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Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:28 pm
by Kaos Kid
Newegg finally cut me a refund check for that lousy Rosewill L600N so I am back on the WRT54GL until I can get another N-capable router. I really like the idea of dual-band so I have been looking at those, but nothing impresses me for the asking prices (seems like every router from every manufacturer has some negative comments about dropped connections in their feedback tabs). What router are you currently using that you can vouch for? I have been keeping an eye on the DIR-850L that is dual-band AND 802.11AC...it is priced less than some of the older high-end dual-band N routers but touts better specs (although I know from experience now that you can't always believe what you read).

My current usage includes 4-5 wireless PC devices (2 G, 3 N) and 1-2 wired connections. I'd like to get my full 40mbps bandwidth on the wireless, currently only getting 20mbps on the "N" PCs and 12-14mbps on the "G" PCs (speeds arrived at using my ISP's speed test). The two kids computers aren't as important since they just watch youtube with standard def but I also torrent--that could benefit from the fastest speeds that my ISP provides me. Also I have an HTPC I could transfer my large files to wirelessly (generally 8-12GB files) instead of using my Tornado USB transfer cable. For some reason the 54GL has problems during transfer of large files, don't know why because it never drops wifi connections any other time, and even then it isn't dropped, the file transfer just doesn't complete.

I'm dragging my feet because it doesn't have many reviews yet, but am still itchin' to pull the trigger on the DIR-850L...It is almost $100 more than the Rosewill I returned so I have definitely moved up in the price range I'm willing to pay. 802.11ac will help me in the future but right now I probably won't spend $70 each for the 802.11ac adapters, at the most I'll get another dual-band adapter (no matter which router I end up with) so I can keep my main boxes on the 5Ghz channel and the kids on the 2.4Ghz channel. Decisions, decisions.

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:46 pm
by Digital Puppy
I'm using the Netgear R6300 as my go-to router. I haven't played around with the D-Link yet, but did look at the Buffalo, WD, and Cisco/Linksys. All the AC performances were around the same - which is to say, fast as hell! The only thing that really separated them were the GUI's (IMO). Being a Netgear guy, I naturally gravitated towards it.

Netgear just released a firmware update for "beamforming" with the unit for better (faster?) connections. I haven't really seen a tremendous difference though.

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:31 am
by sgkean
I'm currently using the Asus RT-N56U, I switched from an old D-Link that was having many disconnect issues. Haven't had any issues with the Asus, a bunch of friends locally have the newer AC ASUS and they haven't had any issues either.

As for the interface, it's nice, pretty easy to find whatever I need. Certainly not perfect, but have never seen a perfect interface LOL

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 3:51 pm
by InspectahACE
I had a linksys wrtg54(i think thats the model) for maybe 6 yerars before i gave up. Not sure how they are now.

Right now im using a D-Link DIR-655 and its been awesome for the time ive had it.

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 10:19 am
by Major_A
Linksys E2500 v1. The 2.4GHz band is pretty good but the 5GHz band is only good for roughly 20 feet before it bites the dust. Apparently it has recently been added to the DD-WRT list but I haven't tried it out ("if it ain't broke don't fix it"). So far this has been the most stable router that I've owned. On average it have to manually restart it once a month. I know that Belkin (not a fan) recently bought the Linksys brand so I'm not sure what that means.

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 6:41 am
by skier
several months ago I upgraded from a Chinese brand router (Netis) to a TP Link WDR3600, its manufacturer firmware would drop wireless daily when using it as DHCP/DNS (Which is what most users would do!) but I upgraded it to DDWRT and now usually can keep it up for about 6-8 weeks at a time before it drops wireless, but it has very strong connections (5GHz band at 5 bars 40 feet away)

Parents have a DIR-601 I set up for them and they have only had to reboot it a handful of times in the past 4 or 5 years- though D-Link wasn't compatible at all with Roku version2 which was frustrating trying to troubleshoot!

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 8:48 am
by Kaos Kid
Yeah, that's the weird thing about that Rosewill--the wireless radios were awesome and gave me great coverage albeit better in the 2.4Ghz than the 5Ghz. Its' problem was that it couldn't keep the DNS straight coming from the modem to the router (as soon as it was time to renew lease it would just be mute and ignore the modem). It never once dropped wireless in the network, just would quit taking communication from the cable modem to keep me on internet even with the wired connections. I haven't had to reboot once since I went back to the WRT54GL about 3 weeks ago.

Keep the "reviews" coming guys, this is just what I need to help decide what to do here. I have noticed there are newegg reviews now on the DIR-850L but 7/8 are from "Eggxperts" rather than customers that could be doing them just to kickstart sales.

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 5:30 am
by DJ Tucker
This is the router i use. for only £50 is pretty good.
http://www.technicolor.com/en/hi/digita ... lor-tg582n

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 6:25 am
by skier
Kaos Kid wrote:Yeah, that's the weird thing about that Rosewill--the wireless radios were awesome and gave me great coverage albeit better in the 2.4Ghz than the 5Ghz.
well, the lower the frequency band the greater the distance it can travel, 5GHz range gives much higher bandwidth for a much shorter distance than 2.4. also keep in mind Microwaves and bodies of water greatly interfere with the 2.4g range
-to keep in mind when reading reviews about using the different frequencies, and also for people living in an apartment complex the interference of other people using the same channel on the same band could play a role in connection strength/bandwidth which most people don't know about (everyone in my apartment complex other than me that i'm in range of is using channel 11 o.O)

Re: Sooooo...What router are you using?

Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:36 am
by Kaos Kid
My wireless adapters have no problems seeing between 10-20 different networks at any given time in my surrounding neighborhood, so I look at which channel is being used less, and cross reference those with the weakest signals to arrive at my chosen channel. Surprisingly Channel 11 is the best one for me, most others around me are on channel 1 or channel 6. I think most of those people don't do it consciously, they just use what their routers originally assigned automatically). My 54GL originally always stayed at channel 6 until I started getting into the config a few years ago to "larn myself" and found that Channel 11 works best for my particular situation.