In our last article, you were given an overview about a router and its functions and why it is beneficial to you. In this article we will be discussing different manufacturers and lead you in the right direction to which one may be the best for you. Networking is a touchy subject. There are many manufacturers and most people are biased to one particular company. The ones listed in this article are currently leading in ease of use and proven track records. The manufacturers listed have pricing plans for their devices that vary. So finding one for the price you want may require a little extra research on your part. But typically, you can find these routers ranging from $60 to $150.
Linksys
This company is the sister company to CISCO. CISCO is the leader in just about anything telephony related and owns 90 percent of the computer peripheral market. A CISCO branded router is mainly found in major corporate office buildings such as Microsoft or Novell. But, if you are a newfound home networker then Linksys would be our first choice. Listed below are model numbers to commonly used Linksys Routers based on a wired peripheral (CAT5).
BEFSR41- This is the most basic of Linksys routers. It features a WAN port for modems and a four port switch to link four computers together.
BEFSR81- Nothing really different from this one compared to the BEFSR41. The only difference is this router will sustain eight computers with its eight port switch. This is ideal for a large family, or budding small business.
You can find these routers at www.linksys.com. There are more routers manufactured by Linksys, such as ones that support VPN endpoint and simple switches. But that is for a later article as we advance our knowledge with routers.
Netgear
Netgear has been around since 1996. Since they are a fairly new company, a lot of the home based products barely see the light of day. Although when you go to your favorite electronics retail outlet, you will find Netgear products if you look. They aren't bad as far as quality but as far as longevity, you may want to invest in Linksys. They also don't feature many home based devices.
DG834- This router features an incoming ADSL2+ (+ meaning it will support later versions of ADSL) RJ11 port to plug your ISP directly into. So there is no need to purchase or aquire a DSL modem for this one. It also supports four computers through its four port switch.
You can find out more information about Netgear devices at www.netgear.com and navigating to Routers in the Home Networking section.
All in all Linksys and Netgear are BETTER choices for home networking. There are many companies as stated before, but we will let you explore the internet and find some of them for yourself. Also, even though you may be wiring up your first home network, doesn't mean you have to absolutely have to have a small router such as the ones listed in this article. If you have access to a corporate sized router, than by all means use it. All routers work the same. Some just vary in how they transmit and how the encapsulate the packets.
In our next article, we will be covering the OSI network layer. This is layers at which data travels and shows a begining to end pattern. Until next time.
