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My router never drops out unless I'm running several torrents at once (around 100 or so connections)... and when it does drop out, I have to manually reset it.
(FYI, it was a cheapy Airlink AR680w)


Is there a guide/comparison chart of current Gigabit dual-band wireless N routers that gives a comparison of how many connections it can handle / what the CPU strength is?

first, make sure it is not your home connection if you live in an old apartment
at first I had a hatred for my netgear router for dropping over 100 connections as well, but it turns out the problem was with the apartment wiring
also, you dont need 100 connections, just set it to 50 or less, see if that helps

I dont know of any guide like you are asking for though
in fact, I cannot even think of a guide that compares newer released routers
if you find one be sure to post it

by apartment wiring, I'm guessing you mean electrical (and not the coaxial cable)? I have my router and modem plugged into my APC battery backup, so there should be a good constant power connection. I'm fairly certain it's just the crappy $35 wireless-N airlink router (I'm sure my phone has a stronger processor in it than this thing), since it only craps out when I'm torrenting, and I can log into the router page and set it to reboot... at which point the problem is (temporarily) fixed.

Any thoughts between the two routers below? (I'm gonna buy at Costco because of their good return policy):

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.as ... 33&topnav=

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.as ... 33&topnav=

rogelio wrote:

Is there a guide/comparison chart of current Gigabit dual-band wireless N routers that gives a comparison of how many connections it can handle / what the CPU strength is?

SmallNetBuilder measures concurrent connections as part of their router benchmarking. The test suite used maxes out at 200 connections--I may be biased but for most people this is not as critical an issue as you would initially assume due to other constraints (ISP connection, available throughput, router throughput, etc).

rogelio wrote:

Any thoughts between the two routers below?

Neither one, really. The DIR-825 has WAN<>LAN throughput issues and Belkin's firmware can be described as "quirky," and its firewall is a bit overzealous. Some people have no issues with Belkin gear (there's at least one guy on the SNB forums that swears by them); since you have a good return policy, it wouldn't hurt to try it, even though it's 1) an older router design, 2) overpriced relative to similarly-performing products, and 3) 2.4 GHz only. If you're willing to experiment, OpenWRT has been recently ported to the DIR-825 B1. I haven't heard back yet on whether it fixes the 825 concerns.

In the upcoming months, you have Linksys's product refresh and D-Link's three-stream 11n router (DIR-665). I suggest holding off if you can.

Linksys E3000 looks sweet (current the WRT 610N is similar, but i expect this one to be cheaper... hopefully)... I'm liking the dual radio since I have mixed devices with G and N.

I have a WRT54G that must be almost 4 years old. I've run it with DDWRT and now with Tomato. Tomato is amazing btw and is superior to DDWRT, IMO. Anyway, I haven't had a torrent-related problem since I got the WRT54G. It's rock solid and runs for months without a reboot.

Oh and also I did once have a cable modem that would drop its connection when torrents were running. The cable company let me swap it out and that was that.

The DIR-825 has WAN<>LAN throughput issues

Total Simultaneous Throughput (Mbps)

D-Link Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit Router (DIR-825 (A1)) 319.7
Linksys Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router (WRT400N) 148.9

WAN-> LAN throughput

D-Link Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit Router (DIR-825 (B1)) 214.7
Linksys Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router (WRT610N) 135.6

That seems really discrepant (total throughput on D-link is around twice that of the Linksys) - maybe D-link's CPU is beefier? What is this throughput issue you're referring to? I'm guessing the DIR-825 is only dual-band and not dual-radio (like the linksys)

One reason the WRT400N performs worse in simultaneous bandwidth testing is because it is 10/100 only (no gigabit switch). Also note that you cited either A1 or B1 hardware performance. The DIR-825 B1, WRT400N, and WNDR3700 share the same radios (dual) and CPU, but performance varies. Why is it the DIR-825 B1's WAN<>LAN performance half that of the 3700's? Is it fixable? The complaint I thought I was recalling referenced WLAN<>LAN performance, but both issues may be resolved through alternative firmware (both DDWRT and OpenWRT are in early stages).

I'd vote for anything that can run dd-wrt. The option to manually set max number of connections, and the time outs, helps a lot with router stability. Combine that with a well configured torrent client, and you should never have to worry about router failure.

On my router, a Netgear something 614 something that I got several years ago, I have had issues with torrents in one case and one case alone: Allowing the client to use the full upload bandwidth for a few days. When I restricted the client on the upload bandwidth, about 10-20Kbps, the router would be absolutely stable and run for an indefinite amount of time without locking up. (Something always seemed to happen that'd prevent me from reaching any records -- power outages, cleanings, rearrangement, et cetera.)

The cheapest way is to limit your connections (and may be even speed) in your torrent client to not overwhelm the router. Even with like 30 connections for one torrent not all of them are actively transmitting anyways so it is somewhat pointless for me. Also, limiting the number of active torrents would help as well. The better torrent clients should have options like those.

Of course, getting a better router won't hurt either, but you still need to avoid overwhelming it. Networking resources are not infinite.

This also begs the question, what torrent client are you running?

µTorrent is pretty much the only one you should be using.

yeah, i'm using uTorrent.

It looks like the DIR-825 has some issues on forums with DD -WRT. Can somebody recommend a powerful router (i.e. fast CPU) that does dual-band simultaneous wireless-N + gigabit and is fully compatible with DD-WRT? It seems like DD-WRT eliminates most router freezing issues when properly customized and paried with a fairly strong router.

rogelio wrote:

Can somebody recommend a powerful router (i.e. fast CPU) that does dual-band simultaneous wireless-N + gigabit and is fully compatible with DD-WRT?

The closest match is the WRT600N, but it's several years old and discontinued. Routers are released faster than DD-WRT and co. can keep up; this trend is likely to continue. Unless you're set on a feature only DD-WRT offers, I'd look for a decent router and consider potential open source support a plus. Out of the current crop of simultaneous dual-band 11n+gigabit routers, the WNDR3700 is the top performer. With three stream this year, it's hard to recommend paying a premium now for performance.

emkubed wrote:

This also begs the question, what torrent client are you running?

µTorrent is pretty much the only one you should be using.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beg_the_question

Spread the word, the media have everyone misusing this term!

Also, what's wrong with Vuze?

I'm running uTorrent through a Linksys WRT54GL. I'm presently seeding 400+ torrents. Download speed on a fat pipe approaches 12 Mbps, upload is about .9 Mbps . My router has never dropped the signal. I originally purchased the Linksys WRT54GL so I could run Tomato on it but it runs so well stock that I never bothered. Around $60 at NCIX -- you can't go wrong.

rogelio wrote:

My router never drops out unless I'm running several torrents at once (around 100 or so connections)... and when it does drop out, I have to manually reset it.
(FYI, it was a cheapy Airlink AR680w)


Is there a guide/comparison chart of current Gigabit dual-band wireless N routers that gives a comparison of how many connections it can handle / what the CPU strength is?

You could buy an Asus RT-N16; it has 128MB of RAM and more RAM means that it can handle more connections. Not to mention it has a powerful processor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833320038

Of course, if you are having connections drop with only 100 or so connections, I suspect that the issue is something other than your router. Perhaps it is not on your end. Have you tried flashing your router with aftermarket Linux firmware like OpenWRT? That will likely rule out any possibility of it being that Apple used really bad firmwware, which is causing the router to drop connections under bit torrent loads, assuming you do not brick it by accident when you try to flash it. There are instructions on aftermarket firmware sites that say how to properly reflash router firmware so that the reflash should not brick the router.