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Does Anything Compete with Linksys BEFSR81??

C

cohenfive

Senior member
hi everyone, and i hope you all are having a happy holiday season!!

i had a question....for the second time in a year it seems that my linksys 8 port wired router has died. i'm about to go blow another hundred bux on a replacement, but am wondering if there are any products by other networking companies that compete with this product. i need the 8 ports for my home wired network which seems to be a limiting factor. i don't know why these things keep dying on me but i have internet access now via direct connection but when i connect the router, nothing.

anyway, before i buy another one i'd like to know whether anyone else makes a home network wired 8 port router in this price point....100 at fry's, 70 at amazon.

thanks!!
 
i need a wired router...the wireless won't work for me. oops, on reading the specs it seems that the fvs318 might work...although it's a bit more expensive than the linksys maybe it will last for more than a year!
 
The 8 ports Wired Routers are overly inflated in price and do not offer any thing but saving on one plastic box.

Originally posted by: kevnich2
OP, get a stable wireless router and then simply buy an 8 port switch and attach it to the router.
Click to expand...
:thumbsup:
 
You do realize that for the price you paid for that you could have bought a very reliable router and a separate switch and been very set long term? But hey, not like we know what we're talking about or anything.
 
you don't have to be patronizing....someone above said he had good experience with the netgear so i bought it. also, i saw that a switch was $45, and a cheap but reliable router would be what, $30? so instead i paid $90 in one box and it was totally plug and play.

thanks for the advice, hopefully this lasts longer than i've seen from the linksys.
 
FVS318 only handles about 7mbit of throughput. Be warned. Generally, a seperate router + 10/100 switch is a better idea, performance-wise
link
 
Originally posted by: cohenfive
you don't have to be patronizing....someone above said he had good experience with the netgear so i bought it. also, i saw that a switch was $45, and a cheap but reliable router would be what, $30? so instead i paid $90 in one box and it was totally plug and play.

thanks for the advice, hopefully this lasts longer than i've seen from the linksys.
Click to expand...

I'm not being patronizing but I don't think you made the best purchase if your looking for something that's going to last and work well but that's just based on my experience. I've seen reviews of that box and have had experience with three of them. All three ended up being replaced with sonicwall's due to bad performance and glitches with them. Maybe you got one of the good one's?
 
The only thing that this purchase shows is probably lack of knowledge, and a little Hyperactive buyer.

Option One: You do not need Wireless, you do Not care about Giga LAN, but a VPN End-Point.

In such case it is Great Purchase.

Option two: You care about having Wireless, you want at some point in time have Giga LAN, you do not even know what VPN End Point is.

In such case it is a Poor Choice.
 
hyperactive only because i had my family breathing down my neck to get our network back running since the linksys router died once again...now that is fixed at least temporarily with the netgear...so i can start on a more permanent solution if i can get better performance.

the house has mulitple pc's that are networked together via cat5e across the house and one of the ports is a wireless access point. we are just sharing internet access for the moment, although at some point i'd like to be able to share files and do other things on the network. i just now saw the very low ratings of the netgear on throughput which does concern me. i know i'm going to get slammed for this, but when i bought the netgear at frys i asked the specific question on performance and was assured this would be fine relative to the linksys at least..

now that i'm all calmed down since the network is operating again, can you guys/gals give me specific suggestions on hardware to buy that would give me better performance and reliability. if a seperate switch and router for a wired network will perform better i'm game to try it, could use some advice on hardware components and any suggestions on configuration if any is needed.

thanks!!
 
I've had good luck with the FVS318 router on a couple of sites. I've used them in both VPN pass-through mode and as part of a site-to-site L2TP VPN combined with an ISA 2004 Server at a main site.
 
OP, honestly if you want good performance on your LAN side, even a very cheap gigabit switch will give better performance than a switch built into a router. What I would do first is get a good GigE switch (depending on how many PC's you have) you can go with 8, 12 for under $100 and 16 port if you plan on really expanding out in the future for around $150 or so. After that, I'd look into a good wireless router (Linksys WRT54GL, Asus WL-520GU, Asus WL-500 G Premium v2) I am kind of a ddwrt fanboy simply because I've had zero problems with on about 3 or 4 dozen routers so far compared to other mfr's where it's kind of hit or miss with reliability. I don't recommend products at all that I can't personally vouch for, sorry.

DDWRT can take a router that reboots alot on it's own, wireless stops working randomly and turn it into a router that can literally be turned on for months at a time with no problem. The problem isn't the hardware of SOHO routers, it's the software on them that is usually buggy.
 
so if i wanted to go the other route--router and switch--for better performance, with my configurtion how should i set it up? cable modem into router, then how do i connect the router to the switch and then do the ports come out of the switch to their destinations in our house?

thx, i may still do this...just trying to figure out how to configure it.
 
You just connect one of the LAN ports from the router into one of the ports on the switch (this is supposed to be done with a crossover cable, but now-adays everything is auto-sensing so a regular patch cable would work, too). Only one cable, though. Then, you can plug people into either the router or the switch. At this level, it's, for all intents and purposes, transparent to the computer.
 
can i buy a 4 port router, connect to an 8 port switch and have the pc's connected to the output ports on the switch? that might be the ticket...and if one of my ports is a wireless access point, can i just get a 4 port wired router or are the wireless routers just more stable generally..

thanks..i might just do this.
 
Originally posted by: cohenfive
can i buy a 4 port router, connect to an 8 port switch and have the pc's connected to the output ports on the switch? that might be the ticket...and if one of my ports is a wireless access point, can i just get a 4 port wired router or are the wireless routers just more stable generally..

thanks..i might just do this.
Click to expand...

Yeah, connecting an 8 ports switch to a 4 Ports Router is a good solution.

1. You might want to consider buying a Giga capable Switch so that you can get faster LAN between Giga capable computers.

2. The Router part of a Wireless Cable/DSL Router is Not better than the Router part of a stand alone wire Router.

However Access Points are more expensive than Wireless Router. So you need to buy a Wireless Cable/DSL Router and then you would have the flexibilty to use it as a Router or just as an Access Point.

In sum, if you do not have a functional Router buy a good Wireless Cable/DSl Router + a Giga capable switch connect them together and you would be ready to step into the 21st century. 😉.
 
jack thanks for the info!

i already have the wireless access point on the network so i'm good there. our house is for some reason not conducive to wireless so i got the accesspoint and put it in the middle of the house to maximize range. our router and modem are in one corner of the house (odd shaped ranch) and wireless there doesn't carry where i need it to. easier to get the access point and just have it connected in the center of the action....

so i'm going to see what fry's has in terms of the hardware that would get me out of the dark ages. at least now with the netgear i have an operating network so my wife and kids are off my back. i can go back to being slothlike now as opposed to hyperactive.

found the following hardware at frys, happy to take suggestions here:

gigabit switches:

netgear gs108 copper 8 port switch, $85
dlink dgs 2208 8 port switch, $60

4 port wired routers:

netgear rp 614, $30
trendnet tw100, $30
dlink ebr 2310, $40
usr 8004, $40


😀
 
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