I personally think that's a little overkill - there are some good routers in the $100-$200 range that are good for inexperienced folks (imo anyway), but I am curious, what routers in $300-$500 price range would you recommend?  And why?  You certainly have more experience than me.  Thanks!

Do you NEED a computer?  No.

 

BTW...prices were '300-500', not '500' ...and they were AUD pre-flop of the USD......currently it's 110% the OTHER way round now.

 

 

I'm glad I'm not average, however.

 

@Pacov

Quick example?  D-Link DSR-500N  (around $300) and is one hell of a robust entry-level router/firewall for any small business.  Why would I buy it?  Because its hardware is actually capable of leveraging some of those "security features" talked about earlier in this thread (it can use intrusion detection definitions which can be automatically updated),its hardware won't be overwhelmed by having to deal with inspecting multiple concurrent connections, its various security features can be tailored to a specific use and not only on or off, it has multiple WAN ports so you can load-balance it or have WAN failover (say you're like me and have connections to 2 ISP's because you don't trust the 99.99% uptime with either) and it's not too complex to be configured by the average joe.  Perfect for the average joe in fact!    

 

@Everyone

What I never understood is that people figure on spending around $500-$1000 bucks on a computer that will eventually hold all of their family photos, all of their personal correspondence, be the connection-point to all of their online financial dealings and yet spending between $300-$500 bucks to help protect all of that?   Hell no!   bullocks!  Seriously........if people want to use the el cheapo $60 Best Buy sale deal-o-rama to protect their networks so be it.  I'm just telling it how it is....

Why would anyone need to spend such large amounts on a router? Mine was $40 bucks and has all the features I need and good security. I don't even think I have seen a router over $100 at my local store.

Price has nothing to do with how good the router security is.

 

Sigh.......

 

Since a router is also just a very basic computer running some software why spend more than $40 on your actual home computer?  To say "price has nothing to do with how good the router security is" is so flagrantly ignorant on the subject of routers and security I don't really know what else to say that I haven't already said previously in this thread.

 

Cost most certainly impacts the type/quality of hardware in your home computer as it does the hardware used in a router (the hardware which is used to run its security software).

Therefore cost most certainly impacts how well (if at all) your home computer or in this example a router can perform its duties.

 

I cannot give more explanation as to why I've made the suggestions I've made than I've already posted in previous replies to this thread.

Good find!!  I'm all over this!  Thanks Doc!

Let's see, my closest neighbor is a mile away and between the gate and the dogs, you can't get within a half mile of my house...do you think I need to secure my wireless?

Wrong. A $40 dollar router can have the exact same software as a $300 dollar router.

 

So?  Next you're going to tell me that that $40 router can also use that software in the same way and to the same effectiveness as the $300 router.  Really......I think you might also want to go buy some farmland near Chernobyl with that kind of logic. 

 

You keep missing the point.  While you may be able to get a $40 router to accept the same software a more robust router comes with, you will not ever get that $40 router to actually use that software properly and to the same capacity to which the $300 router is designed to operate it at.  Meaning, you may be in fact handicapping your $40 router as it will start dropping packets, or just passing packets through anyway because the shitty hardware in it can't actually DO what you are telling it you want it to do.  How can you not be understanding what I'm trying to tell you?!?  

cause you can't get a home PC for $40.00 but you can get a $40.00 router

 

My $60.00 + router works just fine and It's is secured with Password, and WPA/2 enabled and, Hidden well the best it can..

My cheap off the shelf $700.00 Gateway DX4831 2.93 x2 Dual Core with a $99.00 Graphic Cards NVIDIA GeForce GT220 with Physic/3D 1GB RAM works.

I can Play all the New games, Well I one I bought so far

So I my self don't see why to Pay BIG $$$

 

An unqualified "Yes". Surprised you had the temerity to ask!

You might well have hacker squirrels. After all, there are many of those in..... wait for it.... Monk's Corner. 

Helping the_Monk out here....

Kona...a VW Beetle can use the exact same petrol [gas] as a Ferrari.

One uses it 'better'....

Since you have been in the field for 20 year you should have obviously known that isnt not the features I was talking about, what I was talking about relates to the topic of monitoring your network something that after flashing MOST routers to DD-WRT will now do, monitoring whom is using your network as well as measuring how much of the network is being utilized. It will also allow increased port forwarding option that alot of typical "average Joe users" use.

I do understand what you are tiring to say about a dedicated router and yes the router listed is a much better router than the one a average person uses but does the average user need this IMO no.

 

Personally if you are worried about data loss  then back up, I back up to a RAID1 , a external hdd for storage ( that is powered off unless I am backing up, this is my "weekly" back up and finally to online storage ( obviously the space online is limited so this is manly images)  This will prevent loss of your data from multiple "attacks" be they via your network, hardware failure, Acts of God ( aka your house burns down ect, ect)

 

 

 

 

 

@Supergroverohp,

"a ton more options for securing.........."  most definitely includes things like SPI/ALG etc. etc. which is why I mentioned them.

 

Back in reply #18 I address why I don't believe it to be unreasonable to suggest people invest more than $50 in a router.  That router being the point of contact to the "home system" they spent $500-$1000 on which will eventually hold all of their family photos, all of their personal correspondence, be the connection-point to all of their online financial dealings etc.  To many people what I just listed equates to being their life.

My suggestion to look at investing around $300 to help better protect that life seems rather reasonable to me.  Plus as I pointed out in reply #15 the more robust routers not only do their jobs better they also tend to do a lot more protecting without the user needing to understand what/why and certainly without intervention from said user.

 

EDIT:  You edited your post after I began posting my reply.  I am not talking about data loss, I'm talking about breaches that can result in the type of "activities" Doc pointed out in his OP and suggesting that $300-$500 is reasonable when considering what you're protecting.

 

 

@DisturbedComputer, (in reply to your REPLY# 25)

Sounds like you've done things within a certain budget and any additional risks you're taking as a result are acceptable to you.  Fair enough, just understand that you get what you pay for.  In everything.  If your entire life isn't on that gateway box then you're probably better off anyway.  My posts are obviously aimed at helping those whose lives are on their PC's to not forget that cheap edge-security may not be much of "security" these days anymore.

 

Damn, you have a good job...lol!!