[Eug Wanker]

Mine doesn't seem to want to work (easily) with iChat. Which ones (besides the Airport) will work out of the box with iChat, without having to configure everything?

[Landos Mustache]

You will have to open firewire ports on any model. It is easy enough on a Netgear or a Linksys.

[seen_xu]

would you please give more detailed explanations?

[aaanorton]

My Netgear MR814 v2 worked perfectly out of the box with iChat AV for vid chatting. I had an Asante FR1004 AL which didn't.

[ghporter]

Somewhere in the setup screens of just about all routers, there's a screen that lets you change which ports are open and closed. It depends on which make and model you have. Not to sound rude, but I am certain thatyour router came with a manual (and/or online help) that explaines this process pretty well; read the manual.

I don't know off hand which ports iChat uses, but that's bound to be in an Apple knowledge base article.

[Eug]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
Somewhere in the setup screens of just about all routers, there's a screen that lets you change which ports are open and closed. It depends on which make and model you have. Not to sound rude, but I am certain thatyour router came with a manual (and/or online help) that explaines this process pretty well; read the manual.

I don't know off hand which ports iChat uses, but that's bound to be in an Apple knowledge base article.

I am well aware of that. We've already covered this elsewhere in this forum.

However, my router has limited settings for this purpose - I cannot specify a range like is needed with iChat. I have to open ports individually, but am limited to 10 ports.

However, there are routers that will work out of the box with iChat, or at least allow more easy configuration. There may even be some that have preset configs for iChat. I don't know of one yet, but I do know of routers that have preset configs for other similar software or games.

I also forgot to mention that I'm also interested in ones that will work with 802.11g.

So the question still stands. Which routers will work out of the box (or almost out of the box) with iChat?

The Netgear 814 sounds good, but I'd like 802.11g too.

[Landos Mustache]

Originally posted by Eug:

The Netgear 814 sounds good, but I'd like 802.11g too.

Netgear has a G model.

[ghporter]

Originally posted by Eug:
I am well aware of that. We've already covered this elsewhere in this forum.

However, my router has limited settings for this purpose - I cannot specify a range like is needed with iChat. I have to open ports individually, but am limited to 10 ports.
...
I also forgot to mention that I'm also interested in ones that will work with 802.11g.

So the question still stands. Which routers will work out of the box (or almost out of the box) with iChat?

The Netgear 814 sounds good, but I'd like 802.11g too.

Since you didn't specify (and haven't yet) which router you have, I had to be pretty vague. A Linksys router WILL let you specify ranges of ports, at least the BEFSR41 series will.

All 802.11g access points are supposed to work with 802.11b clients, and "G" clients should automatically switch to the "B" compatibility mode when there's only a "B" access point available. I haven't found a real need for "G" hardware yet; I can transfer files at least twice as fast with a cable in my office, and heavy file transfer is not what I got into wireless for.

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

Originally posted by Eug:

I also forgot to mention that I'm also interested in ones that will work with 802.11g.

Why? Your laptop doesn't support it does it and don't you ALWAYS use a cable or one of your many firewire drives to transfer files anyway?

[aaanorton]

ditto.
ditto.
Plus, for the cost of a MR814 (~35 bucks), you could easily upgrade to g when you need it without taking too large a hit. By then g will probably have gotten its bugs worked out as well.

[Eug]

I've been looking around and many of the good 802.11b routers around here cost $50 anyway, so I figure if I could get a good 802.11g one for <$100 it might be worth it. I've seen a few under $75 even. But if I can't get a good 11g router for cheap I'd just get 11b for now. As for my TiBook not supporting 11g that's very true, but my next PowerBook will. But like I've said if the price premium is too high for 11g then I'll just get another 11b router for now.

As for wired network transfers being fast, that's fine, but of course it defeats the purpose of wireless. I do use Firewire hard drives for some stuff, but it'd be nice for fast wireless transfers when I'm transferring less than 1 GB. I do a lot of transfers of a couple of hundred MB between some of my computers and the speed increase of g over b would be welcome (when my laptop supports it).

So anyways, the question is still the same. What routers work with iChat out of the box, with minimal configuration, and preferably 802.11g?

If you can give some model numbers, I'll look up the local prices and then will make my decision then.

By the way, I'll keep my options open, but I've not been impressed with the Linksys routers. My first Linksys router was DOA. My replacement Linksys was buggy as hell, until several firmware revisions later. Now it's OK, but even my bargain basement $35 SMC works as well, but then there's the iChat issue.

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

Well like I told you the only one people seem to recommend here is Netgear and it is $150 CAN for a G model. You can get the slower models for about $50 so it might be a better idea.

I looked at the D-Links and they seem ok but they don't offer content filtering like the netgears do which is a totally cool feature.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Immortal K-Mart Employee:
Well like I told you the only one people seem to recommend here is Netgear and it is $150 CAN for a G model. You can get the slower models for about $50 so it might be a better idea.

I looked at the D-Links and they seem ok but they don't offer content filtering like the netgears do which is a totally cool feature.

OK thx. I'll look for that. Ironically, I have content filtering on my current router.