[NBLUG/talk] Recommendations for a wireless router?

Andrew argonaut at gmx.co.uk
Mon Mar 22 18:34:36 PDT 2010


Lincoln Peters wrote on Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:29:58 -0700:

> It would be far easier if I could SSH and/or VNC into their
> computer and control it directly

SSH is always good, of course, but for a GUI remote session, VNC
can't compare to NX ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NX_technology )
NX's performance is *far* better (unless you're "shadowing" an
existing session -- in which case it's about equal to VNC, in my
experience -- but I rarely shadow), plus NX gives you the
possibility of remote printing, file sharing, and remote sound.

The NX server from NoMachine is easy to set up. In fact, if you
run your sshd on the standard port (port 22), the NX server
needs no configuration at all. Just install it and you're good
to go.

On the client side, the GUI wizard makes configuring the NX client
a snap.

NoMachine has a server that is free as in "beer", but not totally
free as in "freedom". If you need 100% GPL, use the server from
the FreeNX project. It's more difficult to set up, though.

> 1. What routers on the market today are worth dealing with?

I love my SMC 7004BR. Rock-freaking-solid. All other routers
I've used needed a good swift kick in the pants (so to speak)
every one-to-three weeks because of some glitch the firmware
developers couldn't be bothered to fix. Unfortunately, the
7004BRs aren't sold new any more.

I'll echo the others here and suggest a WRT54G* with OpenWrt,
DD-WRT or the like. Most home router models with closed firmware
are lucky to get two or three (usually lame) firmware updates
before the manufacturer abandons them. But third-party WRT
firmware is under constant development, and will be supported
for years to come.

Luckily for me, the 7004BR has a good, solid firmware.

> 2. [...] I know that some routers also have built-in DynDNS
> support, which would eliminate the need to run a client on
> their PC.

Be careful of that. The DynDNS client built into some routers
will only send an update if it detects a change in the IP
address. This means that if you happen to keep the same IP for
more than a month, you'll lose your free DynDNS account. Free
DynDNS accounts must be updated at least once a month or they
expire.

My Sonic.net address almost never changes, so I run ipcheck.py
on one of my machines at home. It's in the Debian/*buntu repos.

A.



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