cyberbeing
join:2005-02-18
Sacramento, CA
2 edits | reply to tschmidt
Re: Let's talk routers
said by tschmidt  :My suggestion is to email all the home router vendors, explain the speed you need, ask for recommendations for which if any routers meet your requirements and ask for a sample for internal testing. Last year calling as a regular consumer I didn't have very good luck when calling companies (D-link, Linksys, Cisco, Juniper, Zywall, Watchguard) and asking which routers would support my speed (20Mbps+). They pretty much all said that that all their routers under $1000 were designed for DSL and Cable. I really hope this situation starts getting better soon with all these fast broadband roll-outs. Like tschmidt said if companies are willing to send you a samples for testing that would be the best bet. There are probably a good number of routers that can handle fast speeds but almost none that were designed with that in mind. |
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bbarrera
Premium,MVM
join:2000-10-23
Sacramento, CA
clubs:
 ·SureWest Internet
| I've had no problem with Zywall 2+ and 5 and 35 and 70. Cyberbeing bought my Zywall 5 but it failed to handle BT seeding (upload) traffic above 18Mbps. So I refunded his money and took it back. Then he tried my zw35 but it also locked up with upload traffic above 18Mbps. Note that is BT upload traffic, *no* problem with BT downloading at 20M and *no* problem running higher 20M/30M with "normal" web/email/dns traffic. The Zywalls have more features than RV0041 and that definitely impacts performance. In addition Zyxel has tested extensively after I reported Cyberbeing's problems and they tuned firewall for higher throughput.
One result of improved performance is the new zw2+ which sells for around $175. "Maxusa" posted test results and Zyxel has improved firewall throughput of zw2+ vs zw5 and zw35.
I'm not a typical router buyer so take this with a grain of salt -- I've looked at Linksys RV series after working with Cyberbeing last year but not impressed because I want a solid router with constantly updated firmware that provides lots of features so I can use router in a wide variety of network topologies and configurations. Unfortunately Linksys makes too many compromises although the RV0041 performance is outstanding. I've read comments on Linksys forum that "real" throughput of RV042 is around 10M so unless something has changed be careful of that router. And tests at Toms Hardware put RV082 at 20M throughput. While RVS4000 specs look great the feature set is small and current firmware needs time to mature and no telling how long that will take.
The Toms Hardware chart is an eye opener as they do real performance testing. The newer routers have more extensive test data, checkout total simultaneous throughput that pushes traffic both WAN-LAN and LAN-WAN
»www.tomsnetworking.com/lans_rout···hart=119
Explanation of testing procedure:
»www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/05/2···rs_2006/
Because of new router-specific CPUs in consumer routers I think many will be surprised how much firewall throughput performance your money can buy. I'm not crazy about feature set of devices on Tom's chart but the average Internet user will be happy. |
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