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titan
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Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Wed Jan 23, 2013 11:53 am

I'm in the market for a new router. My Netgear WGR614 (or something like that) is about 10 years old now. It's worked wonderfully as long as I didn't leave the torrent client running unrestricted for more than 12 hours, the modem didn't blink, and the IP address didn't expire.

It's time to upgrade.

I want a router with gigabit all around, 802.11n, and can be the IPv6 router. (I'd really like to try something a bit fancier and do IPv6-in-IPv4 if my ISP doesn't support it, but that isn't a contingency.)

I don't care much about whether it's the manufacturer supplied firmware or a third-party firmware to get IPv6 support. But, I'd prefer to have the hardware support it.

And all for under $100.

I've looked at some of the D-Link routers as I have a D-Link gigabit switch, but it looks like the recent reviews have been negative on the router. This may just be a squeaky wheel thing, though.
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druidcent
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:25 pm

Have you looked at the Asus routers? I've got a 65U and am pretty happy with it. Not sure about the IPv6 but I'm pretty sure it supports it.

Also the stock firmware is pretty good and lets you play around with a lot of settings..
 
titan
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:56 pm

I'm thinking I might get the Asus RT-N16. It has most of the features I want except the 5GHz range. That's alright, though, I only have one neighbor in range. The rest of them are over 300 feet away from me. (And I can load up some custom firmware if the stock doesn't do it for me.)
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UberGerbil
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Wed Jan 23, 2013 7:03 pm

5Ghz range is always going to suffer compared to 2.4GHz; that's the nature of the beast. But that RT-N16 you're looking at is just a 2.4GHz single band product. Which is fine, if that's all you need. But $80 (at NewEgg) seems kind of high for that.

I used to use LinkSys, before the Cisco purchase and for a couple of years afterwards, but they fell behind and after a bricked firmware update I soured on them. In some quarters there's the opinion that all consumer-grade networking products are junk, and there's some truth to that, but some brands seem to be junkier than others. Currently I tend to buy Netgear as the least junky option. Their hardware is generally well-rated (at places like SmallNetBuilder.com) and they do release firmware updates; the UI is nothing special but it's functional. My current router is the WNDR3700v2 -- it has four wired GigE ports, simultaneous dual-band (meaning it has two radios so it can operate on both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands simultaneously, either to handle n/a and b/g clients, or to combine them for more throughput for n), does IPv6 (not verified by me, as my ISP makes it a pain in the ass, but the option is in the UI), supports guest networks (on b/g and/or n) and you can load other firmware onto it (which I have not tried). It only has one USB port (the RT-N16 has two) and it had some trouble with that feature initially (for DLNA and sharing) but they eventually sorted that out with a firmware upgrade. It also was the first router I bought without detachable antennas, which I thought might be a problem (since I used to run a bit of cable to put the antennas in optimum positions) but that hasn't been a problem.

It debuted at $170 or so which was too rich for my blood but I grabbed it when it showed up just over $100 on a Black Friday sale in 2011. And now it has dropped to $89 at NewEgg. Of course it's no longer the flagship model, but you don't get those for under $100.
 
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Wed Jan 23, 2013 7:53 pm

In my personal experience of buying various 802.11n wifi routers, ALL of the current companies like Linksys, Netgear or Asus make an equally "junky" products with plenty of issues, either with firmware or hardware (which tends to "die" during first couple of years). Soo... Whatever you'll be buying - just make sure to buy at a place with good return policies ;-) Also, don't focus too much on 5GHz band - it is barely useful (regardless of router's brand) due to very severe signal attenuation/degradation (whatever is right to call it)... All of the routers with 5GHz signal I've had - I always ended up to just turn off the 5GHz band and use 2.4 band which always provided better signal strength and range even with a dozen of other 2.4GHz AP's around our house.
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titan
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:53 pm

The Asus RT-N16 is on sale right now for $64 with a promo code and a rebate card. (So far my luck has been good with rebates....) I can also add on a 3-year extended warranty. Reviews for the last six months are good on average.

If I do the Netgear WNDR3700, I wouldn't be able to extend the warranty. Reviews for the last six months are good on average. It may have dual band, but I have nothing in the house that

The D-Link DIR-655 is also on sale for about $64 as well, but the reviews in the last 6 months on it have been very bad on average. So, that's a no for now as it seems that quality has decreased on this product.

I'm leaning more towards the Asus because I can have a five year warranty on it.
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:01 pm

For what it's worth, I just bought the DIR-655 today as it was onsale for $60 with a promo code (I paid $2.99 for 3-day shipping from Newegg). So I can let you know how it goes here in a few days when I get it in, though I don't know if you want to purchase before then.
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:19 pm

Switching from my Linksys E3000 to the Asus NT-65U was amazing.. I used to get consistent dropped connections, slow speeds, and general frustration. With the 65U, I've shifted as many devices over to the 5GHz network, and we've had no issues with range or dropped connections. I've got a couple devices on 2.4GHz, but I plan on migrating those over as soon as possible (that way I can go back to 2.4GHz cordless phones). I've even setup a small NAS drive plugged into the 65U for streaming videos and the USB 3.0 connection makes it possible for this to work. Also, I'm planning on getting a dual-band wireless NIC which should theoretically get me 750 Mbps over wi-fi for my main desktop.
 
titan
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:43 pm

CampinCarl wrote:
For what it's worth, I just bought the DIR-655 today as it was onsale for $60 with a promo code (I paid $2.99 for 3-day shipping from Newegg). So I can let you know how it goes here in a few days when I get it in, though I don't know if you want to purchase before then.


So, you're looking at receiving the D-Link after the Asus goes off sale.

I don't think I can wait that long.
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titan
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:58 pm

Damn. I thought the Asus supported IPv6 in hardware. I could load up DD-WRT to get that, though.
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titan
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 2:13 pm

titan wrote:
Damn. I thought the Asus supported IPv6 in hardware. I could load up DD-WRT to get that, though.


Looks like Asus was only showing an outdated interface demo. A firmware (ASUSWRT) update added IPv6 support a year ago.
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 6:25 pm

Titan: Oh, well, sorry then. I didn't realize the sale for the N16 was ending that soon. I hope it works out for you, then! :)
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titan
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 7:43 pm

Thanks! Good luck with yours!
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MickyTek
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:59 pm

I have the DrayTek 2850n and its a dream machine, best router I have ever had

http://www.draytek.com
 
absurdity
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:30 pm

Is there truly such a thing as hardware supporting or not supporting IPv6? IP isn't implemented at the physical layer.
 
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:36 pm

absurdity wrote:
Is there truly such a thing as hardware supporting or not supporting IPv6? IP isn't implemented at the physical layer.

While your statement is technically true, a router needs to deal with layers above the physical layer, and consists of both hardware and firmware. So if there isn't IPv6-capable *firmware* available for the router, then effectively it doesn't support IPv6.
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notfred
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:42 pm

Plus an IPv6 capable network stack and management tools will be bigger than a pure IPv4 only one. The router may not have enough flash space to load an IPv6 capable firmware.
 
titan
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Re: Wireless Router with Gigabit & 802.11n & IPv6

Tue Jan 29, 2013 9:05 pm

Well, so far so good with the Asus RT-N16. I'm running a torrent at full blast while I write this, and my pages are loading up fairly swiftly. There is some lag of a few seconds, but that's it.

Also, among other things, the most recent firmware version does bring with it IPv6 support. Many of the so-called "cons" (I only considered lack of IPv6 a con) are now present in the recent firmware version.

It's definitely opened up the bottleneck.
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