Routers

I'm trying to get outta the stone age and pick up DSL connection and then the representative from the company I'm working through says it'll be anything from 30 to 130 dollars for a router. I figure a router is for multiple comps...I have 3 comps...what I would be connecting is a eMac and a Emachines with OS X and XP respectively soo...

- Would having two different OS change the options and price of a router?
- Why would there be a cheap router vs an expensive router? What the heck is the difference?
- Do routers affect/increase speed?

- Two os wouldnt matter.
- More ports / better quality reason for difference in price. Some have 2/4/etc. A 4 port one (what you want) shouldnt be too expensive.

Dodge shitty brands is my only advice really.

- Do routers affect/increase speed?
No

You can find a shitty d-link DI-604 on ebay for roughly :10bux:; if you're using DSL it'll work "well enough" for you that you won't notice a difference. Obviously, every computer you hook up needs a NIC (network interface card; what the cables plug into) but the majority of recent computers come with them anyway. (Double check before you waste money.)

Companies typically try to get you a wireless router and then get PCI wireless cards for you; that is good for them because they don't have to fuck around with crimping and laying wire inside the house if they install, but it sucks for you because quite simply wired is better if you don't want your packets broadcast all over and/or affected by cell phones and microwaves. In addition, a wireless card is $30-$40 whereas a wired card is "whatever you want to pay for it".

The reason there are cheap versus expensive routers is partially a purely mental thing, partially a quality thing (note that I described that d-link as shitty; use its web interface and you'll see) and partially a means of distinguishing features. Obviously a Cisco soho router has a lot more in terms of features, quality, and reliability than something you'd snag off ebay for $10, but if you don't need those things it's throwing your money down a well and not even getting to hear it hit the bottom.

Advice for you: get the internet connection working with just one computer without a router first, and then add the router and one computer. When it works that way, *then* you can consider adding the others.

Thanks everyone I got both active computers last year so I'm hoping they arlready came with the PCI wireless cards!