nat firewall router?

What are people using at home these days? The Office is going to get me the new Comcast 100 mbps service (no cap either!) and I am very sure that my ancient (2001 vintage) BEFSR41 will not handle the traffic.

All I need is a wan port in, lan port out, nat firewall, DNS passthrough, DHCP (mac address reservation would be nice!), port blocking, etc. I don't need things like a dmz, VPN tunneling, etc.

My home networking is fine, GigE/Cat6 everywhere, 32 port Cisco SOHO layer III switch, etc, etc. Already have a Netgear 655 running as an AP that I don't want to mess with at all.

Just need a belts & suspenders solution to go between the home network and the Comcast CPE.

(helpful) suggestions appreciated.

 

I think your BEFSR41 will handle things. However, if you really want to upgrade, I'd go for a business class router. If you're looking for a gigabit wired router, that's the way you'll need to go. By comparison, Linksys/Cisco still has the BEFSR41 in it's lineup!

The RVS4000 gets pretty solid reviews, and it's under $125. Since it's business class, you'll get more options, too. You may never need them, but it's nice to know they are there.

What's a Netgear 655? Did you mean a D-Link DIR-655? If so, you could always use the DIR-655 as your router.

 

The BEFSR41 I own is of the original hardware rev. I can already saturate it by running two backup streams at once.

Linksys and others are (in-)famous for re-using model names & numbers through multiple hardware and firmware revisions. Look at all of the hardware revs the linksys 54G router has gone through. At least three different CPUs, 6 different amounts of flash, different ethernet switches, etc.\

Anyway (as mentioned in the first rock), I don't want to screw with the Dlink 655 wireless box, I have it running as an AP and I take it on trips from time to time. I'm looking for a dedicated box for more or less permanent use at the house.

 

The RVS4000 should handle everything you need.

 

If you want more expandability, features, and power, you could always go for a "home built" router. Good old P4 desktop PC, a few NICs, and a nice router OS (Endian is great, so is Clark Connect and pFsense.)

We noticed a dramatic difference in bandwidth usability when we switched our old router out with an Endian box. It has more features than you could shake a stick at too!

 

After doing a lot more reading, you might want to do some serious research before buying this one. It has a gigabit WAN port, but quite a few people complain about speed issues and lackluster VPN performance. The complaints might be a result of not configuring the router correctly.

 

did you not research or have personal experience before you made the recommendation?

 

Yes, I did research the router. After further research, as I'm considering getting one, I found some conflicting reviews. I thought it prudent to let you know about my further research.