Decent router for BT Infinity?

Donkeyfumbler

Donkeyfumbler

Donkeyfumbler

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20 May 2011
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Can anyone suggest a decent router that will play nicely with BT infinity but isn't silly money (i.e up to £100). I don't mean one with the VDSL modem built in, just an ordinary cable router that works with PPPoE and thus will connect to my existing standalone modem supplied by BT.

I tried an old Watchguard Edge Firewall and it seemed to be OK initially, but my speeds started to slip gradually from around 37mb to 29mb. Put the home hub back in and speeds went straight back up. I guess it was just too old to cope.

The home hub seems to work fine, but it's a little too basic for my liking.

Ideally I'd like a router with good control over firewall rules (i.e allowing control over which external IPs can be port forwarded for RDP for instance). A VPN and a WOL function would be nice too, but I imagine it's beyond my price range.
 
I've got a Linksys E3000 which I'm loving to bits. Truly amazing router that, haven't had to reboot it once since I got it and the USB port seems fully capable of streaming 1080p through the wireless to my Boxee Box. If you don't need USB and such, I'd grab an E2000 or similar. I quite like the Cisco/Linksys stuff though, muchly recommended.
 
Cool. How often do you have to reboot the router (if at all)? I already have a NAS so I think I'd probably look at the E2000 instead, which appears to be basically the same as the E3000 but without the usb port.
 
^ What he said. :) I've had it since December and I've never rebooted it for any other reason than firmware upgrades or simply shutting it off to move it around.

If you have a NAS, the E2000 would be a better choice, yes. Only other thing it's missing is running 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously. Given that you'll have to choose on of them, I can almost guarantee that you'll be stuck with 2.4GHz since 5GHz compatibility isn't as widespread as one would like. :P Not that it's a problem really, I'm running the 2.4GHz band on 9 of the 11 devices in my network and it's all fine.

The E2000 also has less RAM (32MB vs. 64MB) and a slightly lower CPU clock (354MHz vs. 480MHz). Not sure how much of a difference this'd make seeing as the extra processing power in the E3000 is mainly there for the USB functionality. Seeing as your NAS will have a processor of its own that's vastly superior... :)
 
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I have been looking at the E3000 for Infinity but need to know is there any cheaper alternatives that would do a good job? I am guessing linksys is the best to go for as they are linked to Cisco?
 
ringo747 said:
I have been looking at the E3000 for Infinity but need to know is there any cheaper alternatives that would do a good job? I am guessing linksys is the best to go for as they are linked to Cisco?
Click to expand...

I'm a networking bod (and use a Cisco 877 at home, which cost around £100 second hand), but unfortunately Linksys has been utter tat the last few years, my WAG160N was rubbish. There's nothing of Cisco in Linksys products except the sticker.

For best bang/buck Get yourself an old PC, and run a firewall distro like IPFire. For the same money as top end consumer routers you could get a compact Atom or VIA Nano based system with far more power.
 
woffle99 said:
Can anyone suggest a decent router that will play nicely with BT infinity but isn't silly money (i.e up to £100). I don't mean one with the VDSL modem built in, just an ordinary cable router that works with PPPoE and thus will connect to my existing standalone modem supplied by BT.

I tried an old Watchguard Edge Firewall and it seemed to be OK initially, but my speeds started to slip gradually from around 37mb to 29mb. Put the home hub back in and speeds went straight back up. I guess it was just too old to cope.

The home hub seems to work fine, but it's a little too basic for my liking.

Ideally I'd like a router with good control over firewall rules (i.e allowing control over which external IPs can be port forwarded for RDP for instance). A VPN and a WOL function would be nice too, but I imagine it's beyond my price range.
Click to expand...

can i ask what's up with the standard modem provided by bt ?
 
Asus RT-N56U.

netgear WNDR3700 v1 or WNDR37AV which a re-badged 3700 with problems fixed.

I picked up the WNDR37AV from ebay brand new for 55 quid.
 
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