Mistake numero uno when it comes to consumer grade networking equipment: thinking that brand means anything. Netgear, D-Link, Linksys, Buffalo, pretty much any

Mistake numero uno when it comes to consumer grade networking equipment: thinking that brand means anything. Netgear, D-Link, Linksys, Buffalo, pretty much any brand you can think of do not really do the heavy lifting of the design work on anything you're going to find on the shelf at Best Buy. Instead, they take reference designs from chipset vendors like Broadcom, Atheros, or RALink then brand the firmware and put the whole think in whatever plastic package they want. What really matters when it comes to consumer networking gear is what internal chipset the manufacturer is using on a particular model; this can be tricky because manufacturers have been known to do things like completely change the internal hardware while retaining the same model number. Either way, the chipset is what's going to determine what the unit is capable of, whether it's hackable, and what problems if may have. Whether it says Netgear or Linksys on the box is of relatively little consequence. (Though I will admit I tend to look at Buffalo gear first when I'm shopping simply because they're pretty good at putting out inexpensive, hackable hardware. As others have noted, their factory firmware on some newer models is actually a branded version of DD-WRT).