Which wireless router would you recommend?
 

For the longest time i've been afraid to get a wireless router. My friend had one about 2 years ago and it would always have problems; i.e. dropping connection, high latency, skipping in games like counter strike. Its been 2 years and i've decided i really need one, plus i know the technology is better.
Getting to the point, what type of router would you recommend? My connection is 6 mbps down and 768 kbps up (cable). I would want a router that wouldn't bottleneck my connection. Also, i play online MMORPGs and i dont want to experience lag because of the router. I am planning to buy from newegg.com

I was looking at routers earlier today and i have no idea how they rate them, so if someone could explain it would help a lot!

edit: do i have to worry about security? im good with computers and such, so i'm pretty sure i'll be able to set up the router and security by myself

how about this one, i was looking around and it got good review s

http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=35&prid=601

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124136

I have that one and am using it now, so it gets my seal of approval. It is worth getting g these days(preventing the bottlenecking) and linksys seem to be the best ones on the market. Although, with your connection, it will be bottlenecking the power of most of the g ones these days.

I recommend Linksys. They are slightly more expensive that some of the cheap crap out there, but they're great kit and worth the small amount extra. Indeed, you can often find them on special in many places.

They're also fully owned by Cisco, so they're not going anywhere. Safe, sound and good features. What more could you ask?


Mr Mephisto

- Note, I'm slightly biased.

If you're worried about speeds in gaming, you might want to check out the new gaming router. It automatically detects packets related to games and gives them a higher priority than all the other crap floating through your router. But that's only important if you plan on downloading while playing. There was a topic about it in Gaming a little while back.

As far as security goes... There are three easy things that you can do to ensure (*coughcough*) security. They can all be done through the router's configuration interface. Disable SSID broadcast. This makes it so that your router isn't blatantly shouting out "Here I am, and my name is X!". Enable MAC filtering. This makes it so that the only wireless devices that can access your network are ones that you specify. Enable encryption. On most routers, this is WEP, which is insecure. This router supports WPA, which is better. I'm not sure how much better. But if your wifi card doesn't support WPA, then you're back to WEP.

There are problems with those three things, however. Anyone running *nix and a copy of Kismet will see your network no matter what your SSID status is. MAC filtering can be easily compromised by a knowledgeable hacker. And WEP can be cracked relatively quickly using traffic injection techniques.

So what am I saying? Enable those things, but don't expect it to turn your network into a fortress.

I'll only buy Linksys from now on. Every time I've gone to some other brand there's been problems. Linksys devices plug in and work every time.

Also, re so-called "gaming routers", that's basic QoS stuff that any current Linksys router can be configured to do.

I'll go along with everyone else and say to buy Linksys for your home. You needn't worry about setting it up wrong or whatnot, they're mostly plug it in and it works. Though, do follow Mephisto's guide to securing the wireless part of the router (do a search to find it).

Just because it's a "router", doesn't mean it's going to be hard to use. Though, Cisco routers are quite a bit more...........intense.

I would probably recommend something like the WRT54G router from Linksys. They work like champs.

It's quite possible to secure a WLAN to a level that makes any hacking all but impossible.

I've posted guidelines on how to do this several times before, but I'm willing to repost if people want advice. The three steps listed above are only part of the story.


Mr Mephisto

thanks guys, im going to order that router tomorrow! i just found out it has wired capabilities also. thats a big plus. since its wired and wireless, could i use them at the same time, like 2 wired 2 wireless? also, is it still max 4 connections?

Another vote for Lynksys routers. And an 802.11g, if that isn't obvious.

Yes, you can use the wired and wireless interfaces simultaneously. You are not limited to only four connections.

Indeed, you can have four devices connected directly to the wired ports (the RJ-45 ethernet ports on the back of the router) and up to 254 wireless clients. Of course, you would never connect so many wireless clients and performance plummets after around 20-25 active associations.

Make sure you secure your device. It's very easy to do.


Mr Mephisto

one thing to note is that linksys wrt54g router is a linux device... its possible to access that and do some really cool stuff with it.

whatever you decide to get make sure you check their website for firmware upgrades and flash it first thing. Also be sure to always update firmware through a wired connection and not via a wireless one.

While im a happy user of several linksys products, i have found that many times they have major issues in their shipped state, but a few versions of firmware updates fix most if not all of the issues. Save some headaches and flash it current as soon as you get it out of the box.

