Mini roundup of 5 .11 N routers from Maximum PC

I know many of you have asked about draft 11.N routers to use with this notebook (and others of course). All online reviews point to the Dlink DIR-655 XTREME N as being the top prerformer. In the November 2007 issue of Maximum PC they test 5 11.N routers and here are the results...

Belkin N1 (F5d8231-4): Received 4/10. Nothing too great to say except ease of use/setup.

Netgear WNR854t: Received 8/10. "we dig the netgear for its good looks, its Gigabit switch, and its screamin' speeds at close range. But if you need coverage over a wide area, Dlinks DIR-655 is the better choice". Also goes on to mention its lack of QoS (quality of service) settings.

Buffalo Nfiniti Wzr2-G300n: Received 6/10. Had problems conencting at 40 fett and 120feet due to competing with other wireless networks in the same vicinity. Only slightly faster than the Bellkin.

Linksys WRT350N: Received 9/10. Can plug in a HDD to the USB port on the back and add NAS (network attatched storage) functionality. The linksys delivered very good speed at range, beating even the mightly Dlink when operating in mixed mode (such as G and N) witht he client 120 feet from the router, however, the Dlink surpassed it in terms of longe-range speed when both routers were running in 802.11N-ONLY mode. Gigabit ethernet ports. It's retail price is also $195 and "not worth it" according to the magazine.

D-link DIR-655 Extreme N: Received 9/10. "One of the fastest 11.N routers in the roundup, and it prived best-ni-breed in terms of range. Fastest of the bunch when when in 11.N-ONLY mode. Delivered much higher speeds at range with WPA2 security enabled than the rest. "if you enjoy finetuning your network's performance, the Xtreme N offers mroe control over more settings than anythign else we tested." Deliveres more QoS options than most routers in its class. Gigabit ethernet ports. $135 retail price ($60 lower than linksys)

There you have it, mini roundup. Does change a few things, though it looks like the Dlink is still the overall better N router, things change when you start looking for something specific. For instance if you own a desktop replacement laptop (or plan to use N with your desktop that never moves) the Netgear seems like a great choice with its fast close range speeds. If you happen to have several older laptops/desktops in your home/office and need to run in Mix-Mode supporting signals for 11.A, B, G, and N, the Linksys seems to the fastest at range.

Hope this helps some of you.

 

The review of the WRT350N must have been done on a simple XP setup or most likley a cluless moron, for WRT350N Vista users, beware, wether your using XP or Vista this router still has issues, the firmware is buggy as hell, linksys had a firmware upgrade of 1.03.6 which was pulled within days as it rendered many routers into bricks, in many units if the power is shut down and turn back on the router will come back up in default settings, if you do an internet serch on this router, you will find tons of problems, in Vista you will have problems accessing the usb harddrive, many settings just dont work, the router itself obviously a good piece of hardware but the firmware is terrible and not of the quality Linksys usually comes up with, this router does need knowlage of setup but it will do you no good due to bad firmware, I went with the d-link 655 and it workes much better overall including in n then the WRT350N, the WRT350N is not ready for prime time, I just dont know what Linksys was thinking at the time, my opinion of this router at this time is that it is a dudd.

I went with the D-link 655 and it does what it states but it does requier some knowlage and reading, I was never a fanboy of D-link but over the years they have done a-lot of good changes, in time every company will eventually jump the shark and then they have to redeem themselves.
I had the WRT350N for 2 days and returned it for all the things I listed above.

 

Hi there.

I am looking at buying a D-Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router as it has some of the best reviews out there for a draft N router.

I am about to get a new laptop that has an N wireless card. My girlfriend's laptop however only uses G and I obviously need to get a router that will serve both laptops.

This might be a stupid question, can this router transmit the two frequencies simultaneously (i.e. my new laptop pick up the faster N signal whilst the older laptop picks up the G signal)? I see that the Linksys WRT350N does so I'm wondering if the D-Link does.

How does it perform just using G?

I will be running Windows Vista whilst the older laptop is on XP.

Thanks!!

 

Yeah, it will cover all G and N device, if you set it that way. As I replied to you in another thread - wait and buy the dir 855, if youre not in a hurry.

 

Thanks , I just read the other thread. I appreciate the advice, I might get a cheap G router for the time being and use that... Waste of money but we have 2 laptops and need 2 connections!!