A Wireless Router Saga

[Bigaldoc]

Not too sure I like all this wireless technology stuff! Up until my son got involved with a question to me, I have had ZERO experience with wireless.

In MAY of this year (that's a short TWO months ago!) my son's two boys were interested in going "live on-line" with their Xbox 360 and my son was game for a shot, with some decent pricing on the venture. In order to do the deed, he bought a wireless Belkin router, the price and model number is not too important, I don't think. When we first set it up he had some dropped connection problems but things have been fine ever since.

Yesterday he called me for help for they (he and the boys) could not get the Xbox online and the router was giving them problems. Between us we tried all kinds of trial-and-error diagnostics, with and without the Belkin router, leading us both to the conclusion that the Belkin was a dead duck.

All of this background is leading to the purpose of this post of comment. After extensive Googling and reading of reviews on both our parts, he decided on a local purchase (Best Buy) of a NetGear wireless router (NETGEAR - RangeMax Wireless-N 150 Router - WPN824N-100NAS) and I went to his home to help with the installation and setup.

I have to give NetGear credit for the installation went like a breeze and we got the Xbox 360 connected in no time. Now all he has to do is hope the "life" of this one is a bit more prolonged than the Belkin he bought just two short months ago.

Obviously, the thought of claiming a replacement under the Belkin warranty came up, but my son's conclusion was that he might be replacing crap with more crap! Belkin's warranty sez YOU pay for shipping it back and IF Belkin agrees that it's bad they will send you a replacement. Given the bad reviews we read all over the web he decided to toss it and buy the NetGear. I hope for his sake that it was a good decision.

[DaveA]

In general all I have used are NetGear. I do own a Wireless entry point device that I could set up on my old NetGear wired router. I replaced this older router with a new 8 wired port PLUS wireless NetGear router and it set up without any issues. The wireless to even less time than the wired did and this is on a mixture of 3 XP, 2 Vista (now 1 Vista) and and now 3 Windows 7 machines. All are sharing files and the printer are on Windows 7 and one XP machine. By the way we are using 6 of the wired port most of the time. The wireless is there IF we need it, with a strong password

I would recommend NetGear before any other brand.

[BobH]

Hi Big Al!

We've been wireless for several years here, but I don't claim to be an expert. I first had a Linksys wired router for ISP access from all the systems. It worked great but then I got tired of cables. I then bought a Netgear wireless (which I had problems with continually - sorry). I then bought a Linksys/Cisco wireless-g unit. It continued to work beautifully until I got wireless-n adapters for all the computers. I bought another Cisco for the wireless-n and works well but for some reason the signal strength doesn't show as strong as the Linksys/Cisco wireless-g did. The strange thing is that I have signal way out in the yard (garden for the Brits) much further than I did with the old one - the signal strength is just showing a less strong signal.

All this is by way of saying that routers vary somewhat in their actual use. You didn't mention, but I'm guessing that you're using wireless-n. If the Belkin and the xbox were not the same (-g or-n) that might have been a problem. Another suggestion, since you didn't mention it. Most routers that I've dealt with have a physical reset switch. Many of them are available only through a hole in the case only just large enough for a paper clip (straightened) to go into. I've had to do that to every router I've had at some point. I'd suggest that you give that a try and retry the Belkin (if you haven't done so). It might just give your grandkids a spare. We all know what xbox withdrawal is like - even sextagenarians (?) like me.

[Bigaldoc]

Thanks Bob. Yeah, we did try the reset early on and still couldn't get the Belkin working again. The new netgear is an "N" box.

[John Gray]

We've had business-class Netgear {non-wireless but VPN} routers at work for several years, without any problems at all! At home I have a cable version of an old Buffalo router, which has also been fine.