Router marketing

In the world of today, where Internet is practically connected to every apartment and each apartment has more than one electronic device, natural need arises to provide connection sharing.

There are many ways to do it, actually, but people tend to prefer the simplest, and hence, according to Occam’s razor, the right one.

Instead of messing with software and spending precious moments of your life on something that just doesn’t worth it, unless you’re computer enthusiast, it makes sense to purchase single box that requires one time configuration, and share is created.

The Pandora Box, so to speak, is router – device that performs various connectivity tasks, such as connection sharing, network address translation, DoS protection (Denial of Service, when many computers the same time try to connect to yours, and it gets overloaded), WiFi networking (if applicable) and etc.

Router market is actually pretty diversified – there are all kinds of routers, from many different production companies, each one with its strong and weak points.

All these you might knew already, but what kind of router do you need exactly? Of course, if we talk about cheapest solution just “to share Internet”, without any specific needs, we can take the one that fits best into our interior. It is called “you and your luck” then – you might not even notice there are problems with it, and that device will serve you well for the time being.

But as no good deed goes unpunished, buying a router judging by its look tends to produce various problems, in the beginning and in further stages of use.

We’ll try to describe here few points you should pay attention for, when you are going to buy a router:

Technology – so let there be light!

Before rushing to your local PC store, it makes sense to ascertain that your new digital pet will actually be friendly with your ISP. For that sake, you should call your ISP and clarify which technology does your Internet connection use?

Maybe you know it already, but for those who don’t: most popular connections you will find anywhere around the globe are:

• DSL or ADSL (those hook up to your phone line)
• Cable (one distinct cable is attached directly to your computer)
• 3G/4G USB modem (no wires)
• WiFi hotspot (no wires again, but slightly different technology; eg. usually does not requires USB modem and usually present on most laptops)
• Satellite – this one is the tricky one, existing in form of device to send data (such as modem or else) plus satellite dish and receiver, or one box that does sending and receiving using only satellite uplink (or so it says, at least)

Whenever you choose your router, you must make sure that it is compatible with the technology, that your ISP is using. Some devices handle multiple technologies, others have “backup” solutions, third just duplicate WAN (Wide Area Network, aka Internet) ports, providing you with ability to use two different ISPs, and the rest provide you with only single “outer” port, so select carefully.

Features

You should make a list of features that you’d like to be present on your router, so that you wouldn’t buy something you don’t really need. To give you a clue, let us list some features that might interest you:

• Quantity of Ethernet ports – nearly all routers feature 4 ports, so that it’s enough to connect together every computer in average house.
• QoS – quality of service or bandwidth prioritization. This feature allows you to define which kind of traffic is to be served without delays, and which can wait. Typical use is to limit throughput for some of your computers, or prioritize video streaming services (such as YouTube) for them to stream videos without delay, or prioritize VoIP or gaming traffic over downloads, to ensure everything works smoothly.
• MAC Address cloning – copies MAC address of your computer’s network adapter, and passes it off to your ISP. This feature is useful if your ISP has MAC address filtering and you don’t want to call them each time you change your networking hardware.
• UPnP – this feature simplifies port forwarding, for applications that support it.
• USB support – ability to connect flash card, USB drive, printer, or, in some cases even 3G modem (as backup connection scenario).

Inbuilt mass storage, downloader and/or bit torrent client – not that those, no matter how tasty it is advertised, are usually limited, outdated (eg. no support for DHT and Magnet links) and generally are less to be desired.

If you really up having “offline leeching box”, perhaps you’d better consider putting back your old PC, or purchasing new one – “the lite one” – smallest dimensions factor, fitting into special HiFi electronics-styled chassis. It does worth it.

Types of connection supported

There is no problem for direct cable connections, but there is if your ISP enforces on you use of PPTP, PPPoE or L2TP protocols. Due to difference in protocol implementations, some router may not work with your particular ISP, or might require 3rd party firmware, in order to support it.

Some routers require you to input gateway address for PPTP in form of IP, while some ISPs changing IP addresses of their gateway, time to time. So it is really useful to have your router support gateway request, based on hostname (eg. pptp.your-isp.com).

Additional problem that arises with some PPTP ISP and some particularly capricious routers is that routes for PPTP connections are being rise dynamically, upon connect. Some routers fail to understand such behavior, and as result, you’re connected, but you cannot access anywhere outside.

Solution for this problem can be either in choosing most comprehensive router, that does supports such behaviors, or by manually defining routes to your ISP.

To do this:

1. Connect to your ISP thru your computer
2. Open command prompt (Windows + R –or– Start Menu > Run… –or– Start Menu > type cmd)
3. Type in
4. Route PRINT
5. You will see list of currently active routes, acquired from your ISP. Leave command line window open, and reconnect using your router.
6. Open router administration page (defaults to http://192.168.0.1 ; might ask for user name or password, which in most cases are root and admin, respectively, if not noted otherwise in your router instruction manual)
7. Refer to status page, and see what routes are up.
8. Compare displayed routes list with one from command line window, and mark “missing” routes.
9. Now find static routes configuration, in your router administration page
10. Make sure to add each and every missing route
11. Save changes and either reconnect (router status page), or reboot the router

Now the problem should be resolved. If it’s not, walk thru above-mentioned steps one more time, make sure you’ve committed no errors.

Throughput Speed

Whenever you’re choosing yourself a router, make sure that it is powerful enough. Low-end routers usually have not enough memory and weak CPU, which you will observe if you try using some p2p application (like eMule or BitTorrent). The more powerful hardware is, the more concurrent connections it should handle.

Another point is wireless throughput. It actually varies from model to model, regardless of brand, there for we advice you to surf the Net for throughput and distance benchmarks.

Availability

Some router production companies, like Cisco, exist in every country. Others, like NetGear, might have no office, technical support or warranty repair around.

General rule here – try to select something that is widely available with people, since then, even if you face problems, there will be lot of resources, where somebody can help you.

Yes, DrayTek’s routers seems to be most feature-rich, but it is not widely spread, so if your router break, most likely nobody will be able to help you.

Conclusion

Cisco is absolute leader on the arena, and hence, LinkSys too – since acquisition. There are easier to configure routers – such as Asus, or more promoted – such as D-Link, or more security trended, such as ZyXel. In theory, they are all very good routers, but on practice each concrete model is different, and there are absolutely no guarantees that it will work fine with your configuration.