Posted on 10/22/2014 5:30:43 PM PDT by PROCON
I'm moving from Oregon to Washington and my new cable provider (Charter TV) asks if I want to lease a wireless router to interact with their internet modem for $6.00/month.
I know nothing about wireless routers.
Should I go with the company or buy a router?
What kind? I only have one computer.
If you buy your own, you won’t have to pay the $6/mo. rental fee.
I bought a Cisco Linksys E1000 wireless router several years ago as
I have two smart phones, two laptops, two tablets, a wireless printer, and two Kindles. If I had a single desktop PC, and nothing else, I wouldn’t mess with a router
The Linksys WRT54G is ubiquitous, and I recently added an ASUS RT-N66U (not the latest and greatest, so a little cheaper) works very well and has some extra bells and whistles (can act as a file server).
Linksys WRT54GL is an older model build like a tank, runs like a tank. Most of what’s in bestbuy is consumer junk.
I bought a Cisco Linksys E1000 wireless router several years ago as
I have two smart phones, two laptops, two tablets, a wireless printer, and two Kindles. If I had a single desktop PC, and nothing else, I wouldn’t mess with a router.
Let me add my two Smart TVs also.
Works very well with smartphones, tablets, and all computers that can see the 5GHz band. Anything that can't uses the 2.4.
Thanks for the nibble
Wow, great link froggy boy, thanks!
Always buy your equipment. Motorola Surfboard, and a good 1900 router.
You’ll have to call the cable company but they’ll send a signal to your modem.
Never take the cable company stuff, especially the router.
“What is this beeber thing i keep seeing posted?”
Al baby! That was a great day that day.
Buy your own and save money. That’s what I did with Comcast.
Be aware that they will lease you a combination Cable Modem/Wireless Access Point/Router, but I was unable to find the device for sale anywhere. So you have to separately buy a cable modem AND a router/WAP. I use an Arris cable modem I bought at Best Buy together with an Asus 802.11ac WAP/Router. I liked the additional configuration options in the Asus unit.
Since you aren’t tech-savvy, consider getting an Apple AirPort Extreme for $100. it I s very easy to set up. Together, you’ll pay about $200 and you’ll break even at about 3 years. The equipment should last 5 years, so you’ll save $125 or so compared to leasing.
Be aware that, if you buy the eqpt and it breaks, you won’t have any internet while it is being repaired. Or you just go buy a replacement unit for another hundred bucks. Your ISP should send you a replacement box right away if you rent from them.
If all that sounds like too much hassle, just rent the box and pay the $6/mo forever.
Cradlepoint works just fine with Linux. Mine cost 35 bucks and has worked great for 3 years. Linux, windoz7, kindle, and androids.
I pay the price in your first sentence to avoid what’s in all the other sentences.
Doh!
I wouldn't recommend doing that for anything other than troubleshooting network connectivity.
A router will "hide" your computers from the Internet via what's called "network address translation". Basically the Internet bad guys see a different address than what's really on your computer causing them to be unable to directly attack your computer.
Not advisable as the router also acts as a firewall.
The difference between routers is dismal, pick one which is priced as much as you willing to spend.
And I would certainly pay attention to the advises here when FReepers recommends to skip router if you don’t really need it.
Wireless networks are dramatically less secure.
While it is true that the WRT54GL was _the_ goto firewall router for the 2000s, it is too slow to handle today’s high speed broadband connections (Comcast now routinely bursts at 50mbit/s even on a Starter 12 mbit/s plan.) Also doesn’t offer 802.11n or 802.11ac WiFi, which is needed for 1080p.
I upgraded to the TP-LINK WDR4300 because it has all the needed specs for a good price: 128MB mem, a fast ARM SoC, USB for JFFS storage, dual-band antennas, and best of all flashable to OpenWRT.
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