Broadband Routers

[Nullity]

I'm doing some research for broadband routers which can support around 50 users. I'm looking at xDSL, cable, and T1 connections. What nice, cheap broadband routers are nice? I was thinking a 4-8 port broadband router + a switch or 2. Would those $200 Netgears or Linksys routers be sufficient?

Thanks,
Null

 

[pm]

I have the $150 Linksys 4 port switched router. I have no complaints. My friend has the $30 more Netgear version and it feels more solid but both seem to work identically. I've never had a problem with the Linksys. I can open ports and play and host Diablo2 TCP/IP games. It's a piece of cake to set up... set up time was under 10 minutes for me.

The Dlink version requires a serial port and is not quite as easy to configure as the Linksys and Netgear versions. For industrial strength use you may want to go upscale and consider the Cisco router.

You can run NAT/DHCP for up to 254 users with the Linksys.

 

[The Stigenator]

my co-worker has a linksys.. its easy to setup but he screwed up and I had to finish setting it up for him.

The only complaint he has is that there is a data error that the linksys thing has..

Go Netgear.. or even something more expensive..
go to http://www.timhiggins.com

 

[pm]

Good_Guy: FWIW, the data error thing was fairly rare and was fixed two firmware revisions ago.

I personally feel that the Linksys and Netgear routers are approximately equivalent. The Netgear has a more professional appearance and set up system while the Linksys is $30 cheaper. As I said, I've never had a bad download (and I've literally pulled several gigabytes of ZIP'd downloads off of the Internet - believe me if there were a common data corruption issue, my wife or I would have run into it), I've never had any problems connecting to sites, and I don't have any complaints at all about the router. This said, my friend has never had a problem with the Netgear. I don't think that you can go wrong with either one.

The only advantage of the Linksys over the Netgear (and it's a big one if you are one of the rare people it affects) is that the Linksys has support for IPSec and (last that I checked) the Netgear router doesn't. IPSec is used if you are running VPN.

 

[Nullity]

Thanks for the replies! Anymore comments?

Thanks,
Null

 

[jmcoreymv]

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