The Draytek 2820n

After being a bit disatisfied with the facilities offered by my Netgear DG834G I was looking to find a broadband modem/router that did more.

I wanted multiple WiFi networks so that one would access the Internet only and the other would have access to devices and compluters wired to the router directly, ideally I wanted the ability to use 3G as a backup if the ADSL failed and I wanted the ability to directly connect a USB printer so we could print from a laptop without turning a desktop machine on.

The Draytek 2820n was a fairly good fit and while around £150 for a new one seemed a bit steep as against a £30 - £50 Netgear I thought I would give it a go as the alternative was a pile of seperate boxes.

There was a bit of a learning curve with it, not helped by the support documentation and firmware being out of step with VLAN creation. The multiple WiFi networks was easy to set up. A "legacy" WEP network for things that don't support WPA, the rest on multiple WPA networks with access to internal resources (PC, NAS) as needed created through VLANS on a tick box basis.

Very good.

There was a bit of paper wasted before I got the printer on USB working well (following the instructions for Windows, it "just works" with the IP address for Mac OSX).

All in all very pleased.

There have been a few connection drops but this may be the "training period" with the BT ADSL. I also sometimes got them with the Netgear.

If I could change the Draytek what would I add ?

1) More USB ports so I could have a small USB key for some Internet accessible storage as well as the printer.

2) More USB ports so I could have a USB broadband modem on it as well.

3) More Ethernet ports, 8 would be good, as I've used all 4 and would like to avoid a small extra hub.

All in all, the Draytek 2820n is a worthy upgrade from the Netgear.