Which wireless router?

[Kooldino]

Ok, so I went nuts on black friday (that's a BIG American shopping day where you get good bargains on stuff), and I ended up picking up four 802.11G wireless routers.

First is a combo pack...Netgear WGB511. This is a router and CardBus NIC combo.

Number two is A Belkin Wireless Router...no apparent model number...best I could find is that it's "version 1444".

In a seperate box, I also picked up a matching Belkin Cardbus NIC.

Then there's the Netgear WGT624 Super G Wireless Router. This claims "108Mbps" (dual 54, i guess).

Finally, there's the Motorola 802.11g Broadband Router with Wireless Notebook Adapter.

The latter of the two are not in my possesion as of yet, but I'd only like to open one box if possible.

Now the question is: Which one should I keep and which should I sell? Off the top of my head, i want to keep the "super G" Netgear router, and pair it with the Netgear 54M PC card from the combo pack since my friend wants the router that was in the Netgear 54M combo pack.

I realize that I'd be running a "slow" 54M card with a 108M router, but I'm not fussy so long as the signal strength is solid.

Any suggestions/input here?

I'm also assuming that these CardBust cards will work flawlessly on my 700Mhz IBM T20 laptop. BTW, anyone know the difference between PCMCIA and Cardbus? Is it just a 16 bit vs 32 bit thing?

[agallag]

Sell 'em all and get a Linksys WRT54GS. I had nothing but trouble with my Netgear MR814, and my new Linksys is great.

I haven't even tried out the super duper Sveasoft firmware. The router runs linux, so the factory firmware is GPL'd and available, so these Sveasoft guys have modified it to do all kinds of very high end router stuff. Frickin' awesome.

[Wombat]

I'd avoid the Linksys ones, unless you do a lot of research. I was looking into buying one, and the Linksys models consistently had less range and signal strength than other branks.

[agallag]

Oh, and the T20 will work just fine with cardbus cards. I'm pretty sure you're right, cardbus is just a 32bit version of PCMCIA.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4JRMN8

PC Card
The Type III slot accommodates either two Type I, two Type II, or one Type III PC card. The slot supports the CardBus adapters, PC card, and the Zoomed Video (ZV) adapter.

[agallag]

Originally posted by Wombat
I'd avoid the Linksys ones, unless you do a lot of research. I was looking into buying one, and the Linksys models consistently had less range and signal strength than other branks.

With the Sveasoft firmware you can bump up the signal strength significantly.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Wombat
I'd avoid the Linksys ones, unless you do a lot of research. I was looking into buying one, and the Linksys models consistently had less range and signal strength than other branks.

They do, but I find they're generally less problematic than the others (consumer grade stuff here).

I tried stuff from D-Link, USR, 3com, Linksys, MSI, el-cheapo no-name stuff too.

The main thing was that connection was generally more stable. My guess is they use better antennas. The crappiest I've seen are probably D-Link and USR -but they honestly all suck...

I'd like to test some of Gigabyte stuff, AFAIK they're rebranded Senao equipment, which has the strongest transmitter.

The Belkin Pre-N equipment is very interesting too, alas it's Belkin...

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by Wombat
I'd avoid the Linksys ones, unless you do a lot of research. I was looking into buying one, and the Linksys models consistently had less range and signal strength than other branks.

I've heard this too.

Plus, I'm not about to pay full price for one after getting four for so cheap.

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by agallag
With the Sveasoft firmware you can bump up the signal strength significantly.

Ahh...link?

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by Kurt
The Belkin Pre-N equipment is very interesting too, alas it's Belkin...

Define "interesting"?

[windigo]

ive heard the linksys routers have a problem with dhcp recognition

[agallag]

Originally posted by Kooldino
Ahh...link?

http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=8

[Kooldino]

New info - model #s of the Motorola stuff...

Motorola-Wireless-G Broadband Router-WR850G

Motorola-802.11g Notebook Adapter-WN825G

[Taz]

Originally posted by Wombat
I'd avoid the Linksys ones, unless you do a lot of research. I was looking into buying one, and the Linksys models consistently had less range and signal strength than other branks.

That was only on certain firmware versions, solution either use an official one that doesn't have this problem or one of the many third party firmwares

[mmp121]

Originally posted by windigo
ive heard the linksys routers have a problem with dhcp recognition

You probably read this..

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19944

You bypass this by manually assigning IP's. Its not the best workaround, but it gets the job done.

[Kooldino]

So do you guys think my original plan is the way to go?