Need a router, probably gonna go for WRT54GL

[Scot34]

Sorry to start a new thread on this, I've purchased an Edimax ES-3105P switch which I intended to use to split my VM connection, I didn't research it first and assumed it would work, so I think now I need to get a router as now I don't think a switch is suitable to be connected directly to the VM box.

I've been looking around and people seem to like the Linksys WRT54GL, can pick it up from Amazon for £44, or from Dabs for £51.

I'm going to keep the switch because I know it's the type of thing I will use and need sometime in the future.

Currently there are two laptops that will need to use the network, in a few months once we move stuff around there will be at least 3 laptops, 1 desktop and 2 consoles, the laptops could all go on wireless if need be (although I prefer to disable wireless) then again this is where the switch could be used. The VM box is downstairs along with one console, the desktop would be upstairs with another console so I think if we have the switch upstairs giving 4 ports for that floor which would leave 3 ports for downstairs plus wireless that will be sufficient to have everything online at once, not that we would literally need everything on at once but merely for the convenience.

If you can think of something better for this situation, please say so, although my mind is pretty much set now on the WRT54GL, I'm not wanting to "jump into it". Also would there be any issues with this, like would there be "too many" devices connected to the router? Finally if you know of somewhere I could get it cheaper (including delivery - if I get it from dabs delivery is essentially free as I need to order some other stuff from them)

Thanks,
Scot

[joglynne]

Hi Scot ...

Not much of a saving at £43.69 delivered but I can recommend Overclockers UK. I ordered my WRT54GL at the end of November and it was delivered the next day.

[Scot34]

Thanks jo,
I will likely get it from overclockers then

EDIT: Doubt it matters but I will probably be buying another external hard drive sometime in the coming months to connect via ethernet for faster data transfer and access from all computers, rather than having to keep using the drive I have now connected by usb I could then leave that stationary with my desktop again.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Although a router may only have 4 wired ports on it's LAN side it's simple and easy to extend the number of ports available on your local network by adding a switch from one of the router LAN ports. The router will happily serve up the additional IP addresses for your components. On this basis I've set up a network for gamers using a WRT54GS, and more recently a WRT610N, that had 15-20 PCs connected and a couple of wireless lappys too.

The only real issue to be considered here is your broadband speed. Once you are running a few PCs, especially if many could have different users at once, you'll be looking at the top end broadband, i.e. 20meg and perhaps 50meg as it becomes available. The WRT54GL will support the 50 meg stuff over the wired network, but wireless would be very close to the limit. You might want to be looking at a "n" standard router to give you some future proofing.

Oh and I don't know if it's still there, but Virgin Used to suggest in their acceptable use policies that three computers on your home connection was enough.

[Scot34]

Our broadband is 20meg, I don't think we will really need much more than that as I am the "heaviest" user (i.e the one who games and usually does the downloads), basically as long as I can play games smoothly while others can browse the web etc. it should be fine. The exception is when having people over for beer/gaming (), though we've done this at my m8s who also has Virgin 20meg and it's been fine.

I tried plugging the VM's ethernet into one of the switch ports, then the other 2 ports went to the laptops and could only get one on at a time, so it's gonna be the thing where you need a router to issue IP's (we tried setting them up manually, no idea how to get it working lol), so if I plug my switch into the router then it should work "plug & play"?

As for future proofing, it's my opinion that we will be fine with 54mbps as most, if not, all devices will be wired, by the time we will need to upgrade it would probably be better buying a new router anyway, that's just the way I look at it (plus they're too expensive for me right now, really it's not enough of a need). Also I doubt any wireless connection would need to use that much as any computer/console used for gaming/downloading would be plugged into the network

Actually havn't heard anything about that with Virgin, although I'm not sure if I've actually read their ToS/AUP lol, I think I've read Be's and that's it. Ohwell, there would probably be 3 devices on at any one time or they'd just be idle so hopefully that wouldn't be a problem

Thanks for your input Although I don't believe we'd need it any time soon, I will look at 50 meg when it's available to weigh out the positives(speed) and negatives(cost)

Thanks,
Scot

Originally Posted by Rob

Although a router may only have 4 wired ports on it's LAN side it's simple and easy to extend the number of ports available on your local network by adding a switch from one of the router LAN ports. The router will happily serve up the additional IP addresses for your components. On this basis I've set up a network for gamers using a WRT54GS, and more recently a WRT610N, that had 15-20 PCs connected and a couple of wireless lappys too.

The only real issue to be considered here is your broadband speed. Once you are running a few PCs, especially if many could have different users at once, you'll be looking at the top end broadband, i.e. 20meg and perhaps 50meg as it becomes available. The WRT54GL will support the 50 meg stuff over the wired network, but wireless would be very close to the limit. You might want to be looking at a "n" standard router to give you some future proofing.

Oh and I don't know if it's still there, but Virgin Used to suggest in their acceptable use policies that three computers on your home connection was enough.

[dragon]

They've gone up since I Last bought one,

Good router the WRT54GL very customisable when it comes to firmware.

Although if you don't mind not being able to run the Tomato firmware you could look at the WRT160N which is avaialble in pcworld for around £60 if you reserve online.

Might be cheaper elsewhere not really looked.

Will run DD-WRT no problem, I have 2 of them one as a router one as a wireless > wired bridge, they seem to work quite well.

Only reason I'm probably going to stop using it as a router is becuase I'm going to be using multiple internet connections and while DD-WRT can be made to do it, the instructions aren't perticullarly clear

[MovedGoalPosts]

As the modem can ony see and speak to one device at a time, there is no way that a switch can be the sole networking device. Effectively the switch is just a junction box, so even with fixed IPs the modem still sees everthing and gets itself tied in knots. That's why you need the router.

I only opted for the WRT610N because I wanted the gigabit networking and possibility to add more storage via the USB, but I've not really used that yet, nor the n speed wireless so at the moment it is a bit of overkill.

20meg can support a few multiple users, you just don't want them to be downloading heavily when you game. You might want to look at QoS options in the router admin to control that.

[Scot34]

Thanks for replies,
I liked the idea of connecting my external hard drive to the WRT610N via USB, but the price isn't worth it imo lol, I'll later purchase a hard drive and connect it directly to the network, using the usb one for my desktop. I don't know much about firmware, but a lot seem to like Tomato so I'd go for that unless I can be bothered reading up about them lol

Scot