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ALiLPinkMonster
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A good wireless router for multiple devices

Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:07 am

We are thinking about getting a 360 with Kinect for the living room. I will be using it for my Netflix account as well as a couple online games. Our current Linksys is very outdated. It doesn't even do wireless-n. We have a laptop and a desktop connected. What would be a good upgrade? I would like to avoid Cisco/Linksys. I always have problems with their products, like my current one not playing nice with non-Cisco products. I would imagine a dual band unit is the way to go. Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Dieter
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Re: A good wireless router for multiple devices

Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:05 am

I've had the Netgear WNDR3700 for about a year and a half and it's solid. I never have to reboot it and I have 5-7 devices attached to it at nearly all times (both N & G) with no issues. It allows a totally separate guest WiFi network so I can give internet access to friends/clients without worrying about crap on my network. It's simultaneous dual band, but 5GHz range is short so all of my devices are connected at 2.4GHz, but it's still really fast and has a strong signal.

The only things I don't like about it are:

1. Cost (it was $150 or so when I purchased it, but it's been a good router)
2. When you make changes to just about anything it takes forever (e.g. - adding devices to the allowed list) and often has to reboot to make the change
3. The guest WiFi network requires you to enter the MAC address of the guest device if you have MAC restrictions enabled for your internal network. I wish the guest network would just allow any device as long as you have the SSID and password.

Overall, though, it's a great router and is very stable. I think there's a newer version of it (WNDR3800 or something like that) but I don't know anything about it. I have version 1.0 of the hardware and it's been great.
Last edited by Dieter on Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
ALiLPinkMonster
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Re: A good wireless router for multiple devices

Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:48 am

That's actually the one I've been looking at the most. Netgear seems to have a good rep. It's selling at the egg for $130 which isn't too bad. There are cheaper ones but I would rather spend a little more for reliability. However, if anyone has experience with a cheaper one that will meet my requirements and won't be a pain in my ass let me know.
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Dieter
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Re: A good wireless router for multiple devices

Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:47 pm

I think the DLink 655 is a really popular router as well that used to be pretty expensive but I think is commonly below $70 these days. There's also a DLink 825/855 which is popular as well, but I think it's more expensive. I haven't shopped for a router for a while so I don't know what's currently good.

I typically like Netgear's stuff, although their support is pretty terrible and I think they sometimes cheap out on their power plug packs so they die after a year or two. I have found that if you buy the better Netgear stuff (>$100 for home routers) they tend to last longer. I've seen a lot of failures of the $40 routers, usually after about 18 months.

I also like some of Buffalo's stuff. It looks cheap but seems to last for a long time. From my experience, I'd still recommend the Netgear, but probably most brands will be decent once you get over the $100 mark.

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