Windows

Netgear vs. Linksys

Posted by on Jan 26, 2007 | 17 Comments

Lockergnomie Chuck Langin is a geek – just like the rest of us. We make hardware decisions just about every day of our lives. What happens when that decision turns out to be a costly one? What do you do when your essential hardware goes belly up? Do you go and spend more – or do you recoil and spend less? Here’s Chuck’s tale:

I have been a Linksys fan for a few years now. Once we got cable modem, we needed a 4 port router. So, I bought a Linksys router from Staples. $40…cool. A year or so later, my son has a PS2, an Xbox, his PC, my PC, my wife’s PC and my father-in-law’s PC…. uhh… need a bigger router. So, another Linksys… 8 port. It worked fine for a year and a half. Then it went south… sooooo… I bought another one. Same model. It lasted a month. WHAT? Ok… let’s try a Netgear router. It lasted a month.

Now, my daughter moves in with us (for college, she had been living elsewhere) and my step-son gets an iBook for Christmas. Now, they both have laptops… with WiFi built in. I need more ports!!! AARRGGHHHH!!!!

I find, again at Staples, a “business class” 8 post router WITH a wireless access point built in…. from NetGear. ProSafe FVG318. Great! 8 Ethernet ports AND it’s wireless. It works great.. for a month. Then it starts resetting itself every day or so. To login to the config page, you have to do a “hard” reset. Then you can login and change whatever you need to change.

Ok… after a week of resetting I think, hmmm…. time to check with Netgear troubleshooting. I have to admit, it was mostly e-mail troubleshooting and one night on the phone for 2 hours (NOT on hold… actually TALKING to a tech rep). I was VERY pleased with the tech support. VERY!!! They suggested doing this (which I had already done) and trying this (again, tried it) maybe doing this (thought of it… tried it… didn’t work)… then they e-mailed me a BETA firmware upgrade. Didn’t work.

My last e-mail from NetGear says they will replace it with a new router. I get authorization for an RMA. Cool! But… then I had to stop and think.

I’ve been involved as a technician, in customer support, since 1979. Analog copiers, digital copiers, printers, fax machines. There IS a difference between “consumer” and “industrial” or “business” class office products. I have serviced, for the most part, Sharp, Minolta and Ricoh analog and digital copiers (or MFP devices… copier / printer / fax… all in one unit). There IS a difference in support between “home use” and “business use”. There shouldn’t be, but there is. I know… I’ve done it.

If you have a $400 MFP… don’t count a tech coming to YOU to fix it. It’s not economically worth it. BUT… if you have a $18,000 MFP… you will probably have bought a service contract for $2000 per year to maintain your “state of the art” device. Yes…I WILL come to your place of business to repair you equipment.

I digress… IF I had called Linksys (which I have) with a problem with my “consumer” class router, I’d have been on hold for 40 minutes or more. With NetGear, and my “business” class router, I was on hold for maybe a minute or two. I got prompt response, timely e-mail responses and… an RMA for a new router in a few days. Turns out it had to have been a hardware problem, according to the last rep I talked with.

My hat’s off to NetGear. Great customer support. But, I have to wonder… was it solely because I had a “business” class router? With my experience in a related field, I will probably never again buy a “consumer” class anything… fax, printer… whatever. I this discrimination? Or just practical business sense?

I guess what I am getting at is… a word to the wise: you get what you pay for. $40 for a router that might last a month and then… IF you kept your receipt you can replace… or spend a couple of bucks more for something that the manufacturer cares more about supporting.

I am never going cheap again.

[tags]netgear, linksys, router, ProSafe FVG318[/tags]

  • cameos

    why didn’t you just get a switch or even a cheap hub for more network ports?

  • Al

    Linksys/Netgear: been there done that, email/phone support, RMA’s, resets, firmware….. almost gave up on networking. Enter D-LINK (home/home office-DSL or Cable) and the problems ceased.

    Compatibility w/ all DLink products SUPERIOR. My preference is to run wire/wireless LAN with a router and access point (DWL-2100AP-[replace stock ant w/DLINK ANT24-0700-{it may be too good-exceeds listed range}]), add switches as required.

