My router is dying, my wireless network disappeared completly the other day and I am starting to see many other exciting quality of sevice issues.
I've been looking around and I have no idea what to get. My current router is a netgear(model # unknown) that has worked well enough.
Here is my situation: two PCs, a file server and an Xbox 1 all plugged into the router's switch. On the wireless side I have 2 laptops, there is also a will that serves 95% of its time as a netflix appliance. The only on-line gaming that typically goes on is EQ2 on the hardwired PC's
I live in an apartment so range isn't a huge issue but there are 15 other wifi networks operating around me, if that makes a difference.
I am trying to spend less than $100 bucks, less would be better. I am not afraid to mod it(ddwrt or whatever)if needed to make it work properly. Thanks!
Well, it's quite slow, having been basically designed about nine years ago, but the Linksys WRT54GL (note the L!) is still a good option if you don't need a lot of throughput. It's got a Fast Ethernet switch, and it's rock-solid even with the default firmware; the L means it has Linux on it. It'll take DD-WRT if you want more features, but the L model's default firmware is generally fine.
You can't, however, route more than about 20 megabits through one, so file server performance is fairly lousy on the wireless, and it's now possible to get Internet service that it can't keep up with anymore.
If that's fast enough, you can get them for about $50 through Amazon. If you want gigabit, or N wireless, there are many many options, nearly all of which are WAY faster, but probably also a little out of your budget range.
I have a WRT54GL running Tomato. Love it.
I've considered a WRT54GL in the past, it's definitely on my short list.
Any opinions on the Linksys e1200 ?
It seems to have decent reviews on NewEgg.
I distrust all Linksys products except the 54GL. You might check for reviews on SmallNetBuilder; it's possible Linksys might have actually made something that doesn't suck.
Didn't we just do this?
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...
I was talking more expensive stuff in my thread, but I have no problems with that becoming more general.
We did but Mannishboy's price range was a lot higher than mine and I didn't want to muck up his thread.
We did but Mannishboy's price range was a lot higher than mine and I didn't want to muck up his thread.
I'd be happy to convert it to a catch all if we think we need it.
I distrust all Linksys products except the 54GL.
Care to elaborate? I don't know much about this subject.
Just that they make crappy stuff. The software is usually poor and the hardware is often unreliable. They had a few really superb products, way back when, with the BEFSR41 and 81 (4 and 8-port wired router/switches), and then the WRT54G and GS, and it's been downhill ever since. They haven't made anything really outstanding since, and a hell of a lot of crap. And it's only been worse ever since Cisco bought them.
Okay quick de-rail but is there any wireless router that can push gigabit through wireless signal?
Okay quick de-rail but is there any wireless router that can push gigabit through wireless signal?
No.
Nope. About the best you can get with wireless is 50ish megabits. If you can't run wires, the HomePlug stuff is often faster. Oddly, the crappier your house wiring, the better it often works.
Thought so, thanks! Okay back to router choices. Does Cisco make anything on the lower end that's worth looking at? I <3 Cisco at work their stuff just plain works.
Nope. About the best you can get with wireless is 50ish megabits. If you can't run wires, the HomePlug stuff is often faster. Oddly, the crappier your house wiring, the better it often works.
Man if Malor says its good, I take it as a ringing endorsement.
I never did trust the Ethernet through power lines tech but it's becoming more and more widespread over here.
Will be moving to a new home soon and I forsee running cables will be a problem. So think I'll switch to HomePlug when the time comes.
What's a good brand for them?
Well, I had only tolerable luck with HomePlug early on, but Guru is a big proponent of the tech. I think he's involved with it somehow, and thinks it's pretty good. He'd be the guy to ask.
I was just seeing that some of the newest wireless routers can push about 80 megabits now, with the new 40Mhz wide channels. If you're in an area where you can get a good signal, that's gonna be fast enough for the vast majority of purposes at this point.
Well my router died last night after almost 5 years of service. That suddenly narrowed my choices to "whatever they had at best buy".
