Best available Router 2011

another vote for the 7800n, had mine since 2009 and has only gotten better with firmware updates. Rock solid and great for tweaking on adsl lines.
 
No mention of Draytek?

I have had their 2710n for 2 years now and it's been solid. I actually replaced my Billion 7800n with it. I was a bit annoyed that the Billion 7800n (at the time) came loaded with a pre-release firmware! I could not get it to work correctly so sent it straight back. Never looked back with the Draytek.

It copes with x3 smartphones, x2 Playstations, x1 internet enabled TV, x1 laptop, x2 PC's and x1 NAS unit without hassle. :)

I particularly like the Bandwidth Management section. I can split up my 2Mb between devices via IP so that everyone gets a fair share. With QoS also I can throttle more bandwidth for streaming over IM or other traffic. Multiple wireless SSID's is also very handy, along with strict IP binding. The NAT and Content Filtering options are also pretty cool. :)

Only thing I'd say that is lacking on this model is that it has no gig Ethernet ports though. I keep eying up the 2820n, as this also offers tweaking of adsl lines I believe, which the 2710n can't do. More expense!
 
What's all this? 20 replies in and only one mention of DDWRT.

I've been running it on a Linksys WRT54G, one of the most reliable routers ever made, for the past two years on this network. It's done easily over 10TB of transfers (viewable in a superb interface), handles NAT for more than a dozen relatively busy services, allows for bandwidth monitoring, VLANs, QoS, etc etc etc - and hasn't missed a single beat, ever. Literally - it has never crashed, complained, or acted up in any way. The only time I ever have to touch it is to add an entry in the NAT table for a new server or disable one.

The only problem with it is that it's not Gigabit.
 
Last edited:
come on fellas - need more recommendations please! - Gigabit ports are a must!

Currently running sky stock sagem router with a Belkin N1 Vision plugged in for gigabit networking. Could do with a single device solution.....
 
zoomee said:
come on fellas - need more recommendations please! - Gigabit ports are a must!

Currently running sky stock sagem router with a Belkin N1 Vision plugged in for gigabit networking. Could do with a single device solution.....
Click to expand...

Why? Any router with gigabit switch ports (the only point in having them) for less than £200 is going to be less than the highest quality, no matter how much you want a one box solution a HP 8 port switch is a far superior solution quality wise.

Otherwise, I can't see anything wrong spec wise with a Linksys WAG320n for ADSL connections, or the E4200 for cable, not a recommendation as I think they're cheap plastic rubbish personally but if you want every feature under the sun for not much more than £120 I can't see much else available and Linksys have the benefit, in my opinion, of not being Netgear or D-Link.
 
Lack of power points, less clutter and a neater solution thats why dude.

100% speed can be sacrificed for less clutter.

I'd never buy linksys since Cisco took over them (they've been pants ever since - google them!) and who said budget was an issue?
 
zoomee said:
Lack of power points, less clutter and a neater solution thats why dude.

100% speed can be sacrificed for less clutter.

I'd never buy linksys since Cisco took over them (they've been pants ever since - google them!) and who said budget was an issue?
Click to expand...

I'd take linksys over the rest of the cheap stuff, but then again I wouldn't actually take any of them so a slightly redundant point. If budget really isn't an issue then the SRX210 which I use at home has a pair of Gigabit ports and various Cisco boxes do too (1941 has 2x 10/100/1000 fixed I recall and could add another pair with HWICs if you fancied. Given the price though you'd have to be insane.

Cheapest option I'd actually buy is Apple's Airport Extreme with 3x Gigabit ports, doesn't give you one box for ADSL though. If you need that you have a few options:

- The Linksys WAG320n or whatever Netgear or other equivalent you think might be made of a more reliable kind of plastic

- Various mid range options like the draytek 2830 which might be reliable or functional if they actually have production firmware on release.

- Massively expensive Juniper or Cisco options

- Accepting that you've mainly contrived a set of requirements which require you to spend a large amount of money instead of buying separate, better devices, a 4 gang socket and putting them in a cupboard.

Just saying.
 
bigredshark said:
- Accepting that you've mainly contrived a set of requirements which require you to spend a large amount of money instead of buying separate, better devices, a 4 gang socket and putting them in a cupboard.

Just saying.
Click to expand...

