What Wireless Router to buy?

[paulbeers]

Okay, so this is a litttle off topic, but I am about fed up with my belkin FD7230-4. I broke the attennae off of my old d-link in the middle of the night and had to go to my local all night supercenter and this was the only option. It overheats all the time causing it to go into some kind of error mode. I have to have a fan on it at all times in order for it not to overheat. I realise it probably wasn't made to serve 6 clients (3 hardwired full computers, 2 media MVP's, and a wireless laptop). So it is time to replace, here are my requirements:

- Very good range
- Able to handle quite a few clients (10?)
- Strong wireless to lan (and vice versa) Throughput (will give up some thoughput for larger range)
- VOIP compatible (do not currently use but may in the future)
- QoS prefrerred
- Ease of setting up placeshifter (once again to not currently use but may in the future)


I haven't kept up on my wireless technologies/routers as of late and so if I am missing anything I need/want let me know. I was looking at the Zyxel x-550 (and its "generic" version by Trendnet), however, I am not planning on bothering with picking up a new wireless card for my laptop so the super-G/MIMO stuff doesn't matter to me. Also I am also thinking about buying a wireless MediaMVP which from what I have read could/will throttle the X-550 to 54Mps anyway.

What is everyone using?

[ke6guj]

I picked up a D-Link DGL-4300 a while back and can say that the QoS on it rocks for me. YOu can specifiy which computers and/or which port ranges have priority.

I have it set so that my main gaming computer is #1 priority, my SageServer is #2, any other computers are #3, and my bittorrent/emule computer is #254, last in line. What that means is that the lower the number, the higher the priority and the better your internet experience will be.

I have played Battlefield2 on my main computer at the same time that my bittorrent computer is uploading 60kB/s with no lag or crappy pings.

I have been able to use my placeshifter at the same time that the bittorrents are running. The DGL-4300 will give the Sageserver first dibs on the UL bandwidth. In the past, if I wanted to play Battlefield or use the Placeshifter, I would have to shut down the bittorrents in order to have a good connection.

As for stability, I have a current uptime of 25days on it right now with emule and Azueras running full-time. My older DI-504 and DI-604 would reboot all the time due to the large number of connections it had to keep track of.

I only have 1 wireless laptop and don't really use it around the house, more for external usage, so I can't really comment on the wireless side but I bought it for the stability and QoS. There was an issue a while back where Sage had to tweek the mvp.bin to let it work on the DGL-4300, but I haven't hooked up my MVP up since I got the new router, so I don't know if it is still an issue. Haven't heard about it lately so I doubt it.


edit: it doesn't have VoIP built in, but you could attach something like this, Linksys PAP2 to the router and set up its QoS priority to be #1.

as for setting up the placeshifter, wasn't a problem, just point port 31099 to the Sageserver and your set. The Sageserver needs a static IP address, because if the IP changes then the port-mapping will be broken and the placeshifter won't connect. You can either statically set the IP address in Windows, or else, have the routers DHCP server "statically" set the IP address according to the SageServer's MAC address. Most D-link routers can do this, many other brands don't offer this. Maybe in the newer models and higher $$ models.

[paulbeers]

Yeah, I should edit my requirements. It doesn't actually have to do VOIP right out of the box, I just don't want it to hinder VOIP if I decide to go that route.

I thought about the DGL 4300, except that I already have gigabit ethernet for all clients that need it, so it seems a bit overkill for my needs. I was thinking more like the Dlink DI-634M.

Any other suggestions?

[ke6guj]

I took a look at the manual for the DI-634M and did consider it when I was router shopping. The reason I went with the DGL-4300 is the more configurable QoS. The 634M has QoS either on or off, but the 4300 can be configured to suit your needs so the QoS is YOUR QoS, not the QoS they think you want. I also netted 3 more gigabit ports, but if you already have plenty then that isn't a big deal.

The 634M looks good with that DoubleXR. So if long distance wireless is important, then that may be the way to go.

[GKusnick]

Personally I prefer not to use one-box-does-it-all wireless routers. I'd rather have a wired router that I can plan on keeping for a while, and a separate wireless access point that I can upgrade as the technology changes. Plus I can then position the WAP for best signal quality without dragging a ton of network cables along with it.

As far as brands go, I like Netgear, D-link, and Linksys, more or less in that order. Belkin is OK for cables and USB doodads, but for for core networking infrastructure I'd stick with the specialists.

[GTwannabe]

Another thumbs-up for the DGL-4300. I've tried numerous brands of home-class routers and they all either lock up or randomly reboot themselves. My DGL-4300 never misses a beat and prevents my P2P, web server, and PlaceShifter traffic from affecting my online experience.

[hemicuda]

I used to be a hardcore Linksys guy, but as of late I'm starting to re-evaluate my opinions. I have an A+G pc card that more often than not will find an access point, but fails to acquire an IP; and when they went to the v5 release of the wi-fi router they left linux behind and it's majorly buggy. Just returned a unit to walmart for dropping the wi-fi all the time. I have a v2 router and an AP both running 3rd party f/w and they rock. I'd recommend checking out dslreports.com. They have lots of good info on wi-fi hardware, et al. I have heard a few good things about Netgear though. YMMV of course.

