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My kingdom for a decent Gigabit Router

bill

12:20 pm on Sep 2, 2012 (gmt 0)

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Several years ago I dropped a bunch of money on a Netgear FVS318G Gigabit router only to discover later that the connection between the WAN and LAN ports only allowed for 25Mbps connections. That might have been acceptable in some markets, but I've got fiber connections and I need a real Gigabit router. What's the point of having Gigabit rated ports on LAN and WAN if they can't communicate at that speed? (Needless to say I'm not enthralled with Netgear...)

I need something for my home that can handle about 15 Ethernet LAN connections and a variety of wireless devices as well. I have a bunch of Gigabit switches and hubs so I don't need something with all the ports built in. The tough part I've had looking for a decent router is access control. I need to be able to control the times that a lot of the machines on my network can connect.

I've looked at the big box stores in Japan for routers and they all have crappy firmware that can't be upgraded, even if the hardware specs look decent. I'm ready to import something. Is there anything reliable out there that isn't going to break the bank for a home Gigabit router. Any suggestions?

scooterdude

2:13 pm on Sep 2, 2012 (gmt 0)

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I am puzzled

The LAN ports being cat5 communicate with each other at 1 Gig, yes

But if the WAN is any variant of Wireless, or DSL its must be limited to 11, 25, 30, 105 MB depending on what flavour of wireless or dsl be it
3G
wifi
dsl/adsl

Unless I got the wrong end of the stick an i occasionally manange networks :)

J_RaD

2:24 pm on Sep 2, 2012 (gmt 0)

Dlink DIR 655 has giga LAN and giga LAN

shop dlink stuff and see what you get.... been good for me over the years.

bill

4:23 am on Sep 3, 2012 (gmt 0)

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The LAN ports being cat5 communicate with each other at 1 Gig, yes

Correct. It's like a Gigabit switch/hub on the LAN side

But if the WAN is any variant of Wireless, or DSL its must be limited to 11, 25, 30, 105 MB depending on what flavour of wireless or dsl be it
3G
wifi
dsl/adsl

This Netgear router has no WiFi built in...I use an AP for that. I have FTTH in Japan with 200Mbps service. I can only use 25Mbps of that connection because of the bottleneck within this Netgear router. For a little bit more my ISP now offers a 1Gbps connection as well. I need a router that can handle WAN to LAN connections of 1Gbps or thereabouts.

scooterdude

3:15 pm on Sep 3, 2012 (gmt 0)

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I would have thought that the provider gives you a

200mb/1gB modem with a cat 5 socket or cable at the other end

their kit handles the connection,connect it to one of the 1GB sockets on the front off the IGB netgear router to connect to internal network

I GB connection, oh My !

bill

2:45 am on Sep 4, 2012 (gmt 0)

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Oh yes, I have a Gb modem alright. The cat 5e cable goes from there into the WAN port of my router. That's where the bottleneck occurs.

It's amazing to me actually...I thought I was getting a Gb router when I bought this Netgear unit. It has:

LAN ports: Eight (8) 10/100/1000 Mbps

WAN ports: One (1) 10/100/1000 Mbps

You'd think I'd be all set. No. I missed the fine print:

Throughput: LAN-to-WAN: 25 Mbps total
arrrrgh!

scooterdude

4:16 am on Sep 4, 2012 (gmt 0)

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Ahh so,

You could plug the IGB modem directly into your PC and get 1 GB service

And the reason you don't plug modem cat5 into one of the LAN ports directly is,,,
firewall, IP(dhcp),,,

bill

4:37 am on Sep 4, 2012 (gmt 0)

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DHCP. I have several PCs and other devices that need an IP, and the router is marketed for its firewall capabilities... Essentially I wanted a Gigabit router.

Previously I'd run an old PC with 2 Gigabit LAN cards and a copy of ClarkConnect. That worked pretty well for a few years until the software started to get wonky. I might go back to something like that if I can't find a qualified router, but I hate leaving a big old tower PC running all day for that purpose.

bill

6:01 am on Sep 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

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Dlink DIR 655
How is the management software on the D-Link? I need to control the times certain machines can access the net.

J_RaD

2:25 pm on Sep 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM HM! c'mon bill don't you have a domain running in hour house or something? hahahah

I have no idea but you can look up the router features and they normally even have the router backend setups you can login and poke around a demo and see if it has what you like before you buy.

-manual link page-
[dlink.com...]

J_RaD

2:31 pm on Sep 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

i found the emulator for you too

[support.dlink.com...]

that took some digging!

from poking around it looks like it will do what you need

The Access Control option allows you to control access in and out of your network. Use this feature as Access Controls to only grant access to approved sites, limit web access based on time or dates, and/or block internet access for applications like P2P utilities or games

bill

12:40 am on Sep 7, 2012 (gmt 0)

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heh heh
I have waaaaay too many PCs in my house. ;)

That D-Link emulator link was exactly what I needed to see. I had looked at the online manuals, but puttering around the Admin interface was just what I needed. It appears to have all the functions I require. Scheduled access, dynamic DNS, a guest zone... Thanks!

I'd also looked at the Apple Airport Extreme which had great specs, but after digging around I found that all of their scheduled access restrictions only worked for WiFi attached devices. Most of my house is wired for LAN with Ethernet cables, so that was a bit of a bummer to learn.

D-Link looks like the best option.

J_RaD

6:08 am on Sep 7, 2012 (gmt 0)

yea, can't beat those router emulators... I don't buy one without it anymore.

bill

1:04 am on Sep 22, 2012 (gmt 0)

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After much more research I found a WAN to LAN throughput chart [smallnetbuilder.com] that rated recent routers. That helped me decide. I finally went with an ASUS RT-N66U and so far I'm quite happy the purchase.

My WiFi speed and coverage went up dramatically, but best of all I'm now getting about +100Mbps at all of my wired PCs.

scooterdude

1:24 am on Sep 22, 2012 (gmt 0)

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I just found out that FTTH is available here in London, but being British we're limiting it to 40MB :)

None of that 1Gb extravagance here, besides we'll have problems buying routers

And everyone would spend all day an nite downloaing movies in 10 secs,

people would miss work,,,,

J_RaD

3:22 am on Sep 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

BOOKMARKED!

thanks for posting that.

Maurice

11:30 am on Oct 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

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Err you want a a router that can handle high wan speeds at wire speed buy Cisco or Hp not consumer grade stuff.

J_RaD

3:56 pm on Oct 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

well you don't run all in one wireless routers in an enterprise environment anyway.

So anything cisco/hp sells as such is just consumer grade at a business price.

bill

1:26 am on Oct 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

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The NetGear router I originally mentioned is not consumer grade. I paid a lot for it and expected decent speeds out of it considering it was marketed as business class hardware...but it became my network bottleneck. Right now it is operating as the most expensive switching hub I have ever run. So much for the professional level equipment. :p

GaryK

4:52 am on Oct 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

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The ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router is what I use here (home/work) as well. It's a very competent product and well worth the US$160 or so it cost.