[lug] Seeking recommendations on router for SOHO

[Dhruva B. Reddy]

I have a BEFSR41.  On the whole, it is a nice device.  I like that it
took me about 45 minutes to get it out of the box, connected and
configured.  It has a fairly straightforward web interface for
configuration, so you don't have to have a Windoze box for that.
However, Windoze is required for firmware upgrades.  It offers cool
stuff like port forwarding, filtering, DMZ and DHCP functionality.

I have some issues with it, though.

After I did the last firmware upgrade, I found that I was able to
access the configuration page on the WAN side.  I was able to get
around this by forwarding port 80 to a host residing on the LAN. 

The DHCP server leaves something to be desired.  I cannot reliably get
the hostnames for all the machines on the LAN.  Unless I'm mistaken, it
does not run DNS.  Right now, each host has the other hostnames
hardcoded in /etc/hosts.

The documentation also leaves something to be desired.  This device
offers logging, but it does not offer any details on how to send log
messages to another box.  Also, the configuration interface has changed
since the last firmward upgrade, yet the manual does not reflect this.

It serves most of my purposes, but sometimes I find myself wishing I had
an old laptop so I could turn that into a firewall.

Dhruva

On Wed, Jun 05, 2002 at 11:32:24AM -0600, quoth bof:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm thinking about setting up a small home network and have been looking 
> at routers to use with my Cisco 675 in the bridging mode.
> 
> The two in my price range are the
> 
>    Linksys BEFSR41 
> (http://www.linksys.com/Products/product.asp?grid=23&prid=20)
> 
> and the
> 
>    Netgear RP114 
> (http://www.netgear.com/product_view.asp?xrp=4&yrp=12&zrp=93)
> 
> It looks like the Netgear might be slightly more suitable because it has 
> some logging features that the Linksys does not.
> 
> So I'm seeking opinions/experiences about these. OTOH, for that matter, 
> if anyone has recommendation of a good router other than these 
> (preferably less than $100, but I might go as high as $200), I would 
> like to hear it.
> 
> BOF