Where can I get a wireless router - with company with great customer service?

Leopard

HappySad,

Why are you so keen to buy this particular model of wireless router - the Netgear WNR2000 ?

Despite the favourable reviews quoted, its specification is nowadays distinctly primitive - even obsolete: its LAN ports are only 10/100BASE-T, not Gigabit, and, although it boasts 802.11n, it only operates on 2.4 GHz, not 5 GHz.

Both of these severely restrict its capability.

Nor is it cheap when you consider how soon you will want or need to upgrade to something better and faster.

The Apple Airport Extreme may be more expensive but it is far better value and far more future-proof. (Whether used with Macs or PCs - or even with both simultaneously.)

As isofa commented, Draytek make superb kit, too, but even Draytek wireless routers don't offer the option to use the 5 GHz band and its celebrated 2820 range provides only one Gigabit LAN port.

The basic, wired (non-wireless) DrayTek 2820 modem router, however, is a brilliant device to use in conjunction with an Apple Airport Extreme. It has powerful firewall capabilities and if you elect to use the Draytek's router, instead of the Airport's, it means that you can switch off the Airport and its wireless networking (as much for security as for power-saving) when you only need to use wired networking.

Alternatively, and more simply, you can just use the dedicated, but excellent, DrayTek 120 for an ADSL modem with an Apple Airport Extreme and let the Airport do the routing full-time.

I realise that you have at no stage mentioned a modem: the foregoing is merely to address the whole subject comprehensively. If you need only a wireless router, then consider simply the merits of the Apple Airport Extreme in isolation and in comparison.

If, nonetheless, you are determined to buy a Netgear wireless router, at least get the WNR3500 and not the WNR2000 you are contemplating: the 3500 is dual-band and it has Gigabit LAN ports.

Netgear's support is not bad, provided you have good hearing, a non-crackly 'phone line and are used to the accents that prevail in India.

Note that the WNR2000 for which you have provided a link to Argos, at a current price of £65, was (it says, in the small print) previously on sale there for £43.39. That's something you may wish to ruminate upon.

HappySad

Thanks Leopard for your advice. I have a 6 year old G5 machine with Mac OS 10.39.
I also have an iphone. I like apple devices & as an end user they are easy to use. Would getting an Apple Airport extress be over kill in offer too much speed for my iphone & lodgers pc-laptop? Also would need to upgrade my Mac os to work with the airport.

ie what speed does my iphone operate at in wifi? 2.5 or 5Ghz?

We have I think 10meg broadband with Virgin.

I want to be able to watch bbc iplayer on iphone & my lodger to do the same if he wants.


We have 2x g5 7year old apple macs. Would I need an additional device connected to each g5 box to allow for wireless filesharing & printing using the airport? Only limited ports at back of g5 boxes.. so would a ubs hub work for this? Also my printer - would it need to be wireless enabled?

Your advice please.

Leopard

HappySad wrote: »

Thanks Leopard for your advice. I have a 6 year old G5 machine with Mac OS 10.39.
I also have an iphone. I like apple devices & as an end user they are easy to use. Would getting an Apple Airport extress be over kill in offer too much speed for my iphone & lodgers pc-laptop? Also would need to upgrade my Mac os to work with the airport.

ie what speed does my iphone operate at in wifi? 2.5 or 5Ghz?

We have I think 10meg broadband with Virgin.

I want to be able to watch bbc iplayer on iphone & my lodger to do the same if he wants.


We have 2x g5 7year old apple macs. Would I need an additional device connected to each g5 box to allow for wireless filesharing & printing using the airport? Only limited ports at back of g5 boxes.. so would a ubs hub work for this? Also my printer - would it need to be wireless enabled?

Your advice please.

With respect, it would have been helpful if you had identified your Apple kit rather more specifically than simply mentioning how old it is.

But let's start with that.


1) I'm not personally familiar with G5 Macs: I went straight from various G4 Macs (some of which I still have and use) to Intel Macs, skipping the G5 generation entirely.

I do know, however, that first G5 Power Mac was the June 2003 model and the final G5 Power Mac was the October 2005 model. All of these had Gigabit Ethernet. The earliest ones were also "Airport Extreme Ready" - namely they did not come with a wireless card, it was an optional extra. At that time, this was 802.11b/g.

The only other G5 Macs were the iMac (from August 2004).

So, if, in August 2009, you have "a 6 year old G5 machine" it can only be a G5 Power Mac.

You cannot "have 2x g5 7year old apple macs" (sic). As I've already pointed out, G5 Apple Macs were not released until June 2003.


2) You are equally vague about the type of iPhone you have but all of them (to date) have been 802.11b/g (on 2.4 GHz).


3) You do not divulge the type of "pc-laptop" your lodger possesses, either; far less its wi-fi capability (if it has such at all).


None of the above Mac kit uses 5 GHz wi-fi. They are all 2.4 GHz.

It may (I don't know - you could ask Apple) now be possible to install a 5 GHz 802.11n Airport Extreme card in a 2003 Power Mac but I wouldn't bet on it.

All in all, then, you would probably be wise to settle for 802.11b/g at 2.4 GHz with your existing kit. You offer no hint of a desire to upgrade to anything more modern.

What you should most certainly do is upgrade your system software to at least OS 10.4.11 and preferably to OS 10.5.7.

I'm writing this on a 2002 Apple G4 TiBook (1 GHz) maxxed to its full 1 GB of RAM and running OS 10.5.7 quite sprucely. I also run OS 10.5.7 on a 2000 G4 Cube (1.2 GHz) with 1.5 GB of RAM and a 2003 G4 Power Mac (1 GHz) with 2 GB of RAM which I use as a server. If those can all handle OS 10.5.7, your G5 Macs most certainly can.

If you're only, for the reasons stated above, going to be using 802.11b/g wi-fi at 2.4 GHz, you will get by happily with an old, circular, Apple Airport Extreme which you could source quite cheaply on eBay. You could plug a printer directly into its USB port and thus network it.

If, however, you have any (so far unmentioned) desire to upgrade to newer Macs you should consider, instead, one of the latest, square, Apple Airport Extreme wireless routers which have 802.11b/g/n and three Gigabit Ethernet ports and which can support a USB2 hub, as well.

The fastest way to move data directly between your existing Mac kit (with the exception of the iPhone) is by means of Cat5e cable to the Gigabit Ethernet ports with which each of them is equipped as standard.

You don't make it clear whether you have two Macs or three. If it's only two, you can link them directly with a crossover Ethernet lead. If it's more than two, you can either use the three ports on a current-model Airport Extreme or buy a Gigabit Ethernet switch (for example, a Netgear GS105 or GS605).

I've never encountered anything called an Apple Airport "Extress", as you call it, but for the purposes you have in mind an Airport Express would not achieve what you want - an Airport Extreme would.

You'd have to check with Apple whether the type of G5 Macs you actually have could support 802.11n Airport Extreme cards but they are all capable of running an 802.11b/g Airport Extreme card. You can buy both, second hand, on eBay and they are very reliable: they tend to outlive the Macs they're in (which is why they become available on eBay when their host expires).

Without knowing more about your Macs, and knowing nothing at all about the layout and construction of your dwelling (which affects the degree to which wi-fi can successfully be distributed within it) that's all I can advise with the information you have provided.

HappySad

Thanks for you responce. When I mentioned the apple express what I should said was the extreme. My iPhone is the new 3gs. We have two apples which are G5-2hd. Don't know lodger's computer.