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good mac compatible wireless router

RoxStrongo

RoxStrongo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 8, 2005
171
0
Bournemouth, UK
although i would love to get an airport extreme base station, the software integration really is wonderful, i am not to keen on the price. can people recommend a wireless router at a reasonable price that does not have conflictions with osx. i have had experience with belkin and found the range to be abismal. a netgear that i couldn't access from a mac and i have heard that linksys are a SOB to set up. any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Router

I have a Belkin Pre-N router that works great.

Fantastic range (its in my Attic office). I have the Mac in my kitchen, but I can take my laptop anywhere in my yard and play without any real slowdown.

Never an issue, never any disconnects.

Mike...
 
I don't know where you heard that about Linksys routers, but I've never experienced such a thing.
I would recommend the Linksys WRT-54G. As long as you go through the config step by step (and make sure you know what you're changing :eek: ), you shouldn't have any trouble.
 
realityisterror said:
I don't know where you heard that about Linksys routers, but I've never experienced such a thing.
I would recommend the Linksys WRT-54G. As long as you go through the config step by step (and make sure you know what you're changing :eek: ), you shouldn't have any trouble.
Click to expand...

i am no computer wizard but i managed to set up 2 of these. the good thing is that it is an isp? (or something) based settings, so if you have many people on the network they can all chip in (i.e. i set the thing up, then my brother- in- law did all the password stuff from his computer.) though i don't know whether other routers are like that as i never used them.

i also think that its easy. They give you a big colourful sheet with numbered+ picture points to run you through (though i do understand that if one is the sort not to read instructions, thus not knowing how to access the set up page, it might be difficult)

defo. go for the linksys. the only gripe i have is that if my router is downstairs i don't get good reception in my room (2/3 bars) but i probaboy have thick walls etc. not its fault!
 
thanks for your advice. i had considered the airport express althought the comments on the apple store were not that inspiring saying the range was quite poor and that they ususally die after a year. with regards to range, i will need it to go from ground floor to an attic room, the floor of which is thicker than most.
 
Another vote for Linksys! These are the only routers I've ever owned, and I've not had a reason to even look at any other brands. My first router was a simple 1 port wired router back in 2000-2001, which still works to this day. In 2002, I got a 4 port 802.11b router that worked great until last december when it died (but I think that has more to do with the power issues I was having at home, which also fried a motherboard, 2 nics, and a power supply), and replaced it with a linksys wrt54gs. This one has been working great, and I've not had to reset it or anything since basically the day I got it (185 days uptime). I installed the dd-wrt firmware on it, and the extras are great, like good functioning QOS so I can run my torrents and still play games / use VOIP without consequence.

I can't say much for range, as I mainly use it in the house (router is in the upstairs front bedroom, covers the house and the basement), but with the dd-wrt firmware there is the option of boosting the transmit power by a safe margin from 28mW to at least 50 or 60 without danger of cooking the router. Of course, that doesn't matter if your wifi card doesn't have enough power to transmit back to the router, but I digress...
 
Linksys is actually owned by Cisco (for some time now), and supports Cisco protocols. That's why I use them anyway.
 
I was a serious Linksys supporter until I bought the WRT54G. It's given nothing but headaches since we plugged it in, dropping connections constantly, range fluctuations, the works. Turns out it's not uncommon for that particular model. I'm back to using my old first-gen Airport base station until we can get a replacement.

If you're going to get a Linksys, get the WRT54GL. It's far more reliable, though it'll run you a bit more.
 
realityisterror said:
I don't know where you heard that about Linksys routers, but I've never experienced such a thing.
I would recommend the Linksys WRT-54G. As long as you go through the config step by step (and make sure you know what you're changing :eek: ), you shouldn't have any trouble.
Click to expand...


The set up on my WRT-54F was super easy and quick...it is super reliable- never lose signal...ever (except occasionally I need to reset the modem by unplugging the power to it and plugging it back in when I go to use my PS2 on it which is wired- have no idea why, but fussy with the PS2 hard wire.) I have great range- it is in my basement and I can use the wireless on my picnic table outside.

I had a netgear at my school which was a piece of junk- replaced it within a few months with the above noted router as well.
 
gloss said:
If you're going to get a Linksys, get the WRT54GL. It's far more reliable, though it'll run you a bit more.
Click to expand...

The WRT-54G and 54GL are virtually identical to the end user. The GL model offers more RAM and Flash Memory, which allows it to run Linux (the latest revisions of the 54G have to be hacked to run Linux).
That said, if you do find a good deal on the GL (~$50-60), it'd probably worth the upgrade. You can upgrade to a 3rd party firmware or remain with the Linksys variety.
 
regre7 said:
I just got a Linksys WRT-54G yesterday, and it's worked fine so far.

And what's the Cisco Systems button for?
Click to expand...

It's called "Secure Easy Setup" (SES).
The idea is if you have all Linksys equipment, you press the button on each over a short period of time and it automatically sets up encryption. It's basically useless to you. The light annoyed me, so you can entirely disable the SES under Wireless Security.

Cheers!
 
RoxStrongo said:
i have heard that linksys are a SOB to set up. any advice would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

I got a linksys wireless router 3 weeks ago. Even though it was the first router I ever set up (first wireless I had ever used), it wasn't hard at all. Just use the web interface. I have an airport card in my G5 PM.
 
I just purchased a Linksys WRT54G to replace a dl524 and can't get it to work with my G4 Imac - I've talked to their help desk but after I get it ti work resetting the router going to web page etc it just drops out - I'm returning it tomorrow - they think it might be a bad router ...
I'll try some other brand - netgear?
 
quist11 said:
I just purchased a Linksys WRT54G to replace a dl524 and can't get it to work with my G4 Imac - I've talked to their help desk but after I get it ti work resetting the router going to web page etc it just drops out - I'm returning it tomorrow - they think it might be a bad router ...
I'll try some other brand - netgear?
Click to expand...


I would not recommend NetGear. This forum along with my own experience has told me they are not very reliable. I know there will be a few that come out and say they have netgear stuff and love it, but when I looked into my router purchase I heard many bad things about netgear and my tech peson at my school purchased a netgear for us and we threw it out after three unreliable months. I had him get the linksys and it was great. Every company has a bad egg in the basket, but I would still highly recommend Linksys.

good luck
 
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