Looking for a reliable wired router

[adammthompson]

A volunteer organization that I'm a member of needs to replace its Belkin draft-N wireless router, which has become flakey. I'm looking for reliable wired performance; wireless performance is secondary. My preference would be a wired router combined with a wireless AP, but I would also consider a wireless router.

I haven't found the reviews very helpful because they mainly talk about features and speed, neither of which is very important to us. We don't need dual WAN. We don't need VPN. We don't need more than 4 LAN ports. I'm not sure that advanced firewall features would be useful to us. Our Internet connection is 3M up/1.5M down. I don't think gigabit LAN matters much to us. Typically we would have 3-6 computers and 4 printers connected (using a couple of switches); we sometimes go up to as many as 20 devices. The only features we care about are reliability, reliability, and reliability (for the wired network).

I'm willing to spend as much as we need to in order to get reliability. But I don't want to spend any more than we need to. Money is definitely tight.

So far I'm considering Netgear FVS318, Zyxel Zywall 2 Plus, some of the Cisco small business routers like RVL200, RVS4000, and RV042, and Draytek Vigor 2110 and 2200E+. I could also convert a Celeron 1.1GHz computer to a router. The main disadvantage of that option would be that it would take up space and use more electricity. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[claykin]

If you don't need VPN, VLAN, ability to setup specific rules for traffic, etc. you can look at the Netgear WNDR3700 or WNDR37AV. Its a consuemr class wireless router that works very well. You shouldn't have any problems with the wired portion and the wireless section is more reliable than most (unless you want to spend some $$$ on Cisco).

In the event you want the ability to set rules, and more granular control of your LAN ports on the router then look at the Zywall 2+. I've used them for 3+ years and they're solid. Not the fastest, but more than suitable for your config. Note that the LAN ports are 10/100. If you want Gigabit ports Zyxel has a forthcoming USG50 (Zywall 2+ replacement) coming very soon (probably September, if not before). Or you can get the higher end USG100, available now. I also have USG200's in use and they're solid and reliable. Only issue I have with the USG's is when you start using the UTM (gateway antivirus, intusion protection, antispam, etc..). This hasn't been super reliable and it also puts a lot of burden on the router CPU. Zyxel is not the only UTM provider with that issue.

The good thing with Zyxel is you get phone support for free and firmware updates for free. Be careful of some others who nickel and dime....

 

[thiggins]

What are the symptoms of the Belkin's unreliability? If it is losing Internet connection, can you log into the router and check to see if it has lost its WAN connection or is locked up.

Are you sure that it is not your cable / DSL modem or Internet connection?

 

[adammthompson]

What are the symptoms of the Belkin's unreliability? If it is losing Internet connection, can you log into the router and check to see if it has lost its WAN connection or is locked up.

Are you sure that it is not your cable / DSL modem or Internet connection?

When the network goes down, I cannot log into the router. It's not the modem or the Internet connection; we have Internet access if we connect a computer directly to the modem.

 

[claykin]

When the network goes down, I cannot log into the router. It's not the modem or the Internet connection; we have Internet access if we connect a computer directly to the modem.

Check Belkin for a firmware update.

 

[adammthompson]

Check Belkin for a firmware update.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Thanks.

 

[adammthompson]

If you don't need VPN, VLAN, ability to setup specific rules for traffic, etc. you can look at the Netgear WNDR3700 or WNDR37AV. Its a consuemr class wireless router that works very well. You shouldn't have any problems with the wired portion and the wireless section is more reliable than most (unless you want to spend some $$$ on Cisco).

In the event you want the ability to set rules, and more granular control of your LAN ports on the router then look at the Zywall 2+. I've used them for 3+ years and they're solid. Not the fastest, but more than suitable for your config. Note that the LAN ports are 10/100. If you want Gigabit ports Zyxel has a forthcoming USG50 (Zywall 2+ replacement) coming very soon (probably September, if not before). Or you can get the higher end USG100, available now. I also have USG200's in use and they're solid and reliable. Only issue I have with the USG's is when you start using the UTM (gateway antivirus, intusion protection, antispam, etc..). This hasn't been super reliable and it also puts a lot of burden on the router CPU. Zyxel is not the only UTM provider with that issue.

The good thing with Zyxel is you get phone support for free and firmware updates for free. Be careful of some others who nickel and dime....

Thanks. I'll consider the WNDR3700. However, we don't need wireless N or wired gigabit. Our Internet connection is not that fast, and LAN speed is not important. If I go the consumer route, is there any reason to think that a WNDR3700 would be more reliable than a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 or an Asus WL-520GU flashed with Tomato or DD-WRT?

 

[thiggins]

Thanks. I'll consider the WNDR3700. However, we don't need wireless N or wired gigabit. Our Internet connection is not that fast, and LAN speed is not important. If I go the consumer route, is there any reason to think that a WNDR3700 would be more reliable than a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 or an Asus WL-520GU flashed with Tomato or DD-WRT?

Despite what many people think, alternative firmware doesn't necessarily bring better reliability. More features, yes. More reliability, maybe not so much.

You're right to stay away from Gigabit and dual-band N if you don't need them. Both add heat, which causes a lot of reliability problems. Why not just a Linksys WRT54G2 or even a Netgear WGR614. Basic 11g Buffalos like the WHR-HP-G54 should also work fine, although their user interface is a bit tougher to work with.