i got the airlink101 ar420W wireless router to replace the linksys.
this is actually my 6th or 7th router since i went wireless years ago. tried all the major brands. it replaced the linksys i used for about 4 years until that died a slooow, long painful death (suffered from heat stroke). so this is not new territory for me (i find it curious each one uses slightly different terminology, and approaches basic tasks in a different manner). once they're in place, they there sit for years really.
honestly i was just looking for a cheap replacement, and i didn't need the absolute latest features, just the usual suspects. namely port forwarding for some random services i host at the homestead.
everything went pretty smooth except for one critical feature.
it does not route traffic properly!
lemme explain, for the casual home user, it works just fine. for *anyone* hosting a web page (really any other service), i found a tiny but rather annoying point. if you use your public name (yourdomainname.com) or public 'external' ip from inside the local area network --it will not route that traffic. from outside the port forward and nat works like a champ. but try using your external ip from inside, you directed to the unit's admin screen (at least on the web side, not sure about other ports -but i can tell you it won't work, you're packets won't go anywhere).
every other router out there routes this traffic, usually by just sending the packets upstream (which turn around and come back). but the airlink doesn't --which would be fine if it instead sent the packets directly to the proper destination (a local machine) using NAT --but it doesn't do that either. really means you can't get to your own "home" sites via the public names/ip while actually surfing at home.
hmm, did i go too cheap here? i don't think so. i believe someone just plain cut some corners at airlink, perhaps while they made the router 'more efficient'. must not have tested it. dunno really. you'd think hosting your own site and being able to access that site through the router would make the list. maybe my model is just a bum unit.
tech support pointed out you can use the internal ip to get to your machine inside the network. yes, true of course, except for the fact if you use multi-homed domains to host multiple sites on one web machine, the server will no longer resolve the site name properly. can't do it. the problem extends to all the port forwards (smtp, terminal server, ftp). requiring jumping through hoops in order to get things working once you migrate domains (work-home-work).
one work-around is to set up a hosts file to force the local machine into resolving the domain name into the local ip set. a hassle, but works. you have to switch this every time (then say, dump your dns cache). not a hoop i like to jump through over and over.
another work around is to dump the airlink and get nearly any other router out there on the market. all the rest do this properly.
oh well, now i have a spare wireless access point i can take on the road, make networking easy there, no fussing with peer-to-peer networking (for my own net), all without having to power the home network down. in fact i might add an wifi-ethernet bridge for more options (wardriving, and setting up base camp at a remote site).
ok i called airlink one last time, they seem to acknowledge the problem and their level 3 support group is offering a replacement to a more current model (due out in a month), so maybe they can save their name. tech support has been fairly prompt (also that's good, i give 'em credit there, even if they didn't call me back right away).
it's still unclear if the newer model will fix the problem, but i'll give 'em some hope. the product has been fine by most other measures.
we'll see where they take it from here, i'm still hopeful they can make it right er, do the right thing.