Wireless Routers

[fredtgreco]

I'm looking to get a new wireless router. My current router (a D-Link DIR-655) is 3 or 4 years old, and has been giving me trouble lately. I have a bunch of devices connecting to it, and I think the strain and age of it are taking a toll. So I saw this non-cutting edge (but decent looking) Netgear WNDR3400 for $30. The high end Netgear N900 can be had for about $180. So that got me thinking: should I just get the $30 decent router, or is there something else I should be looking at? I need N coverage (three of our laptops have N), and it needs to work with a bunch of devices (laptops, iPhones, iPads). Parental controls would be a plus (the Netgear claims those), but not a necessity, especially if they are hard to configure. I'm not sure I need Gigabit ports, since my home does not have Ethernet wiring (so anything connecting outside of the room with the modem and router will be wireless anyway.

Any recommendations on these, or a different router?

 

[jfschultz]

With a mix of devices you might consider a dual band router. These set up two wireless networks with b/g at 2.4 GHz and n at 5 Ghz. The downside though is that the 5Ghz does not seem to handle walls and floors as well as 2.4 GHz.

 

[fredtgreco]

With a mix of devices you might consider a dual band router. These set up two wireless networks with b/g at 2.4 GHz and n at 5 Ghz. The downside though is that the 5Ghz does not seem to handle walls and floors as well as 2.4 GHz.

I agree with you about the dual band. Both Netgears I was looking at are dual band, but have other differences. I also don't know if there is a better dual band router made by D-Link, or Linksys, etc.

 

[MLCOPE2]

I would highly recommend the apple extreme base station. It has dual band capability, supports both mac and pc's, allows you to set up a guest network (to allow outsiders access to the internet but not any important files you may not want shared), it has one usb port for wireless printer or hard drive sharing (which can be expanded with a simple usb hub), and to be quite honest it looks pretty cool too. I have had zero complaints or problems in the 18 months that I have owned mine.

 

[littlepeople]

Net gear should be fine. They are the most "open" too which is nice. Get the 3400, and if you want to upgrade later to a 750 or 900, you can use the 3400 as a range extender. Most devices to date won't utilize the speeds that a 750 or 900 put out so don't get too hung up on that. And remember that it's all going to be bottlenecked by your ISP in the end. A net gear 900 with gigabit ports is only useful if you are pulling gigs of content "across" the house, not from the outside web.

Short of a Cisco wireless AP, netgear is as good as it gets. Avoid d-link, buffalo, linksys like the plaque. Belkin makes great cables, and apple makes really nice fashion statements; but I wouldn't buy a router from them.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Fred,

Ironically, I have a pretty nice Linksys router with 802.11n capabilities but it never works well at all in N. I just keep my router in G mode. Might have to do with attenuation and might have to do with the way the device is engineered.

I'm not sure this is the best forum for getting the best advice. Whenever I try to research something like this I typically go to NewEgg to see user comments on the popular wireless routers. I also will pop into Anandtech now and again as they not only have killer tech advice in their fora but also a pretty decent hot deals forum.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Amazon.com: ASUS Black Diamond Dual Band Wireless-N 600 Router (RT-N56U): Electronics

ASUS RT-N56U Black Diamond Dual-Band Gigabit Wireless-N Router Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

 

[jambo]

You might want to change the output channel of the router. The default channel wireless routers transmit on is channel 6. As wireless has been getting more and more popular then anyone within 200ft of you would almost certainly be broadcasting on channel 6 which can clog things up and affect speed and reception. On D-Link routers you can access the wireless properties at http://192.168.0.1 with a username of admin and leave the password field blank. You could change the output, which would say either chan 6 or auto, and move it up to chan 9 or 11. If it is dual band then the 2nd channel is usually 4 channels apart. Changing the output channel, often but not always, solves wireless issues I would recommend doing the same with the Netgear one should you go for that. This can be accessed at the same address with a username of admin and password of changeme. It was 3-4 years ago when N routers hit the market so check your D-Link is N and not G. I wouldn't think you could buy a new G router now as they have been consigned to history