I personally have been choosing Dlink over linksys lately. But mostly because because i like some of the dlink point to multipoint AP products, and will no longer own a wireless router that isn't capible of client or bridged mode.

They're usually a bit more trouble, like setting up a RADIUS server, or a VPN, or deploying your own IDS.

Reading your guide...

1 - Enable WPA if at all possible
I mentioned WPA and WEP. I wish my wifi card supported WPA. :(

2 - Change default SSID
I missed that one. But it doesn't matter too much unless you --

3 - Disable SSID Broadcast
I mentioned that, and how it's only gonna stop NetStumbler kiddies

4 - Enable MAC filtering
I mentioned that

5 - Turn down transmit power
Missed that one. Of course, if you have a real hacker on your hands, he'll have a directional antenna that'll snipe your connection from halfway down the street.

6 - Change the admin password
Ooh, how could I forget that one? :|

7 - Change default IP address
Missed that. Although I think Kismet and other wardriving tools will tell you the address of the router. From there, you can watch the traffic to see what else is on the network. This is a good one, though.

8 - Reduce the size of your DHCP
Missed that. But if someone is spoofing your MAC, they can just steal from the IP pool.

1 is only effective with WPA. (I mean that WEP is useless compared to WPA).
2, 3, and 4 are nothing to a serious hacker.
5 won't stop anyone with a good antenna (serious hacker).
6, as long as it's a good password, will be a serious roadblock -- to hacking the router. A hacker will probably look for an easier target, or a way to exploit the router.
I'm actually not sure how much 7 would impact a hacker. I assume not very much, since a good packet sniffer will tell you what's going on.
8 is like MAC filtering. Easily circumvented.

All but impossible? Depends on how secure WPA is. If you can't crack the encryption, then you can't see anything of use on the network.

I'm not sure I really understand your post Slavakion.

"1 is only effective with WPA".

1 IS WPA. That's the whole point.

And, properly implemented, WPA (or WPA-PSK to be more accurate) is effective against all hacking attempts. Whilst theoretically possible to crack, it would take milllions of years (and more) to break the encryption.

So, yes... "all be impossible" is correct.

And something most people tend to forget is that 99.99% of "hacking" attacks on home wireless networks are simply opportunistic exploits of poorly secured access points. That's where steps 2 to 8 come in.

Step 1 (WPA) secures your WLAN against everyone, including "real" hackers.
Steps 2 to 8 (lockdown) secures your WLAN against the vast majority of opportunistic, war-driving "hackers".

In combination, they will make your WLAN all but impossible to hack.


Mr Mephisto

I meant that enabling encryption is only effective with WPA. WEP has been proven insecure and easily broken.

I don't know much about WPA, but from what I've heard it's what WEP was supposed to be -- actually secure. If what you're saying is right, then all the better.

Yes, assuming you have WPA. ;)

Right. I didn't mean that you shouldn't do these things. That would be like leaving your front door unlocked with a list of your valuables taped to it just because somebody could pick the lock and find your stuff. Just that 2-8 won't stop anyone serious, and 1 won't either if it's WEP instead of WPA.

We use linksys and we do wired and unwired.....2 pcs on ethernet and 2 on wireless...we've had it about a year and have never had a problem with it :)

wow thanks for all that security help, im not worried about security anymore! i already ordered that linksys one and its on the way, once again... thanks to everyone who helped in the thread.

I think you mean "but from what I've heard it's what WEP was supposed to be -- actually secure. "


WPA mitigates the so-called Fluhrer style attack (also known as the AirSnort attack) that cracks WEP by intercepting packets and reverse engineering the WEP key by leveraging known "weak Initialization Vectors".

What does this mean in English?

Basically, WEP works by encrypting all your data with a "key". Both the client and the access point share the same key. Each and every packet is encrypted by using that key (and a psuedo-random numerical string called an Initialization Vector). You can only decrypt the data if you know the key, so in theory your access point and client are able to talk to each other securely. No one else knows the key, right?

Well, if you can capture enough WEP packets, and do some fancy mathematical footwork based upon known and predictable "weak IVs", then you can calculate what the WEP was. You "reverse calculate" it. The more packets you capture the better, but this can often be done in less than hour (depending upon how much traffic you intercept).

WPA addresses this problem by introducing something called the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). It also enhances security by using longer IV's and using additional sub-protocols like Message Integrity Check (MIC). TKIP improves upon WEP by basically using a different key (for encryption) for each and every packet. In other words, it doesn't matter if someone snoops the network and captures hundreds of thousands of packets, as each and every one is encrypted differently. They can't "reverse-calculate" the key and so the network is secure.