Thats the second time you've made the same point, I get the fact something has to give but space is no can do hence the 100% requirement for an all-in-one solution.

so far it looks like the Netgear 3700 is the most likely candidate followed by the Linksys WRT610N
Whats the difference between the DGND3700 and the WNDR3700? I didn't spot it off hand.

3 gigabit ports at least are a must for PS3, NAS and PC (I've then got a DVR for the 4th which i'm not bothered about!). Any more recommendations welcome.
 
Last edited:
I'd be interested to hear what your expensive routers offer over a WRT54G or similar with DDWRT bigredshark? Especially for home users (such as your parents who you wouldn't dream of buying a <£100 router for).

You seem to be dismissing everything that isn't £100+ as cheap 'off-the-shelf plastic tat', where in fact if you buy smart and purchase second hand ~£50 can get you a router that is perfectly adequate for home use in my experience, and offer most if not all of the same functionality of the 'big routers' when DDWRT or an equivalent is installed.

Furthermore, you then seem to suggest the Airport Extreme, which I'd definitely qualify as 'off the shelf plastic tat' (but massively overpriced to suit the preconceptions of the buyer), is a sensible option. Add to that the fact it's poorly configurable (no web interface!) and it's probably one of the worst options you could pick.
 
Last edited:
manisinghb said:
Hey guys, there might be a thread already with someone asking for router specs so apologises if there is I only found one and the thread didn't seem to be going towards recommendations just a heap of squabble :D

So was hoping to get a nice, clean, simple recommendation of good routers here from YOU... the router is for a medium but spacious semi-detached house running a laptop wireless and a desktop with ethernet as well as PlayStation 3 (wireless) and the occassional use of the iPhone...

So, any rec.? So far my friends have suggested:

1. Cisco Linksys
2. Netgear DGND3700 N600 Dual-band Gigabit router
Click to expand...

You really should to be going wireless N these days. It may be also wise to have a loook into home plugs too (Wired over Powerline) as a lot of people are going for this option aswell as wireless N to enable a good connection where the signal is poor.
 
slylittlefox said:
I'd be interested to hear what your expensive routers offer over a WRT54G or similar with DDWRT bigredshark? Especially for home users (such as your parents who you wouldn't dream of buying a <£100 router for).

You seem to be dismissing everything that isn't £100+ as cheap 'off-the-shelf plastic tat', where in fact if you buy smart and purchase second hand ~£50 can get you a router that is perfectly adequate for home use in my experience, and offer most if not all of the same functionality of the 'big routers' when DDWRT or an equivalent is installed.

Furthermore, you then seem to suggest the Airport Extreme, which I'd definitely qualify as 'off the shelf plastic tat' (but massively overpriced to suit the preconceptions of the buyer), is a sensible option. Add to that the fact it's poorly configurable (no web interface!) and it's probably one of the worst options you could pick.
Click to expand...

Well for a start it works out of the box, anything that has to have third party firmware installed is a no go, either it works from the manufacturer or it's not happening. If you want to spend time installing third party stuff that's your prerogative, I don't have the time or inclination to do it for my own stuff and there's no way I'm going to talk others through it.

They're massively reliable, look up the MTBF for even low end Cisco and Juniper compared to the consumer stuff (where most of the time they won't even quote it). To my mind it's more important here than anywhere else. There's is no way round the fact that a £75 router is built to a price and hasn't got the same QC standards as real devices.

Features for another. That is reliable, standards compliant features that work properly and sanely as a network engineer might expect them to. I'm looking at every consumer router and IPv6 for a starting point.

Added to that, performance, a great many consumer routers won't process 40Mbps at line speed even a moderately challenging traffic profile. The third party firmware is usually worse here because it enforces routing in software which isn't particularly well written for efficiency.

The airport extreme in my view is a good device, I wouldn't use it as a router but it's a superior wireless access point to any other device in it's price range I'm aware of, it's well built and has some enterprise level features (syslog, SNMP etc) that are usually missing. More than anything though, it's wireless is bullet proof in my experience. It's missing web interface is a concern but the GUI is exceptionally good on the other hand (better than any web UI I recall actually). It's not perfect and it is consumer more than enterprise but I can live without wireless more than I can live without internet and it's a £130 box which is 99% as good as a £300 Cisco AP and far superior to anything else I know of. I'll take that for the role it fills.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom