What Wireless Router should I get?

Hi, I am currently in the market for a wireless router for my home network, which includes 3 (and possibly 4 later on) PC's to be connected via ethernet, and one (and possibly 2 later on) laptop, my Vostro 1500, via wireless G at best. My Dell/Broadcom 1390 Wireless card has driver settings related to Afterburner and Xpress technology. I would like to know first if it is worth it to get a wireless-N router now rather than a wireless-G, which would be good enough, since any future laptop to be purchased is most likely to ship with a wireless-N card? Does anyone know how long it will take for N to become standard?) Secondly, could anyone confirm if Afterburner and/or Xpress Technology is directly compatible to similar technologies provided by other manufacturers? For example, can I benefit from Afterburner on my Broadcom card with SpeedStream technology on a Linksys router? Finally, could anyone recommend a Wireless router that would suit my needs. I am often (very often) transfer very larger files over my network from PC to PC so extra bandwidth would be highly beneficial.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Get a Draft 2.0 router now. It's up to the official "n" spec that will be ratified next year.

I suggest getting a router from Trendnet, Linksys, or D-Link only. Don't mess with any other brand...other brands just don't have the features or the firmware upgrades.

 

How do you tell when it's time for a firmware upgrade on a Linksys?

 

i have a netgear and love it

 

I'd suggest getting Asus, D-Link, Linksys and Buffalo.

Staying away from Trendnet and Netgear.

The key is making sure your router is compatible with DD-WRT. It'll make even a crappy router good as long as it's supported.

I have a Linksys WRT-350N. It's a terrible router with the stock firmware but with DD-WRT I can have 3 wireless N clients run Bittorrent at full blast with no disconnects or slow downs.

Google DD-WRT.

 

Stay away form the linksys speed stream. There is no gain unless you purchase a matching card. As far as N routers. All are still draft. Those with v2 Hardware are considered to be compatiable with the 11n std once finalized. As far as Brand. I like the Buffalo right now. Lo cost and works great.

But the 11n will only help you if you are moving large files between you PC's. Has no impact on your ISP speed. 11g spec is fast enough to handle most all ISP's,

 

I disagree. That series of Linksys depending on revision can make really good routers using DD-WRT because it has more RAM and ROM than some of the other routers out. The radio is also slightly stronger.

 

The new Linksys batch is better than the old one (talking about the N routers here). Trendnet 63x series is also great for the price.
If I were to buy one now I'd take a WRT350N or a DIR-855.

 

tebore, The last one I setup was a v7. With 1 wireless user it was workable. Add 2 wireless users and it would lockup constantly with in minutes. So moving on to the wired lan ports. It could only handle 2 user at a time, before experience lockups. It had the latest firmware at the time of installation 6 mo ago. Sine there was only 1 wired and 1 wireless user it worked. But it's not on my recommendation list.

So maybe your experience was better than mine. The GL model are better because you can load dd-wrt easly. I know there is a min version that can be loaded into the WRT54GS now, but have not tested it. But most any thing would be better than the factory firmware. The newer 11n are better, but they could only go up, if compaired to the GS. The older version 2-4 were great units, but not v7.

That's my 2 cents. But I use SMB hardware, knowing that they should be built for heavy use. I have not had to reboot my AP in over 2 yrs.

With the 11n v2 hardware released that should be all that is considered. But I will hold out till the 11n is finalized with the hole allowing 11g channel bonding closed if any network is present. And would opt for a dual band unit (2 radios) 1 each for 11n and 11g. No sharing. For best performance.

 

Yes the V7 is a known POS.

But the rest a pretty decent even in stock firmware but they are golden once you get DD-WRT, Tomato or another flavour of nix.

The only D-link I recommend is the DIR-655 first revision. The later revision went to hell. The one I used is in an environment with 5 wireless clients and in the initial test I ran BT with no software limits on connections relying on the QoS.

The problem in the industry is a lack of consistency. You can't just promote or bash 1 brand or model because they either make it really good or really crappy really fast. The only you can do is keep up to date on these revisions.

I hate it when they make a really good cheap unit and they realize they did and purposely castrate it to make you buy their "Premium" model.

 

You can now install DD-WRT on a WRT54G V7 & 8.

 

The problem with the later revisions was that it had VERY little ram so the max number of connections was affected and under heavy load it would lock up. Even with DD-WRT.

 

Yes, it is indeed a sucky router. The GL version is better.

 

so is the new WRT350N now stable? yes or no?

 

Nope. The latest revision can't run DD-WRT either. Revision 1 wasn't stable with stock firmware either but because of it's amount of RAM, ROM, and power Processor it had a lot of potential. Once DD-WRT was loaded it was very very very good.

The USB port could run a Webcam, Print server, SAMBA. It could also be a VPN server. The amount of RAM also allowed for a lot of connections and many clients.

 

So i need to stay away from Linksys for Wireless N and go for an Intel based router (Certified for Centrino N) in order to obtain 300Mbps with my 4965 based N cards?

 

So, I've been looking for strictly DD-WRT compitible wireless routers but I do not know if I should get a Wireless-N of just G. Also, is there some specs I should look for, such as CPU speed, RAM, etc? Thanks.

 

I'd go with the N for 2 reasons.

The N routers have 2 Radios meaning you get a stronger signal when using B or G. They usually have beefier specs than G routers, more RAM and ROM.

And they also have N. But Those 2 reasons alone are pretty worth it for me.

 

Hmm DD-WRT only works on WRT350N v1.

 

And?

They really screwed up the 350N's specs in R2.

 

Ok, I took the many suggestions in this thread and went out and got a WRT45GS V7 router with 2MB flash memory and I'm hoping to flash the firmware with DD-WRT, but I realize that I may only be able to use the micro version. If I could get my hands on a lower version of the same router, possibly one with 4MB or ever 8MB of flash memory, should I go for it or will v7 suite my needs?

Thanks,
Mike

 

I have a linksys wrt54gs (speedbooster) router, and my HP laptop came with the speedbooster card. i planned it that way so theyd play nice together. i just got done loading DD-WRT on my router about a week ago, and i could NOT be happier! dramatic and awesome upgrade. definitely worth it.

As far as reliability goes, the connection is awesome and ive had up to five notebooks on it with a desktop hardwired in on it too at the same time.

On average, with my cable service, i get about 7700kb/sec down and about just shy of half meg up.

The router works really great, i was happy with it before, but the new firmware makes it really awesome. just a fantastic upgrade for keeping the network tweaked and monitoring performance of your network, and keeping you secure.

Id recommend it. it was easy to do, the firmware is free, stable as a rock, and really works awesome. very happy with it.

ev

 

Btw, i cant remember if i mentioned it, but i have the older version of this router. i have the version 5 with the 16mb of ram, and i am using the micro version of the firmware and it is AWESOME. a drastic improvement. you will like it!

ev