Recommend hub & wireless AP

[wrad]

Need a hub & N-WiFi access-point for laptop running Windows-8.1
Asked Netgear for a suggestion, and they said they had no routers that could be configured for this. Existing Belkin works well with Win-7, but not with 8.1

So I am asking the professionals for guidance!

Thanks,

 

[System Error Message]

There is no such thing as incompatibility between an OS and another piece of networking hardware unless they use unsupported protocols but because they all use ipv4 and layer 2 mac forwarding there is no issue there. Take a look at the charts on this site and you may also want to look at some AC capable routers too.

The only time when OS compatibility comes in is when you have to install drivers for things like network printers, etc.

 

[L&LD]

A hub? From the 1990's?

What is the reason you need something so outdated? Cannot a modern switch work just as well or better?

As SEM suggests, any N Class router will work for basic network connectivity. What is the workload of your network that needs anything different (and Netgear cannot provide)?

I'm pretty sure that the RT-AC56U (AC1200+ class) or the RT-N66U (N900 class) or above (depending on how many clients you have that support more than two streams and depending on how important external antennae are in your specific environment) with RMerlin firmware installed will adequately fit your needs.

What is the issue with your existing router that you think you need to upgrade it?

 

[sfx2000]

There are times where working with a hub can be fairly handy - esp. if doing wire captures from another machine... that can be done easy enough with a hub, and very hard to do with a switch..

 

[stevech]

I use a cheap "lightly" managed switch (Netgear GS) so that Wireshark can see traffic on other switch ports.
Ethernet hubs color the testing and cause misleading conclusions.