Surprisingly they had a newer version of my current router(now with Wireless N!) and only 39.99. With luck it'll last me 5 more years and by then maybe my budget for routers will have improved.
Thanks for the help.
Sorry it blew up and forced you into a decision so quickly -- hopefully you'll end up liking the replacement. 
I just replaced my router with a Watchguard XTM 22w so I've got a Netgear FVS336G v1 hardware VPN router up for grabs.
I just replaced (as in a few hours ago) my old WRT54G with a Belkin N750. Setup was a bit of a pain as it wouldn't let me configure the router before it was connected to my cable modem (wanted to configure it from my laptop while perserving the current network for all the other devices in the house) and it required me to install some software that I didn't want to install (and it installed Growl without warning me or asking my permission which I hate) before I could switch to using the web configuration tool.
So far the wireless 5GHz N is quite a bit faster than my old 2.4GHz G was but it isn't anywhere near the claimed speed of course. It is running at about 160 Mbit/sec compared to 48 Mbit/sec of my old wireless network (haven't tested the G speeds because I don't care about those anymore), but it claims 480 Mbit/sec. The Gigabit Ethernet is also quite a bit faster but sadly not as fast as I was hoping for. I got about 80 Mbit/sec of my old routers theoretical throughput of 100 Mbit/sec but I am only getting about 400 Mbit/sec out of 1000 Mbit/sec with this new router (and with brand new Cat 6 cables too). Going to have to play around with stuff to see if I can get better performance out of shorter cable runs or maybe some Cat 5e and tweak more of the router settings.
Range wise the N network seems to be about the same or a little farther than my WRT54G but then range has never been an issue and I had the WRT45G's output set a notch or two higher than the default.
I'm going to test it out for a few days to see if it is a keeper or not.
The N750 is a three stream router (on the 5Ghz band only), so to get the full 450Mbps, you have to have a three stream network adapter, which are still fairly rare. Not that you'll still get the full quoted speed even with a three stream adapter, but it might give you a bump.
The N750 is a three stream router (on the 5Ghz band only), so to get the full 450Mbps, you have to have a three stream network adapter, which are still fairly rare. Not that you'll still get the full quoted speed even with a three stream adapter, but it might give you a bump.
Ah well that isn't going to be happening with my MacBook then. But it is actually connected via ethernet most of the time.
Last night as I was laying in bed I realized that my testing methodology for the wired speed tests were flawed. I realized that around 400 Mbit/sec was pretty close to the full potential of my external hard drives's interface. I will run tests again when I get off of work by transferring files from multiple computers and seeing what kind of speed I get on the receiving end with my desktop.
Just looked at Small Net Builder's review of that router. It sounds like they found excellent wired networking and 2.4Ghz, but a bit slower than some of the competition on the 5Ghz spectrum. So you might test both radios to see what works in your location.
Maybe they've improved stuff in firmware since the release, too.
Alright with an improved testing methodology (this time I am transferring from multiple computers, multiple hard drives, and multiple hard drive interfaces and watching the received speed on the target computer) I am seeing much better speeds of around 700 Mbit/sec. I will most often only be transferring at the slower 400 Mbit/sec speed due to the limitations of Firewire and USB 2.0 hard drives but that is still a 5x speed increase.
My main complaint now is that it is missing a Static DHCP Lease feature but I can solve that by just assigning Static IP's to the devices I need to port forward to. Going to have to look into something to automatically switch my Network settings on my MacBook depending on what network I am connecting to (know there is something out there that does this I just can't remember what it is called).
I'm going to need to get a dual band wireless N router soon. It looks like the Asus RT-N66U is the c*ck of the walk at the moment according to asmallnetbuilder.com. It doesn't look like you can put DD-WRT on it yet, though according to the DD-WRT website. I don't necessarily mind spending 180 bucks on a router if it's worth it, but if there is a better solution at 100, I would appreciate advice.
I want the wireless connection to be as fast as possible so I can do backups and transfer files quickly between my dedicated music server and my main PC. Currently, it is a very tedious process. I would also like to make sure it is quick enough to stream HD Video to my PS3 through JRiver's media server. I haven't started ripping my Blu-ray's, but I may do so a year or two down the road when HDD prices go back down.
