

there are many reasons for networking issues and whatever router you have in
the link, it too may be a victim just like any other component.

just like there's no such thing as absolute security, there's also no perfect network.
Web servers go to great lenghts to provide fault tolerance and for
continous connectivity, they install multiple NICs with different upstream connections
and use round-robin DNS resolution to route traffic.

you just don't get his level of service for $1.95usd

Amen to that jobeard ;)
 
jobeard said:
in the real world, this is an unreasonable expectation.

there are many reasons for networking issues and whatever router you have in
the link, it too may be a victim just like any other component.

just like there's no such thing as absolute security, there's also no perfect network.
Web servers go to great lenghts to provide fault tolerance and for
continous connectivity, they install multiple NICs with different upstream connections
and use round-robin DNS resolution to route traffic.

you just don't get his level of service for $1.95usd
Not to be ignorant, but technically, what IS a router? Is it not possible to simply cut the connection in two...?

I never get disconnected when I'm directly connected, so what's so hard about simply letting the other computer share the connection...?

I must not be getting something....
 
agi_shi said:
Not to be ignorant, but technically, what IS a router? Is it not possible to simply cut the connection in two...?

I never get disconnected when I'm directly connected, so what's so hard about simply letting the other computer share the connection...?

I must not be getting something....
I'll get to this question in a moment.

let's take web access to techspot.com as an example;
here's the network path from my pc to the server:
tracert techspot.com

Tracing route to techspot.com [70.85.4.244]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 22 ms 8 ms * 70-32-240-1.ontrca.adelphia.net [aa.bb.cc.1]
3 11 ms 11 ms * 24-48-219-209.losaca.adelphia.net [24.48.219.209]
4 12 ms 11 ms * 24-48-219-5.losaca.adelphia.net [24.48.219.5]
5 14 ms 14 ms * 24-48-219-97.losaca.adelphia.net [24.48.219.97]
6 13 ms 11 ms * ae4-00-00.a0.lax91.adelphiacom.net [66.109.15.113]
7 14 ms 18 ms * ae-1-0.c1.lax91.twc-core.net [66.109.3.145]
8 45 ms 46 ms * as-0-0.c0.dfw91.twc-core.net [66.109.0.54]
9 46 ms 45 ms * ae-0-0.p0.dfw91.twc-core.net [66.109.3.74]
10 46 ms 46 ms * eq-dallas-1000M.theplanet.com [206.223.118.3]
11 45 ms 44 ms 47ms vl31.dsr01.dllstx3.theplanet.com [70.85.127.29]
12 46 ms 47 ms * vl21.dsr01.dllstx2.theplanet.com [70.85.127.67]
13 48 ms 47 ms * po2.car19.dllstx2.theplanet.com [12.96.160.36]
14 48 ms 44 ms * f4.4.5546.static.theplanet.com [70.85.4.244]
15 49 ms 53 ms 47 ms f4.4.5546.static.theplanet.com [70.85.4.244]
Trace complete.​

that's 15 systems to traverse, and at least three corporations! any one of
them can go down and I get no server reply from techspot.com.
if #2 link goes down, I loose access to the entire Internet.

as to your question Router vs Direct connection, big differences here as you
should expect by the difference in a $8.00 cable vs a $59 router.
the cable is purely wires and the router has both hardware circuitry and
firmware logic to perform:
NAT translation
packet filtering
statefull packet inspection
*most all also provide DHCP service* when coupled with the NAT,
allows more than one system to share an Internet Connection to your ISP
each of these features are not only useful, but well worth every penny.

To share more systems, you might try ICS on Windows, but in my opinon, it stinks
and you would be better off with a simple router. Why?
Use DHCP to configure all systems automatically instead of manual settings
which not everyone can do easily,
NAT is a defacto firewall that adds another hurdle to the jerks to climb over,
Each system can run independently from the others, and
A router will reduce IP traffic to only the absolute required traffic (which is a feature of all switches that is missing from all hubs )​
 
A Router is just that, it "routes" a single Internet connection to several computers at once. I have a wired Motorola 4-port router. This 4-port router allows me to have 4 computers connected to my Cable Internet modem all at the same time. I have enabled Internet connections and file sharing between all 4 computers, and my single USB HP printer is shared by all 4 computers. You can also link routers together... 8, 16, 32 ports
 
A GOOD router, but not TOO EXPENSIVE...

