Wired router?

So many people are asking about wireless routers, but I can't find an advice thread on good, decently priced wired routers. A smoothwall box is out of the question, as I will be moving off to college this summer and I need something small and reliable that I can leave here with my parents for the ol' home LAN, something that doesnt need to be power cycled and still will get decent rates. I would like the ability to forward ports etc for now (well, what router doesn't) but stability is the main issue here. I don't want to spend more than fifty-ish dollars, but of course less is more. I have heard good things about the netgears, but have heard that some people have also had problems with them dropping the connection on occasion, and my father works at home sometimes and uses remote connection software that will disconnect him from his work intranet if the connection is even momentarily dropped.

Thanks, and I hope this is not an impossible request - doesn't anyone make a good solid wired router anymore?

Linksys,netgear,d-link All great companies. I have a linksys befsr41 router and a netgear fs105 switch. Never had any problems.

Buy a wireless router and disable the wireless part. It's probably cheaper by now than wired routers, just like wireless routers are cheaper than APs

ilikepie said:

Linksys,netgear,d-link All great companies.

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I have also had good experiences with all of these makers.

ilikepie said:

Linksys,netgear,d-link All great companies. I have a linksys befsr41 router and a netgear fs105 switch. Never had any problems.

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I have the BEFSR41 also. Of course, it's not used anymore since my jump to wireless, but it was a great router none-the-less during its use.

Though, you really should consider going wireless, cause wireless routers can still be used wired only. Like mentioned above, you can disable the wireless. The BEFSR41 on Newegg is $50. I just picked up the WRT54G wireless router for $55, and it came with a $15 rebate. Even if I never see the rebate, an extra $5 for wireless if needed in the future wouldn't be a bad investment.

The antenna's I got for free from a friend who had no use for them

Linksys BEFSR41 is a good choice. I used it before switching over to a Smoothwall box.

Why can't you use a Smoothwall? If I were looking for something that I could just leave setup and needed no interaction for a few months on end I would trust a Smoothwall more than a router. I have had mine up for about a year or so, and it has never needed any input from me. I only check on it once in a while for updates, and when I change around my network. I have been up for over 100 days now without a hitch. And the only reason that is so short is that I did a reboot when I changed around some network configurations which were not really needed.

If it is really still not an option then I would say go with a Linksys wireless router. It is a great option for the future if you ever get a laptop and want mobility. Until then just leave the wireless disabled for security purposes and you will be good to go.

if you game, the befsr41 has had tons of issues with lag spikes. I had to revert mine back to an older firmware version to even make it tolerable.

It made counterstrike, unreal, and several other games completely worthless because of lag spikes. this might have been fixed with newer versions, but it's a model i would stay away from regardless.

i ended up just buying a wrt54g to finally be rid of the thing.