I am looking to buy a somewhat cheap reliable router. My price range is as cheap as possible to $50, but I also want a router with the biggest bang for my buck. I don't know a lot about wireless routers, so I don't really know what are the advantages of router A vs router B. Which router would you buy under $50 that will get you the best bang for your buck?


Here are 2 routers that looked like a good deal:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124405 ($25)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=33-166-039&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&a mp;VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo ($35 after promo)


The second link is only $34 because newegg has a promo code to get it $10 cheaper. (promo code = EMCJJKJ54)

 

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imo, get a firewall plus a wireless access point

good starting point for a firewall http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181021

 

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Wouldn't bother. I just don't see any justification for the cost, especially when the combination of the firewall in routers and the windows firewall does an acceptable job unless you are an absolute security nut.

Either that, or I've been extremely lucky in going without a "real" firewall for the last 15 years. Show of hands, who had an issue that spending an extra $100 on a hardware firewall would have fixed?

Anyone?

I do not like recertified stuff.

 

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I can't afford a $100+ firewall plus a wireless router, which is why my budget is $50. If I had more money I would buy the $80+ routers that are in the wireless router thread that was posted in less than a week ago. Additionally, the wireless router is only going to be used for my ipod touch and my laptop. My desktop which I use 80%+ of the time will not be using wireless, I will hook it up to my router through a cable.


Ya, I thought about getting the Rosewill because I am not sure how much faith I have in re-certified products. On top of that I have used a Linksys WRT54G in the past and I hated how I had to reset the router all the time because I would lose connection. Although, I have zero experience using a Rosewill router.

 

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The WRT54G is an awesome router, provided it is one of the versions you can flash to Tomato. I've used mine HEAVILY for two years, and its rock solid.

i had a red hat linux box running ipchains as my "firewall" for about a month back in the early 2000s before it was compromised and became a nice smtp relay for someone. since then i only use real hardware firewalls at home. i'd be too scared to expose any machine with any kind of value to the internet.

 

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A NAT router with some basic firewalling is fine. You can get a Netgear, Linksys or whatever for less than $80.

 

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Expose directly? Maybe, but we're not really talking about directly. At any rate, I'd guess a most of the hardware firewalls are just embedded linux systems anyway. I still can't think of a scenario where I'd suggest someone purchase a standalone firewall for home use.