[NBLUG/talk] Recommendations for a wireless router?

Andrew argonaut at gmx.co.uk
Tue Mar 23 03:18:40 PDT 2010


Lincoln Peters wrote on Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:01:28 -0700:

> 1. Most people recommend either a Linksys WRT54G or an SMC
> 7004BR (more votes for the WRT).

Actually, there's only one "vote" for the 7004BR (me), and it's
not really much of a vote. You won't find that router on store
shelves any more. Ebay is probably the only place you could find
one. Besides, it sounds like you need wireless, and the 7004BR
is wired-only. (Suits me fine. I avoid WiFi whenever I can.)
Spend your time and money looking for the "right" model of
WRT54G* instead.

> 2. Some higher-end Linksys routers also have built-in support
> for VPN 

A VPN may be overkill for what you want to do. You just want CLI
or GUI access to your parents' computer so you can help them,
right? This can be done over SSH or NX (which runs over a SSH
link). Any router that supports port forwarding can handle SSH.
No need to look specifically for a router with VPN capabilities,
or to pay extra for VPN, or to bother with setting it up. Just
forward port 22 (or whatever port you're running SSH on) through
the router and be done with it.

> 3. NX is faster than VNC, except when sharing the screen with
> a local user

YMMV. Really, I've only used shadowing on one machine: a dual
1 GHz P-III. The performance there is not stellar (but still
usable). But when I make a normal (non-shadowed) NX connection to
the same machine, the performance is phenomenal. It's almost
like I'm sitting directly at that machine.

If your parents' computer is better than my dual 1GHz P-III,
you'll likely have a better experience.

By the way, you can take NX for a spin right now at
http://www.nomachine.com/testdrive.php
They have several methods of initiating a session. If you choose
the "NX Web Companion" method, you don't even need to install
the NX Client. The Java applet will do that for you.

(Keep in mind the test servers are in Europe, and who knows how
many other people are on them at the same time.)

> One thing that bugs me, however, is that my first few searches
> for WRT routers all turn up routers that support 802.11b and
> 802.11g, but none of them appear to support 802.11n.  Is there
> a reason for that?

The name says it all. The "54G" in WRT54G* refers to 802.11g
WiFi, which runs at a maximum of 54 Mbit/s. WRT54G* routers
cannot do 802.11n. Linksys does have 11n-capable routers, but
they are not in the WRT54G* line and I don't know if they can
run third-party firmware.

A.




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