First off, I currently have a DI-514. This thing is old, discontinued and I'm sick of it. All of my networking is wired so I have no need for wireless. My Di-514 has issues with dropping signals, I have to manually power on and off to reset it. I have the wireless portion disabled on it (I'm thinking this should alleviate the cordless phone issue). Anyways, this drop-out is sporadic, it will go a few days with no problem, then all of a sudden perhaps it will drop out twice in a day.

I went down to the local store today and picked up a new Dlink WBR-1310. I asked the guy specifically if there were any issues, the answer was no. The price was cheap. I get home and start surfing for reviews on it. Anything I read characterizes it as a worthless piece of junk. Needless to say it will be going back. I have looked at the stores around here and all they seem to offer is DLink or Linksys.

Can anyone recommend something with 4 ports (no need of wireless) which they use that they are happy with? I want it for online gaming (xbox-live) and for general internet use.

If you don't mind doing a little work upfront, you could get a router that will run dd-wrt (or alternative).

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I installed the software on a buffalo router and haven't looked back. Took me a few days to get all the settings tweaked but it's been worry/trouble free for a while now;

~ # uptime
19:38:44 up 56 days, 23:27, load average: 0.03, 0.01, 0.00

It's not even breaking a sweat and I've got torrents running from my other PC (generally a router resource intense activity).

i have never had any problems with my Linksys WRT54G

I did have many problems with my DLink DI-5xx

i recomend Linksys....keep the firmware updated, and should work good.

i also just noticed you said xbox live

If i were you, before buying any router, get the full name of it, call xbox live..800 4myxbox, and ask them if that router is compliant with xbox live.

If the router is not compliant with xbl, they can and probably will refuse to help you if you ever have a problem online.

the WRT54G is compliant, even thoe there is no "xbox ready" sticker on it like some dlinks.

I second Fuzzai on the Linksys WRT54G.

Thanks for the info guys, I'll check the Linksys out.

make sure you get a WRT54GL. The one with the L is the linux version and you can easily update the firmware to something like DDWRT. This unloks so many options and features it's like a several hundred dollar router.

I've got 3 of them, useing one as the main, the other 2 as bridges, (possible with ddwrt) to the xbox's in my car and living room.

I second DJDiggler on getting the "GL" version of the Linksys router (WRT54GL). You can get these online from TigerDirect or NCIX. I got most of mine from Dell when they were on sale at 49 apiece.

I have 4 of these myself... All running Linux based Open Source firmware (3 X DD-WRT and one running Tomato). With Open Source I am able to increase the number of simultaneous connections and at the same time decrease the amount of time these connections are disabled thus fixing one of the major complaints folks have about these routers when downloading files using bittorrent.

These firmwares also allows the GLs to be used in wireless bridge mode to which one could then hook up other PCs, the Slingbox, XBox, etc. wirelessly. There are other features unlocked by open source firmwares such as being able to program the times the wireless radio is turned on or off, increasing the radio strength, more QoS and Access Restriction options (specially with Tomato), the ability to overclock the CPU of the router, using the router in repeater mode, and more.

I'll add a 3rd to that. I also use the WRT54GL with DDWRT. I had been using a Netgear (I think it was a WGR 614v4) and had no end of problems with the router needing to be reset, which was getting to be a pain since I'm using Primus VoIP with it. After a little config (I had to experiment with which channel I was using), the WRT54GL has cleared that up nicely.

Well after looking at the reviews for the WRT54GL, I'll be ordering that from NCIX. I have to do some reading up on the DDWRT stuff as I've never heard of it before. From what I understand this involves flashing the firmware with a 3rd party version. Once this is done, how technical is it to set up the router? Like I said, I'll have to do some reading (surfing) up on this, but I don't want to end up with something I can't understand.

If you are concerned about the "techy" side of adding the firmware you can just use that Linksys as is. (unless you would like to try the advanced features it brings)

Linksys makes a decent product right out of the box. Now that they are owned by Cisco they seem to be making real headway. D-Link used to be the be all and and all for decent/affordable networking (for me) products - but in the last 3 years they have gone extremely down hill. I used to recommend their home routers to anyone that asked, but I have had too many issues with them - especially their wireless products.

Go with the Linksys...:)

And contact Shaw about NHL Centre Ice...LOL.

Just to add my 2 cents on DLink routers. I hate them. They have given me nothing but trouble over the years.

I tried to give them another chance with the WBR-1310 by recommending it as a decent cheap router. I was tasked with setting it up and I couldn't get it to work with the laptop. A few months later, even the hardwired PC can't connect to it.

I will be going back to LinkSys in the future.

Well after looking at the reviews for the WRT54GL, I'll be ordering that from NCIX. I have to do some reading up on the DDWRT stuff as I've never heard of it before. From what I understand this involves flashing the firmware with a 3rd party version. Once this is done, how technical is it to set up the router? Like I said, I'll have to do some reading (surfing) up on this, but I don't want to end up with something I can't understand.
Basically you have to flash the opensource firmware in place of the stock Linksys firmware. Check out these install guides for dd-wrt (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation) and for Tomato (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware).

I find Tomato is easier to install if only because you don't have to flash the firmware twice as in dd-wrt which requires you install the "mini" version first before installing the "full" version.

DD-WRT has more features than Tomato but Tomato takes up less RAM and its user interface is more responsive. There are other opensource firmwares but these are the 2 that I have tried.

You could also use the Thibor firmware.

That's what I have on my WRT54G v 2.2. Works great. I know I could try Tomato, etc, but right now I am seeing how much of a personal uptime record I can set with this router (184 days and counting).

I am using a WRT54G with Thibor.. very very stable... never need to reset it.

I tried different firmwares like dd-wrt, alchemy and for me , Thibor is the best. Compatible with my xbox, wii etc...

There are never any stupid questions....right? Okay based on that assumption here goes. I've just hooked up the WRT54GL I bought based on the recommendations here. I've just used the default install method for now and have disabled the wireless component. For the question: is it normal after typing in the IP address in the browser bar that the router appears without any need for typing in a username or password. I have setup a password in the router settings, I'm just wondering why I am not being prompted as I was with the old Dlink? Have I done something wrong?

When you say you have used the default install method I am assuming you have installed DD-WRT. If this is the case then yes, the first time you type the ip address (usually 192.168.1.1 unless you changed it) of the router, it will indeed bring you up to the DD-WRT "control panel" without the need to type in the userid and password. However, once you select an option on the menubar on the top of the page, you will be prompted.

Mine always ask for a password, with stock firmare or DDWRT... do you have some password save feature or automatic form fill type program running (like firefox has)? Try erasing your cookies/temp internet files and see if that fixes it.

Yep, it was the erasing cookie thing that fixed it in Firefox. Thanks, told you it was a stupid question.

I didn't do the DD-WRT as I just don't know enough about it yet. Can the firmware be flashed anytime if I decide to do it down the road?

Yep you can flash it anytime and if you don't want it anymore for some reason you can just flash the latest stock firmware from linksys site back on.... good as new!

It's not some complex hack you have to do, you just update the firmware like normal but use the DDWRT file instead of the linksys one.

(depending on the version of your router there could be another step or 2... check the DDWRT site)