Cable Router Suggestions

[nheather]

My mother-in-law has Vigin cable. At the moment she has their only computer connected directly to the modem. However, my father-in-law has decided he wants his own computer and has asked me to work out what they will need and install it for them.

Obviously they will need a router and they want to have wireless aswell.

My only experience is with ADSL. I know I need to get a cable router, and I know they don't want to spend a lot - are there any brands to avoid, or brands that are particularly good.

Cheers,

Nigel

[gss03]

Doesn't Virgin usually supply a Netgear Cable router these days?
Last time I did a Virgin cable install it came with a Netgear wrg614 plus a virgin *idiot's* CD to configure it all.

[nheather]

Thanks that might be worth pursuing.

She's had the cable ever since it was telewest, then it become tiscali, then blueyonder, now Virgin.

Think she's still on the original supplied kit which was just a modem and no-one has offered her any different.

Might be worth getting her to ring Virgin and asking for a router - they can only say no and if they don't then it will save her £40 or so.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Pazza]

Ring them up and say you want to cancel the account because you got a better offer elsewhere with free wireless router etc.. they will soon send you one for free

[nheather]

I would it if were my account but it's my mother-in-laws and she wouldn't want to do anything like that.

I'll give them a ring and try to appeal to their better nature though

Cheers,

Nigel

[aidanjt]

Failing that, dust off an old computer and install pfSense, m0n0wall, Smoothwall, or some such. Although I can see the mother-in-law nagging about a chunky box that needs to be on all the time.

[nheather]

Can't see her going for that.

To be honest she is not bothered about the cost of the router but has left it up to me what to buy.

Just looking for suggestions or are they all much the same.

Cheers,

Nigel

[aidanjt]

All the consumer routers are pretty much the same (crap), the only ones I've seen do well against anything are business grade and pc-as-a-gateway routers, with the latter being the most powerful.

[Pazza]

assuming you have a modem with an ethernet connection, just get a wireless router (non-adsl) and plug him in to the modem. But really - why buy one when you can get one free from Virgin? They will probably also supply a new modem as well to get better connection speed (for free) or they may charge £15 P&P.
If your modem only has a USB connection, it's useless with a router anyhow.

[Pazza]

I'm pretty sure Virgin will send you a Netgear WGR614 54Mbps Cable G54 Mbps Wireless Router (32.57 from pcworld via buy and collect).

[nheather]

Many thanks, will get her to do that - the Netgear at PCWorld was one of the ones I was looking at.

Failing that was looking at

Belkin G and N ones.

Think the N may be over the top as none of their computers or latops will have an N adaptor - but pretty sure they will do G.

Cheers,

Nigel

[abaxas]

Bufflo WHR-G125 + dd-wrt.

Unless you need 'n'. This is the daddy.

[nheather]

Well she rang Virgin Media and this is what they said

"You should have got a free router when the broadband was upgraded earlier this year. But it's too late now, you should have contacted us earlier. If you want one now it will be £40".

Wish I could have handled the call for her.

Bufflo WHR-G125 + dd-wrt.

Had a look and it seems to be discontinued but there are still quite a few smaller stores selling them. What is good about this one?

Cheers,

Nigel

[abaxas]

Had a look and it seems to be discontinued but there are still quite a few smaller stores selling them. What is good about this one?

200mhz processor and works 100% with dd-wrt.

Note : if you dont know what dd-wrt is... avoid.

[gss03]

What about this?
Was looking for something else, but foudn this for £30 - Cisco bought Linksys so all the kit really has come a long way.

[nheather]

200mhz processor and works 100% with dd-wrt.

Note : if you dont know what dd-wrt is... avoid.

I didn't but I looked it up and understand now.

Not sure it would feature highly on my OAP in-laws requirements though.

Want to leave things as vanilla as possible because whenever I fix something and the mother-in-law gets something wrong she blames me for having fiddled with it.

Like the time I helped set the TV up for her and then she couldn't get the DVD working because she was using the VHS remote - she lost her temper and of course it was my fault for having 'fiddled' with her TV.

Not looking forward to setting their network up at Christmas but I've promised my father-in-law that I will.

Cheers,

Nigel