On Fri, 2006-14-04 at 08:46 -0500, Jimmy Montague wrote: > I can't speak for others, but Linksys rules Windows home networking as > far as I'm concerned. I buy it. I plug it in. It works. The worst > network hardware in my Windows experience is D-link. I bought it. I > plugged it in. It didn't work. I exchanged it. I plugged it in. It > didn't work. I plugged it in 10 bazillion times and it didn't work 10 > bazillion times. Their tech support can't make it work. I'm bald today. > D-link is crap. Don't buy it. > > Jimmy > Hogwash! I deal with all kinds of equipment every day. There are some brands which are very poorly build and designed and I will not mention their names, but D-Link is not one of them. Some older D-Link products were less robust, than others, but I have yet to have one that could not do what it was supposed to. LinkSys is also a good consumer grade manufacturer but they have quirks just like all other consumer grade products. One thing for example, is that some products are designed not to allow H232 VOIP connectivity, you need to buy a more expensive model with that feature. Unfortunately during trouble shooting I discovered with the help of a VOIP manufacturer that the problem was caused intentionally by a firmware update that LinkSys would not remedy. For home use, most consumer grade products work as expected, but the only "bargain" products I have found that work as expected are the Network Everywhere brand, the only problem with them, is the support is poor, but what do you expect for bargain basement prices. > > Bruno Wolff III wrote: > > On Fri, Apr 14, 2006 at 09:00:55 -0400, > > Debbie Deutsch <fedoralist@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > >> These days, routers come with the "firewall" capabilities built in. If > >> you stick with any of the major brands you probably will be fine. (I > >> have no horror tales about obscure manufacturers, but I *know* you will > >> almost certainly be okay if you get a model from, say, Linksys or NetGear.) > >> > > > > Buying major brand firewalls is go guarenty of not having problems. Some > > bonehead decisions have been made in the past in order to reduce support > > costs for consumer level firewall devices. > > > > For someone that doesn't know what they are doing, a consumer level hardware > > firewall device is a cost effective way to gain some protection. > > > > These hardware firewalls are really just software firewalls with the software > > loaded from firmware. Their advantages are low cost for a dedicated firewall > > and quietness. > > > >