    If you “shop” (Newegg/TigerDirect/Buy.com/Fry’s) DLink you’ll find rebates for most (never did find one for the AP though). New or refurbuished…ZERO problems. Three plus years of mostly 24/7 [occasional ON/OFF to reestablish following an ISP outage] and no DLink problems. Laptop cards/dongles: install them, then use XP wireless config. Cable (Comcast): DLink DCM-202 rocks…out of the box w/ ISP setup 10 minutes.

    And NO, other than customer, I have no relationship with DLink.

    Good luck w/ your network.

  • Ken

    If I bought four or five brand-name routers in as many months and had each go south within 30 days, I would wonder about the power source they were plugged into. If that tested OK, I would wonder about the Quality Control of the manufacturers. Strange that the author says nothing about either of those factors.

  • CTerrian

    I’ve never had any problems with routers, but I did upgrade to provide wireless a couple of years ago. I now use the Linksys Wireless-G WRT54GS with SpeedBooster. I even took an old D-Link with wireless and added it to the network for coverage. Here’s the schematic:
    http://img333.imageshack.us/img333/2746/netsetup14jv.jpg
    If you have questions about the above setup, e-mail me.
    cterrian(at)gmail(dot)com

  • John Boyd

    I’m glad that Mr. Langin had such good results with Netgear. I work with enterprise-class equipment by day, so I, too, know the difference between that and what I use at home. I used Netgear for several years. But the one time that I needed them, when a friend had a problem, the support clock had ‘run out.’ So, as he said, his response might have been due to the class of equipment that he purchased.

    I’ve had better luck, in recent months with Belkin equipment. They offer lifetime tech support 24×7 on their consumer-class gear. Their products are in the same price range as Netgear and Linksys. I’m satisfied so far. I have one Linksys that I bought for the express purpose of experimenting with open-source wireless router code on it. So far it’s solid as well. Hopefully, their tech support will improve now that it says Cisco somewhere on the box.

    The first router I ever bought was a Hawking Technologies. Never again.. When you do get a response email from tech support, it’s in *very* broken english, and doesn’t even answer the question being asked. It’s as if the person answering doesn’t even understand the technology or the product. Hawking Tech? Just say NO..

    He is right. Don’t try to haul freight with Volkswagen Beetle, and don’t try to do business-class networking on consumer-grade equipment. Buy equipment appropriate for the task, but always at the best price possible. And remember that the somewhat intangible ‘support’ variable has value as well..

  • Tim Malloroy

    I have found, also, that the “consumer” versions of routers just don’t last if they are used extensively — and support is lacking. Over the last 3-4 years, I have been through 4 or 5 consumer routers. They died and it just was not worth the effort to get them through the RMA process being how inexpensive they are.

    Having a few spare parts for a PC, I built a router with an old case, an inexpensive 754-socket based Foxconn motherboard, an AMD Sempron processor, 1.5 GB of older PC2100 memory left over from an upgrade and a spare 80 GB drive not in use. The onboard 10/100 Ethernet port connects to the cable modem. At Fry’s I found a Realtek chipset based 10/100 card for the internal network (around $6US). Basically a simple desktop style PC in a mid-tower case.

    Next came IPCop (http://www.ipcop.org/) to power the router. This open source software is amazing. I have had no issues with it. It runs great.

    Since wireless was also needed, I bought a business class wireless access point from Netgear. No issues with it at all in over a year.

    So, for those inclined to work a bit with the IPCop software, you can build a really nice router that is stable. IPCop can run on much older hardware than I have in use and so you can re-purpose old hardware if you have it lieing around as I did. Or maybe buy a cheap, used PC (make sure it works before you purchase) with PCI slots. Just make sure you get Ethernet cards that have the Realtek chipsets (automatically recognized by IPCop in most cases) or have good 2.4 kernel based Linux drivers available. I recomend the Realtek for simplicity since they basically just work.

  • Jim Smith

    re Netgear vs Linksys article.

