The Dead Space Society

Well, I have gone through linksys and Netgear and both do the job.

Linksys is now owned by Cisco so technically you're buying a Cisco product...

I like then both honestly and they both have comparable models starting from ~$50 dollars (with rebates at CompUSA).

Linksys and Netgear also supply frequent firmware updates which is a plus. I can't speak for D-Link.

These 3 models are all in the same class (NO VPN):

[b]Linksys BEFSR41[/b]
EtherFast Cable/DSL Router With 4 10/100 Switched Ports
LINKSYS: http://www.linksys.com/products/product.as...cid=29&prid=561
COMPUSA: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_in...755&pfp=compare
~$59.99

[b]NETGEAR RP614NA[/b]
4-Port Cable/DSL Web Safe Router with 10/100 Mbps Switch
NETGEAR: http://www.netgear.com/products/prod_detai...dID=131&view=hm
COMPUSA: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_in...496&pfp=compare
~59.99

[b]D-Link DI604[/b]
Express EtherNetwork DI-604 4-Port Ethernet Broadband Router
D-LINK: http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=62
COMPUSA: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_in...578&pfp=compare
~$49.99

If you want VPN again I'm parcial to mine but all three companies have similar products and prices.

[b]NETGEAR FVS318[/b]
NETGEAR: http://www.netgear.com/products/prod_detai...dID=129&view=sb
COMPUSA: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_in...3353&pfp=BROWSE
~$149.99

I got a Netgear last night. I had to go home early from work because a bunch of other stuff seemed like it was affected by the strike as well, so I didn't have any way to check back here before buying.

That Netgear for ~%50 was on sale at Best Buy with mail in rebates. After rebate, it is suppose to be like $20. It has the DOS and SPI protection that my old one had, which is what I was looking for. The Best Buy web site only shows the $10 rebate, but at the store, there was another $20 rebate listed. Pretty good deal, I think.

I may not need a hub if this router works well. I needed one with my old router because it made all attached devices work at the speed of the Internet connection. So, instead of 100Mpbs networking, it was running at the ~512Kpbs that my broadband was running at...slow for internal networking.

It also looks like my dial-up modem got toasted, and possibly the network cards (one for sure is dead) in both computers.

Outside of computer stuff, my surround sound receiver’s amplifier is gone for my “home theater”, and my oven doesn't work any more. We can still use the stovetop since it is gas, but the temperature control chip apparently got a jolt, so the oven won’t turn on. Not sure what else might have gotten hit. I have to test some other things, and a guy is coming out next week to look at my audio-video equipment to see if anything else got zapped.

Needless to say, the last ~48 hours have not been too much fun.

Thanks JRKy, they are working great. I did need both of them. My onboard LAN for my main computer was locked in some constant traffic cycle so I had to disable it and use the card.

Every thing else seems to be fine. I was able to start a lab last night (Thursday, the strike happened on Wednesday), and finish it and one other tonight.

I know the CD works, because taking out the dial-up modem and putting in the LAN card while disableing the onboard LAN caused Office XP to need re-registering. Funny how Windows didn't think the change was too much, but office did.

I also played some Doom 3 the same night of the strike, and last night. I figure if nothing crapped out while playing the most stressful game in my colleciton, the computer is probably still in good shape.

My second computer is mostly for email, and it seems to be handling that okay.

Yeah, it got my dial-up modem, but I don't use that now that I have broadband.

My ISP put up another antenna yesterday, so I am back online with broadband for now. The only problem is I need an amplified antenna to get a stable connection. They have my account wide open right now, so my up and down speed should be 1,500kbps. The problem is that with the normal antenna there is either too much RFI or some obstacle in the way that makes my upload very bad. I did a speed test last night, and my download is ~1,100kbps, but my upload is only 18kbps. If it is one file, I can sometimes get very fast speeds, but for a web page (with multiple files) my poor upload affects my download because the response from my computer that packets were received gets lost, so the web server ends up repeating a lot of traffic because my computer never responds that anything was received. I also get timeouts on occasion for the same reason. It will be a couple of week before they can get me an amplified antenna.