Small Office Router?
Apr 17, 2011 | 7:14 pm
#1
Original Poster
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: ORD
Posts: 14,773
Small Office Router?
The router at my dad's office is getting old and needs to be replaced. It's a Netgear FVS318, whose VPN features we don't use anyway. I just use SSH to one of the servers in the office.
What do people recommend to replace it?
Reliability is the most important thing to me; one of the reasons we're replacing it is that its internal DynDNS client doesn't seem to work anymore. I don't want to deal with needing to reboot the router or not being able to connect remotely because the router froze. 8 (or more) ports would be nice but 4 is OK. I don't really care about N vs G wireless, or if it has wireless at all.
I lean to the Linksys WRT54GL, which is what I have at home and have put in my parents' house, because it has never given me any trouble at all. I run Tomato firmware on them.
But what else do y'all suggest? While I like the WRT54GL, it is a bit of an old design.
What do people recommend to replace it?
Reliability is the most important thing to me; one of the reasons we're replacing it is that its internal DynDNS client doesn't seem to work anymore. I don't want to deal with needing to reboot the router or not being able to connect remotely because the router froze. 8 (or more) ports would be nice but 4 is OK. I don't really care about N vs G wireless, or if it has wireless at all.
I lean to the Linksys WRT54GL, which is what I have at home and have put in my parents' house, because it has never given me any trouble at all. I run Tomato firmware on them.
But what else do y'all suggest? While I like the WRT54GL, it is a bit of an old design.
Apr 19, 2011 | 6:05 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: on the Llano Estacado
Posts: 2,652
Good day to buy that WRT54GL - it's on a 48-hour sale at NewEgg for $44.99 with free shipping. Also, snag the TRENDnet TEG-S50G 5-port gigabit switch (this is the metal one) for $24.99, also with free shipping.
Apr 19, 2011 | 7:39 am
#5
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: between DCA and BWI
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Posts: 3,652
Netgear WNDR3700 is really good . Probably the fastest router I ever owned . I've had it running for about 4-5 month so far - never had to reboot it, in fact never had any trouble with it at all.
Buffalo routers are also very good .
Would suggest avoiding Belkin and DLink as their reliability can be a bit iffy.
Buffalo routers are also very good .
Would suggest avoiding Belkin and DLink as their reliability can be a bit iffy.
Apr 20, 2011 | 6:23 am
#7
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: NHK
Programs: UA Premier, Marriott Rewards Gold
Posts: 118
I assume when you say 4 to 8 ports you mean switch ports and not router interfaces? If so, then any of the DD-WRT options are worth looking at. If you actually do need 4-8 router interfaces, then I'd recommend something from Soekris Engineering such as the net4801 with a lan1621 or lan1641 card. These make excellent advanced routers with a low cost, high reliability, and high throughput. I've got one at home (minus the extra ports) running m0n0wall supporting several LANs with external facing servers and haven't had any problems .