    The failure rate Chuck is having seems to be much higher than expected. After installing at least 20 routers (Linksys, DLink, SMC, 3Com, Netgear) over the past 5 years, my first impression on your problems is that something else is killing the routers. My router installs have been into people’s homes and small businesses, mostly on cable modems. Except for couple of cases, all have been simple and permanent installs (DLink being the preferred brand for simplicity and reliability). However, on two installs, I continued to get calls back to fix dead connections, one almost daily. These installs were on cable modems on two different ISPs. I reset everything, modem, router, etc and all would be fine, for a day or two. I then tried bypassing the router, directly linking to the modem for a few days. The folks just had to share a computer for a while and give up the NAT firewall security until we got to the bottom of it. Turns out that they continued to get dropped connections, one almost hourly. This pointed the finger directly at the ISP and or their modem. We got new modems from the ISPs and that fixed the whole problem. Turns out that these modems will fail after running for months with no problems. So, my suggestion is to check outside of the box, go upstream from the router and just change out that modem if your problems don’t go away with a router change.

    Jim
    Ontario, Canada

  • zoog

    Why didn’t you just add a hub or a switch to the oringal linksys?
    Why do you need to change the router to add more ports??

    thx
    zoog

  • Mike Tatum

    Linksys and Netgear both make great routers don’t get me wrong but after using both and being an individual who is always looking for the next best thing I have yet to find a router that can compete with the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 in regard to performance, stability, options and price!

  • Cheval

    One thing to consider is why all of the routers died in the first place? Good support or poor support, you shouldn’t need that much support. I would be putting a surge protector (or preferrably an UPS to isolate each device) on to your cable modem (and router) and then calling your cable provider first to get them to come out and see why your modem is frying the routers.

  • Harry

    Of course there’s a difference between commercial and consumer grade service. I’d be shocked if that wasn’t the case. Look at almost any aspect of of the service trade industry and you’ll see the same trend. The difference is strictly economic – time is money. A commercial enterprise cannot afford to be treated in the same manner as a consumer.

    With respect to LINKYS and NETGEAR home product reliability, I’m very surprised at the failure rates. I’ve use both brands in my home and office schemes for years and have yet to experience a failure…

  • http://www.moorewireless.com Chuck Moore

    I appreciate what Chuck L. was saying; however, I wonder why it is always Linksys & Netgear people think about. I have a DLink router and a switch that has been in continous use for 5 years with zero problems.

    Same goes for the higher end IP cam and lower end DI-624 wireless router. No problems nada, zip.

  • Doug Steinschneider

    I have installed hundreds of routers in homes and businesses. I noticed the consumer models that get hammered with traffic develop issues or stop working. The Linksys WRT54G has been held up better than the Netgear models in the same price range. I always use a separate switch for the extra connections.

  • http://theresaphonewithwifibuildintoit. hey people

    you can get this on the web or bestbuy or cc or other stores and it maybe the thing you want to get it can say fix the power problems and you can like wifi right from the phones. linksys phones or others not sure on it. search for it. than there is this thing that one needs its called a working computer hp dell and ohters gates give back the dam billions to us all.

  • Russell Campbell

    I’m late to the party here, but I too have had a lot of problems with routers and I alway UPS my equipment with APC units. I’ve had two NetGear routers die on me (one at a little over two years, I believe, and the other one in less than a year). I will never buy NetGear again. I got a DLink router after the second NetGear died. The DLink died in less than a year. They sent another one as a warranty replacement. Now, a month or so after it arrived and was installed, it has died also. The odd thing is that all of these were Internet routing failures. Internal routing on my network was fine. So now I know not to buy DLink. I’m looking for something reliable. I’ve always thought Cisco was way overrated. Hopefully I can find a quality piece of equipment out there somewhere.

  • Michael Gonzalez

    I am in the market for a new router lately. Currently I use a Linksys WRT300N v1.1. I have intermittent connectivity. One moment its connected at 216 Mbs the next its only 36Mbps.

    I live in an a apt complex with no less than 9 wifi connections at any given time. Linksys claims that range booster helps the signal but in this heavy congested surrounds I can’t even play a low bandwidth game like WoW.

    I used to have a Netgear G router a while back and I’m thinking of going back. I never had connection problems with it where as Linksys seems very unpredictable. Does anyone know which N router has the most reliable connection in terms of signal strength and connection speed in a congested network?

    My next step is to go out and buy a Netgear again and store the Linksys…

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