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consumer router vs. cisco router vs. building your own router from an old computer

N

NoodleTech

Golden Member
What are the benefits and drawbacks of each? I am doing the structured wiring of my new house right now and would like to know so I can purchase the appropriate networking gear to connect all the ethernet ports in my walls. Thanks
 
Matters what you are doing on your network... you mainly just need a switch that can handle all the drops you are going to have and then get a router that will handle the number of users. I would suggest the old computer being used with pfsense or smoothwall. Cisco routers are pretty expensive for a home and if you need more then a basic consumer router (from using lots of torrents or many users on a high speed connection) pfsense or smoothwall should be able to handle your needs.
 
A lot of consumer routers are really really crappy. My old-model Linksys WRT-G runs Linux and it pretty awesome. The new models run a custom OS that isn't quite as good.
 
a cisco router is going to be overkill for you unless you really know what you are doing.
Even the 17xx series don't really have good GUI's so you will spend a lot of time in hyperterminal configuring the router through command line.
 
Segan, the routers don't really run a custom OS, it is VxWorks, which is ubiquitous in embedded devices.
That, and you can still get the linux one, but it is now labeled WRT54GL. Still works great. I personally have a WRT54GSv3 (8MB flash 32MB ram, gotta love it!).

As for what router will be the best, the first response was quite accurate. It depends on what you need. If you were more specific about how many users and how heavily they use the internet that would help a lot. With that being said, if you are a do it yourselfer, then running pfSense, m0n0wall, or smoothwall on an older PC is great. If you just want it to Bleeding Work(tm) then you should go for a WRT54GL, flash it with a good easy to use third party firmware such as DDWRT, config it once, and let it sit. For a home user, even a group of home users, or even a small lan party, anything more then a homebuilt or a WRT54GL-style (more brands sell linux routers now, the market took off!) is severe overkill.
 
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