More reviews and round-up's

[scotty]

I would like to see more summaries and reviews of common networking equipment. This site has some god articles on here, but it would be nice to see some articles along the lines of 'Routers under $100 compared', or something of the sort. There's lots of charts on here, but it seems to get thin when one wants fairly straight forward information on a class of products...

Keep up the good work!

[thiggins]

Thanks for the suggestion, Scotty. Round-ups take a lot of work, especially for wireless products. Then people complain that the round-up reviews are detailed enough! Yeesh!

But we've done a few. Did you see:
Cheap Draft 802.11n Router Roundup
8 Port Gigabit Switch Roundup
Cheap Router Roundup

[scotty]

I hear ya. Perhaps even a blog-style post where you don't have to get into too much detail, like 'In the past 6 months, this router has stood out'. Anandtech does this pretty well with 'Anand's picks'. Perhaps a bi-monthly 'SNB's Picks' for routers, switches, and NAS's in a few different price categories.

[thiggins]

The problem that I have with "Picks" is the same one I have with product scoring, "Editor's Choice", etc. It assumes that I know what is best.

It also shortcuts the homework that a buyer needs to do in order to make the right choice for him / her.

On the other hand, I understand that everyone is busy and many times just wants to be told what to buy.

Maybe I'm overcomplicating something that could be simple...

[W!reT@p]

Three things
1. This forum is gonna be awesome, i told all my friends at work today.
2. I wish quick reply was always enabled, not grayed out so yo have to click on the previous post
3. I agree with both of you to an extent, but i wish we had like a best kit list/editors choice/picks for high-end/mid-range/entry-level, just because today in networking there is just really unlimited choices and for a lot of people who arent very well versed picking a networking component can be a very daunting task, picks would help steer those folks in the right direction. Also whether someone/site etc. says this is the best product, someone who is in the market has probably already decided to either do the necessary homework or not, i mean some people just don't do it anyway, and the ones that do do it every time.

[thiggins]

Originally Posted by W!reT@p

Three things
1. This forum is gonna be awesome, i told all my friends at work today.

Thanks for spreading the word!

Originally Posted by W!reT@p

2. I wish quick reply was always enabled, not grayed out so yo have to click on the previous post

That's the suggested setting, so that you can quick reply to specific posts and not to the thread. It's supposed to be more helpful to people who view in threaded mode. It can be changed easily. But I'd like to get more feedback first.

Originally Posted by W!reT@p

3. I agree with both of you to an extent, but i wish we had like a best kit list/editors choice/picks for high-end/mid-range/entry-level, just because today in networking there is just really unlimited choices and for a lot of people who arent very well versed picking a networking component can be a very daunting task, picks would help steer those folks in the right direction. Also whether someone/site etc. says this is the best product, someone who is in the market has probably already decided to either do the necessary homework or not, i mean some people just don't do it anyway, and the ones that do do it every time.

I get your point. I'm not completely closed to the idea. But it will take some convincing!

[Tamarin]

Maybe when it comes to the routers and the Tim's Picks, have the following categories:

1. The 'Budget isn't an issue' pick
2. The 'Small Business recommended' pick
3. The 'Good price-to-performance' pick
4. The 'Great value for Grandma' pick

That way you cover the major categories of what is good, for whom. The 'Gimme the best' crowd, a good business-grade choice, a compromise choice, and the cheapie you get for grandma.

Tam

[thiggins]

Interesting ideas for categories. But they are not exactly the ones that I would pick. I'd go more along the lines of the approach described in How To Choose the Right Router for You.

[scotty]

As a quick follow up, perhaps also adding reliability tests. Reliability is something that seems to have gone down in a lot of network products these days (at least as far as cheaper routers go). There seems to be droves of people online who have no end of problems time after time with many cheaper Linksys and Dlink units.

Perhaps something along the lines of a '5 day router marathon' where you do nothing but pound the crap out of cheap, mid-grade, and enthusiast grade routers for a couple days straight. I dunno, just a suggestion but it does seem the reliability seems to be a big issue these days. Heck, I've gone through 3 wrt54g's in the past 1.5 years.

[thiggins]

Reliability is somthing I've been thinking of doing a special article on. But what's the failure mode to look for? A puff of smoke? % of dropped packets?

I wonder if I can get any of the manufacturers to provide failure data? Hmmmm...