Hi. I was looking for a recommendation on a router and some help and tips please. I hope someone can help. Security is a big concern. If there's another forum more suited to my post please let me know and I'll post it there. Thank you! Anyway, here's the situation...

My girlfriend recently ordered a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop- Intel Core2 Duo 2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache) with Windows XP Home Edition. It comes with a Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Wi-Fi Internal Card and a Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem.

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 PC from 2002 running Windows XP Pro. It's a Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz with 768MB of ram. Yes I know... it's probably time to get something new.

We want to be able to surf the net on both the laptop and the tower at the same time. Some help in this area and a router recommendation would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Well, I just recently purchased this router. It works very well, and it supports the new "N" wireless standards as well the earlier "B" and "G" standards. You didn't specify whether you wanted wireless as well as wired, but in many cases, the wireless versions of routers are actually less expensive than their wired-only counterparts. Reason? Because they sell many more of the wired/wireless ones, so the unit costs go down.

Here's a link on it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156226

You can get less expensive routers, many are as little as $50 depending on the features you want. The advantage of this one is it does support all the latest features, and as you upgrade systems it will support them.

In terms of security, I would say Linksys routers are easy to configure.

There are others which I prefer, but you probably will find it a little hard as compared with Linksys.

They are 3Com (some old models don't support the latest WPA2 encryption) , D-Link, Netgear, Aztech and Edimax.

Edimax is one of the cheapest routers I know of, but to follow the instructions to set it up is a headache. Eventually, I gave up and went to exchange for a D-Link router.

The current one I'm using - http://www.dlink.com.sg/products/dlhome.asp?sec=0&cid=3&pid=501

This one has an ADSL modem integrated as well, so if you are using ADSL connections, this would save you a little headache. Some people just have problems getting a router + modem to work with each other (I'm one of them, so I get this).

Two disadvantages:

1. Prices are higher.
2. It's what investors call "putting all your eggs in one basket". If either components die, you have to buy a brand new one.

Thank you very much for the feedback! It helps! I appreciate it!