Motorola or Linksys?

[geotraveller]

I'm working on connecting my iMac to the Internet and have decided on cable (our choices are few and far between).

I have a intense dislike of extra boxes and cables, want to go with a modem / wireless router combo. I'm told the wireless n's combos are struggling and keep being pulled off the market. So, with that in mind, I narrowed my preferences down to two options, the Motorola Gateway SBG 900 Cable Modem / Wireless G Router or the Linksys WCG 200 (which btw is on sale for $59.99 at Amazon.com).

Here's what I know so far. The reviews are mixed. Lots of complaints about the Linksys dropping. Also the only thing I can see is I belive the Linksys offers four ports vs one on the Motorola. Also security is important and from what I can tell, the Linksys is perceived to be more secure.

Do any of you iMac fans have any experience with either of these combo units?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

[mkrishnan]

I'm not going to help much, but... I'd really recommend going separate.

I took a quick look at that Linksys. That's really ridiculous. It seems to cost about $130-140US, and it ...

1) Doesn't have gigabit ethernet ports for the LAN
2) Is only 802.11g
3) Doesn't even list WPA2 (personal) on the spec sheet (not sure whether that's actually present or not).

That's way too much to pay for a device with that many limitations, just to avoid one wall plug. Plus, routers are notoriously sensitive to electrical spikes, and when you get a combo router like this, that means you're exposing it to both the noise on the power grid and the noise on the cable line. It's much more vulnerable because of this than a conventional router.

I've bought a grand total of two modems ever -- one DSL and one cable when I went from DSL to cable. They weren't expensive, and they're reasonably reliable.

Just my input, but I think for that much money, you should be looking to get an 802.11n router, with gigabit ethernet, and some kind of perks like audio streaming or printer or HD hosting, plus the modem. I think it's just a better option.

EDIT: Just saw your sale price. That's not half bad, but it's still an ancient router technologically... it has less features and sophistication than my AEBS from 2003....