OT: any good routers on the market?

[Nate Nagel]

currently using a Netgear WNR3500 v2 and I think it's starting to die. this is the second Netgear I've had; the previous one bricked itself after about 2 years. This one is less than a year old and while it works fine on wired the wireless will drop its connection to the internet randomly throughout the day. It's not my laptop, we've got plenty of wireless devices throughout the house (other laptops, Wii, etc.) and all exhibit the same behavior. Oddly, disconnecting and reconnecting to the wireless connection will restore functionality... for a while. I updated firmware with only slight improvement. This just started maybe a week ago so I suspect that something is failing in it. I've also had a Linksys but was disappointed in that as well as I was never able to connect to it at greater than 54 MBPS.

So...

does anyone make a GOOD wireless/wired router? Would like wireless-n and gigabit.

thanks

nate

[WW]

I bought a NetGear. My second one, the first one died. Could not get #2 to work. Called their site for help. They said you must pay us for any help. Took it back to the dealer for a refund. Called my ISP and had them install what they used. Turns out it was a NetGear. However a much more expebsive one and it works fine. WW

[Jon Danniken]

Freud makes a good router, but it's not wireless. Porter Cable would probably be my second choice.

Jon

[Jeff Thies]

I called my IT buddy a couple days ago when I was buying a wireless router. He said don't get a junk one, and specifically mention Net Gear as being in the junk class.

I bought a D Link, and the previous D Link I have (different location) works fine.

The N is common these days, I did not need the Gigabit, so I don't know about it. Here I have a Netopia (forget who bought them) router/modem and like it. Don't know how fast it is but it rips along when I run SyncToy. Faster than my HD. YMMV.

Jeff

This one is less than a year old and while it works

[DerbyDad03]

I've bought routers from both LinkSys and NetGear.

I never could figure out where to put the bits.

That said, I gotta admit they're a lot quieter than my Porter Cable.

[Vic Smith]

I've been using a BEFSR41 for a few years, wired to 2 other home computers. No problems at all.

--Vic

[Dave Garrett]

The old Netgear routers used to be pretty decent. I had an RT318 for years before it finally died. Haven't been impressed at all with the newer ones - the build quality seems cheap (my old one had a heavy steel case, which admittedly is the exception rather than the rule now).

I have a Linksys WRT54GL now and love it - unlike the cheaper and far more common WRT54G, the GL supports third-party Linux-based firmware (I use DD-WRT, but OpenWRT and Tomato are also popular) that gives you far more control over every aspect of the router's operation. With a firmware upgrade, it's probably the closest you'll get in a consumer- grade router to functionality that's usually only present in commercial- grade ones. It's also rock-stable and reliable. However, it doesn't do wireless-n (only -b and -g) or gigabit.

Dave

[DerbyDad03]

You know, someone ought to come up with a ng related to computers or networking or LAN's or something like that.

I think that would be nice.

[krw]

Oh, good heavens, no. Never Freud. Festool is the way to go (lessee, a Bosch,

1-1/2 PC, a Ryobi, and a Festool). ;-)

[Nate Nagel]

I know what you're saying, but they're all infested with people who are rude and unhelpful to non-techies.

nate

[Kyle]

Great, now I'm gonna have the image of someone trying to make door moulding using a Linksys 802.11B.

To stay OT: the best bang for your wireless buck is to get a router compatible with Tomato

It's an AMAZING firmware to run your wireless network, much more robust and much more stable than what the manufacturers create.

We use it at the church to daisy-chain three routers to cover the facility with a seamless 802.11g signal.

[trader4]

I've had two Linksys. First one lasted probably 4 year or so before it just went dead. I have a Linksys DI-624 G one now, probably 3 years. Two weeks ago, the power supply wall wart died. It runs on 5V, so I temporarily hooked it up to my PC power supply until I got a new wall wart for $6 on Ebay. Overall, for the price/value/performance, I've been happy with Dlink.

