I chose this product as I was impressed with the review of it on RouterTech.org and happy that I would be dealing with a company I could trust. Also I knew that it would be compatible with the new RouterTech custom firmware which meant that I could continue to test firmware changes and to help support the platform in the forums.
I have used several other routers over the last few years. My first one was a Safecom ASR-8400 which worked well once a different vendors firmware was installed. I needed to move to a Wireless router so changed to a Billion 7402VGP as I was keen to try the built in VoIP functionality in that router. Unfortunately the router was unstable despite being on the most recent firmware, the wirless performance was eratic and the VoIP quality poor. Billion were always just about to release a firmware to fix the issues but I got fed up of waiting. At about this time (two years ago) the RouterTech.org site was setup and I got back into contact with the guys who were so involved in the ADSLTech/Safecom support a few years ago. I found out about the GPL firmware that was being developed and so given my annoyance with the Billion router I chose to buy a new Safecom SWAMR-54125. This router worked well for me for a year and a half but appears have had a hardware failure fairly recently which prompted me to move to the Solwise SAR600EW.
I've not bothered looking at any routers beyond the ones above. These AR7 chipset based routers have performed well for me and meet all of my functional needs (especially with custom firmware on). I work from home sometimes and use a VPN client to connect to the office. The SAR600EW allows for easy port forwarding rules to open up connections and gives the stability you need when sharing screens etc with work colleagues.
The only issues I have is with the quality of my ADSL line. I have high attenuation numbers and find that my SNR margins fall in the evenings and occasionally I lose sync. The SAR600EW maintains sync far better than the SWAMR54125 did (partly perhaps to later dsp drivers as part of the RouterTech firmware) and with functionality
on the router that checks for sync and reboots if the connection drops I find that I have few problems.
I would recommend this to others. Admittedly I chose this router to allow me to play with the config and perhaps the average home user doesn't want or need to do this, however the platform is solid and reliable at a good price.
Notes:
• Quality/price: 9.0 – the SAR600EW cost me about £30 which was a good price for a wireless router in my mind • Effectiveness: 9.0 – the router does
exactly what I would expect it to do • Final: 9.0 – the Solwise SAR600EW
is a good router at a good price. The GPL based firmware platform means that there is scope to improve the functionality beyond the manufacturer delivered and if you do turn it into an unrecoverable brick (although this is unlikely) the cost is not so high that you can't replace it quickly and easily. by Sy Borg at RouterTech.org
Cisco 2801
When I begun my career as security manager I decided to use the Cisco products. As years were passing I started employing also the Open Source products.
I chose Cisco 2801 router for being one of the best scalable products on the market. Cisco has produced routers ever since and provides a great line of products from home to core edge products. What I really appreciated at that time was the support and the security concern Cisco offers.
When working for an enterprise you have to use everything the management buys. I used many brands like Juniper, D- link, Extreme, Netgear, to name a few, but finally I manged to convince them to switch. I couldn't have a single vision of the whole network due to the poor integration of the other products.
I used to employ Juniper some time ago, but found their command line language more complicated than Cisco's.
The router I am currently using is one of the best scalable and modular solutions I know, with a great support and a group
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solution to our needs.
The weakest point is the price which is often higher than the cost of other solutions, however, if you are in favour of a quality-price rule it is not so important.
In the last few years I have had no breakdowns whatsoever. Sometimes before the 2000 we had some strange behaviours in our network. The customer service resolved all the problems immediately and in a very professional manner.
Human mistakes like misconfiguration or misunderstanding of the whole features of the router still happen sometimes obviously.
Cisco is a valuable brand and they make modular routers with very useful features like network admission control. You can have security policy compliance, mitigation of viruses, worms plus unauthorized access control.
Notes:
• Quality/price: 8.0
• Effectiveness: 10.0 – when you work as system integrator for an enterprises effectiveness and a very fast support are important. Cisco offers all of the features needed for the successful enterprise networking.
• Final: 10.0 by Antonio Stano
D-LINK DSL-G604T
I needed a wireless ADSL router with high speed connection for the home use.
Speed: 54 Mbits/s.
On the rear panel – Power 7.5 CD 1.5 A; ADSL Port; 4 Ethernet Ports.
On the front panel – 4 LED indicators (WLAN: for Wifi; ADSL; Status; Power). I was searching for a modem/router having these features since I had several machines to connect.
I used a D-LINK modem with only 1 Ethernet Port before. I decided to change since I was moving to a much bigger space. My ISP offered a package with his own modem/router but as a student, I couldn’t afford it (more than $150) at that time. D- LINK DSL-G604T features were identical for less than 100$ so I chose this one.
Strong points:
• I can go downstairs still having a good QoS
• Proxy server feature
• Encryption feature (WEP 64/128 bits) • Dynamic/Static Routing
• Multicast • NAT feature • Ping test
• DHCP configuration
• D-LINK has excellent support (helpdesk) Weak points:
• The web-based Manager has a poor interface
• Few updates for the interface as well as technical manuals
• Password manager that should be easier (I think of the beginners out there) • The reset button on the rear panel isn’t
easy to reach with a pen (very annoying) • If you have a big house you must
change the antenna on the rear panel especially with large walls
• The antenna offered within the package has a poor range for a big house. If you are downstairs for example you might encounter connection problems. I had to change it, D-link could manage to offer something a little better even for this price Another thing is that the router is very dependant on temperature: I have experienced problems during the summertime. The ADSL Led was
sometimes off and I had to reset the device and re-enter my connection settings.
D-LINK DSL-G604T is a good choice for a small office or home use. I have been using it for 3 years now and I must say that it works well fro most of the time.
Notes: • Quality/price : 8.0 • Effectiveness : 6.0 • Final: 7.0 by Tony Deslandes
OpenBSD
I am a network engineer by trade and have 5 years professional experience.
I have a number of soekris OpenBSD boxes at home; in addition to a dd-wrt
linksys AP. I’ve been using BSD (FreeBSD, then OpenBSD) for over 9 years. I change my home routers to test out new things. It’s been OpenBSD for quite a while and I doubt that will change anytime soon. I’ve looked at Mikrotik RouterOS and its associated hardware and will be using it on a clients project in the future.
OpenBSD, as I’m sure you’re aware, is an excellent network device; providing both a world class firewall in PF, and fastly maturing routing daemons such as OpenBGPd, OpenOSPFd, and layer 7 features such as relayd.
There was a bit of a learning curve getting read only mounts right, and squeezing the required stuff into a small CF card (now negated by vastly larger and cheaper flash memory).
Notes: • Quality/price: 10.0 • Effectiveness: 10.0 • Final: 10.0 by Aaron Glenn
Netgear DG834g
I chose this model following extremely positive opinions it got on numerous technical forums. I used a Digicom router before but immediately resigned. Its speed and performance turned out to be really disappointing.
The other routers that I had taken into consideration had exactly the same features but cost much more.
DG834g is easy to configure and has no defects that would hamper the proper functioning of a small network. I have had no problems so far which does not happen too often if it is about networking.
I recommend this router to all users because of a moderate cost and a very good quality. Notes: • Quality/price: 10.0 • Effectiveness: 10.0 • Final: 10.0 by Giuseppe Caristia