Need Wireless Router suggestions...

[conorsmom2000]

Hi everyone...I just purchased my first (non-work) laptop, but now I need to get a wireless router. I've tried researching them but I find all the information extremely confusing and it seems each one has varied opinions (which makes sense as everyone's set up is different).

My new laptop is an HP dv5t - the main specs are:
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
• Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P7350 (2.0GHz)
• 15.4" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• 50% OFF 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• FREE Upgrade to Webcam + Fingerprint Reader from Webcam Only
• Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card

Our home computer is our old Dell Dimension 4700 and we have a cable modem (Optonline). We may or may not use the wireless router for the Wii as well.

So, any suggestions?? My house is small and the router will probably be on the first floor, in our back room. I could see occassionally wanting to bring the laptop upstairs or downstairs. I have about a week to purchase something, but I'm not sure where to start - so, any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!!

[DizneyRox]

Personally, I would go with a Linksys WRT54GL. The L is important.

Make sure you setup a WPA2 encrypted network, WPA was just broken recently and is no longer considered secure. Chances are you'll be OK, but I've upgraded my network to WPA2 just to be sure.

Having the router in a central location is best, unless you're running it wired, you can really put it anywhere you can put your modem.

If oyu're adventurous, I'd actually use a third party firmware in that router, Tomato is my favorite so far. It's much more configurable than the standard Linksys firmware.

You can control Internet access through the router, so you can actually connect the Wii and have Internet access enabled for only certain hours during the day, etc. A good password will enforce that access and save you some headache possibly.

I can't say I'd recommend going Wireless-N for everything. Too new, the standard hasn't been officially accepted yet tothe best of my knowledge. Wireless G is plenty for most people, it's faster than your Internet connection, that's for sure.

[Figaro]

I'll tell you this... avoid Belkin. That's my personal opinion. I've for the past like 5-7 years almost had nothing but problems. Others may have not, but that's just my opinion. Linksys is a great router as DisneyRox said.

[BrerGnat]

We have a Linksys WRT54G (no "L" on ours...what does the "L" mean???)

Anyway, it works great. It was very easy to set up, and it's very secure (my sister, a computer nerd, tried to "hack" into our network with her laptop while she was visiting, and she couldn't). It's sort of annoyingly secure ;) We also have so much firewall and anti-hacking software installed on our computer it's not funny, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it too. Whenever you have a wireless ANYTHING in your home, you need to protect your computer, so remember that!

We have it set up with an older Sony Vaio (from 2003) and my DH uses it with his newer Toshiba Satellite laptop. We also use it with our Wii.

I highly recommend Linksys! :thumbsup:

[DizneyRox]

We have a Linksys WRT54G (no "L" on ours...what does the "L" mean???)
L means Linux. It will allow for the use of third party firmware (free) which like I said is often much better than the firmware that Linksys provides.

Depending on the year, that one might run Linux as well, but you'll need to go looking online for that info. Linksys starting dumbing down the routers which many poeple didn't like. They brought the Linux based appliances back at a little higher cost, but still worth every penny.


Anyway, it works great. It was very easy to set up, and it's very secure (my sister, a computer nerd, tried to "hack" into our network with her laptop while she was visiting, and she couldn't).
I wouldn't assume that. If she's just trying to type password and such, that's not a true test. WEP encryption can be broken in a few minutes. There are wireless hacking CDs out there that automate the process so even a 3 year old can do it. WPA was recently broken in about 12-15 minutes. A dictionary attack would take longer than these attacks took.


Whenever you have a wireless ANYTHING in your home, you need to protect your computer, so remember that!

Good advice, but honestly, your computer is not the only thing that needs protection. The wireless router provides a gateway to the Internet. Once connected, I'd rather surf the net than try to break into someone's computer. If I were a perv, I might try to download child pron, or pirated material (movies, songs, etc) over someone's compromised Internet connection. Guess who gets the blame? The owner of the Internet connection, not necessarily the person who actually downloaded. I would argue that it's more important to secure your network than any individual PC on that network. Most of that starts with passwords that are strong. All passwords should be at least 8 characters long, have a combintation of upper and lowercase letters, numbers AND special characters. They should also change fairly often and be different for each website/device/etc.


We have it set up with an older Sony Vaio (from 2003) and my DH uses it with his newer Toshiba Satellite laptop. We also use it with our Wii.
Chances are youre network is only as secure and the least secure device. Many only wireless devices only support WEP encryption, which is not really considered secure. Like I said, it can be broken in minutes, regardless of the passkeys used.

[BrerGnat]

So, DisneyRox, what do you recommend to the "layperson" to secure a home network?

