Wireless Router

I was a Linksys user for a long time but I've had failures at home and at work with their consumer wireless products.

I went and bought a Netgear N600 Dual Band Router from Frys a few months ago. It stands up vertically and seems to stay relatively cool. It was easy to setup, but make sure you get the one in the newer box which has updated firmware: the salesman actually pointed this out to me. Otherwise, you have to upgrade the firmware which can be a pain.

$80 Price and all you'll need for the next couple of years.
Netgear N600 (WNDR3400) at Frys
Netgear Link for N600

Just Curious but why did you buy a Wired VPN Router? That must've been a $100+ and is more suited to small office wired setup.

I've found all (consumer) routers to have a short shelf life due to either failure, or eventually incompatibility.

I'd go with cheap, I think you can find a name brand one for about $60 at Fry's, and just plan on replacing it whenever it eventually fails.

I use a really good router and then cheap hubs; hubs occasionally fail but the routers do very well.

My Linksys 802.11G has hung in there for many years. But maybe that's because it's older and the chips supplied were a little more robust.

So let me thread hijack and tell you a little tangential story.

We have all electric heat in my house. Because of the 220 volts there is a controller relay that splits out the electricity to two areas. The controller connects to a low voltage thermostat. Over the past three or four years when we'd do the first thermostat adjust (September/October). A relay would stick and I'd take out a rubber mallet, whack the controller everything would work fine until the next fall.

In December 2009, the controller got more stubborn (kinda like internet trolls) and the rubber mallet solution didn't work. In January 2010 I swapped out the controller (I'm not an electrician by trade or otherwise) and it worked reasonably well (though in the past fall the relay was loud). After returning from my futile attempt to meet Edward and his mistress Becky, the controller was only activating one half of the system.

I do another visit to the electrical supply place and get a new one. I did notice the boxes the counter guy brought out were both open but I didn't care (hey it's a relay, were not talkin' high tech). Five days later and one half of the system has a sluggish relay i.e. no heat. I'm annoyed but ok another trip to the wholesaler. This after a call to tech support at the manufacturer (there's 15 minutes I won't get back). They say to do any and all warranty it must be done through the local supplier (great product support {not}). Back to the wholesaler. I explain and ask for a fresh device perhaps in a sealed box.

They give me one and away I go. To the end of the driveway. I examine the end of the box and there is scotch tape closing it.

Back to the counter. I walk in and there's the counter person restripping the wires off the controller I returned ready to resell it as fresh stock. Dick. I'm guessing they never return stuff for warranty. No wonder I had a bad unit. So I get a new unit. The Tape is unbroken. And violá, heat and controllers working properly. I'd like to get these guys legally. It really is twisted to resell defective parts.

SR Only: a victim of bait and switch

My Linksys 802.11G has hung in there for many years. But maybe that's because it's older and the chips supplied were a little more robust.

So let me thread hijack and tell you a little tangential story.

We have all electric heat in my house. Because of the 220 volts there is a controller relay that splits out the electricity to two areas. The controller connects to a low voltage thermostat. Over the past three or four years when we'd do the first thermostat adjust (September/October). A relay would stick and I'd take out a rubber mallet, whack the controller everything would work fine until the next fall.

In December 2009, the controller got more stubborn (kinda like internet trolls) and the rubber mallet solution didn't work. In January 2010 I swapped out the controller (I'm not an electrician by trade or otherwise) and it worked reasonably well (though in the past fall the relay was loud). After returning from my futile attempt to meet Edward and his mistress Becky, the controller was only activating one half of the system.

I do another visit to the electrical supply place and get a new one. I did notice the boxes the counter guy brought out were both open but I didn't care (hey it's a relay, were not talkin' high tech). Five days later and one half of the system has a sluggish relay i.e. no heat. I'm annoyed but ok another trip to the wholesaler. This after a call to tech support at the manufacturer (there's 15 minutes I won't get back). They say to do any and all warranty it must be done through the local supplier (great product support {not}). Back to the wholesaler. I explain and ask for a fresh device perhaps in a sealed box.

They give me one and away I go. To the end of the driveway. I examine the end of the box and there is scotch tape closing it.

Back to the counter. I walk in and there's the counter person restripping the wires off the controller I returned ready to resell it as fresh stock. Dick. I'm guessing they never return stuff for warranty. No wonder I had a bad unit. So I get a new unit. The Tape is unbroken. And violá, heat and controllers working properly. I'd like to get these guys legally. It really is twisted to resell defective parts. Originally Posted by SR Only

One of the reasons I Best Buy & the other big boxes...

Liberal return policies & they don't play games with defective stuff like some "little guys" do.

Not B&S but defraud and cheat. The controller is very esoteric. Home Depot and Lowes don't have it. Only an electrical supply house/wholesaler has it. No options except for another supply house (obviously). White-Rodgers is the manufacturer with Chatham Brass as a listed as the company that actually built it. 24A06G-1 http://www.heatersplus.com/24a06g-1.htm

http://www.emersonclimate.com/Docume..._06_pg0286.pdf

http://www.emersonclimate.com/Docume.../0037-4165.pdf

Linksys was purchased by Cisco. I have seen a lot of reports of the newer Cisco routers failing. The ones with the issue were the sleek looking flat ones. They did not vent properly because they sat flat and the vents were being blocked or something. Netgear is pretty good. They have a lifetime warranty on most of their switches and I assume the routers too. Make sure and register it online and save your paperwork. Good Luck. Originally Posted by coast_encounter

That sounds exactly like the one I had. Their customer service department wanted to charge me a fee to "upgrade" my unit. I said no thank you.

I'm not vouching for all that this article contains. In fact, I didn't even read it. But it seem that it is on topic and might be useful for you.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347539,00.asp

That sounds exactly like the one I had. Their customer service department wanted to charge me a fee to "upgrade" my unit. I said no thank you. Originally Posted by anova444

Most of the Routers have the ability to have their Firmware updated via the Routers Web Browser Front End. They are relatively easy to do these days because the interface is pretty intuitive. Normally, the version of the firmware is displayed inside the Web Interface somewhere (Varies depending on the Make/Model) You can usually go to the manufacturers website and search for the model that you have and firmware updates are normally able to be download directly from there. Just save it to your c:\ drive somewhere where it is easy to find and there is usually a firmware update section on the routers web interface where you can browse to a file share location on the PC where you downloaded the firmware update. Some of the utilities will prompt you to backup your configuration but most modern routers usually retain the current settings.