Mantech Blog: Project 4

Most of the people today have broadband connection in their homes, and one of the common things you need in order to share that connection to your computers at home is a router (or at least to simplify sharing your connection). I chose the WRT54G for Linksys and the WGR614 for Netgear because they have pretty much the same functions and features, and I am running the two at home so I could also put some of my experiences with these products in this paper. Both have a 4 port switch, 802.11b/g capability, and a WAN port. Before, I thought that every router that have the same features will be the same, but I soon learned that each router has its own ups and downs, lets talk about these routers’ ups and downs. It’s not just about the label & the features written on the box.

First, lets compare the prices of the two. The Linksys router costs P2860, while the Netgear Router costs P2290. The Netgear Router is P570 pesos cheaper than the Linksys router, does that mean that the Netgear Router is a better choice?

Second, the “User Friendliness” of the routers. Are they easy to set up? Or do you have to have advanced knowledge in networking for you to make it work? The Linksys Router comes with a CD which when inserted in your computer runs a Setup Wizard. This Wizard allows the users to setup their routers easily, they could fill up settings required by their ISP, clone the MAC address of that PC, change the name of the router, change the SSID or the name of your access point that will be broadcasted for wifi clients, etc. This wizard will surely make your router run properly in no time. The Netgear router on the other hand doesn’t come with a CD, but it runs a Setup Wizard when you access its control panel for the first time. Also, Netgear’s Setup Wizard shows pictures where you should plug in the wire from the modem, and the wires from the computers.

Now lets talk about the Routers’ Security. Linksys routers have a built in firewall to prevent attacks to be done to the router and its clients, MAC filtering to limit the connection to your network to known computers, Website blocking to allow or disallow access to certain sites, Keyword blocking to allow or disallow sites containing certain words. One good thing about the Linksys router’s security feature is that you can set the computers which you want to limit access to, but the website blocking and keyword blocking doesn’t work well. The Netgear router on the other hand also has MAC filtering, Website blocking and Keyword blocking, but the Website and keyword blocking unlike Linksys will apply to all computers which connect to your network, this can be a downside when you want to limit selected computers only. Netgear also has a security feature called Blocked Services, you can block selected ports no data will be sent or received using that port. Netgear also has an Email feature, you just have to set your POP/SMTP mail settings, and then it will send the log of incoming and outgoing requests, sites visited, and if there are violations made such as visiting blocked sites or sites with blocked words through email which is a great feature when you want to keep track of your network activity.

Now how about the routers’ wireless capabilities? First of all, both routers support 802.11 B and G, both have security features such as WEP, WPA, and WPA2, encryption like these are useful because you don’t want people to be “hopping” on to your network and accessing your files. Linksys has a feature wherein you can choose not to broadcast your SSID, this is useful when you want to hide your WLAN, Netgear doesn’t. Also, one of the most important factor when choosing wifi routers is the range.

Indoor Range Test (measured in feet)

The numbers above represent the effective range of 802.11 of the routers, and this statistic is true. If you look at the routers, you would think that the Linksys router would have a greater range because it has 2 big fat antennas, and the Netgear router just has a single antenna which is shorter than a pen. I have a Linksys router on the 3^rd floor and a Netgear router on the 1^st. The Linksys router wifi signal hardly reaches the rooms on the 2^nd floor, and the Netgear router’s signal can reach the rooms in the 3^rd floor, I can even use the wifi outside the house.

Lastly, what tweaks/upgrades can be done to the routers? We have seen before in past discussions that the “upgradability” of a hardware can help sell it. In the Netgear router, there can hardly be any tweaks done aside from the firmware upgrade wherein the router downloads it automatically from Netgear’s website, but with the Linksys router, there are tons of tweaks that can be done. First of all, Linksys sells high gain antennas which they claimed to improve signal strength but the antenna itself costs as much as a Netgear router. Some people also treat Linksys routers as real computers, they overclock it, and because Linksys routers run of Linux, they sometimes change the firmware of these routers using 3^rd party firmware, and these firmware most of the time work better than the original firmware from Linksys.

So, which router is better? Well, it depends on who’s going to use it and what they’re going to use it for.