I too, have been in this game for bit (will do my intro post soon) Online with Comp-U-Serv back in 1979 on COMMODORE Vic20. I laff when I think of the 8kb of system ram with a 16kb expansion card!
Anyway, I have come to offer my opinion of the USRobotics MAXG routers. They are stable, simple to setup, and have referred them to several gamers who have said nothing to me in the way of complaint. I have yet to see it drop out for any reason.
I have seen them at Sam's Club in a kit, that includes a router, a simple setup CD (which I did not use to set it up although I did look it over.) power supply and a short length of Cat5 cable. There is also a wireless PCMCIA card for a laptop, and the whole thing goes fot about $85 bux. PC cards can cost upwards of $50 bux alone, which is why I feel this is a good deal. If you look you can find them sold w/o the PC card at a very good price.
I setup many computers on my bench thru this router and have yet to see any of them get infected by the various threats out there. Not that it won't happen... but, it just HASN'T.
Sorry for the wordiness of this post, but I feel that the USR MaxG routers are worth the money and good enough to occupy space on my crowded bench. They beat the rest of them(allowing for the 2-3% or more of product that comes off the line bad to start with, but they all have that) hands down. IMHO
 
I can give you a horror story about every single brand on the market... multiple horror stories infact.

Don't buy according to brand - its a huge mistake - buy according to model. Look at reviews etc..

I can tell you that you'll miss a lot more than you'll hit for sure. I'm convinced the only somewhat reliable router is a full blown computer. :)
 
I second f1n3st. I have used that router for over 3 years now and I have never had A SINGLE disconnection. Never, not once. I use my pc apporximately 8 hours per day, so in almost 10000 hours of operation, not one disconection is pretty bloody good:)

Regards,

Korrupt
 
agi_shi said:
I'm looking for a plain and simple, but powerful and stable router.
...
Note that I need a very STABLE but feature-less router. I only need to connect 2 computers to it, and DO NOT need ANY other features other than well.... routing. That is, no complex software or ports and anything like that. 4 or less ports is GREAT!

Thanks!
IF there's only two systems, in the same room, then by all means, just get a cross-over cable between the two NIC cards and the
config will be simple!
 
I had forgotten about this option, but it should work. He will have to enable printer and file sharing too, and run the Internet Connection Wizard
 
jobeard said:
IF there's only two systems, in the same room, then by all means, just get a cross-over cable between the two NIC cards and the
config will be simple!
So..... how will this work then? And what is this "crossover" cable you speak of?

My pc and my other pc both have onboard networking though, so will that suffice (I never found anything wrong with onboard NICs, so I don't have a seperate card)...?

Please do explain, I am interested in this "crossover" cable thing....

Because, like I said, all I want is a VERY simple AND reliable way to get my 2 computers to use one internet connection. No printer sharing or anything like that is needed (although printer sharing would be nice, I do not NEED it)...

Thanks!
 
agi_shi said:
And what is this "crossover" cable you speak of?
a special wiring so that the 'read' wire on one end is connected to the 'write' connector on the other end.
My pc and my other pc both have onboard networking though, so will that suffice (I never found anything wrong with onboard NICs, so I don't have a seperate card)...?
you will need two in one of the machines .. see below
Because, like I said, all I want is a VERY simple AND reliable way to get my 2 computers to use one internet connection. No printer sharing or anything like that is needed (although printer sharing would be nice, I do not NEED it)...
you will be wired like this;
modem --- {wan}system(A){lan} ---{lan}system(B)​
system-a needs two nic cards, one to the modem with a regular ethernet cable(usually grey),
and the other to system-b with the cross-over cable(frequently blue or red)
which should be clearly marked as such.


the wan-side address will be set by your ISP.
system-a needs to have ICS enabled and that will force system-a{lan} side
to be 192.168.0.1. you add
a mask of 255.255.255.0
dns from your wan side
and copy the wan side gateway address

on system-b, set tcp/ip parms as
ip 192.168.0.2
mask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1
dns 192.168.0.1

system-B must be able to ping 192.168.0.1 as well as your
wan side address

file/print sharing will be easy from there.
 
Your 2 computers are ready for a crossover cable. Just make sure you specify a "crossover" network cable, and not a "straight" network cable. A straight cable is used between a router and a computer. If both computers are running XP, connect the crossover cable between your 2 computers and turn them on. Go to Control Panel, Network Setup Wizard and follow directions. You will see a check box for File and Printer Sharing. You can decide what you want to do with it then
 
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