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Which router?

D-Link DIR-825
2 (33%)
Linksys WRN400
2 (33%)
Other
2 (33%)
 
Total votes: 6
 
lex-ington
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New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:17 am

I am in the market for a new router. The one I bought a while back is now giving me some issues. It is a Belkin N1 router, but the PS3 gives it serious emotional stress and trying to get the laptop/netbook/istuff to connect at the same time is a no go.

I am considering these two as my options:

- DLink DIR-825 Dual Band N Router

- Linksys WRN400 Dual Band N Router

Both are priced comparatively, but I noticed that the DLink has a USB port listed (which I'm hoping means I can have the printer accessible by all of my machines) and the Linksys doesn't.

Anyone have any advice or knows of a good review site for wireless routers?

I created a poll for this. If you select other, could you please give me a reason so I could take that into account before I make a decision.

This purchase will probably be made in the next 2 weeks.

Thanks.
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DancinJack
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:29 am

Grab that Linksys and slap DD-WRT on it.

By the way, networking printers in W7 is real easy if you haven't tried it.
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Flying Fox
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:48 am

Smallnetbuilder is pretty much the site for reviews.

If you don't need dual band N, I would throw the Netgear 3500L to the mix. The 3700 is supposed to be good as well but it is more expensive than the D-Link.
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[SDG]Mantis
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 1:18 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
Smallnetbuilder is pretty much the site for reviews.

If you don't need dual band N, I would throw the Netgear 3500L to the mix. The 3700 is supposed to be good as well but it is more expensive than the D-Link.


Ditto on the WNR3500L.
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l33t-g4m3r
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 1:41 pm

I use an asus WL500W, does the job, and tomato can run on it.
Things to look for are: open source firmware compatibility, upgradeable antennas, memory size, usb ports, etc.
I'd also check the open firmware sites for recommendations.
 
edh
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 1:57 pm

Head over the SmallNetBuilder.com and check out their router charts. There are extensive reviews of most popular models from most vendors.

Consensus in their forums is that the Netgear WNDR3700 is the overall winner by a substantial margin.
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Dieter
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 2:13 pm

My vote's for Other.

I've had the Netgear 3700 for 6 months now. Not a single reboot or wireless dropout that I've noticed. It's been stable and fast. I'm running both 5GHz & 2.4GHz wireless simultaneously, including a guest network (on both frequencies).

I don't use the USB port, so I don't know about stability or compatibility regarding shared network storage.

I'm very happy with it. My only complaint is that if you enable MAC restrictions on wireless networking, it also enables it for the guest networks. So if you have a guest, not only do you have to provide SSID and shared secret, but you have to get their MAC and update the router. It would be nice if MAC restrictions were individually configurable for internal and shared wireless networks.

There is a firmware update out for the router, but mine's been working fine, so I'm leaving it alone for now.

Good luck!
 
l33t-g4m3r
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 2:59 pm

I'm going to recommend the ASUS RT-N16.
I added ddwrt to newegg search, and the asus had the most features. I don't know about performance. Hard to find one that gets everything right.
Well the WRT600N does it all, but it's not being made anymore.
If you don't care about open firmware the D-Link DIR-655 is probably the best.
 
Flying Fox
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 4:22 pm

Damage's WNDR3700 mini review. There have been reports that people can put DD-WRT there.
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l33t-g4m3r
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:50 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
Damage's WNDR3700 mini review. There have been reports that people can put DD-WRT there.

Sweet. I'd go with that then. Only nitpick is that it doesn't have replaceable antennas.
I've heard a lot of propaganda about how wireless n gets so much better range, but in practice haven't seen it, and performance drops quickly with distance.
I don't know if new models fixed that or not. Meanwhile my old 54GS had a big range increase from replacing the antennas.
 
lex-ington
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:37 pm

Just picked up the Netgear WNDR3700. I really hope it covers all bases. What I really hope (but not necessary) is to plug the printer into the USB port and be able to share printing functions that way.

And no . . . . .I didn't do any research but to read Damage's bit on it working for him.
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Shining Arcanine
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:22 pm

While I am probably a bit late to add my two cents, I think that this question should be settled by examining the hardware specifications of each option with respect to their prices:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/d-link/dir-825
http://infodepot.wikia.com/wiki/Linksys_WRT400N_v1.0

They both have the same CPU, a 680Mhz Atheros AR7161 rev 2. They both have 8MB of flash. The D-Link has 64MB of RAM while the Linksys only has 32MB of RAM, which gives the D-Link an edge in terms of performance. Considering that the D-Link has a USB port too, it is clearly superior hardware to the Linksys.

I am not sure what advantage the Netgear WNDR3700 has over the D-Link DIR-825. From my cursory look through their hardware specifications, the two are almost identical. Getting reliable information on the exact chips used in each model is somewhat difficult because every site seems to say something different, but it seems to me from everything that I can tell that the two are almost the same router.
Disclaimer: I over-analyze everything, so try not to be offended if I over-analyze something you wrote.
 
edh
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 27, 2010 9:13 am

Even two wireless routers with essentially identical designs can behave quite differently in real-world use. Antenna design and configuration plays an important part, too. A really good source for unbiased information are the reviews at SmallnetBuilder.com.
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bitvector
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 27, 2010 12:36 pm

l33t-g4m3r wrote:
I'm going to recommend the ASUS RT-N16.
I added ddwrt to newegg search, and the asus had the most features. I don't know about performance. Hard to find one that gets everything right.

I have a RT-N16 running DD-WRT, and I think it's great. Fast processor, gigabit ports, N wireless, a lot of RAM and flash and two USB ports. I have the USB ports spoken for with a 4GB USB stick and USB laser printer. I used ipkg to install p910nd and network printing was all good to go.
 
Buub
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Re: New Wireless Router Time.

Fri Aug 27, 2010 5:04 pm

l33t-g4m3r wrote:
I've heard a lot of propaganda about how wireless n gets so much better range, but in practice haven't seen it, and performance drops quickly with distance.

I don't think it's all propaganda. I have a Netgear (pre-) pre-N WiFi access point. Basically it's a G with MIMO, one of the N technologies which leverages bounced signals. It replaced a normal G access point (also a Netgear).

When I was using the G access point, I would get really low, almost unusable signals in the corners of my house. With the MIMO access point, those corners were no longer borderline, and had nice stable usable signals at all times.

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