looking for wireless router

hey all,
my router finally died so i need a new one. i need the modell number by tomorow night and with school work and what not there isnt much time to shop. hoping you guys wouldnt mind giving me a few tips.

this is similar to wolfrunes post but i have a few specific features i would like. it would be residential and it wouldnt need to be too fancy. i'd like something with WPA and 802.11b/g. It would be good if it could get a lil more than 330 ft. of range and id like it to be linux based. im thinking less than $200.

thnx in advance :)

Hey Hey,

This question is asked so often... the same responses are always given... There's one king right now... The Linksys WRT54G http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

Then get the firmware for it from http://www.sveasoft.com/component/op...page/Itemid,1/

Here's an article on the subject and it says it boosts antenna power http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials...le.php/3562391

You could also look into the larger antenna's (since the router is so cheap compared to your budget).. I've seen Best Buy with 15db Antenna's for linksys products for like 80 bucks..

Peace
HT

I'll concur with the WRT54G. Make sure you get one of the earlier versions though, as the Linksys changed to VxWorks with series 5. So you'll want to get one with an earlier revision. They made this switch in order to cut their manufacturing costs, as the VxWorks embedded system allowed Linksys to halve their flashram and ram requirements.

Luckily, Linksys now produces the WRT54GL (due to high demand), which is exactly like the old systems so it can run Linux! So like HTRegz mentioned, you can run the Sveasoft firmware, or even better, the OpenWRT linux distribution. This lets you do a ton of cool things, like Kismet drones, traffic shaping, Radius authentication, VOIP QoS, etc; all the things the big boy routers do. And you can boost the transmitting power, so you can boost it past it's range of 980 feet, so it should be sufficient. ;)

If you're interested in OpenWRT, they have quite a hardware compatibility list.

I

can any one tell me what a router is??????

chazz_cs:fyi, you recieved most of these antipoints im assuming because you posted your question in a poor spot. you should have started a new thread. even better than that google router and see what comes up. dictionary.com gets lucky every once in a while too. wikipedia is good for jargon and definitions not found on dictionary.com howstuffworks.com would have been perfect for this question. learn to research, this is not an information giveaway forum for people who dont know how to research (thats an interesting idea, a tut on how to research, hmmm). its a place were people can learn by listening, asking appropriate and intelligent (researched) questions, and discussing things

to answer your question though a router is a device used to transfer information over multiple subnets and to specific hosts. thats a really crappy definition since i havent looked up the true definition in quite a while. there are 3 main devices that distribute packets to different computers. a router, switch and hub. each have their own topologies and attributes that make them efficient in a certain area and a certain use. switches are generally the fastest but more expensive and not always the best depending on the situation (each computer has their own direct line to each other). a hub retransmits everything it gets to every computer/network attached (cheap and good if you want everyone to be able to see everything, not very secure though). for a router i needed some refreshment to be completely right (dont want to spread false info ;)) i looked it up at howstuffworks.com

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/router.htm
or
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/home-network8.htm
the second is a lot less info but not as good an answer
ill let you read what it says :)

thnx everyone else, really helpful, i think ill tell my dad to look for the WRT54GL first as its newer and then the older versions (<series 5) of the WRT54G, if neither available maybe hold off, those features sound awesome