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What Router Should I Get?


Phil K.

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Hey guys just thought you guys might have a good experiences with some off the shelf routers. I am currently in the market for a new on. My current one is the Linksys WRT54GL. I love it! Installed tomato and it runs great, except that it is still 10/100. I am looking for a new router with 10/100/1000 on all ports, or at least the LAN ports, the ability to install ddwrt, tomato, openwrt or similar and if possible wireless N.

I am currently looking at these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704038

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124387

- for the linksys one, I heard from a friend that when he installed ddwrt on it, it didnt run very well, so I am really liking the TP-LINK better especially because its about half the price.

Thoughts?

Cheers!

Phil

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Definately DONT get the Linksys. I bought one on sale, took it home, and it would not pull a dhcp address from my ISP. Took it back, got another one, the ethernet ports were bad... I had enough, bought a D-Link, wireless was shot... Ended up with a Netgear... Honestly Best Home router I've ever had. I now have a cisco 871w. If your into managed devices, you should definately check out cisco's 800 series. You can get them pretty cheap used on ebay...

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Why don't you buy a Linksys WAG320N, its made by Cisco by the way.

And that's what I am getting, since my current modem keeps playing up on me.

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My latest is a Cicsco Linksys E2000. Its a pretty nice one for a consumer router and I've been happy with it. https access configurable and can disable standard http, fast, reliable, SPI firewall with ability to block certain things right on the router, like Java, cookies, etc, with A, B, G, and N capabilities.

And Linksys routers have always served me well in the past, not sure whats up with the ones acsbmx_1 bought, but I've had many Linksys products and all of them have been top notch for me. Last Linksys router I had for almost 10 years before it fried itself.

Belkin on the other hand, stay clear of them. Total plastic toys. Just garbage, faulty, and always seem to die in a year or two. Buffalo, while not the fastest or most reliable, seem affordable and most of them can be flashed with DD-WRT since they run similar hardware and firmware to their comparable Linksys flavors.

If I were you, I would go with the Linksys, just for the added features, although seems kind of lacking with only 10/100 on the wired ethernet side while the TP-link has 10/100/1000 ports. Just check the specs from the manufacturers site on the TP-Link though, as the last one I was in, lacked the basic functionality to port forward, which seems almost a default necessity for routers.

This is the one I have with the same price tag as the Linksys you mentioned, only mine has 10/100/1000 ports and no external antennas: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124386&Tpk=Linksys%20E2000

Edited by digip
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Build your own home router?

This is true, but not something everyone has money for or space for the extra pc. In my apartment bed room with two other machines on 24/7, its already warm enough in here and I don't have the space to move it out of the room to say a server closet and pull cables, although I could use the wireless side. Once I get a house though, I think I will be trying my hands at building my own Linux router/firewall setup or something like untangle, but not every home user needs or wants to build their own router. Sometimes we just need to get online with decent speed and functionality, and with the right router purchase, it does what we want. For someone like Darren with multiple subnets and incoming lines to his place, an off the shelf consumer router would just choke to death and its understandable why he would want to build his own vs spending more money on high end Cisco switches and routers.

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I recommend getting ASUS RT-N16 its 10/100/1000. Have plenty of ram and memory, 3 antennas, only 2.4Ghz, no 5Ghz.

It works well with dd-wrt.

After upgrading to that from ols ZyXel my speeds have got a lot faster. I can get same speeds using wget or axel. (normally downloading or using download accelerator) now 660KB/s on both.

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Back it up a little decided what you want from the device and don't believe what they say about "Cisco" rubbing of an linksys the products are worlds apart. We had 150% failure rate on Linksys 24 port switches i.e the ones that got warranty replaced also failed in under a month.

IPv6 if your going to buy a router get one that supports it, non of this silly 6/4 crap.

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Thanks for all the responses guys, I will defiantly look into all your suggestions. I wish I could run a computer 24/7 as my router but obviously that would be a bit expensive.

Thanks again!

Phil

Micro ATX probably runs almost the same power usage as the "toy" routers...

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I am in a bit of the same pickle. I have a cheap TrendNet AP that runs 802.11n 40mhz channels, but my area is congested to the point that I am not getting as much throughput as when I first put it in. I have been looking at some of the higher end dual-band boxes like Cisco/Linksys E4200, Netgear n600, and then comparing it to rolling my own with some spare parts I have. My biggest issue is streaming 1080p between the first and second floor of my house (living room to bedroom) and it is just not stable enough at 2.4ghz. I tried powerline network adapters (I have 3 I can sell someone, they work great - not). When someone finds the perfect router running at 5ghz with tremendous range and bandwidth for $25 (or even up to $100 I guess) please let me know...