I am only as smart with computers as the person who writes the instructions on how to download and install whatever I need. I am not a "do it yourself-er" where computers are concerned. ;)

To be honest, when you say "firmware", that means nothing to me. I have no idea what you're talking about when you say that...:confused:

And, how do you check what kind of encryption you have? I don't even know how to find that information out!

[conorsmom2000]

Personally, I would go with a Linksys WRT54GL. The L is important.

If oyu're adventurous, I'd actually use a third party firmware in that router, Tomato is my favorite so far. It's much more configurable than the standard Linksys firmware.


Thank you for the recommendation!! Stupid question, but.....though the laptop will have an N card, it will be compatible with a G router? I'm assuming yes, but had to ask. :blush: I'm with Natalie, though....I'm not sure if I understand about the firmware....?


I'll tell you this... avoid Belkin. That's my personal opinion. .

I'll be honest - every message review board I've found has said the same thing, to avoid Belkin! So, I definitely will!

Thanks again!

[DizneyRox]

Setting up a secure network is fairly easy. Every router that I've seen comes with some "wizard" that does this for you. The problem I've found with these is they don't teach you anything, and often glaze over the important stuff.

Basically, there are three important parts of the setup.

SSID - Bascially your network name. When you "search" for networks, this is what is often displayed to you. It can be anything really, BUT I wouldn't pick something that identifies YOU or YOUR network. It just makes guessing your password easier (if they are somehow related)

Encrpytion type - This is THE most important decision you can make. Choices could be WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA Personal, etc. There's one other choice and that's NO encryption, but that's not really a good choice. I would not go with anything other than WPA2 or WPA2 Personal. Often the devices that you intend to connect may determine the best encyption you can use. Many older devices only support WEP, in which case you need to choose, either update/replace that device, or make your whole network insecure to support that device. You can't use two different encrpytion types. If I were to guess, that older (2003) laptop MAY NOT support WPA, almost certainly not WPA2 without updates to the network card. That's a whole different topic though.

Passphrase - This is second only to the encryption type. A strong encryption with a weak passphrase is useless. A weak encrpytion, even with a strong passphrase is almost as useless. Use the longest passphrase you can use, and make sure you mix it up. A passphrase like: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is OK, but infinitely better is: SuPerCAliFr@Gi|is+ic3Xpialid0ci0u$

For the setup, it really isn't something I can walk anyone through, they are all different. You can try the wizard and try to figure it out. Often, you can wire the router to your computer with the attached cable and in your address bat on your browser try: http://192.168.1.1 or sometimes it's http://192.168.1.254. Originally, the username is often admin, and the password is often admin as well. The password on the router should be changed IMMEDIATELY.

Routers often have a fairly easy to navigate interface. The basic router setup is probably under BASIC SETUP and the wireless settings above are probably under WIRELESS SETUP or maybe ADVANCED.

You will be well advised to write the above information, SSID and passphrase, and the admin password on some paper that's stored in a secure location. You will at the very least need to type that passphrase in to each machine that needs to connect.

Some other things I have advised in the past are still good practice, but honestly, they don't provide any additional security. You can turn off broadcast SSID, but then you will need to type in your network name in any devices that you want to connect. And there's also MAC Filtering. Every machine that has a network card in it has a MAC Address. It's a set of hex numbers: 00:01:FF:54:A1:1C or something to that effect. You can, in your router limit only certain MAC Addresses to connect to your network, BUT, most devices allow you to change the MAC Address of a device to something else, so you could in theory just change it to something that IS allowed to connect to your network.

You best security is in the encryption type selected and the passphrase.

Here are some other words to look for: Infrastructure and Channel 6. Those may be asked at some point, and I just leave them at that.

Wireless N router will will most certainly support Wireless G devices, but a Wireless G router won't understand Wireless N cards attempting to connect using Wireless N. I'm not sure if a Wireless N router can accept both Wireless N devices and Wireless G devices. Like I said, the Wireless N protocol hasn't been officially accepted yet so it's all guesswork as to what Wireless N will ultimately look like.

Firmware is the onboard "software" for many devices. You can think of it as the operating system inside things like a Router, or a cell phone, etc. When the "hacker" community found out that Linksys uses Linux inside the routers, their eye lit up, because that means they could possibly enhance it, make it better, etc. And that's what they did. There are a number of firmwares out there for many different Linksys routers, some are better than others. You don't NEED to run them by any means, some of the functionality that the Tomato Firmware has given me, I can't live without. Most people will not need that functionality, and actually, allowing people that functionality that don't know what they are doing can open your network up to bad guys.

[brownie]

I've been very happy about our Linksys set up.

As far as encryption goes, my understanding is that it's the TKIP algorithm for WPA that's been broken. If you use the AES algorithm, that one has not been broken.