Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

Atheros wireless network adapter owners beware! You may have an Atheros adapter in your laptop and not even know it. If you do, return this router now since it appears that Linksys routers do not work with the Atheros wireless adapters. There is a work around but it takes the router to the slowest most mundane aspect of the router. With that being said, after 4 hours of tech support, 97 minutes of my cell phone minutes and 4 chat sessions I was able to get the easy setup to work. At this point I am shell shocked and don’t even want to look at the router let alone test more features. I liked the USB port on the router for sharing storage and wanted to test it with a printer but frankly the 4 hours of my life that went into the basic setup was 3 ¾ hours more than I had hoped to spend. So it may be a good router if you have some other wireless adapter but you sure don’t want this if you have an Atheros wireless adapter in whatever you are trying to co...

I tend to research tech ad nauseum.   My  venerable 3-Com switch was showing some intermittent issues.   I was getting drop off and I connected my PC directly to the cable modem and the drop off disappeared.   So I added in my 3-Com and it was back.   I tried several other old switches I had and none were seamless.   Since they were all at least five years old, I bit the bullet and bought the E1200.  The router got four or five stars on several online rating sites.   PC Mag had an article that mentioned it no less than three times as a good value.   It is not a high end switch/router but it is ranked as worthwhile.  I would have to disagree with that ranking.  I do not have any wireless N devices so that is moot.   It is quicker than the 3-Com and configuration was truly simple.  After I installed the router I turned off the cable modem, turned it back on and Viola! The in...

Zoom, zoom is no longer just the Mazda slogan, Cisco is putting Zoooom into it’s new infrastructure routers. ” Translation: Well in Cisco terms, the router will be able to provide download speeds of 1 Gigabit per second for everyone in San Francisco, download the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress in 1 second and stream every movie ever created in less than 4 minutes.” Some folks are questioning the need for that kind of speed. Obviously they are the folks who send one email a week and have never downloaded a program, let alone streamed a movie. We ALWAYS need more speed. We have a NEED for speed. When my cell phone is billed by the minute, I don’t want to wait for a download. Of course the inability of Verizon to get a reliable signal in my area has been the subject of previous posts and is still one of the more annoying aspects of my technical life. What is the point of getting a smart phone if you don’t have a stinking signal! But as usual, I digress...

TRENDnet TEW-452BRP 108Mbps Wireless Super G Broadband Router is a winner this week for best price. I’ve had good experience with Trendnet products plus I like their 3 year warranty even though I have never had to use it. Wireless G still has a lot of life left. Most of us have a mix of wireless technology so a G router isn’t likely to slow you down too much unless all your other gear is N. I’m running a G and I don’t see any issues with speed when I am on my laptop compared to when I am on one of my desktops that are hardwired. My uses don’t put a lot of stress on the network though. Internet access is my primary use of the wireless and that works just fine. Buy.com has the $69.99 router for $48.99 minus a $25 rebate and free shipping. A price of $23.99 for a brand name Wireless G router is a slamming deal. Grab one if you need it and no I don’t get any money from buy.com or Trendnet. Specifications: The Wireless Super G Router is the cornerstone of your IEEE 802.11g wireless network....

TRENDnet TEW-631BRP Wired: IEEE 802.3 (10Base-T), IEEE 802.3u (100Base-TX) Wireless: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft) Wireless N-Draft Firewall Router – Retail $79.99. www.newegg.com has it for $69.99 with a $30 rebate and free shipping. Consumer search ranked it as #3 in best routers for the money and it has a 3 year warranty to boot. I’ve used TRENDnet products and found them as good as any other company. This price is very good for a “N” wireless router. The following overview is from the newegg website. TRENDnet TEW-631BRP wireless router lets you create a secure wireless network using the latest Draft 802.11n wireless technologies offering greater range and data speeds than the older 802.11b/g standards, (when used with compatible Draft 802.11n wireless adapters) while still being fully backwards compatible with them—perfect for mixed-mode environments. The router's MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) technology also makes it a natural choice fo...