Buying a Router - Advice Needed

Looking to pick up a router to use as a wireless repeater since the wireless connection in the basement is spotty. It's not possible to run Cat5 to connect the two either, I need to have this router be able to wireless connect to the router upstairs and be able to wirelessly connect to this one (no wires anywhere except upstairs).

1) Is this even possible?
2) I was looking at these 3 routers since they seem to do well in terms of speed and functionality. Any other recommendations?

D-LINK DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router 802.11G/B/N Wireless Router Triple Antenna QoS - D-Link - DIR-655

Buffalo Airstation High Power N450 Gigabit Wireless N Router - Buffalo - WZR-HP-G450H

Linksys Expert E3200 Dual Band Wireless N Router 802.11B/G/N 4PORT GbE USB Port - Linksys - E3200-CA

 

From personal experience, I wouldn't touch that D-Link. That particular model has a long history, and most of it is not good.

The others should be fine, but I would also recommend looking at Netgear.

 

I have done the same research on a wireless router and after a reseller tried to sell me a Cisco 4200 v1 as Cisco 4200 v2 I was lucky enough to find the ASUS RT-N66U:
Amazon.com: ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router: Computers & Accessories
when I was on the verge to buy a 2+ years old router running open source DD-WRT or tomato USB, e.g. Asus RT-N16U
http://www.amazon.com/RT-N16-Wirele...G6R8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337716500&sr=8-1

because all the reviews were telling that no off-the-shelves wireless router is stable unless you unlock it with open source solutions which are mostly available for the Broadcom based router cpus.

Please do not blindly pay attention to the lower rated comments on Amazon.com for Asus RT-N66U unless you read them carefully. They were triggered mostly by the problems with the initial buggy firmware which have been successfully fixed. After those fixes even with the Asus firmware people report a very stable wireless router even with the stock firmware.

The reason why RT-N56U, also a very good router, could not run open source firmware such as DD-WRT or tomatoUSB, was due to its processor which was not Broadcom as opposed to the old RT-N16U and the newest RT-N66U.

RT-N66U was by far the best in March 2012, maybe some newly released routers could finally matched it - I don't know, but the positives were:
1) dual band N900 router
2) Large 256MB ram
3) Broadcom cpu which made him a very good candidate to replace RT-N16U as one of the best open source routers after a firmware flash with tomatoUSB or DD-WRT. It looks like Netgear WNDR4500 has the same chipset/cpu.

Read here a comparison to the RT-N16U whose already ram and cache were considered among the best in its class:
http://tomatousb.org/forum/t-423607
ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

 

The problem with the RT-N66U is that Asus isn't that good at writing formware and not everyone wants third party firmware. The E4200v1 is actually as good or better than the v2 at pretty much everything except NAS like functions, the v2 has a NAS CPU made by Marvell and Linksys lacks experience writing firmware for those.

450Mbps on 2.4GHz is ridiculous unless you live somewhere where there are no other 2.4GHz networks around, most manufacturers tout it as a feature, but there is no way you're gonna be able to have 450mbps on 2.4GHz in an even remotely crowded wireless environment. I would scratch that as a deal breaker.

Of the routers that offer 450Mbps on 5GHz, the E4200v1 remains my main recommendation for stock firmware. If you want third party firmware, i can see the RT-N66U being a good investment and i'd take the Asus over any D-Link crap. If you are on a limited budget, the WNDR3700 v2 and the Linksys E3000 (can be had for rather cheap now) are good choices.

 

Did the Wireless Repeater thing in the past with the old faithful Linksys WRT54G and the WRT54G2 routers. Both flashed with dd-wrt fw.

Once you do your research first to see if the router s you're interested in is supported by dd-wrt or has 'Repeater' mode OTB then it's just a matter of configuring.

If they don't support it OTB;

1) First, see if the routers are supported by the fw.

after looking at the min. required fw ver. under the 'Notes' section of the supported devices Table.

2) Flash it!

Router Database | www.dd-wrt.com

Search for your Router model in the Database, download the fw and flash.

After flashing

3) Configure it.

Repeater Bridge - DD-WRT Wiki

Universal Wireless Repeater - DD-WRT Wiki

After reading those links you should be on your way.

Now, I only mentioned dd-wrt because that's the only fw I've personally used in the past.

 

I decided to pick up the Asus RT-N66U. It's more expensive than what I was looking for but it's the #1 router and should be something that can last me years and enable full-house wireless capabilities without the hassle of multiple routers.

 

I would go powerline to be honest. I'm going to be doing the same thing but reversed (no reception in my bedroom).

With a wireless repeater you get diminishing returns on signal strenght and bandwidth. With powerline you don't. You don't need any wires as long as you have a power outlet. They have wireless powerline units as well.

I've read and heard wonderful things about powerline networking.

Also they are a hell of a lot cheaper.

 

^ QFT.

Yea, Any clients connected to the Repeater their bandwidth is halved.

I plan to do this again in the future, I might take a look at Powerline when that time comes.

 

I've used Powerline adapters in the past. When you can't get a radio or limited service these work quite well. Once you have it to your location setup a second router as a AP if you want wireless. Then you will have a small switch too for a desktop computer if needed.

 

Had a powerline adapter at home until my brother decided to accidentally fall on it..... got a retarded Zyxel now oh well
powerline ftw