And this goes to show that you have no idea what you are talking about. A MAC is a computer, windows is software so how is that comparable? If you mean a MAC over other PC's than you would be making sense but MAC's are not more "expensive" than other PC's because it depends on what kind of PC you are buying and if building yourself, what kind of parts. I have no idea what the price of the OS is for a MAC because I don't believe they sell their OS for use on other PC's. I have a PC right now which is very expensive and blows your computer out of the water and I have never had a single problem with it. I built it myself and spent a month researching it. I also have my CPU overclocked to 4GHZ as well as my ram and video cards overclocked. Again, not a single issue because I did my research and figured out what works and how. I spent hundreds of dollars just on fans. My CPU fan alone cost me 200$ but it runs beautifully. I have also seen most other PC's and initially they work fine but shortly they end up running like crap. Expensive = Quality. That is how the world works for the most part (although not always there will always be some exceptions).

More secure than most is how I would classify you.  But vigilance does not hurt.

I'd put it, "Expensive implies quality, but doesn't always deliver."

When something is expensive, we expect it to be of high quality. Just as cost, value and worth are not the same, price and quality aren't... although frequently can be.

Which is why I said there are exceptions of course but in my experience, for the most part, if you want quality you have to shell out extra money.

I sure most knew what I was saying I'll word it differently a mac is more expensive then a PC with windows as in the specs you'll get better ones with a PC with windows at a cheaper price 

you might have spent a hell of a lot more for your PC.. and in price / speed might just blow my Gateway DX4831 win 7 Home Premium 64bit

Intel core i3 530 2.93GHz dual core 6GB ram NVIDIA GeForce GT220 1GB ram but I bet mine cheap PC can run every program that your HIGH $$$ one can run not counting stuff that is CPU/motherbroad related as in i3's can't do some stuff as an i7 can  as in my win 7 Ultimate 64bit can do stuff my Home Premium 64bit but they both can run all programs, games, videos  it may not do it as fast but it dose it with out freezing the system or slow downs....

I'm not saying I wouldn't like a $4,000.00 PC but my cheap PC

pc $700.00

GC $109.99 got it for $89.99 oh and it can do 3D Glasses sold separately don't have

sound card $60.00

Monitor Samsung Sync Master 2233 $260.00 on sale and can do 3D

Mouse Microsoft wireless laser 5000 $ 40.00 might be $50.00

Creative Live! Cam Socialize HD 1080p $99.99 got for $40.00 not used

works Great

 EDIT

oh, ok so, you have Bragging rights on paying more

but I have bragging rights on well it's cheap and it dose what I what it to do

For starters how many systems are you planning to connect to the internet through the new router?

Are you interested in QoS and/or other traffic-shaping technology?

The reason I ask those two questions is because that will determine if you have need for a router that handles multiple concurrent connections better than the cheap ones.  The traffic-shaping question is in relation to "use" of your network bandwidth.  If you like to game but your wife/children keep causing latency spikes for you because of their youtube browsing or facebook gaming (some of those fb games use a disproportionately large amount of bandwidth seriously.....hehe) you can configure the better routers (some cheap ones "claim" they can do QoS etc. but aren't really effective at it) to perform traffic shaping so that certain traffic gets priority over other traffic etc.

Then we have the question of remote access or VPN to/from work?

Off the top of my head (without any answers to those questions) I would start with the following suggestions:

(To those out there who haven't read my other posts to this thread, YES I know I could just suggest something from your local compu-deal-mart but since I'm sure StevenAus has read the entire thread he's aware I'm about to suggest routers one might see in a small/medium business office.  I am making those suggestions because while the el cheapo routers will "work"......the ones I'm listing will DO everything better and are still not as complex as real dedicated firewalls to configure.)

D-Link DSR-500  (you don't need the N since you don't care about wireless)

Netgear FVS318

Allied Telesys (formerly Allied Telesyn) AT-AR415S - this one is probably the most complex of the bunch and I just added it because I happen to love AT.  I have some AT products from 15yrs ago that have outlived every other brand of router I've ever owned including many computers and they're still going strong.

The Dlink and the AT are in the $300 price range, the Netgear (there are other models I might suggest but this is the lowest I would go with Netgear) is the lowest at around $150 and all are fantastic value for the money.  Out of the box each of those routers provides excellent "edge-protection" (via intrusion detection and traffic inspection firewalls), solid QoS / traffic shaping, and VPN connectivity.

The Dlink is probably the best bet if your other LAN devices are Gigabit since it has 4 Gigabit LAN ports.

The Netgear has a lifetime warranty, super easy interface but only 10/100 LAN ports (you can buy a more expensive model to get Gigabit ports) and the VPN connectivity requires (as far as I know) client software from Netgear which one would have to license.

The AT is probably the best at performing QoS etc. but then it is also probably the one that would be most "overkill" in the sense that it does some things other routers only dream of.....hehe

My recommendation out of those three even before you give me more info would have to be the Dlink because it seems to be the most "well-rounded" (while the other 2 excel in certain areas the Dlink is IMO decent across the board).

thanks,

the Monk

Mac sells their OSX OS for the Mac for around $30 dollars.

Sorry I took a little while to get back to you.  Just one computer (if by number of systems you mean number of computers).

Well at the moment, no.

So does your router prescription change at all based on the answers to your questions?

Thanks again for the help!

Best regards,
Steven.

Well that I did not know since i don't care for macs or anything mac related. 

Heard from a guy today that in the US laws are now passed so that the Government knows what you are doing on the net 24/7 and they know where you are at. Is that possible?

Sure, but since the Netgear that I listed can be had for as low as $130 and seriously.......anything under $100 just isn't even worth the fuel to drive to the store to get it (IMO) I would look at anything between $100-$150.  Taking the answers to the questions in consideration I would knock the D-link and for sure the AT off of the list but there are still things a router in the 100-150 range does many times better than the $50 variety that would benefit even your single-system setup, such as more robust security, better hardware that can take advantage of/use said better security, hardware that won't become overwhelmed as easily by rogue traffic etc. and a router that could potentially "grow" with your network needs should that need to change in the future.

Well up here the politicians have been discussing ordering the ISP's to log everything a user does using their connection (24/7) and to store that info just in case the cops ever have need to get at that info (a warrant would of course still be required).

Something wrong with that?

Yeah. Invasion of privacy.

  what privacy?   Wait.....you think you still enjoy some form of privacy?!? 

Yeah I do. Or do you think everyone needs to know what's on your drives?