Just looking for a nice router

nebulous · July 30, 2003 2:40PM

Can anyone give me advice about what sort of router I should purchase? I am looking to hook up an air port and a pc to it, and I'm also looking for something that is very user friendly as my mom will be the user (she is, shall we say, technologically inept - I mean that in the nicest way possible). In the past, I had a Linksys router which required re-setting it every week, and I am hoping that my next router is not as high maintenence.

Thanks in advance everyone!

shanksta · July 30, 2003 2:51PM

Asante makes excellent routers

giant · July 30, 2003 3:17PM

I just order the D-Link DI-614+

From everything I could find, it seemed to be the most highly recommended. If you buy it today or tomorrow, there is a $20 rebate as well. I just got mine from computers4sure for ~$60 w/ free shipping (not deducting the $20 rebate).

ebby · July 30, 2003 4:19PM

I second the Asante. Mine is very user friendly. More than the D-link I used, Belkin that never worked, and the Network Everywhere (I think is part of Linksys) router that has a button for everything and a boatload of advanced features I will probably never use.

xmoger · July 30, 2003 6:03PM

I say avoid Linksys. Sometimes mine just doesn't work, although it has been fine in recent months. They also had a vulnerability in one of their firmware revisions a little while back.

reynard · July 30, 2003 9:01PM

Another vote for Asanté. I don't know if I'm as inept as your mother but I can't be far behind. Once I set up my Asanté a year and a half ago to share broadband among three computers, I just forgot about it.

Only problem I had was when my son tried to remove the firewall, changed some IP settings and he couldnt connect for a while. Not Asanté's fault. Once reset, worked as usual.

The reason I went with Asanté is on recommendation from a more savy friend who said they are less PC biased than some. The manual does seem to be quite attentive to the Mac OS but I have nothing to compare it to. Again, the thing has worked perfectly since day 1.

nebulous · July 31, 2003 12:46AM

Thank you for your advice, everyone! You have all been very helpful, and tomorrow my Mother and I will be going out to get an Asante router.

For my next trick, I will teach her how to use the internet.

They say it can't be done, but hopefully I will prove them all wrong. Wish me luck

jeremiah rich · July 31, 2003 1:33AM

I have quite a "history" you could say with routers. Our very first was a Umax about, let me think, four years ago when DSL first became available in our area, and this was one of the only ones available. It worked great, had a firewall and such, for about year, and then started to need a reset every day, then hour, and eventually would not work anymore. Then, we moved to a linksys. (It did not have a switch built in, as they had not started doing this yet) From there, we got another uMax which lasted another six months (or a year, cannot quite remember) and this one also failed. (This one had a built in switch.) So then we moved back to a Linksys which had, I believe, a 5 port switch. This one worked great for half a year or so but then my dad bought the following one. So, my dad bought a wireless linksys router/switch w/5 port switch, and it worked great for about a year and a half. This one did not fail, and we replaced it with a "normal" router w/5 port switch, as my dad got an 802.11g or whatever it is called base station thing. I am very happy with what they are now at the very least. It has not locked up once, and has been on around 2 months straight. (We will see how it does.) I am not personally familiar about any other brands, so I cannot comment, but my recent experience with Linksys IS in fact a good one.

macubus · July 31, 2003 2:44AM

In '99 I got an Asante FriendlyNet Router that has been on for all these years without a hitch. I also installed an SMC Barricade7008 ABR router that has been up for 2 years (barring power outtages and such). I was looking at the features of the new SMCs and Linksys' (Linksi?) and they are pretty similar, if possible, I'd pick up an Asante just because they are like rocks. Proof is in the pudding, ne'er a problem in 4 years. Set it and forget it says Ron Popeil.

Just looking for a nice router

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