I’ve just upgraded from a Netgear 802.11b wireless router (MR814 - the silver version with the detachable antenna) to a Linksys SRX 802.11g/b wireless router (WRT54GX).

Why did I bother? Well, aside from the faster speeds I will get from moving from 802.11b to 802.11g with SRX (I haven’t purchased a matching card yet), here are the other reasons:
1. The range on the Netgear was horrible. I had to stay no more than 1 room away (and, sometimes,I could barely get a signal at the edge of the backyard, close to the house). To make matters worse, I have a 15 inch 1GHz TiBook (Titanium Powerbook) which are notoriously known for their poor reception. The powerbook also has a POP-out antenna built in. However, the POP-out antenna didn’t help a whole lot (though it helped in eeking out an extra couple of feet when it was needed).
2. Everytime our phone cordless phone would ring, the connection on the Netgear would drop…yes, taht’s right…I said *ring* — we didn’t have to turn the phone on and speak on it…as soon as it rang, the connection would drop. If I was working on something important, I would have to beg my wife to answer the phone in the other room (not a cordless) and do it quickly…can you imagine writing a program on a remote server and, half-way through it, losing the connection before you save…thank goodness there are ways to recover those files (i.e. swp files for vi and those temp files for emacs).

How did the SRX Router perform?
1. There isn’t a place I can’t go within my house or yard that has a dead spot…not one! Furthermore, the speed is noticeably faster with this router from the point I usually connect from than my old router…and my powerbook’s card is still using its oem 802.11b airport card (all this range despite the poor reception this thing gets).
2. no more dropped connections even when we get on the cordless phone and sit right next to the laptop!

All this does have a cost, though…the router is expensive relative to other routers. Also, with all this range, I had to make sure everything was as secure as possible (restrict by MAC address, encryption, various monitoring scripts I put together, etc) since someone might decide to try and connect from in front of my house.

Anyway, I have a Netgear router that is free for the taking for the first person who asks for it!

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