Linksys by Cisco WAG320N-UK Dual-Band Wireless-N ADSL2 Modem Gigabit Router

griffy said:
I can't believe the snobbery about routers aimed for the home user on this forum, yet they same snobs dont seem to offer up any nicely priced alternative, they are all crap etc lol :rolleyes:
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The problem is that consumer networking kit is invariably built to a price, producing devices which are underpowered, lacking in features, badly made and poorly supported. The big brands have it sewn up, selling kit to consumers who by and large aren't savvy with networking and expect low prices.

The only sub-£100 device worthy of recommendation is the WRT54GL, and that's only thanks to community development and an open sourced firmware. Push the boat out a bit with demands for an integrated ADSL modem, wireless N, Gigabit LAN, maybe 50mbps+ throughput, and there literally is nothing anyone here could recommend wholeheartedly.
 
griffy said:
Consumer products for consumers! Shock Horror :)

I can't believe the snobbery about routers aimed for the home user on this forum, yet they same snobs dont seem to offer up any nicely priced alternative, they are all crap etc lol :rolleyes:
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That's because it is all crap to be honest. How many consumer devices support ipv6 properly (that'll be almost none), how many have a proper firewall rather than the pretence that nat and port forwarding represents security (that'll be very few). How many support multicast? It's going to be fun when those features become must haves and in the case of IPv6 that isn't far away.

Yeah it's all built to a price and for home users today it'll mostly do the job today but nobody who actually uses real routers could in good conscience recommend one of those devices wholeheartedly. We don't use £500 Cisco gear for basic applications because we enjoy spending money at the end of the day.

I won't recommend them because they're cheap rubbish, that they work for the very basic things home users do today doesn't change that fact and I won't recommend rubbish. I'm not pretending a £500 cisco is an alternative, I don't know what is, if somebody asked me what to get for £75 I'd tell them I have no idea (which considering I design ISP networks for a living has to be a bit worrying). Probably an old PC and one of the many linux based firewall products going around (monowall etc) is the best technical solution, not that I like them either...
 
The problem isn't always that they're lacking features, it's that some of the features don't work - including the basics. A router that gave up on bundling in half-working features and just did the basics but was incredibly stable and relatively cheap would be much better than one that tried to be all-singing-all-dancing but had a peg leg and a tracheotomy. Why do I suspect it wouldn't sell compared to a 10p Netgear though...

A quick Google, or a search of this forum, will turn up people moaning that their games don't work properly with the Speedtouch routers Be/O2/BT give away. It's not that long ago that routers were configured poorly enough that games would crash them scanning for servers; you still can with a torrent client.

Most of the issues are software-based and that's the only reason the WRT54GL is so good - someone who isn't an idiot wrote software that isn't utter tosh.
 
In our office because our budget has been spent on 'marketing' (meh) we have no extra funds for a enterprise class router capable supporting on average 50 wireless clients +

I did a job for a friend of mine and he gave me his old WRT54GS router (v5 I think). Anyway I flashed it with micro DD-WRT and its been sat serving the wireless network to all the clients with very few issues compared to other routers.

Weve tried D-Links, Netgears, Huawei's, Belkins, even Airport Expresses (spit) and a Draytek 2600 - all lock up and/or cause issues - I'll stick with my Linksys thanks - WRT54GL with Tomato on at home, nice and stable with features from routers way more expensive.

At the minute, I have no reason to upgrade all my home wireless network to N class, but in the future I might and a Linksys N class router will do nicely :)
 
Rabtech said:
In our office because our budget has been spent on 'marketing' (meh) we have no extra funds for a enterprise class router capable supporting on average 50 wireless clients +
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You wouldn't get a router to handle that if you were doing it properly, you'd get either standalone APs or (doing it properly) a wireless lan controller and MESH'd APs.

I'll stick with my Cisco 1100 series AP at home.
 
I just bought a Edimax BR-6574n as I wanted a gigabit router for cable, I have had so much hassle I'm thinking about sending it back and going for one of the following.

Linksys by Cisco WRT320N-UK
Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH
Netgear WNR3500

Can anyone advice if one of these will be better than the Edimax I have now?
 
I wish they'd make a router that has the features of the above, supports Tomato firmware

and can do both cable and adsl (maybe a switch on the side to choose which mode). not asking for that much!
 
bledd. said:
I wish they'd make a router that has the features of the above, supports Tomato firmware

and can do both cable and adsl (maybe a switch on the side to choose which mode). not asking for that much!
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That sounds like the potential for a complete peice of junk. If you scrap the tomato lust then you could use any number of Cisco routers though ;)
 
paradigm said:
That sounds like the potential for a complete peice of junk. If you scrap the tomato lust then you could use any number of Cisco routers though ;)
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Why? :confused:

Broadcom have some of the best performing ADSL modems.

I've yet to see a home router that supports both ADSL (built in modem) and Cable connections.

Tomato is rock solid, easy to use and has a great feature set
 
bledd. said:
I wish they'd make a router that has the features of the above, supports Tomato firmware

and can do both cable and adsl (maybe a switch on the side to choose which mode). not asking for that much!
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Been reading about Draytek's recently and the Vigor 2820 seems to support both ADSL and Cable mate and it has a broadcom chipset :)
 
griffy said:
Consumer products for consumers! Shock Horror :)

I can't believe the snobbery about routers aimed for the home user on this forum, yet they same snobs dont seem to offer up any nicely priced alternative, they are all crap etc lol :rolleyes:
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Too true. I've got a D-link 635 and it's worked flawlessly forever, and handles 50mbit very well indeed.
 
I had a Draytek 2820N, it looked great on paper but was a real pain to set-up, in fact we never got it working properly so I returned it.

Also it Synced up slower than the standard O2 box.
 
Just wondered whats the difference between the WAG320 and the WAG160N is just that the 320 is a gigabit router
 
So if someone was after say: Dual band wireless (draft N) with Gigabit for cable that is for consumers, what is the best one to get?

For argument sake set a price limit of ~£150?

Then if people want to use it for adsl they can just get the modem suggested above in addition.
 
iraiguana said:
So if someone was after say: Dual band wireless (draft N) with Gigabit for cable that is for consumers, what is the best one to get?

For argument sake set a price limit of ~£150?

Then if people want to use it for adsl they can just get the modem suggested above in addition.
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To be honest in my opinion there's nothing I would buy which has those features in that price range. Best bet would be buying a decent router and a gigabit switch separately.
 
The only thing I wish my Sitecom gigabit N router had is the 5GHz band but TBH I don't live in a channel populated neighbourhood and the majority of wireless scans show all networks are in the 7 to 11 range so my G/N is set to channel 3 which according to the wireless scanning app on my phone is a suitable channel for best reception.

Anyway, the N is at 40MHz and G clients connect just fine, Laptop stays at 300MBps at all times and the Wii is connected at 54G all the time anyway :)

That router did cost £150 though so stability and performance is expected I guess.
 
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