[NBLUG/talk] Recommendations for a wireless router?

Lincoln Peters anfrind at gmail.com
Tue Mar 23 09:34:14 PDT 2010


On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 3:18 AM, Andrew <argonaut at gmx.co.uk> wrote:
> Lincoln Peters wrote on Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:01:28 -0700:
>
>> 2. Some higher-end Linksys routers also have built-in support
>> for VPN
>
> A VPN may be overkill for what you want to do. You just want CLI
> or GUI access to your parents' computer so you can help them,
> right? This can be done over SSH or NX (which runs over a SSH
> link). Any router that supports port forwarding can handle SSH.
> No need to look specifically for a router with VPN capabilities,
> or to pay extra for VPN, or to bother with setting it up. Just
> forward port 22 (or whatever port you're running SSH on) through
> the router and be done with it.

I had a few other ideas for things that I could do if there were an
actual VPN.  However, it's not a deal-breaker if a router that meets
all of my other requirements doesn't have VPN support.

>
>> 3. NX is faster than VNC, except when sharing the screen with
>> a local user
>
> YMMV. Really, I've only used shadowing on one machine: a dual
> 1 GHz P-III. The performance there is not stellar (but still
> usable). But when I make a normal (non-shadowed) NX connection to
> the same machine, the performance is phenomenal. It's almost
> like I'm sitting directly at that machine.
>
> If your parents' computer is better than my dual 1GHz P-III,
> you'll likely have a better experience.

It's a newish quad-core Phenom system with 4GB of RAM.  I'd be more
worried about the connection speed.

>
> By the way, you can take NX for a spin right now at
> http://www.nomachine.com/testdrive.php
> They have several methods of initiating a session. If you choose
> the "NX Web Companion" method, you don't even need to install
> the NX Client. The Java applet will do that for you.
>
> (Keep in mind the test servers are in Europe, and who knows how
> many other people are on them at the same time.)

I'll have to try that.

>
>> One thing that bugs me, however, is that my first few searches
>> for WRT routers all turn up routers that support 802.11b and
>> 802.11g, but none of them appear to support 802.11n.  Is there
>> a reason for that?
>
> The name says it all. The "54G" in WRT54G* refers to 802.11g
> WiFi, which runs at a maximum of 54 Mbit/s. WRT54G* routers
> cannot do 802.11n. Linksys does have 11n-capable routers, but
> they are not in the WRT54G* line and I don't know if they can
> run third-party firmware.

Darn.


-- 
Lincoln Peters
<anfrind at gmail.com>



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