Now that we are done helping Mike pick a new washer and dryer, anyone want to give me suggestions on a router?

The hard drive on my firewall machine died so I need something while I decide what to do for my firewall.

Aw man, I thought your question was about wood routers

I use linksys/cisco products, never had any problems.

Me too jake. I thought, finally a topic I can discuss. I have 2 Porter-Cable, 1 Bosch, and 1 DeWalt. All very good. Oh yeah, linksys.

I got a crappy Ryobi I picked up on clearance. Don't like firing it up in the apartment unless abolutely necesary though because of the noise.

That won't help me bring up my internet connection though.

Yeah, Porter cable's are pretty good. You can pick up a nice one for only like 120 bucks or something like that too IIRC.

I think the Linksys WRT54G is pretty much the standard as far as routers go...

Porter Cable, definately. The plunge / fixed base kit is an excellent value. I have several different brands but always tend to grab the P/C.

I buy all my bits rom routerbits.com - they sell Whiteside, which have been very good to me over the years.

For the computer: I have had no trouble with my Belkin N1; great range and spped to grow into.
For wood: I've got a Porter-Cable plunge router that sings along nicely with carbide bits. Hitachi makes REALLY nice routers, but I can but 3 P/C's for the same price.

Scott

I'm enjoying my new Triton in my new router stand.....

To the OP:
Are we helpful?

Porter Cable is definitely the cream of the crop. I have a plunge, fixed base and laminate trimmer. I also use Linksys, but they don't cut nearly as well as the P/Cs. If you're going wireless, use the same brand wireless cards to make your life a lot simpler.

Depends on if you want 802.11n support and if you want other features like NAS (network attached storage). Also, you may or may not care about wirelss then you can choose a relatively cheap Netgear/Linksys router with a firewall built in.

I've used a Linksys WRT54GC for years and it's great. This supports 802.11g. Similar boxes from Netgear and Belkin are fine too. For 11n, the same vendors also have boxes but performance really depends on what clients (PCs, Macs, game consoles, etc) that you have. In order for you to take advantage of 802.11n, your clients have to also support it. At a minimum, using an 802.11n router with 802.11g clients can give you better range but you'll max out at 52 Mbps (theoretical). Some 11g routers claim 108Mbps but you need the same vendor client card too.

Because I have several Macbooks and an Apple TV at home I started using the newer Airport Extremes and recently an Apple Time Capsule. (I also have a vested interest but that's another story...) These are very good routers/access points IMHO and are very easy to use/setup. The Windows friendliness can be argued with Time Capsule but still a good product. There are other vendors like Netgear, Buffalo and others that have solutions but none will be as easy to use as Apple. However, if you want complete flexibility you may not want an Apple one. Their GUI does restrict access to certain settings that power uses might want. For me, I'm good to go.

If you have specific questions regarding vendors or technology, fire away.

Reviews I've read have pegged the Airport Extreme as one of the best for 802.11n. I got one for the office and have had no problems with it, either on Macs or PCs.

I also use a Linksys WRT54G and it works great.

OK, so it seems most people like linksys. I'm going to avoid wireless. I live in a concrete construciton apartment, so there will be lots of metal in the walls, ceilings etc.

My delima is what to do long term. I want a little more firewall than routers offer.

Mark. If I wanted a thread to stay relevant and on topic the whole time, this is the last place I would post.

A router offers a very good hardware firewall. I'm also running Zone Alarm as a software firewall. The combination creates a pretty secure and virtually invisible network. Unless you're protecting government secrets or a major financial institution, this should be more than adequate.

Thats what I'm trying to figure out now. As for invisibility, I'm not a big fan of security by obscurity. Having worked for a firewall company in the past, I am reasonably aware of the shortcomings of certain types of security. I was suitably impressed by the abilities of the hacking community as my employer had in its hire some very tallented individuals.

A firewall on your client PC is not a good idea. Way to many exploitable services running.

I also want the flexibility of being able both isolate computers in my home from each other and to be able to expose specific ports to the internet should I need to. I see some routers now allow you to designate one port as a DMZ, but from the very limited info available I would guess that the router opens up everything (ie: not configurable).

Noise was the biggest issue with my current firewall. There are three possible options for me:
1. add a notebook dirve or a larger quiet desktop drive.
Unfortunately, this pc will probably only recognize a 20gig drive at the largest, and I hate the idea of 'wasting' unused drive space.

2. buy a purpose built firewall appliance.

There are a couple of consumer solutions out there for around $300, but thats more than I wanted to spend. The one solution that looks most promising would also need mods to replace fans with something quieter. You would think the folks who designed this for consumer use would think about noise as a potential issue.

3. try to set up my firewall to boot from CD and use a usb stick for writing out log files.

I don't know if it is possible to put a firewall on a cd/dvd.

Right now the most expedient solution seems to be #1.

OK sounds like you need more than your average router.

Maybe take a look at Sonicwall's line. I've worked w/ them in the past and they seem to have a good following. I would also say look at Juniper Networks lower end line (used to be Netscreen) but they might be pricey.

You may also want to go the hacker route and try one of the Linux-based routers (like Linksys) and run specialized firmware on one of those.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,1934574,00.asp

Well, I took another look at hd prices and reviewed my notes on quiet drives. I skipped the router (this system is hosed anyway so whats another virus or two) and will pick up an 80gb wd drive tomorrow for not much more than the cost of a router.

The 500gb wd drive in my main computer is all but silent.

Playing with a commercial grade router is tempting, but a little pricey for me.

Thanks for the help though.