US Robotics 9106 vs. Linksys WAG45G

Hi all

I'm currently in the proces of puchasing an "All-in-one" ADSL + wireless home network solution, and would welcome any help that the good people of this forum could give me.

Right now, I'm undecided between 2 units, A US Robotics 9106 (USR9106) and a Linksys WAG45G. Both offer functionalities of ADSL modem, Router, Switch (wireless AP) & Firewall. And seems to me very similar in functionality.

From what I can gather the advantages of the USR9106 over the Linksys is that it offers WPA encription security, ease of setup, and not plagued with the occasional unstability of the Linksys (this is from various horror stories I've come across on the web Or it could simply mean that not enough people are buying the USR9106 :wink: ).

Whereas the Linksys seem to have better after sale support than the USR9106 here in NZ (US Robotics doesn't even have a support department here period), an all round better wireless security other than the WPA encription offered by the USR9106 (I think that USR9106 only has IP filtering, without the MAC address filtering the Linksys has).

A few major issues that's making choosing those units difficult are ease of setup/configuration & strengh of signal. As I haven't yet had any prior experience wireless technology, I have no idea what to expect for the 3 computers that will be wirelessly linked in our household.

So if anyone has any input (both positive & negative are most welcome) about either the US Robotics 9106 or the Linksys WAG45G I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that could be given.

Of course, if anyone else has any suggestions for another "All-in-one" product with the same functionalities as those 2 between $300~$400, I would love to hear about them.

Thank you in advance for you help

I beleive that the WAG54G is not the all in one, i think it's just the access-point. try the WRT54G or GS, i know for a fact that these two have routers built in. though I beleive you still might have to have an external ADSL modem. I dont know tho, cuz i dont use ADSL

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Hey Skink. Thanks for your prompt reply.

The linksys website at http://www.linksys.com/international/produ...oid=21&ipid=371 seem to suggest that the product is With ADSL Modem, Router, Switch & Firewall.

My main concern is with the unit's stability, it seems that people especially in the UK has had problems with it, either getting good ADSL modem usage, or a good wireless connection (people there have commented that their connection constantly gets dropped for no good reason).

As for the USR9106, I simply can't seem to find any info on the unit on the web other than a few very vague reviews about it.

In terms of having separate components to get what I want (as you've suggested Skink, use Router, connect to separate ADSL Modem), I just don't have the space in my room to do that :?

And a single unit would seem that much more convenient. Again any thoughts on either of the units or recommendation of others would be most welcome.

Thanks all

I don't know anything about it, but Dynalink have the RTA770W ADSL / Router / Firewall / Wireless which seems to be available for less than $200 (+ GST) (trade). It does appear to have only one external antenna though - so may be some indication... :?

Hey wuppo, thanks for the reply.

I've looked into the RTA770W, it definitely is a cheaper alternative to the 2 models that I've listed. PB technolgoy is currently selling it for around $280 incl GST
http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=MODDYN0770W
Unfortunately, the unit has only been out for a while, and so no user feedback just yet. And also, I think it needs a hub to run it
Which is definitely a downer, and only a 1 year warranty, though they do offer FREE lifetime tech help (first I've ever heard of anything like this), definitely a big +.

As an aside, I got news from the store that I'll be purchasing the unit from (Ascent.co.nz) that the warranty for both items are quite good, and that if the items don't perform to their specifications due to defects or such, they would simply be replaced within the warranty period. While Ascent itself too offers a 7 day money back guarantee.

After a bit of consideration, I am currently leaning a bit toward the Linksys unit, for 3 reasons:
* they have MAC address filtering (the Dynalink one also has it I think, but not too sure, as it was not very specific), which seems perfectly secure to me (or am I just being too ignorant? 8) )
* they do have an after sales tech support that I can contact here in NZ just in case.
* for an additional $70 I could get a 802.11g PC card from Linksys as a bundle

And finally, it would appear that houses in the UK have a lot more brick than we do in NZ which would account for all the bad press (and I mean really, really bad - just check out linksysinfo.org for one, pretty much all of the instability issues with firmware are from UK users...) that the WAG54G has been getting. Still not sure how that's gonna turn out until I try it though.

