What are some good, decently priced Routers?

So my schmancy 8170 is going to be arriving in the next week or so, and my current router just will not be up to snuff to get the "oomph" out of my Bigfoot 1103. I would prefer under $100, with Black Friday sales beginning and soon to come, that shouldn't be hard, right?

There are a LOT of choices out there, and frankly it's a bit overwhelming.

What do you lovely Sager people recommend?

 

Well, routers are typically "You get what you pay for" but I found most linksys routers to be pretty legit. Especially if you can flash them with custom firmware.

I recently upgraded to this and couldn't be happier

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

 

I like the Linksys and NetGear routers myself. The Linksys routers have been the most reliable for me in the past, although I am currently using the Netgear N600 dual band router and it has been excellent. I generally avoid the Belkin versions myself since I have not had the best experience with them in the past.

 

Ah, yeah I was looking at the N600 as well, Brett.

It's currently sold out on Newegg, but $113 is pretty amazing for what it is...

Anyone know Buffalo? I've had good experiences with their less beefy routers...

 

Netgear! I love the current router I have--WNDR3700v2

I've owned about six routers, and that one is by far the best. Up time is nearly limitless, unlike other routers that need to be rebooted periodically.

 

looks like I just need to wait for it to be restocked then!

 

Just a heads up on the Linksys routers...I bought a wireless N series from Best Buy a while ago (had some BB gift cards) and my laptop kept disconnecting and reconnecting about every 5 minutes...Definitely check and see if you've got the latest firmware because this fixed my issue immediately.

 

hmm, will keep that in mind

What's this about custom firmware?

 

If you've got the 1103- it supports up to 450Mb/s, so you'll probably want a router that can handle that. I run a Cisco e4200 router at home that supports dual band (300Mbps 2.4Ghz and 450Mbps 5Ghz). It's been rock solid as well, and support for DD-WRT is in progess.

 

Custom firmware adds features that might not be present in the original firmware. For example, you cannot hook a USB printer on the E3000 with the Linksys firmware. With dd-wrt the E3000 supports a print server though. It comes down to the features you want. Personally, i don't need a print server and i'm not about to change the firmware on my E3000 considering the throughput i get. I get around 130mbps wired-wireless and that is quite close to the maximum real throughput you can achieve with 300mbps wireless N. That translates to 16-17 MB/s. A lot of custom firmware will give you slightly lower throughput, sometimes higher though. In the end it all comes down to the features you need/want vs what the different firmwares offer.

The E3000 used to be insanely expensive, but now that the E4200 is out, the 3000 isn't badly priced: ~100$ vs the $180 launch price. I'd say both the WNDR3700 and E3000 are still among the best routers you can get. There are others, but the E3000 i know first hand how good it is and the reviews i've seen of the WNDR3700 puts it slightly above the E3000. I've seen the Asus RT-N56U recommend often on the forums here too. The E4200 is basically a E3000 v2.0, but it is highly expensive so i tend not to recommend it, if budget is a concern.

Regarding formware, for the E3000, firmware 1.0.03 worked better for me compared to 1.0.04 . Both those firmwares beat the older versions hands down too. If you have no issues and good performance, i'd say to leave the firmware alone or keep a backup of your current version before updating. It was hell finding on the net 1.0.03 after i flashed to 1.0.04.

 

If you want a basic no brainer, easy to configure but with limited options take any off the shelf router Linksys or netgear router. they work and they work well.

now if you want more options like torrent support on a router, NAS, quality port forwarding and the likes. I'd suggest something like the buffalo wzr-hp-g300nh flashed with the latest ddr-wrt firmware.

now what's the deal with these firmwares like ddr-wrt?
well suffice to say its there to push your router to it's limits, opening up different options than what the stock firmware your manufacturer gives you, it also gives you terminal access to it's OS so you can add or remove features you don't want, add additional scripts and is generally more stable.

here's an example, with the stock firmware on my router my gf's nokia phone couldn't connect properly to it, it connects but can't surf. after flashing ddr-wrt she could connect and surf with no problems.

another thing was using a 3g modem on the router itself, with the stock firmware it wouldn't detect my 3g modem, now I could use my 3g modem on my router as a backup in case my dsl fails.

finally torrent support, I could download stuff with all my pc's turned off and store them on my flash disk

 

I too recommend the Cisco-Linksys E4200 but its going to run you about $159 so if you can find it for cheaper then that I would go for it.

 

yeah I'm starting to lean in that direction

Newegg's search function is underdeveloped, I wish I could see just the routers with dual band

 

I can help you with that.
Good and interesting simultaneous dual band routers are:

Linksys E4200 (450mbps on 5GHz and very good range on 2.4GHz)

Linksys E3000/E3200 (similar to E4200 in terms of hardware except for shoter range and lack of 450mbps capability)

Netgear WNDR3700 v2 (300mbps on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, better hardware than E3000, E4200 and WNDR4000- very well balanced performance)

Netgear WNDR4000 (similar to E4200- the same setup 2.4GHz=300mbps, 5GHz=450mbps, same main chip as in E3000 and E4200 although range is not as good as in E4200)

Netgear WNDR4500 (sort of similar to WNDR4000 in terms of hardware, capable of 450mbps on both bands and too expensive for what if offers)

Belkin N750 DB (300mbps and excellent range on 2.4GHz and 450mbps and poor range on 5GHz, lacks several features and 3rd party firmware but is quite cheap)

Asus RT-N56U (300mbps on both bands and good set of features, lack of third party firmware support)

I would pass on Belkin and Netgear WNDR4500. Asus wasn't never good with firmware quality although RT-N56U seems quite alright lack of third party support might be an issue here.


EDIT: Linksys E4200 v2 with both radios capable of 450mbps is on its way. Certification paper here.

 

Makes me wish I would have waited for the E4200 v2, but I can not complain I got mine for only $100 bucks.

 

After reading around, it seems the Linksys E4200 is by far most recommended. NetGear WNDR3700v2 is best bang for the buck. I don't have either, but willing to buy them in the future or go that route. Right now, I am fine with my Asus RT-N16 w/ DD-WRT (possibly going TomatoUSB soon).