good high quality router/switch/etc?

[mojavewolfpup]

a linksys BEFSR41 (first generation) and now a netgear RP614 are biting the dust.

what is a high quality, easy to use and configure router/switch that can replace the consumer grade junk I have? I download alot, and the units just burn up, which gets old.

should I use a old 300 mhz P2 hp pavilion with about 391 mb or of ram in it as a router/switch, or would something like a dlink, buffalo, etc be high quality and work the way it should?

price really doesn't matter, I want ease of use and rock solid reliabilty 10 years down the road!

 

[Scream And Fly]

Try the D-Link DGL-4300. It kicks ass.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Linksys RV082 or RV016. Love 'em, I've installed a lot of them. Great business grade product. Have one at home...it goes toe to toe performance and stability wise with my IPCop box that's a P4 2.4GHz with 512 megs.

 

[Coldtronius]

Seconded for the D-link 4300. I freaking love mine, never crashed on me in over a year i've had it.

 

[Arch]

Cisco 871W if you want real quality. Its going to run you $850 retail price though.

 

[Kaos]

I have a cisco 1751. But id agree with the linksys RV series as well.

 

[corrosive23]

a $20 400 celeron dell desktop off craigslist, 2 nics, a cdrom drive and a copy of freesco

 

[mikeblas]

I don't think any of the products recommended will be appropriate for use ten years from now. That seems like a very unique requirement; can you elaborate on why you need your device to be viable for ten years?

 

[bob]

I don't think any of the products recommended will be appropriate for use ten years from now. That seems like a very unique requirement; can you elaborate on why you need your device to be viable for ten years?

Sounds like hes just tired of SOHO routers dieing like flies. I suppose a desktop comptuer with a solid state drive, could last 10 years. Though its hard to say, some things die after a few years, some last forever like that damned boat-anchor 1988 zenith laptop of mine.

 

[Met-AL]

Seconded for the D-link 4300. I freaking love mine, never crashed on me in over a year i've had it.

Thirded. Best consumer router made.

 

[mikeblas]

Sounds like hes just tired of SOHO routers dieing like flies. I suppose a desktop comptuer with a solid state drive, could last 10 years. Though its hard to say,

Even if it did, would the technology it was using still be viable throughout that ten-year timeframe?

Does the DGL-4300 support jumbo frames?

 

[Coldtronius]

Even if it did, would the technology it was using still be viable throughout that ten-year timeframe?

Does the DGL-4300 support jumbo frames?

It does not. It has issues working with Gamefuel from what i've heard.

 

[bob]

Even if it did, would the technology it was using still be viable throughout that ten-year timeframe?

Unless all PCI cards are incincerated, I doubt technology change would be an issue. I really cant see ethernet becoming unpopular anytime soon.

 

[mikeblas]

Unless all PCI cards are incincerated, I doubt technology change would be an issue. I really cant see ethernet becoming unpopular anytime soon.

Ethernet is moving all the time. 1 meg, 10 megs, 100 megs, 1000 megs; copper to fiber, and so on. I would've thought that was the easiest involved technology in which to anticipate a change in the next 10 years.

 

[killa62]

i think that if you have a good cpu like a 2 ghz cpu and a mobo with both pci-e slots and pci slots, and also w/ a pci-cf adaptor and a 512 mb cf card, you should be fine for 10 yrs.

 

[unix_foo]

since price isnt an issue

Cisco 2811 Router
Cisco 24-port Catalyst 3560G switch
Cisco Aironet 1130

 

[Orinthical]

DGL-4100... or, if you need basic wireless, the DGL-4300. One of the best consumer grade routers available. The RV082 and above are also quite awesome but avoid the four port version.

 

[bob]

Ethernet is moving all the time. 1 meg, 10 megs, 100 megs, 1000 megs; copper to fiber, and so on. I would've thought that was the easiest involved technology in which to anticipate a change in the next 10 years.

And if something changes.... You dont have to throw out the PC and buy a new one, its far easier to change the NIC (assuming PCI cards are still in-use 10 years from now). Its not like a PC is cemented shut and hermetically sealed. In 1991, 10Mbps ethernet was avalible 2006... 10Mbps ethernet is still usable by 100/1000Mbps NICs.

For most people, internet speeds have yet to exceed what 10Mbps ethernet can do. Comcast is up to, what... 8Mbs cable? I really dont see any huge changes happening in the next decade, with home internet that would force everyone to throw out the 10/100/1000 ethernet, and go with some new revolutionary technology.

Though we could argue till I wear the batteries out on my keyboard. I say, just stick a pair of *good* 10/100 NICs (such as the intel PROs), and you will have a router thats expandable/upgradable, and will beat the pants off anything around, and still have enough horsepower to handle faster internet connections (assuming home-internet connections dont exceed about 50-60Mbps).

 

[Scream And Fly]

For your viewing pleasure - I took a pic of the inside of my DGL-4300. Look at that, it doesn't just have one antenna.

 

[killa62]

man, how much are those things?

 

[dekard]

I vote for a linux router on a old pc. I'm running quite a few of them, there simply is no comparision, especially to anything D-link has ever made.

 

[Scream And Fly]

Isn't using a PC as a home router a little overkill? I mean, I'm sure they are great, but I just can't see setting up a PC to replace something no larger than a VHS tape. My DGL-4300 has been rock-solid. No resets or anything, and the gigabit LAN is great too. I was a die hard Linksys fan until I tried this thing.

 

[Scream And Fly]

man, how much are those things?

