Okay,

Seems that providing past experience with equipment that has worked/not worked is half the reason for being here.

While PC/MAC problems have very little to do with surviving a mishap in the woods, I felt it was a great topic as much of the survival knowledge is gained through the internet.

I was only bringing to light the fact that I had received the best results from an Apple router THREE YEARS before my family and I moved from PC to MAC.

Bang away as you wish, but I like purchasing items that last, and compared to the wireless routers I have owned from other major manufactures, the AirPort line of products has given me the best service.

Do enjoy the rest of your day, and have a wonderful weekend.

You should have bough a Netgear RT314 or Buffalo WHR-G54 then. The Buffalo is only three years old or so, but has run flawlessly (I loaded 3rd-party "Tomato" firmware on it). That Netgear router however, has to be getting close to 10 years old now. It's perfect. Been solid as a rock. Never hiccups or needs a reboot. Never.

You must have bought the wrong kind of routers if yours only last a year.

They've got a really good deal over at www.newegg.com on a Linksys WRT54GL wireless router right now. $49 plus free shipping! Linksys puts out some junk routers, but the 54GL is not one of those. Load it up with 3rd-party firmware (dd-wrt, tomato, etc). Note: The 54 "GL" is what you want, not something that sounds similar like the 54 "G". The differences are significant, and make for the difference between a marginal router and a fantastic one.

I am currently using a Draytek 2100VG router, which has been an excellent performer for the last couple of years. The only problem was file sharing over a wireless network which required an obscure telnet command to the router, which resolved the issue. As for Apple, they actually do have some nice well thought out and nicely designed bits of kit, but a premium price is required. The AirPort Extreme Base Station costs £139 in the UK but for the same cost a SME grade router such as the Draytek Vigor 2820 Series ADSL Router is available.

http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2820.html

With features such as Wireless N, direct dual VOIP phone connection ports, 3G wireless support, load balancing multiple WAN connections (ADSL + Ethernet cable etc) this is a router where keeping the internet connection alive vastly outperforms the Apple Airport Extreme in terms of capability if a telephone line goes down or the service provider decides not to give broadband anymore because the service provider has made a screw up. Apple even have short changed folks out of a LAN port having just 3 rather than 4. The Apple Airport Extreme Router sure looks pretty though and wouldn't be out of place sat next to the wide screen TV