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Router Replacement

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 7:18 pm
by SassySusan
My D-Link router is on its last leg and I am looking for a recommendation of a powerful router that will reach all the way from the basement to our 2nd floor since we have a lot of wifi devices. Our house is about 3800 sq ft and we are a family of gamers: 2 xbox 360's, ps3, PC games (GW2), 2 desk tops a lap top...you name it we have it!

Does anyone have a recommendation?

Re: Router Replacement

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 7:52 pm
by continuum
3800 square feet might be too much for any single router. Multi-story house with basement? Eeeek. Might be tough, if not impossible.

If you're willing to tweak, I would look at the Routerboard stuff, but otherwise I would be looking at the Netgear WNDR4500 or Asus RT-N66U. Not sure on the Linksys E4200 V2 (especially if you want aftermarket firmware, at least not yet at this point in time) yet, although it looks solid otherwise.

Smallnetbuilder.com also has excellent reviews, including range.

If budget is a concern-- or you find that there's no way you can cover 3800 square feet of interior walls and whatnot with a single AP, two cheaper ones might work. The older Netgear WNDR3700 v1 or v2, WNDR3800, WNDR4000, Asus RT-N16U or RT-N56U, or the Linksys E4200 original (aka v1) would all work, and I believe you can grab some of these for as low as $80 refurb'ed...

FWIW, I am find that about 2000 square feet on the same floor with interior walls is doable with any of the routers listed, but as you've got double that... I dunno...

Re: Router Replacement

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 8:18 pm
by ShadowEyez
3800 square feet is a lot. MAYBE with a newer router, 802.11n (or 802.11ac...), high dB external antennas, in the geographic middle of your house, with aftermarket firmware providing a powerboost to the wifi, the wind blowing downhill on a sunny day... you can do this, but you may just want to have two midcost routers and find good places in your house to do it.
With something like WDS (wireless distribution system) you don't even have to have the AP/routers hooked up to ethernet, just plugged into a power source, and the routers link up to each other and the internet gateway/rest of the network.
Good luck.

Re: Router Replacement

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:43 pm
by SassySusan
Thanks for the responses! Believe it or not I had coverage on the top floor with about 2 to 3 bars of signal strength with the D-Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router that we were using.

When we built the house I should have had it networked but didn't think about it. I think the best place for the router is the main floor in the center of the house, but now I'll have the problem of having cables pulled. Why don't builders think of these things in this day & age?