I don't want a lot of the extra features like being able to plug a hard drive into it necessarily. I would like some good range, though, as our current wireless N router gives me 3 out of 5 bars (I don't know if that really matters all that much).
Is there any reason not to splurge a bit now? I don't know of any tech coming out in the near future that will make what I buy obsolete. If I can spend a bit extra now and it treats my right for a few years, I don't mind spending the extra cash.
802.11ac is gigabit wireless, but I think it's still a year or two out, and that's for the initial offering. I think you won't mind the splurging now.
802.11ac is gigabit wireless, but I think it's still a year or two out, and that's for the initial offering. I think you won't mind the splurging now. :)
Yeah, I'm not to worried about things changing too much for awhile then. My only question now is what the best setup is for $100 or so and would it be worth it to splurge on that ASUS router. If I could add 10 Mbps on my transfer speeds between computers, it might be worth it. I hate it when backups and transfers of say 150 GB take forever.
Have you thought about powerline? Powerline is often faster. It's really dependent on your house wiring -- oddly, crappier wiring tends to do better.
If it'll work in your house, it'll probably be faster than wireless.
Of course, the best possible speed will happen if you can run a physical wire. You can often hide them pretty well, even if you have to surface-mount them.
If wireless is the only option, I'm not too familiar with current routers, but I'd definitely wait until you know one either is or will be supported by DD-WRT. As long as you can run a free firmware on it, you shouldn't be forced to replace it before you're ready. It won't matter if the manufacturer abandons it, you'll still be getting security fixes, and possibly new features.
Don't forget to donate some money to the project if you use their firmware -- it's a major value-add on whatever hardware you buy.
I like my Belkin N750. From a performance stand-point it is everything I wanted and more. It is missing a few features I would like (the biggest being Static DHCP but that can be worked around by assigning static ip's on the machines that need them) and sadly I can't find any third party firmware for it. It is $100 bucks currently.
If you really want to boost your network performance wired is the way to go though. I have tested my wired network out and I managed to get it up to around 800 mbit/sec and might have been about to get higher if I had had a few more computers to test it with.
Have you thought about powerline? Powerline is often faster. It's really dependent on your house wiring -- oddly, crappier wiring tends to do better.
If it'll work in your house, it'll probably be faster than wireless.
Of course, the best possible speed will happen if you can run a physical wire. You can often hide them pretty well, even if you have to surface-mount them.
If wireless is the only option, I'm not too familiar with current routers, but I'd definitely wait until you know one either is or will be supported by DD-WRT. As long as you can run a free firmware on it, you shouldn't be forced to replace it before you're ready. That way, it won't matter if the manufacturer abandons it, you'll still be getting new patches.
Don't forget to donate some money if you use their firmware -- it's a major value-add on whatever hardware you buy.
I'm in an apartment, so wiring is definitely not an option for my room unfortunately. I really would like to go with DD-WRT if I can. If I find a decent one that supports that, I'll definitely throw some money their way assuming I like how it works. I imagine slightly older routers are more widely supported, so I could likely pick up a refurb on the cheap which would be nice. My ideal wireless router would be something that is slightly popular and a bit older so there is a refurb version, supports DD-WRT, is dual band wireless N, and is priced between $50-100.
I think the Netgear WNDR3700 has some fairly solid reviews. They are new on Newegg for $100. Anybody have any experience with those? It looks like getting DD-WRT on it might have some issues doing a little googling. I don't know if it would be worth it to me if there are potential problems.
As with many people, I would love to keep everything wired, but I can't.
Edit: I should add that the single band N router that I've been using and setup to a limited degree has been disappointing. I tested it copying a file from the SSD on my Desktop (Wireless-N) to my laptop SSD (Wireless-N) and get about a 5 Mbps transfer speed. I'm not really sure what the weak link is, but I would think I should be getting 20 Mbps to 30 Mbps or so from what I've read. Any advice on normal transfer speeds would be appreciated.
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