Having said all of this however, I would still love to hear everyone's opinion about the units that I mentioned as well user experience people had with Dynalink RTA770W that wuppo mentioned.

Keep those posts coming guys, I still have a bit of time before I make the final decision (and this is getting more and more like a soap-opera :P, I was totally swayed toward the USR9106 not so long ago)...

Thanks all.

p.s. wuppo -> what do you mean by TRADE??

According to the Dynalink site, the RTA770W has a four port switch. By (trade) I meant trade price.

Thanks for the replies all.

I've just bought a Linksys WAG54G yesterday....

The ADSL function seem to work ok.
Hopefully the wireless capability is as stable & compatible.

Hey shard_2k! How did you go with the WAG54G? I'm looking at buying one for the house ... just have to get Jetstream setup this weekend first.

We've got a 130m2 house so it's not a biggy and the walls ain't brick like they are in the UK. How have you found the signal strength? I'd like to have my main PC in the end room with a small email box in the lounge about 20m away (through 5 walls). Any thoughts on how I'll go?

By the way (and this is my my BIG newbie question!) ... I take it once you connect the unit to the ADSL line and turn it on, the Internet is available to all wireless devices? What I mean is, I take it you don't have to have a PC wired to the unit and permanently 'ON' do you? ops:

Cheers,
Fiddler.

Hey Fiddler

I managed to get the wireless network up and running at home without too much problems... So that pretty much eased my paranoia of the unit...

The strength signal is pretty good through approximately 3 walls. But the way I see it, even if the signal strength is at its lowest, you'll still get full internet access because the minimal rate of transfer for a wifi is 2MB/s (16000kb/s) whereas, jetstream is 256kb/s. So I don't think you'll have problems accessing the internet.

As to your question of if you'll need a pc turned on permanently. The answer is NO. As long as you leave the router on for when you need the connection, any pcs connected to it could be left OFF.

Think of the router as a server that accepts connections.

Hope that helps.

Thanks shard_2k, really appreciate the help!

Cheers,
Fiddler.

I have a 770W linked to a desktop PC and a laptop PC by ethernet and a wireless laptop (802.11b). The wireless laptop connection to the Internet works whether or not the desktop is on. I initially had problems viewing the network machines and so made the wireless connection a DISTINCT network from the desktop/laptop (it works happily enough). It helped to turn off all machine F/Ws (the 770w has a hardware F/W) and then re-enable the F/W for the wireless connection ONLY once setup was complete. I restricted access to named MAC addresses only. I set WPA-PSK as the security, set automatic connection (not manual) and hid the SSID. I have tried to puzzle out the restriction for outgoing traffic on the 770W but it still defeats me (I'm not up to speed technically yet), so I use Zone Alarm. I kept Internet Connection Sharing OFF for ALL machines because putting it ON means that a machine would try to connect via another machine, not via the 770W itself.

I'd like to boast that I did this all in minutes but it actually took about four hours to solve every problem as it cropped up <LOL>. I recently reset all the passwords for security's sake and had a frustrating hour trying to get it all to work again.

The manual is informative but is written by TECHNICIANS who understand everything but communicate little. I'm an average Joe with networking experience that stopped at Novel 3.12. Sites such as homenethelp (http://www.homenethelp.com/802.11b/index.asp) shed light on broad aspects but not on the nitty gritty. Once I have sorted out the restrictions on outgoing traffic, I'll pat myself on the back.

At Eden Computers (http://www.edencomputer.co.nz/).

The WAG54G is a all in one device (skink) I got one for my parents and configured it up, signal is good, though as shard_2k said, even at low internet is fine, just don't want it to drop the connection all together. We have had that happen a few times, just suddenly all PC's have no connection and then about 2 mins later all get re-connected or sometimes I have had to turn the WAG54G off and on again..

All in all, happy with the unit though.