gigabit cable/dsl router ?

[tfboy]

It seems all a bit strange to me.

- Nearly all new desktop and laptop PCs offer gigabit ethernet
- The majority of people now have adsl / cable routers so multiple PCs can share the available internet connection
- The cost of a gigabit ethernet chipset in a switch is not that expensive

So why can you not get a 4 port or 8 port router with Gigabit ethernet instead of just 10/100 ? Seems there's a gaping hole in the market for one.

Obviously you can connect a gigabit switch to a 10/100 enabled router, and it will work fine, but it's a messier two-box setup.

Am I missing a point or are all the manufactuers missing the point?

[GFiSH]

Netgear do a cable modem/router with 4 port gig switch now. I've not seen any others, but I haven't really been looking!!

[arthurleung]

You must have also noticed that most motherboards give you Dual Gigabit, that way you can connect to router using one port and another computer with another port.

To the manufacturer, saving a pound for a 10/100 chipset is a pound more profit and a pound less cost when doing RMA.

[killie99]

Belkin do one, F5D7235UK4

[tfboy]

Ahh hadn't spotted the netgear and belkin ones

Arthur, yes, I know what you mean. But that means twice as many cables and two sets of IP addresses per PC, etc. Just seems a lot more involved than it needs to be.

I agree it may cost an extra £1 or so, but would thought that the extra selling / marketing possibilities would more than offset that

[Nimrod]

The other thing to bare in mind is that there are no/limited 1gb WAN services, the vendors don't see the point in providing 1gb routers as the router will very very rarely be required to route @ 100mb let alone 1gb !

[tfboy]

The other thing to bare in mind is that there are no/limited 1gb WAN services, the vendors don't see the point in providing 1gb routers as the router will very very rarely be required to route @ 100mb let alone 1gb !

Of course. I was talking about gigabit speeds purely for intranet traffic.

Just seems a bit of a shame not many people combine the two-box setup into one. I guess I'm ahead of my time

[Madwand]

The D-Link "gamer" series of routers also do this, and they're pretty popular, and part of the reason for this is the inclusion of a gigabit switch. DGL-4300 is the wireless router with 4-port GbE switch. DGL-4100 is the wired-only version of the same thing. D-Link also markets a similar device as an "Office Router" (with dull packaging and a print server thrown in addition).

These devices are not uncommon; enthusiasts have been using them for a year or more already.

One of the Netgear draft-n routers also has a GbE switch. In such applications, it's actually silly to not include a GbE switch. Part of the marketing for draft-n is that it's faster than wired. This obviously means faster than fast ethernet (heh), but not of course faster than gigabit. So why deliberately cripple the "faster than fast" by making the wired part 100 Mb/s? Netgear's "gigabit edition" got this right IMO, and others didn't, including D-Link and Linksys.

In all the cases, the routers with GbE support are "premium" home/SOHO routers.

I guess reasons for these not being more common might be that: (1) Mfg's can make better money selling GbE switches separately (2) Not as many households take advantage of high-speed local file transfers. (3) It costs a bit more, and cost-competition is intense in this market.

I agree that more households should take advantage of GbE, but don't really agree that the manufactures are letting them down. GbE at home is easy and a bargain.

[bledd]

there used to be tons of gigabit routers, but they seemed to have gone up in price and become scarce.. i just use a 100 router, and a gigabit switch now instead

[Snaga]

there used to be tons of gigabit routers, but they seemed to have gone up in price and become scarce.. i just use a 100 router, and a gigabit switch now instead

Thats exactly what ive done. I have a asus router and an netgear 8 port gigabit switch to network the rest of the house.

[D'Ohnut]

I think manufacturers do this on purpose really to make sure they don't guve you too much at once, since to me it makes sense to offer gigabit as the cost was coming down even if nobody used it, the price difference must be peanuts. I think they want to get as much money from one technology, develop extra functions, then release that, and so on. It takes a few years for certain technologies to become commonplace, and most manufacturers seem to release similar specs at the same time. Anyone say conspiracy?

D