[mayamaniac]

I also have the D-Link DGL-4300 Gaming Router. The fact that it's a gaming router is just a bonus. I bought it because its the only router I found that has both gigabit LAN and Wireless G, at least its the only one in the price range I can afford. But anyway, I would recommend this too whether you need gigabit or not, I think of it as a good thing because you want to phase out none gigabit network equiptments. And the DGL-4300 has a lot of options and settings to control or balance the loads of the many softwares and devices on your network.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I bought it because its the only router I found that has both gigabit LAN and Wireless G, at least its the only one in the price range I can afford.

Or you could just get a separate gigabit switch for your gigabit devices, and uplink that to a less expensive 10/100 router. You don't actually need to have gigabit built into your router, unless you have a much faster Internet connection than I do.

[paulbeers]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I ended up going with the Trendnet TEW-611BRP. After discussing the D-Link DI-634 earlier in this post, I began doing some looking around. As it turns out the DI-634 uses the same Atheros 5005VL chipset that both the Zyxel X-550 and the Trendnet TEW-611BRP uses. All the reviews had all three with about the same performance, so I decided to go and pick up the cheaper little brother, the TEW-611BRP. As recommended earlier (and how I have my home network setup), I only need the router for wireless connectivity and sharing my internet connection as the 10/100 is then hooked into my gigabit routers so that made spending the extra 50 bucks on the Dlink 4300 considerably less important to me (although I do admit the QoS options on the 4300 almost made me go that route). Newegg has a great rebate on the trendnet and so I am taking the chance (although not much of one).

[stevech]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Personally I prefer not to use one-box-does-it-all wireless routers.

I second that motion. If you buy a good reliable wired router and base your security and port forwarding on that, then connect a wireless access point to it, you are much better off. Indeed, one or more access points, if you need more coverage or capacity. And you can swap out the Access points as WiFi standards change.

[Athfar]

Originally Posted by stevech

I second that motion. If you buy a good reliable wired router and base your security and port forwarding on that, then connect a wireless access point to it, you are much better off. Indeed, one or more access points, if you need more coverage or capacity. And you can swap out the Access points as WiFi standards change.

Well, I follow the convention of using a wired router as the base... But dammit Routers always have rebates and access points dont So all I have is routers

Originally Posted by hemicuda

I used to be a hardcore Linksys guy, but as of late I'm starting to re-evaluate my opinions. I have an A+G pc card that more often than not will find an access point, but fails to acquire an IP; and when they went to the v5 release of the wi-fi router they left linux behind and it's majorly buggy. Just returned a unit to walmart for dropping the wi-fi all the time. I have a v2 router and an AP both running 3rd party f/w and they rock. I'd recommend checking out dslreports.com. They have lots of good info on wi-fi hardware, et al. I have heard a few good things about Netgear though. YMMV of course.

The only brand router I have never had problems with is D-Link brand (I have a DI-784 AirPremier AG / DGL-4300 / DI-604). I had a Netgear USB Adaptor that probably should have caught on fire (108G). My friends Netgear (54G Silver) overheats because the power adaptor overvolts. Zyxel's had bad range for me (108+ The one that they claim is 120 or something). Linksys's have just gone bad (with exception of my "Network Anywhere" which was like the original linksys personal router).

[stevech]

because of their dominant market share, and thus the need to avoid high warranty costs, Linksys has been the best choice. I am concerned though that they screwed up recently in going to VXworks inside their latest wireless routers, having moved from embedded Linux.

I also have a WRT54G re-flashed with DD-WRT that is very reliable and has the features I want that are absent in most w-routers, such as a one page display of all status info including the MAC address of clients are associated and their signal strength. Port forwarding with port # change on destination. And lots of stuff I don't use. I previously tried Sveasoft - it was a mess and not free.

The one Netgear w-router I had was OK but terse in features.
The D-links I've fiddled with were irregular - some models were good, some bad. Like they change firmware OSes too often.
Zyxel used to be really good when the engineering was at corporate. Now it seems they sold the logo to China.

If you can find a deal on a Cisco Aironet AP on eBay, these are el primo.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Or you could just get a separate gigabit switch for your gigabit devices, and uplink that to a less expensive 10/100 router. You don't actually need to have gigabit built into your router, unless you have a much faster Internet connection than I do.

It has nothing to do with the speed between wireless, WAN, or gigabit. All my computers are gigabit capable and I want just one router to connect to it, rather than running two devices to achieve the same thing.

[malbec]

Surprised no one picked on he new draft-n routers from Netgear and Linksys. Of course, not sure if they will be able to be flashed to the final, final, final 802.11n standard, but the fact they are starting to call it "draft-n" rather than "mimo," :extended range" etc. cetainly seems to imply we are getting closer.

That said, I prefer the wired router/access point solution as well. To that end, any recommendation on a VPN version me?