b120....advise on wireless router

Look in the Sunday newspaper ads for sales.  You can usually find a router from Linksys, Netgear, Belkin, or D-Link for a good price at places like CompUSA, Walmart, BestBuy, OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, Circuit City, Frey's, etc. Any of these should work as routers and network cards are standard thoughout the industry.

Steve

if you can find any dlink 524 (rev Cs) left for cheap, they can easily be modded into the more expensive 624s.  Rev Cs are getting a bit hard to find though, and it will void your warranty.  Otherwise, just go with any 802.11g router that supports WPA2

are there any features that i should be looking for in a wireless router???  please keep it simple...not a computer whiz kid yet:smileywink: but am learning alot from you fine folks.

dz

mbps means megabits per second -- it's a measurement of how fast data is transmitted -- it's a measure of how fast the connection is.  higher is better, but if you're only going to use the wireless connection for internet, you'll never use the higher speeds -- a typical broadband conneciton usually maxes out at 5mpb.

with the risk of sounding stupid...what is wpa2?

googled it and gave up after 5 links with no good info -- if it supports WPA2 sure, otherwise, there are comparable costing routers that do

trbo, the latest gs has been nuked as well i believe -- the L can still be modded but is noticeably more expensive

WPA2 = wi-fi protected access 2. Its the latest standard in wireless security.

Theres WEP, WPA, and WPA2.


As for the Netgear WGR614, its a piece of s**t. I had one and it would randomly drop connection. I'd stay away from it. Theres a bunch of threads/posts at Netgear's own forum about the WGR614.

I bought a Linksys WRT54G V3.1 last week. Loaded a 3rd party firmware (HyperWRT Tofu 11) on it and its been working fine for over a week straight (I leave it on 24/7).

If you do buy a Linksys WRT54G, try to find a older version. The latest one (V5) is not as good as the older versions. You can tell which version it is by looking at the first 4 digits/letters of the serial number (on a sticker on the bottom of the box by the barcode). Stay away from anything starting with CDFB. CDFB = V5.

Otherwise theres also a WRT54GS and WRT54GL.


I'd also look into ZyXEL. Something like the P-334WT or X-550.

http://us.zyxel.com/products/model.php?indexcate=1102502636&indexcate1=1121212137&indexFlagvalue=1021876859

http://us.zyxel.com/products/model.php?indexcate=1125686118&indexcate1=1121212137&indexFlagvalue=1021876859

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@NemesisDB wrote:
trbo, the latest gs has been nuked as well i believe -- the L can still be modded but is noticeably more expensive

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Yeah, the WRT54GS V4 (latest version) has less flash ram and ram then the older GS. However it runs Linux, so you can load 3rd party firmwares on it if you want.

The older GS (v1 - v3) has 8MB/32MB. GS V4 has 4MB/16MB.

I've read on some forums that WRT54G V4 and WRT54GS V4 use the same pcb (printed circuit board). And the WRT54GL is supposedly the same as the WRT54G V4.

The WRT54GL runs Linux. Thats what the "L" in the name implies.



If you need/use speedbooster go with the WRT54GS. Try to find an older one (V1 - V3) as it has more memory vs. the latest version (V4).

Otherwise go with a WRT54G or WRT54GL, but stay away from the WRT54G V5.



More info if anyone is interested or curious:

http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=6

^ Kewl. Your on dslreports.com too. :)


I've read on the HyperWRT forum that I can use HyperWRT Thibor (has speedbooster) with my WRT54G. I have yet to try it though and I don't have any Linksys wireless network cards that support speedbooster. Besides I'm currently using HyperWRT Tofu 11 and it works fine.

http://www.hyperwrt.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=747


From the link above:

HyperWRT Tofu "G" contains the latest drivers and works on all "G" "GL" and "GS" models except V5. It does not contain "GS" code nor Speedbooster, but it is very fast on Internet.

HyperWRT Thibor "GS" contains the latest drivers and works on "G" V2 through V4, All "GS", and the "GL" as well. It features "GS" code with Speedbooster that increase network throughput, not Internet speed.

what I find interesting is that my cheap dlink router (di-524 revC which was $20 after rebate) has had a modding breakthrough.  I get turbo mode, range extender, and all the fixin's (well, minus QOS).  It's not opensource, but it was a great purchase for the price

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15034139

i ended up getting the linksys wrt54gs. loaded it and the norton security trial. my inspiron b120 hooked up fine but my panasonic toughbook cf-18 did not. had to do alittle tinkering:smileymad:but it is up too. one problem i am having is my dim2350 is very slow at startup now. my desktop comes up and it takes forever for it to finish doing whatever it does. did i do something to cause this? my 2350 came w/mcfee security. are the 2 conflicting. other than some small problems(did not check the right language box during norton install and ended up with german gibberish) the wrt54gs is working better than expected(fast)thanx for the advise everyone. saved me from flushing $ down the toilet:smileywink: