[TriLUG] Wi-Fi Router Recommendation

[Steve Litt]

On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:47:01 -0500, Tarus Balog said:
> Gang:
> 
> Anyone have a recommendation for a good Wi-Fi Router? I am looking to
> replace my Apple Airport Extreme. Features needed:
> 
> 1) 802.11n support
> 2) The ability to have a built in "guest" network - i.e. Internet
> access only.
> 3) Prefer a built in switch
> 4) Prefer Linux support ('natch)
> 
> So, anyone like their router?

I love my new Netgear R4500 router. Works well, great tech support (I
didn't know you need to press the recessed reset pin for up to a minute
to have it take effect, resulting in a call to tech support.

It's not only 11n, but it's N900, with a 2.4 and a 5.whatever gig radio
signal, each with its own SSID. I'm pretty sure it has the ability to
have a guest network -- I saw that in the setup. If by built in switch
you mean it outputs 4 ethernet cables, then yes, it does. The box says
Linux is supported.

CAVEATS...

I'm not using mine at all like you describe. All my firewalling, NAT
and port forwarding are done by my OpenBSD/pf firewall appliance
( http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/pf/ ). The public IP subnet
coming out of that goes into my Netgear R4500, which sends it on to
three other Ethernet cables, and broadcasts it as Wifi. But I'm pretty
sure most of what my OpenBSD/pf box does, the Netgear R4500 could do,
although I noticed nothing in the latter's setup for port-forwarding.

The Netgear R4500 was bought at my local Costco store for a little over
a hundred bucks, and I consider it worth it. Before, with my old,
broken, WRT54-GL, every day my kids were yelling "Daddy, the Internet's
down (they perceive lack of wifi as lack of "the Internet). Once I
replaced it with the Netgear, loud signal everywhere.

If you get this device, a few things you should know...

* To reset the device, you have to push a paper clip in, depress the
  recessed button, possibly for a full minute.
* The device's default ip address is 192.168.1.1. At that web page, you
  log in with username "admin", and its default password is
  "password". Obviously you change the password, and you might want to
  change the IP address also. Be careful, you can run into a problem
  where two subnets conflict. I had that happen once, but couldn't
  reproduce it.
* Easiest *manual* way to access its setup is to temporarily configure
  a laptop to 192.168.1.48, and put an Ethernet cable between the two.
  For some reason, I didn't even have to use a crossover cable -- an
  ordinary one worked just fine.
* They have an "easy" way to configure it, but it looks to me like it
  involves going through the Internet, and I don't want my passwords
  put through such a system. But perhaps I'm wrong and it is secure.

HTH

SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
                          *  http://twitter.com/stevelitt
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance