Best available Router 2011

manisinghb

manisinghb

manisinghb

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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
 
Need inbuilt ADSL or do you have a seperate Cable/VDSL modem?
The Billion 7800N is well regarded and can do either.
 
Cisco 887 would be my all in one choice right now, nothing better out there. Make no mistake, it *IS* the best available, it probably isn't the best available for what you're prepared to pay.
 
mike1210 said:
May I ask, how would that compare to the Juniper SRX100H?
Click to expand...

I prefer Juniper personally but the SRX100 can't take PIM modules and I don't believe has a built in wireless variant. It's a better firewall by a mile but if you want one box for home then the Cisco beats it. The 887 vs SRX210+VDSL PIM is a different question but the Juniper is expensive in that comparison and still lacks wireless built in. The Cisco fills a sweet spot - good enough to do the job but cheaper than the serious alternatives.
 
Out of interest BRS, I know this has been done to death and asked before but what do you recommend at a sort of "average family" level.

I mean is it all crap up to about £150 or are there some half decent routers out there?

I've always been told that the best way to go is something that can be flashed with Tomato/DGTeam/DDWRT etc. but is that actually true?

Thanks.
 
Tute said:
Out of interest BRS, I know this has been done to death and asked before but what do you recommend at a sort of "average family" level.

I mean is it all crap up to about £150 or are there some half decent routers out there?

I've always been told that the best way to go is something that can be flashed with Tomato/DGTeam/DDWRT etc. but is that actually true?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

It's very difficult, I haven't really used any of them for years, I think the idea of a decent unit (I personally rate Linksys better on quality than netgear or similar) that can be flashed with Tomato similar is probably a good bet. I haven't used it much but it seems stable and feature rich from what I have seen.

Off the shelf, I can't really recommend anything with honesty, there is not an off the shelf router for under £100 I would use under any circumstances, not even for my parents or whatever. They're just trash off the shelf.

I do rate Apple's Airport extreme on the other hand, not exactly feature heavy but reliable and good at what it does if you have a cable connection or similar. It's wireless is particularly strong, it's worked flawlessly for me in several places where other wireless APs just refused to play.
 
Zarf said:
Need inbuilt ADSL or do you have a seperate Cable/VDSL modem?
The Billion 7800N is well regarded and can do either.
Click to expand...

Yep, incredibly happy with mine. It's managed to give me pings of 22 and download of up to 19Mbs on my O2 ADSL connection!

Rock solid even with very tight SNR settings and seems to do everything much quicker and better than my old Netgear DGN2000 that blew.
 
I read around on some reviews and because my router is going to be placed upstairs and I have the PlayStation in the living room and my laptop all over the house as well as my computer connected via ethernet, I need something that will maintain good speeds at distance. The OP in this thread talks about 'Broadcom Chipset' to maintain long/poor lines (which I too have): http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14741169

I have looked at reviews for the Linksys by Cisco WRT610N which seems good.
 
Zarf said:
Need inbuilt ADSL or do you have a seperate Cable/VDSL modem?
The Billion 7800N is well regarded and can do either.
Click to expand...

I need an inbuilt ADSL (sorry I don't know much about this stuff TBH), atm I have a D-Link router supplied by my ISP Talk Talk and this is connected to the phone line and I connect my Computer via ethernet and PS3 and Laptop via wireless...so I'm assuming I need ADSL?
 
I agree with BRS, right now I'm running a 877w (slight waste here but...) as a perimeter router in bridge mode back to a ASA5505 (2 static ips), this then is connected to a 3550 layer 3 switch which runs all my VLAN's.

I have 2 aironet devices, one 1240AG (£58 eBay special) with 2.4GHz antennas for PDA's and 5GHz for laptop etc and a 1310 outdoor unit that is on the garage wall, the whole thing is rock solid, Cisco SOHO is unbeatable, am on the lookout for a 1252 unit now for 802.11n and come xmas a gigabit switch.

Go Cisco.
 
billion 7800n best SOHO router out there for the price and comes with excellent suport from billion
 
Are the 887's any better for ADSL2+ than the 857 ? I had real issues getting my 857 to sync to a decent speed (20 meg+) and to stay up constantly. Mine is currently sat doing nothing because of this and I'm using the default BE router with a pfsense box.
 
TheKnat said:
Are the 887's any better for ADSL2+ than the 857 ? I had real issues getting my 857 to sync to a decent speed (20 meg+) and to stay up constantly. Mine is currently sat doing nothing because of this and I'm using the default BE router with a pfsense box.
Click to expand...

I also found that my 877 wasn't brilliant on my long line ADSL1, so I put one of the switchports on a different VLAN and i'm using a DGTeam 834GT as a pure modem now, my 877 dials it using pppoe.
 
877s can be pretty sketchy in my experience on 2+. The 887s we have deployed have been far more stable - if I had the spare cash I'd investin one

- GP
 
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The Alcatel chipset in those models of Cisco is ancient now, originating in 2004 / 2005, long before ADSL2+ deployments were common in the UK or elsewhere.

The 88x series use newer Broadcom ADSL chips, which unsurprisingly are much better.
 
Indeed. I used my 877w on my old BT line fine for best part of 2 years, switched to 2+ on BE and had to move to their supplied Thomson *shudder*

- GP
 
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