Any good Wireless Routers compatible with Vista?

[Leddy]

If you haven't gone out and bought a router yet, and you want a draft-n router the Linksys WRT160N is equally as good, plus it looks "new".

[TEX4S]

remove

[James812]

Haha painfully funny seeing "Vista Compatible Router"

As long as it follows the proper standards for tcp/ip and and 802.3 ect, it will work. In conclusion any switch or router will work with any computer no matter if its a mac, a pc with linux, windows xp or vista, does not matter. It only will not if its some really old router or switch that only uses ipx and you will never see a switch or router at all these days that can only run that.

[Brian M. Veteran]

If you haven't gone out and bought a router yet, and you want a draft-n router the Linksys WRT160N is equally as good, plus it looks "new".

I have that exact router, and it's brilliant (and the Draft-n works with the Draft-n card in my laptop too :)).

[Fred Derf Veteran]

If he wants to purchase a router from Microsoft's list then let him. I don't see the point in arguing with him.

I personally would never stop and consider if a router has been tested by Microsoft. I don't doubt that money was exchanged to get those routers on the list.

Before purchasing anything new, I'd upgrade the firmware on what you have. I'd also try to get the router out of the direct sunlight and into a cooler, darker place. I'd also check that your Vista box to see if it has the latest drivers for your Ethernet device (wireless or wired or whatever).

The problem with Draft-N devices is that they don't always mix and match well. If you always purchase products from one company than this might be mitigated.

[Shadrack]

Haha painfully funny seeing "Vista Compatible Router"

As long as it follows the proper standards for tcp/ip and and 802.3 ect, it will work. In conclusion any switch or router will work with any computer no matter if its a mac, a pc with linux, windows xp or vista, does not matter. It only will not if its some really old router or switch that only uses ipx and you will never see a switch or router at all these days that can only run that.

Would you people leave the OP alone! Geeze, he just wanted some help. No need to be smarmy about it! Its already been discussed that "Vista compatibility" for a router is non-sense. No need to keep bashing the OP over the head with it. It isn't like everyday users would know (or even should know) such things. Only the really geeky seem to be concerned with such matters, and unfortunately that makes me extremely geeky. But still, lay off the guy FFS.

[Aldur82]

To the OP, before returning the Netgear router I would suggest getting a firmware upgrade from the netgear website. If you're worried about warranty and such, the software that comes as part of the firmware upgrade will usually let you backup the copy of the firmware already in place. So if the upgrade doesn't work, you can just re-flash it with the saved version and the shop won't be able to tell the difference.

I don't know why people seem hell bent on bashing you for wanting something certified by microsoft as working (those lists are there for people who don't know as much about computers as some people on this forum).

[Maximum Error]

Getting a router that is compatable with not only windows vista enhanced wireless powersaving modes (some older wireless equipment isnt) and would allow you to use some of vista "speed increasing" (its in inverted commas cos am not sure it actually makes a difference) enhancements to the TCP/IP stack is something i would class as looking for a vista compatable router. If he is going to want to use vista's networking stack then he will need a good router.

For example - if you go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/too...gd/default.mspx then microsoft will test your connection and make sure your router can is a cone NAT, can support TCP advanced etc etc.

An exert from thier website explaining just one function of a "Vista" compatable router:-

A result of "Not supported" in this test does not impact your basic Internet connectivity. One possible reason for this result may be that your computer is connecting through an Internet router that acts as a symmetric NAT (view the detailed report to determine if this is the case). Microsoft has determined that symmetric NATs can block the traffic of programs that use IPv6 tunneling over IPv4 (see Teredo Overview for details of how this works). Failure to connect using IPv6 may cause these programs to not run or to have a degraded experience. It is also possible that the servers used to determine the NAT type are temporarily unreachable, in which case running the test again later will give a more accurate result.

Window scaling is a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) option introduced for addressing performance problems. Some Internet routers cause TCP data transfers that use window scaling to fail, particularly when there's a mismatch between the scales chosen by two computers transferring the data. This test downloads a series of Web documents of increasing length until either an incomplete download is encountered or all downloads succeed. Success indicates that your router allows Windows Vista to negotiate the best data transfer rate and help improve download speeds.

This test may take up to 60 seconds to run.

A result of "Supported" means that Windows Vista automatically uses window scaling to negotiate the best/largest data transfer rate and help improve download speeds.

If window scaling is not supported, your router cannot take advantage of network performance improvements for large file transfers. However, your basic Internet connectivity should not be affected.

So not only does he need to find a wireless device that will support the clients card going into super low power mode he also needs to have the right NAT and the correct functions to properly have a vista compatable router.

