I'll put in my final 2 cents here.

not sure why people are down on netgear, but from the experience of a technologist, and consumer tech analyst, I have never had any problems with any of the netgear routes that I have deployed or use daily, in many differant environments.

I would say, as for configuration, they are easier than linksys and dlink, personally, I WOULD stay away from dlink, if you can even find one.

If you want very specific features, or range boost or a great MIMO router, head to a linksys. For easy configuration, and in my opinion robust solid performance, head to a good netgear.

I never recommend for people to buy the lowest end router availabe, but a very good one can be had for 40$ these days.

I use some 3com at remote locations, only because I have found they NEVER need rebooting, EVER!

buffalo are nice, as are linksys if you are intrested in doing some hacking, feature changes and/or if you are going to want to use QOS for things like video or VOIP on the network. These later two are much easier to hack, for such purposes. But, it will cost you other than the lower linksys to get a router that will allow QOS even hacked. Look at 80-100$+

I'm looking for something to replace my SMC with its built-in print server. The Apple sounds nice, but I want something at a low pricepoint. My SMC was working fine for a couple years, but all of a sudden the network has started to freeze up and I need to remove-reinsert the plug to reboot it. Very frustrating.

A quick search of buy.com showed routers with print servers to be double or even triple the cost of those without...are there any other options which might be cheaper?

I don't know what the general consensus is on Belkin routers, but I've had one for 18 months, and also have NEVER had to reboot.

Something I read somewhere (maybe even on this thread, but I don't think so) talked about how someone had a problem with their neighbor's wireless blasting their network into oblivion. This made me think, I do have one random network (secured) that is always at the top of my "available network" list and this is the one that my laptop hones in on when I'm down. Is it possible that he's killing my own connection and that my router is fine? How can I tell?

I have a netgear 614 and it's been working solid since I bought it. Used it with Cable and DSL.

As long as you don't have to call customer support, you should be good.

Its possable and not that hard. Check the channels, you want to be as far appart as possable...if he's on 6, then you should use 11.

If you want to boost your own power there are a few ways. The easiest, if your router supports it, is to add a high gain antenna... I've done that on mine and I can go to any neighbors house and keep my WiFi ..you can even make an aluminum foil "dish" to go behind your existing antenna which will boost your signal a lot!
Another way is to hack the firmware which will allow you to raise the power well outside the FCC allowed limits.

I've owned linksys and netgear, both reliable, easy to use/set up and highly recommended.

Now that my kids are grown up, next router will probably be airport extreme base station, especially the new one just announced: http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2367. Problem is it's pricey!

as a measure of revenge, you now have a safe way to download all those movies and music files from those peer-to-peer services.

what? i'm just sayin'...

I'm making a mental note...."close down my public AP"

Apart from the Airport Extreme Base Station, can anyone recommend a wireless router for someone with a Mac? We have a Mac Mini and a MacBook and we'd like to both be on the Internet at the same time. Also, I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to setting things up, so am looking for something that's not too hard (but not so expensive as the Base Station).

I have a Netgear 614, PC and laptop w/ADSL. I am a complete tech idiot, but found setup and configuration very easy (I also like the address reservation system) and have had no problems with the router.

I went with Netgear because they made the modem card Mr. Tb had installed on the pc in 2002. I have read that it's better to have as much as possible of your setup from the same source to avoid compatibility problems.

My only regret is not having gotten a router with a printer port. I may have to break down and get a print server.

Netgear WGT624 - almost two years old, one power book, one iMac and one iBook in a small 4 story condo, good signal throughout, even one block away can get signal with my iBook

Easy to set up, used SSID security, no broadcast of signal, can't remember if WAP enabled....if you find one, it's probably less than $35 by now.

If you are going that way, depending on how NEW the macbook and mini are, you should try to get a version with N, that way your mac will be able to take advantage of the higher throughput. Again, I like netgear, and then linksys.

I have very recent experience (within the last 30 days) installing an older version Linksys WRT54G router using WPA...and a newer version of the same Linksys WRT54G model number ($49) using WPA2...and also a new Linksys WRT54GX2 (Better range - $99 - WPA2)...and in all cases the user environments included several MacBooks, Mac PowerBooks, Mac iBooks, Mac G5 Dual Core Desktops...as well as several Windows based platforms...and none of them had any problem instantly getting connected. All Macs spotted the SSID just fine, and when the Network Key was entered when prompted...were instantly on...and Network Key properly "stored" on each computer for future instant connections.

All Macs blazing along just fine with Linksys. And very easy set-up of the wireless router without even using the included Linksys CD set-up software...and using the browser-based control panel interface alone.

interesting thread. any recommendations for a router that also enables

• sharing an external hard drive across multiple notebooks/computers etc.?
• printer sharing