Best wireless router for aorund $100 (give or take)

A couple of months ago I was looking for something that got better range than my old, crappy router and I thought I could be cheap and get a router + repeater ( this + this for $40 total) to solve my range problems.

It hasn't worked. I get random dropped connections and even though connecting on my 360 says I have full bars I can't get through even a short Netflix video without tons of buffering problems.

I figure it is time to actually spend some money and get a decent router that is reliable, no random drops, and has good range, ~50 feet through five walls. I have been told all of these are good before,

Newegg.com - D-Link DIR-655 Wireless Broadband Router Xtreme N Gigabit 802.11b/g/n up to 300Mbps/ USB port x1/ Intelligent QoS Technology for Gaming

Newegg.com - LINKSYS E3000 Wireless Router simultaneous Dual Band Gigabit 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4GHz / 5GHz up to 300Mbps with USB Built-in UPnP AV Media Server

Newegg.com - NETGEAR WNDR3700-100NAS Wireless Gigabit Router/ USB port Rangemax 2.4/5GHz Simultaneous N600 Dual Band 802.11a/b/g/n

Newegg.com - Linksys WRT320N 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4/5GHz Selectable Dual-Band Wireless Gigabit Router up to 300Mbps

The E3000 seems like a great deal, and I have heard great things about it, but I have also heard great things about the other three. Any help would be appreciated.

 

The Neatgear 3700 is the overall best out of the ones you listed.

In fact, none of other ones are even competitors to it. The 3700's direct competitor in the linksys side is the E4200 or the Asus N56U.

 

Two routers to rule out straight away- D-Link DIR-655 for being a load of crap (you can visit D-Link forums to see how many complaints there are but mind you- they delete threads so it's not all that was there). D-Link has also the worst firmware support in the world and that's what made this otherwise good router unusable for lots of users.

Another one that is clearly over-matched here is WRT320N- while it is a good router it's a mid range solution (not simultaneous dual band- wither 2.4GHz or 5GHz) and there's no point in even considering it if the likes of E3000 with simultaneous dual band, twice the RAM and a lot faster CPU are actually cheaper.

Both E3000 and WNDR3700 are great- WNDR3700 used to be better than it is but v2 has seen some changes to cut the costs and these days both are pretty evenly matched. Netgear WNDR3700 still has the edge over E3000- partly because of faster main chip and partly because the range and throughput are marginally better. That said- if I'm not missing something E3000 is $20 cheaper and that makes it even more interesting.

Price aside I would have chosen Netgear but Linksys is a close second and for $20 less I'd go for the latter.

@Melody

WNDR3700 is a direct competitor of E3000 while a direct competitor of E4200 is a WNDR4000 or WNDR4500.
You should compare routers of roughly the same capabilities and in the same price-range that's why 300mbps go against 300mbps ones and 450mbps are compared against another 450mbps units.

BTW Linksys E3000 is based on the same CPU and has the same amount of RAM as E4200

 

So would you guys say the Netgear is worth $20 more over the E3000? Would the Asus N56U be worth the $10 more over the Netgear 3700?

 

Worth $20 more than WNDR3700- not really, neither throughput nor range are significantly better (I'm too lazy to compile data but smallnetbuilder has everything for you).

ASUS has one major flaw- it's not supported by any third party firmware (which is a good insurance policy even if you don't need it at the moment) and to top it off ASUS' firmware support is rather flaky although they did pretty good with this particular unit.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying that WNDR3700 is not the best or that I wouldn't recommend it. I'm just saying that WNDR3700v2 which is on sale now is worse than WNDR3700v1 was which makes WNDR3700v2 and E3000 pretty close.
So if I was spending my money I'd go for E3000 based on a price.

 

Regardless of the one you choose, you won't regret purchasing either of those routers.

 

I was just about to order the E3000 but then I saw this

Newegg.com - Recertified: Linksys E3000-RM 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4/5GHz Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Router

And I was curious as to whether it is the same thing?

 

Recertified means that it was a unit that was returned, inspected and that any defective component was replaced. It should work exactly like a brand new E3000.

 

Great. I was just thrown off because of the 'RM' at the end but I figured that was signifying it was refurbished, I just wanted to be sure.

 

refurbed E4200 are about 99 from linksys during the holidays (sometimes a coupon code).

check slickdeals for whos selling them at that price now. I got mine and love it!!!

 

I bought my Linksys/Cisco E4200 for $129 at Costco, buy not sure they still have them. Now, Linksys/Cisco has come out with the E4200 V2, but is still at retail, being new on the market, and is $199, but! I think it will be the router all others are judged by, but you certainly can't go wrong with the E4200 at $129. I have seen the E4200 for $129 on Amazon as well, but not lately, this was about 4-5 months ago. I am a total newb at wireless so all info I give should be taken with a grain of salt, but, I have done a lot of research, and decided to buy what I considered the best from all the reviews, and information I read. However, Buying the best may not have been the best for my situation. I probably spent more than I needed as I have nothing that will run on the 5ghz band! lol So, why buy a dual, simultanious router when I cannot use it's full potential? Now, being strapped for cash as I need money to upgrade my Best Buy bought HP dv6-6117dx, I am considering returning it to Costco, and getting a $50 router, maybe the Cisco E1200 @ $49 or the NETGEAR N600 Wireless Dual Band Router WNDR3400 @ $57 on Amazon Which does basically the same thing, but probably doesn't have all the features, which again, I don't need. I live in a small appt, do not stream anything, just internet to my laptop, and hopefully printer eventually when I figure it all out, and have the time to set it up. I may be wrong on this so someone correct me if I am mistaken, there are basically no laptops out there that have a/b/g/n, the a/ signifies the laptops ability to run on the 5ghz band. The only laptop I have seen to have this built in is a few of the Asus's which are very nice laptops also, and affordable. Hope this gives you some things to think about as far as need vs cost for the best. Also, something to consider if inexperienced, like me, in the technical aspects of wireless, is the kind of service/support you will recieve from the respective company you choose. I was about to take my $129 E4200 back because it dissconnected a few times requiring a call to Linksys support, and I found out the router only came with 90 day support, a 1 year warranty, but only 90 day support? The support guy was offering me an extension to 1 year for another $49 (Right then and there I decide it was going back as I do not have the knowledge needed to fix problems with the wireless without researching the net, and spending hours learning for myself) when he suddenly stated mine had already been extended to 1 year support? This may be a Costco thing, not sure, but after a few calls, the router has been up and running fine for over a month now, and I am hesitant to return it as it is one of the better routers available. But, like you seem to be, I am strapped, and may need that money to buy a better, cutomized laptop from HP. Please search my name as I am going to post a thread about getting the X/fire edition of the dv6z, simular to what you have, and I have a few questions. Thanks, and hope this gave you some things to consider in the least.