WPA comes in two flavours. WPA used with EAP/802.1x and WPA-PSK. Forget about WAP with EAP/802.1x as it's only used in large enterprise networks. What you use at home will be WPA-PSK. In this flavour, you use a "Pre Shared Key" on both the access point and client. Without going into too much detail, just remember to make this key a long string of random characters. Do NOT use something silly like "Password". Make it long and random. Something like "Tjks7$0-8slhyu09djd0" With a PSK (Pre Shared Key) like the example just given, no one will crack your WLAN.


Mr Mephisto

Lynksys here also....no drop outs, good security, no problems at all.

Erm, yes. :o Heh...

Netgear routers arent bad either.... I have both Linksys and Netgear routers and Havent had any problems with either after I updated the firmware. Make sure to update the firmware.

A bit of clarification on this post.

254 wireless connections and 4 wired connections is a bit incorrect.

Actually, the default IP range of 192.168.1.x where x is between 0 and 254 allows 254 simultaneous connections to the router, it doesnt matter whether they are wired or wireless. You can put a switch on one of the wired ports and further split that connection or you can add wireless clients, but a class C IP range allows for 254 simultaneous connections. Yes, it will slow down after 30-40 on a good connection, but it is possible.

I like netgear because they are as good as linksys in both security and range but i can usually get them cheaper. As previous people have said the trick is setting them up properly and securly because the defaults usually suck.

It's not actually.

You can have up to 4 wired connections.
You can have up to 254 wireless connections; indeed you can have more, but are limited by the Class C network provided by the DHCP network.

But, in total, you can only have 254 connections simulataneously, whether they're a mix of wired or wireless.


Mr Mephisto

correct, i was just pointing out that in your original post you had said 4 wired AND 254 wireless

I have a good one it's a NYKO for my socom 2 and linksys for my computer.

I appreciate you posting the wireless tips. I had done them all except for limiting the DHCP scope. That is a great one that I didn't even think of.

The general consensus has been Linksys... but to toss it up, how are D-Link products in comparison?

Cracking WEP is an entirely passive affair. It simply requires enouge 'weak' packets to be collected, how long this takes depends on many things, but usualy a few days are enough. WPA has a DIFFRENT flaw, it is subject to something known as 'offline password guessing' which means if someone sniffs your login, while they cannot decrypt the password directly, them can test if the password is equal to a given string, so if you use a crappy password, it can be cracked, but a secure password will protect you quite well, and wan't slow anything down. Secure passwords are another thread ;)

You've never had a problem that you're aware of. Someone could be using it for neferious deeds, and you won't know till law enforcement breaks your door down.

You can sit back and wait for enough "interesting" IVs to come your way, or you can actively speed it up.

Using a couple of tools, you can send specific data frames to an AP such as ARP requests or SYN/ACK. You know what's going in, so what comes back is predictable and therefore "interesting". Alter the frames slightly, you get a different but still predictable res[ponse. There have been reports that this can cut WEP-cracking time down to around 1 hour.

You misunterpreted what I meant.

Mr Mephisto

I had not heard about this, though I can see how it would work. Have any tools to do this been released?

Yes. I'd link some, but I don't know how kosher this stuff is. Also realize that these are all linux scripts.

whatever you do, DON'T get a linsys. they've got a terrible line of wireless routers and have a repuration for shotty firmware. i've learnt this the hard way

Wingless - we sell both at the store I work for (small business, 5 employees) but if we go out on a service call, I'll pick up the D-link every time for ease of instalation. Granted, the last time I logged onto a Linksys box was 6 months ago, but I dont think firmware has changed them that much.

The majority of the market disagrees with you. :)

Mr Mephisto

In my experience, D-Link has been one of the worst. That is what I have right now, and if I have like more than 3 machines connected wired or wirelessly, it always craps out on me. I have done firmware upgrades, changed channels, the whole deal, but it is just a crappy product. I have ran into some bad Netgear routers as well. Linksys is pretty decent, but I think the best I have seen are the 3Com routers. I have had the best luck with those, and the least amount of problems.

Well I guess I'm a little late to this conversation but I gotta vote for my router. The D-Link Gaming router. I have a thread about it here. Been using it for about a month and I love it. As advertised :thumbsup: