Best Router for multiple wireless connections?

I am looking to buy a new router and have no idea where to start. I do know that it will mostly be used for wireless laptops and maybe a wireless desktop. My house is a two-story with a basement (approx. 2500 sq ft.) and our router needs to stay in the top corner of our house, for some weird reason our Internet only works there. We currently have as many as 6 laptops using the Internet at once, all wireless. Our current router is about 5 years old and the wireless signal is diminishing rapidly.

Thanks in advance!

 

Thats pretty big house, I basically have 2 wifi router and they are bridge. So I can get good signal throughout the house and the garden.

Just get a repeater and put it in the basement or the middle floor.

 

Here is a router chart from Smallnetbuilder.com you have the option to chose 4 types of throughput including Simultaneous Throughput.

Version 2 draft of the 11n spec has been approved, but it will be 3-6 mo before we see any hardware be shipped with this firmware. V2 hardware should meet the final spec. So you may want to wait till this hardware is released or just avoid the 11n all together. There is no guarantee that the current hardware will fully meet the spec.

Another option in your case would be to replace the wireless router with a wired one, so you can position the AP in a more optium location, like the 1st floor. The AP connect like a pc, requiring a lan port. So you loose one connection on your router. Seperate AP usually out perform the combo units because it is not sharing hardware (cpu, ram), has less heat to deal with. This the way my setup is.

 

I am looking for a wireless router too. but my needs are much less. my apartment is 900 sq. feet, and all i want to connect is my laptop (intel ABG) and a new wireless printer i just bought, HP C6180 which has wireless G capability. Can anybody recommend a good and secure router. Safety is IMPORTANT to me.
P.S: excuse my question since i am still a newbie in the networking world, but why do people say that a wireless router provides a hardware based firewall???

 

Get a router that can run ddwrt and add an external antenna and you should be set.

 

Your space is small so most any will work. If you go with a ABG router, you can run one nb on 11a which has a lot less interference. While the other on 11g.