Author Topic: Router questions (Read 298 times)

Reschke · « **on:** July 05, 2007, 08:42:24 PM »

OK gentlemen who know which routers are the best way to go.

Here is the deal with what I am looking for both at the office and at home. I saw someone (Vulcan I think) mention Juniper, Sonicwall and Fortinet as good routers with some decent capabilities. BUT I don't know what to look for since I don't play in the tech game so much any longer and if you are out for a bit you fall way behind.

So here is the basic setups:

Office:

We have five computers connected to the Fractional T1 (yeah don't start on me it wasn't my decision and my boss let the contract roll over again last September) but we want something a little more reliable that will not require too much setup and too much headache for me. We need wireless capability as well as at least 8 LAN connections on the router since we have 8 offices and will be expanding in the next 6 months with additional office and production management personnel. The wireless needs to be easy to deal with and reliable. The walls in this office are nothing more than sheet rock hung on metal studs.

I am the only one who works there that knows enough about computers to keep us up and running and for all the technical hardware (routers, etc...) we pay a guy on an as needed basis. BUT he charges us every time the phone rings and I don't want to call him on this and incur his hourly rate.

Home:

I have three desktops and a laptop but that count is going up to five when I get the new laptop from work. I need a reliable wireless setup that has at least 4 wired LAN hook ups. Two of the three systems are for light office, web design and mostly gaming. The third is what my mother-in-law uses to search for crap she saw on Nancy Grace and Anderson Cooper 360.

So give me your suggestions.

Vulcan · « **Reply #1 on:** July 05, 2007, 08:49:10 PM »

Do you run an AD server (ie MS SBS or Win 2003 Server?)

Kev367th · « **Reply #2 on:** July 05, 2007, 11:04:09 PM »

We use two Sonicwalls at work.

Fairly easy to setup.

Brooke · « **Reply #3 on:** July 06, 2007, 04:24:12 AM »

I like Linksys routers -- have had good luck with them, and they are inexpensive.

0thehero · « **Reply #4 on:** July 06, 2007, 09:17:26 AM »

For your office, the SonicWall TZ170 is a very good wireless router for small and medium businesses, but you'll probably spend some time with their support folks setting it up. It is, however, a very robust solution for not a ton of money and without a Cisco label. What is your FracT1 terminated with in the office currently?

Vulcan's question is quite appropriate; if you have an in-house W2K3 server running Active Directory, you can hand off most routing duties to it directly, adding a wireless access point to the mix. But I'm guessing if your skillset is not very high by your own estimation, there's no server in the equation. If that's the case, you can just run an 8-port switch from the FracT1 termination point with a pass-through to a Linksys wireless access point. No need to make it more complicated than you have to...

And Linksys routers (WRT54G is a good one) work just fine at home, also.

Vulcan · « **Reply #5 on:** July 06, 2007, 06:44:57 PM »

errr no way in hell would I suggest using Win2k3 Server for routing/firewall.

I wanted to know to see if he could use 802.1x with his wireless.

BTW TZ170 is EOL replaced by the TZ180/TZ190.

Reschke look at the TZ180 bundles, or maybe the TZ190. Will PM you my contact details.

Reschke · « **Reply #6 on:** July 06, 2007, 07:25:28 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Vulcan
Do you run an AD server (ie MS SBS or Win 2003 Server?)

I think it is 2003 Server but I am not sure. I did not take a look at it today since we are currently having issues with our router....Imagine that.

Reschke · « **Reply #7 on:** July 06, 2007, 07:39:36 PM »

We do have a server in the mix but it is only for our order entry, production and quotation, payroll, etc... The office suites are all on individual workstations with a mix of Office 2003 and Office 2007 (my system just checking it out to see what the minimum will run like since we are a small business. From the FracT1 we go out into a Netgear 10 port router/hub and the server is tied into that but the only time we access the server is for backups of the business transactions and for daily access to the software mentioned above for daily production and sales.

I will sit down next week and put together a few ideas of what budget we are looking at and see if we can stick it in there when I get my next system to replace my 7 year old box.

Reschke · « **Reply #8 on:** July 06, 2007, 07:40:20 PM »

Got your PM and as soon as we put something together I will be in touch with you. Thanks for your help.

Quote

Originally posted by Vulcan
errr no way in hell would I suggest using Win2k3 Server for routing/firewall.

I wanted to know to see if he could use 802.1x with his wireless.

BTW TZ170 is EOL replaced by the TZ180/TZ190.

Reschke look at the TZ180 bundles, or maybe the TZ190. Will PM you my contact details.