Just bought a refurbished Netgear WNR2000 on Ebay and turned it into a wireless bridge for my Tivo. Essentially, I got a 5 port wireless bridge for $25. If you tried to buy a wireless bridge, even one port ones are more like $100. To make it into the WB, I used DD-WRT software, which is kind of like the Tomato software reference above.

So, now I have the Netgear on the first floor at one far end on the house talking to the Dlink on the second floor at the other far end.

Some thoughts on other issues:

Gigabit Ethernet: I don't see the need in typical home environment. The cable connection into my house is only 15Mbit, claimed, 12Mbit max I measured. Cablevision offers 2X that if you pay extra. So, clearly gigabit isn't going to do anything more for internet access. Even if you're moving some video files from one storage to another within the house, 100Mbit seems adequate to me, unless you're doing a lot of that within the house.

Wireless N: Same thing. If you're streaming video off the internet over a 15Mbit connection, don't see the need for N, when G is already capable of 54Mbit. Another feature that's touted for N is dual band. I guess the new 5Ghz band is supposed to be better because there is less likely to be interference from cordless phones, other G networks, etc. But the big drawback is the range is not nearly as far as you get with G.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

And even if you do (need gigabit internally), you need one or more gigabit SWITCHES. The router is involved only for internet communication. Most aren't fast enough for gigabit.

[snip]

[Nate Nagel]

most wireless routers have a 4- or 8-port switch built into them, unless I'm misunderstanding how these things work. Last time I really had a home network up and running, transferring files between PCs was noticeably faster on a (gigabit) ethernet connection than wirelessly. Of course that router was the "wireless-n" Linksys that I could never connect to at any speed above wireless-g speed.

nate

[Hell Toupee]

There is a well-known Windows bug that has the same symptoms you're describing. Unfortunately, there's a number of potential fixes for the bug - sometimes replacing the router does the trick, or updating the network adapter drivers, or replacing the wireless card/adapter. It's been noted on HP and Dell machines that were originally built for Vista, but are running XP. In those cases it usually turned out to be a driver problem. The Winsock XP Fix utility works in a lot of cases to solve the problem (sometimes permanently, but not always). Sometimes tinkering with your network connection settings does the trick. I had it show up when I got a new laptop. I changed my laptop's power options so that the wireless adapter setting was at maximum performance. That turns off the

802.11 power save mode, which took care of it, which suggested the problem in my case was that the (old) router did not support the (newer) 802.11 power save protocol. Between that and the fact that routers are cheap, I decided to upgrade to a new wireless-n router. I like it - much better coverage in the back yard. The old router's signal outdoors was greatly attenuated due to my stucco (wire mesh) house with steel doors.

[Nate Nagel]

Thanks for the post, but I did not specify my OS - my laptop is running Ubuntu 10.04 (Linux) good try, but...

nate

[clare]

Total BS. I have sold and installed dozens of "gigabit routers" - routers with 4 or 8 port gigabit switch built in.Linksys makes them (division of CISCO - not my gavourite) as does Airlink and D-Link and Netgear.

MOST with Wireless 802-11N are also gigabit today.

[clare]

GENERALLY when you get intermittent dropouts it is the router starting to die. D-Link is quite well known for that failure mode, and it is not uncommon with some early Netgear and Linksys stuff either. Not sure how the Netgear and Linksys N product is.My Metgear G died in just over a year - have had the AirLink N router over 2 years now, no problems (touch wood).

[clare]

I doubt it is a "windows bug" because virtually every time I've run across the problem (and it is quite common) any computer connected to the network would loose the connection - and trying to connect with a wireless device , same problem. Generally the IP Switch part is still working fine - you can network between computers and printers etc without problems - but no internet connection.

Bad router, almost guaranteed.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Latest firmware? Tried dd-wrt? I am using Netgear WNDR3700 with dd-wrt firmware. First AC adapter came with the router is marginal. Replce it with better one. Heat is enemy, carefully drill some holes on the case to imrpove venting. I never experienced router dying on me by doing this two things. Currently my router is pretty busy serving network of more than half dozen various PC desktops, server, notebooks, iBook and WiFi printer. No problem.