the_Monk, what details would you need to know to make a good recommendation on a wired router? Similar to wireless routers or quite different?
Best regards,
Steven.
For starters how many systems are you planning to connect to the internet through the new router?
Are you interested in QoS and/or other traffic-shaping technology?
The reason I ask those two questions is because that will determine if you have need for a router that handles multiple concurrent connections better than the cheap ones. The traffic-shaping question is in relation to "use" of your network bandwidth. If you like to game but your wife/children keep causing latency spikes for you because of their youtube browsing or facebook gaming (some of those fb games use a disproportionately large amount of bandwidth seriously.....hehe) you can configure the better routers (some cheap ones "claim" they can do QoS etc. but aren't really effective at it) to perform traffic shaping so that certain traffic gets priority over other traffic etc.
Then we have the question of remote access or VPN to/from work?
Off the top of my head (without any answers to those questions) I would start with the following suggestions:
(To those out there who haven't read my other posts to this thread, YES I know I could just suggest something from your local compu-deal-mart but since I'm sure StevenAus has read the entire thread he's aware I'm about to suggest routers one might see in a small/medium business office. I am making those suggestions because while the el cheapo routers will "work"......the ones I'm listing will DO everything better and are still not as complex as real dedicated firewalls to configure.)
D-Link DSR-500 (you don't need the N since you don't care about wireless)
Netgear FVS318
Allied Telesys (formerly Allied Telesyn) AT-AR415S - this one is probably the most complex of the bunch and I just added it because I happen to love AT. I have some AT products from 15yrs ago that have outlived every other brand of router I've ever owned including many computers and they're still going strong.
The Dlink and the AT are in the $300 price range, the Netgear (there are other models I might suggest but this is the lowest I would go with Netgear) is the lowest at around $150 and all are fantastic value for the money. Out of the box each of those routers provides excellent "edge-protection" (via intrusion detection and traffic inspection firewalls), solid QoS / traffic shaping, and VPN connectivity.
The Dlink is probably the best bet if your other LAN devices are Gigabit since it has 4 Gigabit LAN ports.
The Netgear has a lifetime warranty, super easy interface but only 10/100 LAN ports (you can buy a more expensive model to get Gigabit ports) and the VPN connectivity requires (as far as I know) client software from Netgear which one would have to license.
The AT is probably the best at performing QoS etc. but then it is also probably the one that would be most "overkill" in the sense that it does some things other routers only dream of.....hehe
My recommendation out of those three even before you give me more info would have to be the Dlink because it seems to be the most "well-rounded" (while the other 2 excel in certain areas the Dlink is IMO decent across the board).
thanks,
the Monk