I gotta hand it to Netgear...

[Imakeholesinu]

So yesterday I picked up a nice netgear wireless G router yesterday. It was the same one I had to leave at my ex's place and it served me right when I had it so I decided to go with the same model. I've got AT&T's DSL (1.5d 384up). AT&T has gone through some crazy changes with their modems. Since I've had DSL they went from Siemens to 2Wire and now back to Siemens. This new Siemens modem I have stores all of my login data on the modem. I have Dry Loop as well so no phone line to pay for either.

Anyway, back to the router. I turn it on after plugging up the modem expecting it to bitch about the modem having the login info. NOT AT ALL!!! The thing just acts as a switch and a firewall! It also sensed that 192.168.1.1 was already taken so the router automatically assumed a new IP address as well!

I used to be a big linksys guy. Even the wireless adapater I'm using right now is Linksys, but I gotta hand it to netgear, they really out did themselves with how easy this was to setup.

The only thing I don't like about it is I was trying to setup WEP so I could "secure" my network, but the damn PS3 wouldn't accept the key I was giving it. Never fear, I can use MAC address specification instead. So I turned off security (after changing the password to login to the router) and just forced MAC address filtering. I made it a complex password so anyone Wardriving can't crack it.

So, is this the best way to go about securing my network even though it seems like it might be unsecure because I run no WPA or WEP protection but I require that a MAC address be defined on the router for a device to actually talk on the network? I guess since the PS3 and my adapter do broadcast, someone could spoof the mac and get on, but how likely is that?

One more thing about AT&T. They just unveiled U-Verse, which is competing with Charter here in Saint Louis. I can see the fiber box from my window as it resides on the opposite corner of my street. I was thinking about seeing if I could get their 3down 1up service ($30 a month) with their basic tv package which has no contract. They don't want to offer the internet without the TV unless I wasn't able to get DSL but the receptionist said I could do what I wanted after the guy came and did the install.

It's to bad all of my traffic goes through some NSA secret room in San Fran. I guess I'll have to wait for Obama to take office so they can kick them out of there.

[Blotus]

Why did you let her keep your router? Loser!

[Julius Seeker]

I find Linksys has trouble connecting laptops; youtube never seems to function well enough. and connection seems to randomly drop all the time. Strangely enough DS works absolutely fine.

Though I switched to a DLink, cheap and seems to work a lot better.

[Tessian]

Linksys has never wronged me-- I currently have a Linksys router and modem for my Comcast hookup. The only thing I don't like about my current router is it seems I have to power cycle it in order to get a change to actually go into effect. I mention logon information-- I have none Comcast goes purely by MAC address and serial number of your modem so none of that is required.

Your setup sounds good enough from a security standpoint, no one will steal or hack your network... the only thing that leaves to chance is the fact that your network is unencrypted so anyone nearby can capture and read your packets if they know how. If you were to get WEP working I'd highly recommend still keeping MAC filtering as it's easily crackable. I wonder if with the WEP you weren't putting in a correct key size or something...

Why can't you go to WPA? Don't tell me it's that damned DS or anything... can't believe they don't support higher than WEP. I've got WPA2 myself but the only thing using my wireless are laptops.

Though I switched to a DLink, cheap and seems to work a lot better.

Make sure you secure that sucker... almost every wireless router I've "broken" into was a DLink router no one bothered to change ANYTHING on. "Default" for the wireless name, no encryption, password as the admin password... it's quite sad. Because of this however, I know my way around a DLink router's admin console without ever having owned one

[Flip]

Belkin, bitches! Never drops, always connected, full speed, worked right out out the box, too.

[SineSwiper]

Arris (and I think a few others) are doing similar things to cable modems: a combo wireless router, cable modem, and MTA (telephony). It's not a bad deal, but good luck trying to troubleshoot if there's something wrong with the router part. You can't just unplug it and go directly to the cable modem.

And don't believe Flip with his Belkin voodoo. I used to take calls on service, and those were always a POS. Besides, the best way to figure out a good router is to look at the memory in the unit. If it's 8MB or less, stay away.

[Zeus]

Linksys: cheap, reliable, and good enough for what I needed.

I really had no reason to get anything else

[Julius Seeker]

Linksys: cheap, reliable, and good enough for what I needed.

I really had no reason to get anything else

Weren't you complaining about download times using wireless connections earlier? It is probably because you use Linksys.

[Zeus]

Linksys: cheap, reliable, and good enough for what I needed.

I really had no reason to get anything else

Weren't you complaining about download times using wireless connections earlier? It is probably because you use Linksys.

I average over 500k a sec on Torrentbytes. I has nothing to do with my router or connection

[SineSwiper]

Weren't you complaining about download times using wireless connections earlier? It is probably because you use Linksys.

Nah, it's probably because it's wireless. Except for the N version, wireless sucks for any decent broadband speeds.

[Kupek]

I have a Linksys wireless router, and it goes about 2 hours without requiring me to restart it for the wireless to work again. I usually just give up and piggyback on my neighbor's.

(Yes, I know it's not the card. I used to have separate problems with a different card - drivers issues that would crash my machine - and my new card solved those problems, but the dropping still happens. So, router. If I wasn't lazy, I'd get a new one, but... neighbor's.)

[SineSwiper]

Lemme guess, one of the newer Linksys WRT routers with only 8MB of memory.