Really need help - which router?

[krypton]

I have read many of the reviews and the articles on how to buy a router. I currently have a 10 Mbps cable modem.

I currently have a mixed pc (xp/sp3)/mac (10.3.9) setup, both g. Soon I will have a mixed pc/mac g/n setup with 2 macs g/n (old plus new mac) and a new pc/n (xp/sp3). (avoiding vista for now). By next year I'll only have n, but by then there will be newer routers too.

I intend to route the 2 closest machines via cable, and only use wireless for the farthest mac.

A more pricey simultaneous dual band router seems enticing because I can segregate the g and n, however, I then have to pay bucks for vendor matched usb or cardbus adapters & I don't even know if these work with macs.

Same goes for Mimo / rangebooster g routers - buy vendor adapted adaptors to go along with their proprietary systems (work for macs?).

So - have I talked myself back to a plain g router? I am not transferring video or other large files, however I might want to use a NAS for backup so I don't have to attach an external hard disk locally to each machine.

I ask for

good security
NAT
an SPI that is updated routinely for new exploits
MAC filtering
do i need a DHCP server?
WPA2 with decent encryption
ability to change SSID / disable broadcast of SSID
Have I missed something important needed for security?
I don't think I need QOS (when we start to use Skype, we'll just dedicate the machine to that for the length of the call).

I really need help here. Will vendors keep updating older routers? What I don't want to see happen is the LAN speed falling below the 10 Mbps of the Internet connection.

I have read more positive posts and reviews of Linksys and D-link, and Linksys seems to have a solid forum based community that I can turn to when inevitably setup does not work, etc. There is always this community as well. I have read about many, many routers, but am still unsure which to buy.

I really appreciate any help available. If I have not laid out my situation clearly enough, please ask me more questions.

Deb

 

[scotty]

The reviews and articles on SmallNetBuilder will overwhelmingly suggest that it's best to add, not replace when moving to N. If you buy a router that does both N and G, the performance of both will suffer. If you must have N, add a dedicated router or access point for it.

As far as speed goes, you say you're not transferring large files or video, so wireless G will likely do just fine for you. Real-world speeds of wireless G are around 20-25Mbps, which is faster than your 10Mb internet connection, so that wouldn't be a bottleneck. Same idea follows through with 'Super-G' and other proprietary MIMO/speedboosting technologies - for regular internet/email, they wont be the bottleneck.

As far as brand, I think both Linksys and D-Link are on par with each other. There will be dozens of people who love and live by both brands, and also dozens who hate each brand. Overall, they're both pretty much on par I think. Virtually any router will do everything you need it to, except SPI. I;m not entirely sure here, but I dont think most consumer-grade routers do SPI.

 

[krypton]

The reviews and articles on SmallNetBuilder will overwhelmingly suggest that it's best to add, not replace when moving to N. If you buy a router that does both N and G, the performance of both will suffer. If you must have N, add a dedicated router or access point for it.

As far as speed goes, you say you're not transferring large files or video, so wireless G will likely do just fine for you. Real-world speeds of wireless G are around 20-25Mbps, which is faster than your 10Mb internet connection, so that wouldn't be a bottleneck. Same idea follows through with 'Super-G' and other proprietary MIMO/speedboosting technologies - for regular internet/email, they wont be the bottleneck.
SPI.

Thank you for the cogent answer. I never thought of using 2 boxes - one for n and one for g, duh! For now based on the advice I will look at the reviews of the vanilla g routers. If it's in the 20-25 range, and it doesn't require buying proprietary vendor linked adaptors (as does super-g) then that seems the best bet. I just hope the vendors keep updating the drivers for the older g routers. I hope the setup was as clear back then as it seems to be now.

I may write back in with more questions as they occur.

Deb

 

[krypton]

I researched some of the linksys vanilla g routers (such as wrt54g and g2), and they don't seem to say they have NAT. I feel if I go too far backward in time characteristics which are essential fall away. Should I consider MIMO / Rangebooster, and then get usb adaptors? Do I have to come up to n, to get all security features?

Deb

 

[thiggins]

All consumer routers use NAT and most also have SPI. But that doesn't matter because you aren't going to use the routing section on the G router. You will disable the router and just use the wireless portion as an access point.

All current design wireless LAN products, even 802.11g support the most secure WPA2 wireless security.

Rangebooster, Super-G and other proprietary throughput improvements work only with matching adapters and provide moderate improvement. I wouldn't bother. All you need is plain old 802.11g.

 

[krypton]

When I was bemoaning the fact that the vanilla g routers I was looking at either did not have NAT and / or did not have WPA2, I was basing this on looking at the PDF data sheets for the routers at the Linksys and D-Link sites.

If the vanilla g routers have NAT and WPA2, I guess maybe they updated the routers (via firmware, drivers), and did not bother updating their data sheets.

I actually intend to use routing for 2 machines, and wireless only for one.
I appreciate you guys responding to my basic questions.

Deb

 

[thiggins]

When I was bemoaning the fact that the vanilla g routers I was looking at either did not have NAT and / or did not have WPA2, I was basing this on looking at the PDF data sheets for the routers at the Linksys and D-Link sites.

The online web page specs are more likely to get updated than the PDF brochures. NAT is so basic that it might not be specified.
Unless you intend to set up two different subnets, you should set only one of the routers as a router and the other as an access point. See
How To Convert a Wireless Router into an Access Point
How To Add an Access Point to a Wireless Router

 

[krypton]

My apologies, but I intend on buying one g router, and having 2 machines routed, and one using wireless. I'll get a 2nd router when I add an n router, and then one will need to be an access point, so I don't end up with 2 subnets.... right?

 

[thiggins]

My apologies, but I intend on buying one g router, and having 2 machines routed, and one using wireless. I'll get a 2nd router when I add an n router, and then one will need to be an access point, so I don't end up with 2 subnets.... right?

That is correct.