My father is wanting to get a new wireless router for their vacation house... he is not doing anything major, just a browser and itunes user. It will need to be something somewhat easy (I know they all are pretty easy.. but its a parent, you understand). to set up.

Which linksys would you suggest, b or g - and which model # do you consider the best?

2/1/2008 2:00:46 PM

WRT54G

It was on sale at Office Max a few days ago. Not sure now.

2/1/2008 2:07:02 PM

Do prefer that over the "GS"... it seemed to have a better review online. I have had an old linksys for about 7 years which has never failed me so I know very little of newer ones. Are the 'g' bands really that much faster than 'b'.... maybe I need to upgrade for ps3 online (seems to work fine now.. not sure how much it can matter).

2/1/2008 3:56:05 PM

802.11g - 54mbps
802.11b - 11mbps

of course to take advantage of g, you'd need an 802.11g wireless NIC -- which are backwards compatible with 802.11b.


Also, throughput numbers for wireless are always theoretical.

2/1/2008 3:57:57 PM

^ indeed

considering most cable is capped at 2mbps, you won't see any difference in download/upload rates whether you're using b or g...now, if you're doing networking-type things at home and all clients are using g, then there's an advantage worth having, i guess

2/1/2008 4:00:41 PM

Get the WRT54GL. The firmware in the newer WRT54G routers is supposed to be screwy, according to a lot of reviews that I read online. The GL is fucking awesome. I got the GL, it was my first wireless router, about two months ago and I've only had to reset it once. I'm not even sure I had to, it could have been another issue. I get full signal strength all over my house

The GL is a tad more expensive, $59 vs $44 but for reliability and for use by a parent, I would definitely get it. Set up was a breeze as well. You can get one at the Tiger Direct store on Capital Blvd in Raleigh or order one off of Newegg.com

2/1/2008 8:58:27 PM

see if you can snag an older WRT54GS (like v5 or below) on ebay

then put dd-wrt on it

there isn't a better consumer-level router out there than this combination

it rivals even some commercial routing solutions i've seen

2/2/2008 3:12:45 AM

meh...i just picked up a WRT54G v8 for my little brother and put DD-WRT micro on it without problems (actually, the v8 is a lot easier to flash than the previous non-linux 54G's)...works just fine

2/2/2008 9:20:33 AM

^^^^^^ Bobby!! what's up man?? I probably should have gone straight to Mr. Cisco right off the bat. "diaper technician"... I heard about the good news man, congratulations!!

2/2/2008 12:31:15 PM

^^^Only better combination is using a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 ... but the Linksys WRT54GS/GL is a good option too.

The key is to install DD-WRT. You should never buy a router that won't use DD-WRT. It is your bread and butter to better home networking.

2/3/2008 2:17:12 AM