Please investigate the issue before bashing the OP for asking a perfectly reasonable question.

[DaDude]

To the OP, before returning the Netgear router I would suggest getting a firmware upgrade from the netgear website. If you're worried about warranty and such, the software that comes as part of the firmware upgrade will usually let you backup the copy of the firmware already in place. So if the upgrade doesn't work, you can just re-flash it with the saved version and the shop won't be able to tell the difference.

I don't know why people seem hell bent on bashing you for wanting something certified by microsoft as working (those lists are there for people who don't know as much about computers as some people on this forum).

Ok, will do. Thanks. I also don't know why people were getting mad at me. The only reason I was being hesitant with that Linksys router people were recommending is because I wanted something newer, faster, and stable. But according to people here, it's impossible to have all three. Brandon even threatened to have this thread closed if I don't go with his recommendation. So, that's why I decided to go for it. But before I do, I'll check for any upgrades and see if that would work.

[DaDude]

Getting a router that is compatable with not only windows vista enhanced wireless powersaving modes (some older wireless equipment isnt) and would allow you to use some of vista "speed increasing" (its in inverted commas cos am not sure it actually makes a difference) enhancements to the TCP/IP stack is something i would class as looking for a vista compatable router. If he is going to want to use vista's networking stack then he will need a good router.

For example - if you go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/too...gd/default.mspx then microsoft will test your connection and make sure your router can is a cone NAT, can support TCP advanced etc etc.

An exert from thier website explaining just one function of a "Vista" compatable router:-

So not only does he need to find a wireless device that will support the clients card going into super low power mode he also needs to have the right NAT and the correct functions to properly have a vista compatable router.

Please investigate the issue before bashing the OP for asking a perfectly reasonable question.

Thanks for your help. I did try that test before and it failed the "Network Address Translator Type" test when I used my older Linksys router. So there obviously is some sort of Vista problem with older routers. If it's not a compatibility issue, I don't know what it is.

[Maximum Error]

Yeah - it is quite off putting to see that routers people are recomending are years old. But rest assures i use the linksys WRT54 GL (or something like that) with the dd-wrt firmware and have the wireless functionality disabled and only use it as a router. It servers 5 vista machines and 2 xp machines and passes every test Microsoft have thus providing a good network for my XP machines and all the features vista wants to use for max performance.

I'm sorry the way people have acted with you here. Its been sad to watch.

[DaDude]

To be honest, I'm not that kind of person who gets upset when people get mad at me at forums. I believe forums are a good place to express your opinion and if you feel frustrated, by all means, let it out. But one thing I can't stand is when people get mad at me & resort to name-calling and then threaten to report me to a mod as if I'm the one causing trouble. Like I said, I had Vista problems with the my older Linksys router and it failed one of the tests on that link. So, I have reason to believe that there is some truth to "Vista compatible routers." But just because people like Brandon think it's "marketing," they assume that I'm here to stir up trouble and they report me to a mod.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Our moderators are capable of independent thought. Your thread breaks no rules on this site and so, reported or not, this thread remains open.

[DaDude]

Our moderators are capable of independent thought. Your thread breaks no rules on this site and so, reported or not, this thread remains open.

Thank you.

[gabalicious]

To be honest, I'm not that kind of person who gets upset when people get mad at me at forums. I believe forums are a good place to express your opinion and if you feel frustrated, by all means, let it out. But one thing I can't stand is when people get mad at me & resort to name-calling and then threaten to report me to a mod as if I'm the one causing trouble. Like I said, I had Vista problems with the my older Linksys router and it failed one of the tests on that link. So, I have reason to believe that there is some truth to "Vista compatible routers." But just because people like Brandon think it's "marketing," they assume that I'm here to stir up trouble and they report me to a mod.

i too have had problems with my router i'm currently thinking of getting a new wireless n router but i fear that i will have the same problems. all my routers that i have ever owned have had these problems but the problems persisted when i started beta testing vista. i dont get it that often now. but sometimes when i use bittorent, download a lot of files, or download a lot of game using the 360 the router freezes

any luck with the routers xraffle?

I think i have these problems because my dads computer is all the way upstairs and my xbox 360 is all the way in way in the Den and the packets don's transfer efficiently. maybe i will get a wireless n router and the Netgear Powerline HD Ethernet Adapters, and play around with them and find the best configurations?

Any suggestions people who have multiple computers running vista and a gaming device connected wirelessly for streaming content on what router to get?

[DaDude]

any luck with the routers xraffle?

Actually yes. I bought the Netgear WGR614 and it works like a charm. No more disconnecting problems. I guess my older router wasn't compatible with Vista or it was too old for my adapter.