[Raymate]

Router recommendation for Toronto

Please can someone recommend a router for me? I live in the UK and my girlfriend lives in Toronto, now she has “high-speed” Internet via “Rogers” and has a cable modem connected directly to her iBook running 10.3.2 via Ethernet.

We use iChat AV with iSights no problem at all it just works.

Now she needs to introduce an iMac into the network and of course this needs to see the Internet also, so of course she needs a 4-port Ethernet router of some description.

My question is:

1. Can someone suggest a 4-port router that will just work without stopping iChat AV from working, ideally no firewall built in?
2. If you are running with a router in Toronto what make and model is it, and does iChat AV still work with iSights?

It needs to be plug-n-play.

The reason I ask is she has often used her iBook at friends who have “high-speed” but their routers will not let iChat AV work with video, only text so of course they must have had Firewalls built in.

So the router she needs must not have a firewall, I use a “netgear” in the UK and that does not have a firewall, but this model is not on sale in Canada or I would have just told her to buy the same as me.

Many Thanks

Happy New Year

Ray Allen (Apple Engineer)

[Yose]

You can turn the firewall off or find out what ports iChat AV uses and enable them to be used.

...It will have to be configured but this is something you can do remotely over the net by having her enable "remote administration".

So it's not that hard.

I have a Netgear router w/ 802.11G stuff but the best company for supporting macs and routers is Asante.

[Zoom]

I've got a Linksys wireless router and it works great. I didn't have to do any port forwarding to make iChat work. I'm not sure how it works, but maybe it has some sort of built-in NAT traversal scheme, like uPnP.

[ryju]

I'm in Toronto, Linksys is what I use and no problems whatsoever. I also never had to open any ports, it just worked.

[Rev-O]

I use an Asanti 4 port router... and it seems to work flawlessly. Hell, I even set up my own hardwired network at home... and I am far from a computer whiz.

By the by, my router has a built in firewall, but I've had no problems with iChat... should I be? Not being a smart ass... just network ignorant!

[Raymate]

Thank you guys for all your info,

What model is that Asante Rev-0 and the Linksys ryju,
they sounds like just the thing she needs.

If iChat was not going to work, you would not be able to have Audio and Video chats, just text.

Thanks Ray

[Rev-O]

Asante FreindlyNet FR1004
Internet Router with Firewall and integrated 4-port 10/100 switch.

Asante also has a FR1004AL wireless with a print server (LPT). 10/100 was all I needed, 'cuz only my big boy has gigabit ethernet. Picked it up at the Apple store, where it was overpriced. Don't know what street pricing is on it, but I'd guess somewhere around 40 or 50 bucks.

Good Luck!

[Visnaut]

I would recommend shopping at Factory Direct. They consistently have the best prices in town, IMO.

Although you have plenty to choose from there, I would recommend this SMC 4 Port Cable/DSL router because of the price, and the ease by which i set up a similar router for my girlfriend. The firewall is disabled by default, and to configure the cable login and password info, all i had to do was use this IP in any browser: 192.168.2.1 after which, setting it up is very straight forward and non-archaic.

Good luck! She may also want to check out Canada Computer. Prices change from week to week, so she may want to check out both to see who's offering the better price on her item at any given time. Canada Computers actually allow returns within a certain time period, whereas Factory Direct only has an exchange policy, so that may affect her purchasing decisions. Take care and happy hunting!

[Raymate]

Thanks for all your help, now I have a short list, thats just what we needed.

Cheers
Ray & Claire

[Raymate]

Thank you guys for all your advise and input, she ended up with a Asante - FriendlyNET FR1004AL and it work fine.

Cheers

Ray & Claire