Help with a wireless router

reggi

I'm going to buy my brother a wireless router for Christmas. Can someone tell me which one to buy
I'd like to get him something of quality. He's located on 3rd Street below 7th if that matters at all.
I don't know enough about these at this point to buy intelligently.
Thanks for any input.

hatemail

User Reviews on the Best Buy site are generally pretty helpful.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Wireless-Networking/Wireless-Routers/abcat0503002.c?id=abcat0503002

itinnyc

Well first check to see what kind of wifi enabled equipment he has. What it supports a/b/g/n.

N is the latest and most models of wireless routers will be backwards compatible with it.

I'd usually recommend Linksys/Cisco.

Also some other goodies are Gigabit ports, and stateful firewall inspection.

Merry Xmas.

longtimesloper

I have a Belkin and am very happy with it, I believe it was less expensive than Linksys and I have had it a couple of years now and it works great.

tyroneshoelaces

go upscale:

AirPort Extreme Base Station

brooklynjack

I say go with the one that comes with the broadband provider. Time Warner, Verizon or whom ever.

I had a Linksys before and every call to tech support started with "we don't' support that, go unplug the router and plug the modem into your computer." I now have a Verizon all i n1 unit to go with my Verizon DSL and they support it, no problems.

That said if you are just sharing internet connection and not transferring files from one computer on the network to another on the network anything you get will be faster than the internet connection you have

reggi

Thanks for all the suggestions. He's not a techie, so just wants to be
able to use computer without all the delays and cut offs?
I'm still on dial up so I don't know much about these things at all.
Appreciate the help offered here.

brooklynjack

reggi wrote: Thanks for all the suggestions. He's not a techie, so just wants to be able to use computer without all the delays and cut offs?

Then by all means get it from his provider, it is the only way to stop the finger pointing, It's your router, no it's your service provider.

belzjm

the airport extreme base station is amazing. i believe it's 99 dollars, but you can hook your internet into that, your speakers and a printer so that they ALL run wirelessly...all from one small outlet.

then you can take your laptop wherever you want and play your itunes through the speakers wirelessly. it's great.

and i'm definitely NOT a techie and i figured out how to set this up.

idlewild

If your brother has Windows 7, or plans to upgrade to Windows 7, make sure your router is compatible. I have a Lynksys WRT600N, I bought it when I used Vista and it's just not kicking in with 7. And yes, I went to a few blogs as well as the MS and Lynksys website and tried everything they suggested. Apparently it's a big problem.