Hello I am looking for a good router to put in front of my cable modem. I live with two roommates and we share one cable Internet connection behind a low budget D-Link router. Unfortunately several of the applications that I run require port forwarding over large ranges of ports and my router can not handle port ranges nor more than 20 forwarded ports, plus the router is slow with port forwarded for some reason. So now I am in the market for a new router. What are some good brands/models? I am looking for one that can do port ranges (obviously) and is of high quality so I can get maximum speed and preferably easy to use and configure as I am not networking guru. It would also be good if it did not exceed $100. I don't need any bells and whistles like VPN or Wi-Fi just a good functional wired router. Thank you for any help that you can provide.

Check out this link: http://www.ozcableguy.com/routers.html I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

www.ipcop.org Just need an old computer (pentium 2 or better) with two NIC's and pretty much any sized hard drive. It'll do your ranges, plus intrusion detection, vpn, web caching proxy, all easy to configure. Requires no linux experience whatsoever as it's completely admin'ed through webforms. Did I mention it's free? :-) Otherwise, I'd get a Linksys WRT54G on sale most places for $40 after rebate. Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina. www.redcross.org

Like you, I was in a situation where I needed an excellent quality wired router to share a 5.0Mbps internet connection between two desktops. I researched it for quite a while and decided the NetGear RP614 (link below) was the best choice. In ninety days it has never dropped the connection, and bandwidth stays near 5.0Mbps or higher (on both machines simulatenously) even when downloading large files on both machines. The software for installation is incredibly intuitive, and it is hyperlinked to NetGear's web site for configuring, extending, and to test port ranges. It acts as a physical firewall through which I have had no software firewall detection of intrusions since. (Whereas the software firewall occasionally detected intrusions before I had installed the RP614 router.) I bought it for $29.99 after rebate at Buy.com . http://www.netgear.com/products/details/ RP614.php

Thank you all for your advice it has been most helpful.