The run about $150 retail, or about $125 from the egg. Much more expensive than the Linksys WRT54GL, but if you are a gamer, this is the router to get. Thw QoS feature (Gamefuel) is good too.

 

[mikeblas]

I used to run a WatchGuard SOHO 5. It started to get slow, with the cable folks upping the speed every so often over the last couple of years. I've moved to using a PC; I've installed ISA on one of my domain controllers, and it's working great. It's faster than shit, it was surprisingly easy to configure, and I have infinite flexibility over what I can do with it.

Thing is, now I'm reliant on spinning storage. If a drive fails or a powersupply blows, I'm zorched.

I'd recommend an appliance soution for almost any home application ... I got to learn a little more about networks and ISA, and that's nice. But if that machine dies, I'll probably go back to high-end hardware. Maybe SonicWall, this time.

it doesn't just have one antenna

I see one on the back panel. Where is the other one? Are you referring to the other grey wire? Are you ure that's not just a seperate analog ground? There's not enough DoF in your snapshot to see it clearly.

 

[goodcooper]

IPCOP on a miniITX board with dual gigabit cards... (onboard) the processing power of even the slowest miniITX onboard VIA processors is overkill.. the gigabit cards will take you into the next decade (maybe, hard to tell, 10 years is an eternity in computer land, i was still servicing coax token ring networks in 1996, shoot i was doing that in 2002)
ide to CF adapter and a 1GB CF card will run you 30 bucks for BOTH... yes, they are THAT cheap (i got 3 cf to ide adapters on ebay for 99 cents, 6 dollars shipping from HK) and a 1GB CF card from the egg for 20 clams

...and a 8 port gigabit switch... take your pick on brands, they all seem to be somewhat reliable... as far as features, spend more if you want vlans and etc... if you don't know what a vlan is then don't worry about it
same is true for consumer router wireless portion, i had one dlink G router where the wireless would cut out... but now i just use my netgear wireless G router that can't hold an internet address for more than a day and a half as a switch/ wireless access point, and let my IPCOP do all the QoS, DHCP, and NAT/PAT routing and forwarding...

 

[Baditude]

man, how much are those things?

I just order a DGL-4100 gaming router from PC Nation ( Never heard of them) for 97.90 with free 3 day Fed Ex shipping. ZIp zoom fly, Newegg were well over this price. After reading about this router I can't wait to see If there is a preformance differance from the Linksys 4port router. I'm on my 3rd Linksys 4 port router and this last one keeps droping my net connection from my DSL modem and it's only 1 1/2 months old. It sucks to have to reset the router in the middle Doom 3 online.

 

[Met-AL]

The run about $150 retail, or about $125 from the egg. Much more expensive than the Linksys WRT54GL, but if you are a gamer, this is the router to get. Thw QoS feature (Gamefuel) is good too.

I got mine from Best Buy for $99.99 on sale. Best Buy puts them up on sale quite often, so keep an eye on their sales.

 

[jasonlitka]

Linksys RV082 or RV016. Love 'em, I've installed a lot of them. Great business grade product. Have one at home...it goes toe to toe performance and stability wise with my IPCop box that's a P4 2.4GHz with 512 megs.

I wouldn't recommend the RV082, I've been through 2 of them at work in the last 6 months. The first lasted less than a month.

I'm actually in the same situation. The wireless on my WRT54G gave out about a month ago and my backup WRT54GS started flaking out this morning. I'd restart it and it'd work fine for about 2 minutes, at which point it would simply stop responding. I'm looking for a replacement but I'd like some kind of QOS for my VoIP, even if it's just port-based.

 

[-(Xyphox)-]

still say Cisco is the way to go

 

[Scream And Fly]

still say Cisco is the way to go

Sure, Cisco is great if you want to spend $1000.

 

[-(Xyphox)-]

Sure, Cisco is great if you want to spend $1000.

they have some lower costing equipment also
But, you pay for the quality
His Thread say High Quality, Want the quality you pay more

 

[PixPirate]

Outpost (Fry's, sort of) has the DGL-4300 for 99.99 now. It's also on sale at the Egg for 118.99.

My Linksys BEFSR81 just died last night so I've ordered a DGL-4300. Wish they made an 8-port version!! I had to get an 8-port Gigabit switch to go with it so I can connect all my systems. Past time I upgraded to Gigabit anyway.

-PP

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I wouldn't recommend the RV082, I've been through 2 of them at work in the last 6 months. The first lasted less than a month.

I would....I have over 30 of them in service now..I setup a few more each month, and about a dozen RV016 units. I even run an RV082 at home...it'll go toe to toe with my P4 2.4GHz 512 meg IPCop box. Rock solid, and brutally fast. Stable high availability firmware, a 533MHz Intel processor (lets see some other routers here match that CPU speed), 32 megs of RAM (64 for the 016 model)...lets see some of the other routers here match that. And 200 megs worth of routing throughput (lets see some other routers here besides *nix distros match that) on the new firmware platform.

The only issue I've had out of all the ones I've installed so far....was one lost 3x LAN ports...was managing a network at a summer estate..located in a mansion on top of a hill that sat on granite. The mansion got struck my lightening..fried the phone system, huge hold in the roof, most of their electrical system, naturally the CAT5 runs going around the house. The RV0 only lost 3 ports...and it still works fine with the other 5 ports....I'm using it at home. LOL

Sure it's not the best thing since sliced bread...but for 250 bucks...it's sure hard to beat. Runs circles around any other router in and under its price range. IMO you can't beat it for 400 bucks even.