Fingers

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My wireless router is slowly dying an annoying death. I want to pick up a new one but I'm having trouble doing my research for obvious reasons. Maybe some of you guys can help me choose one.

Control freak that I am, I want to be able to manage all the connections to my router. I have teenagers that I need to keep an eye on, but I don't want to limit my wife's ability to surf. I'd like to be able to track individual connections and have a history of sites visited. I'll also need to allow and block individual connections at my discretion.

I'm less concerned with security because I live in the country. Anyone who tries to hack into my network would pretty much have to park in front of my house and deal with a couple of over protective labs. I don't need Gbit right now. 10/100 is fine. I also don't need 802.11n but it would be nice to have that capability for future systems.

If anyone has any suggestions it would help me with my research. I'm only getting about 15 - 20 minutes of up time before the damn thing goes down again. It's hard to maintain a research stream when it gets interrupted so often.

Many thanks guys.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.

trabus

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I love D-link routers, their control panels are really nice.
This one has done me good for a couple years now- Newegg.com - D-Link DIR-625 IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE802.11n Draft 2 RangeBooster N Router - Wireless Routers

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UnaBonger

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That's a pretty tall order for a home class router... If you really want to track all connections and log all sites visited, you'll need something a little more robust...

If you're insistent on being a control freak, look at sonicwalls... Be forewarned that they're more expensive than your typical linksys, d-link, netgear jobber....

If you can relax a little bit, try getting your hands on a older broadcom based linksys, dlink, netgear and install a third party firmware. You'll get a lot more control over your network with these things...

Or, simply get an off-the-shelf router (again, linksys, netgear, dlink, etc...) and just go with that. You can always install parental monitoring software on your kids machines if you really want to log everything...

Fingers

Recipes 

I'm thinking a third party firmware flash on a home router is likely the way I'll have to go. I don't think many home routers support snmp. Which router has the greatest 'McGiver' following?

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.

ISLAGI

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Not that I have a lot of personal experience, but have you looked some type of low end PC to act as a proxy server. From what I've seen, this is a fairly standard Linux config...

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Fingers

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I wound up buying one of these: Linksys by Cisco - Wireless-G Broadband Router

Apparently the firmware is open source so there are third party apps written for them. Well, for an earlier model anyway. I saw one reference that indicated that there was a third party flash created for this one in October. I figured that I might as well get a newer one since the older one will probably be obsolete soon.

I had to get something TODAY. I was told. SWMBO was down most of the day and I left on business. I have to bring the new unit when I go back home tomorrow and I suspect I'll have to install it immediately. The tweaking can wait.

Thanks to all who replied.

__________________
If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.

pen25

Recipes 

goto walmart and buy thier linksys router for 49 bucks. then visit ddwrt and flash it. just got done doing one and installed it at my neighbors house and connected it to my other gateway so he could save some money. BTW if you need help flashing it i would be more then happy to help. the version of router is 7.2

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MNBugeater

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+1
I am not familiar with the 3rd party flash options you may have and subsequent apps. If those work for you great..if not.. here is another option.

Any router will do. But what you what to do requires some proxy service and/or monitoring features. There are MANY open source applications to do what you want and they will run on a cheap box running linux. I really like OSSIM combined with NAGIOS. It has great monitoring capabilities and is completely open source with a large community of support. If you are so inclined you could even have it send you an SMS message or email upon set criteria. Like every time your wife visits Victoria Secret

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hukdizzle

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I have a question for you, are you a fairly technical person? If so then get on ebay and find a used older version WRT54G Linksys and put DD-WRT firmware on it. It will turn it into a VERY powerful router for cheap. Get something like a v.3 or v.4, I think i'm using a version 3 at my house.

Fingers

Recipes 

Well guys, as I said in post #6, I've already bought the Linksys WRT54G2. I AM a very technical person. That's why I bought the WRT54G2. Because I want to flash the firmware to increase its usefulness.

So I just got home and went to hook up my new router and guess what? It won't power up. I have another 12volt supply and it won't power the unit up either. I can't pop it open or I'll void the warranty. Naturally I don't live anywhere near the store that sold it to me so I'll have to make a special trip on Monday to get another.

This does not bode well.

__________________
If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.