Need Router Suggestions

[mrkun]

Just to start off, the only WRT54s that I can find are v5, so that's out of the picture.

Anyway, I need a router that will be able to solidly support many P2P connections (50+) and also online gaming (joining servers only). Wireless and QoS would be nice, but neither is required.

Thanks for the help.

 

[nweaver]

Linux box + iptables + wireless AP of your choice

 

[scottws]

WRT54GL.

 

[ssbpgsr]

m0n0wall, pfsense, ipcop, smoothwall, or astaro

 

[Bluestealth]

Anyone turned a mini-ITX box into a router? Its starting to think about it, my venerable DI-604 just doesnt do everything that I want, still amazed it can keep up with all the stress I put it under, my old 10 base linksys cooked under about the same.

 

[mrkun]

I was thinking along the lines of a commercially available router that I could just order online. Are there none that meet the requirements?

 

[Bluestealth]

WRT54GL should work fine, as I said my DI-604(Rev. E) does quite fine.(Handles small DDoS attacks well too ) It is subjected to similar stress to what you discribe. My sugestion is to get one you can return if need be... run it for a few days and if it doesnt get "really hot" while running, drop connections, or constantly need resets to get out a stalled state, keep it.

 

[bluestrobe]

WRT54GL will die under high bandwidth use. How many computers are we talking here? How much bandwidth (up/down) are you going to use and how consistent? Those questions are the important ones rather than how many connections and gaming.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
WRT54GL will die under high bandwidth use. How many computers are we talking here? How much bandwidth (up/down) are you going to use and how consistent? Those questions are the important ones rather than how many connections and gaming.

Why's that? BTW, what do you mean die out of curiousity?

 

[bluestrobe]

The WRT54G series aren't made for large volume traffic. This is a known issue with Linksys that they never went public with since you don?t find heavy traffic with an average consumer. I found out when I burned out my first WRT54GS since I ran two FTP servers behind it along with a 4 computer network. It lasted a few month but it was constantly hot to the touch on the top and at times the plastic got soft. One day I had no connectivity and that?s it. I thought it might be a bad unit so I got another and it started to do the same thing. I had to throttle the speed and times on the servers to make the unit last longer until I can replace it. A communication I got from Linksys said these routers aren't made to handle constant traffic and should only be used with a max of 6 computers running intermitting traffic (web surfing, , . Bandwidth doesn't really matter as how long the traffic is active. For comparison reasons I had mine running a 70kbyte/s upstream constantly and that killed it. I recommend anyone running a network with more than 6 computers or a P2P server should use a computer based router/firewall and a decent switch that isn't of the "mini", ?compact? or "economy" variety. Searching the web will also find some articles on the burnouts suffered from consumer based routers under stress.

 

[mrkun]

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
WRT54GL will die under high bandwidth use. How many computers are we talking here? How much bandwidth (up/down) are you going to use and how consistent? Those questions are the important ones rather than how many connections and gaming.

Three computers on the network, but two of them will just be browsing mainly. As for the bandwidth, I'm just gonna say about 300KBps down/50 up for a few hours at a time, and occasionally up to 600KBps down (not often).

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Could you solve the issue by installing a heatsink/fan inside? It's just an overheating issue?

 

[bluestrobe]

Originally posted by: htmlmasterdave
Could you solve the issue by installing a heatsink/fan inside? It's just an overheating issue?

The whole PC board heats up so a fan might help but if I have to mod something like that to keep it running, might as well dump it and go better or change the way you use it.

Originally posted by: mrkun
Three computers on the network, but two of them will just be browsing mainly. As for the bandwidth, I'm just gonna say about 300KBps down/50 up for a few hours at a time, and occasionally up to 600KBps down (not often).

Sounds like bittorrents, you should be ok with those time tables.

 

[mrkun]

Ok, I went ahead and ordered the WRT54GL. Thanks to everyone for the advice.