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802.11 N works on both the 2.4 and 5ghz frequency. 802.11 B and G only work on the 2.4. Set your router to N only, and try again, see what happens. For best results, don't allow people in your house to use 802.11 B, as it will cause the network to drop speeds to match the 11mb throughput limit found in the B standard(on most consumer routers). Also, make sure you secure the router, as someone next door could be leaching and eating your bandwidth and causing the issues you seem to be having.

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Digip, I understand those things. My current radio is 2.4ghz, is set to greenfield, 802.11n only. I did try mixed mode for a while to see if it would play nicer with the congestion, but it did not. It is a matter of congestion on the 2.4ghz spectrum that is causing my issues. I can see about 35 networks with my onboard wireless from my house and my neighbors are all savvy enough to use 1-6-11 already, so I am using 10 for now but getting a lot of retransmits/collisions. I understand networking and wireless pretty well.

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Digip, I understand those things. My current radio is 2.4ghz, is set to greenfield, 802.11n only. I did try mixed mode for a while to see if it would play nicer with the congestion, but it did not. It is a matter of congestion on the 2.4ghz spectrum that is causing my issues. I can see about 35 networks with my onboard wireless from my house and my neighbors are all savvy enough to use 1-6-11 already, so I am using 10 for now but getting a lot of retransmits/collisions. I understand networking and wireless pretty well.

Can you tell it to use 5ghz frequency only? I'm pretty much in the same boat as you and can see a good 15-20 APs from my apartment. The only other suggestions I can think of are run some ethernet cable between floors, build or buy a signal booster/repeater, or some better antenna equipment that faces each other between walls/floors and see if that helps boost your signal.

Channel 1 6 and 11 will share the channel above and below themselves as well, so try going to like channels 3,4,8 and 9 and see if that works better. I know everyone says use 1 6 and 11 for best spread and less interference, but in an area saturated in routers, you may just have to let it roam and channel hop. If your router supports channel 14, you could probably force the wireless NICs to 14 as well. I know my laptop lets me see up to channel 14, but my router doesn't have anything available above 11.

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Yeah, most of the stuff I have played with in the past can be set to use 5ghz only. 802.11n does not require dual bands. I was hopeful someone on there was using 5ghz and had a good idea what equipment might have good performance/range for it.

I choose 10 because it had the least overall overlap. At 40mhz channel spread, it uses 2 channels, 10-6 IIRC. Kind of a d*ck move, but it is still a little better performance (for me) than running strictly 20mhz (single) channels. I had been running dd-wrt on channel 14 for WDS, but managed to get some cable pulled and did not need that anymore so it is decommissioned. Most of my equipment did not work at 14mhz and I did not have the desire/time to mess with it to change the country codes, etc..

It all works, I just want it to work better; as such, I will just Try Harder!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Build your own home router?

I thought I would check back in here and tell you guys what I ended up going with.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400053320685&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_2854wt_1141

I figured this solution, though not the most cost effective, was definitely the most fun. I already had a flash card that plugs into IDE and a 1U power supply.

Anyways this should be fun to setup, and it will let me use any spare wireless routers, to extend my wireless network.

Just ordered it so I will come back, once i get it setup to let you guys know how it goes.

Cheers,

Phil

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I thought I would check back in here and tell you guys what I ended up going with.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400053320685&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_2854wt_1141

I figured this solution, though not the most cost effective, was definitely the most fun. I already had a flash card that plugs into IDE and a 1U power supply.

Anyways this should be fun to setup, and it will let me use any spare wireless routers, to extend my wireless network.

Just ordered it so I will come back, once i get it setup to let you guys know how it goes.

Cheers,

Phil

If you wanted something cheaper but similar specs(only AMD, not Intel) try http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153155R&cm_re=jetway-_-13-153-155R-_-Product

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If you wanted something cheaper but similar specs(only AMD, not Intel) try http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153155R&cm_re=jetway-_-13-153-155R-_-Product

Digip, for me it was that it had multiple NICs and processor already built in. The board you found was cheaper, but I would still need a processor and a few extra NICs. Also, I am always hesitant in buying an open box item, though i just bought my motherboard off ebay, so to each his own. ;) Maybe your route would have been cheaper, oh well too late now.

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