Looking for a great wireless router - help needed

[KnightRid]

Well the title says it all. I need a new router. I have been having so many problems with the D-Link DIR-655 I have that it is time to trash it and get something that actually works.

I want it to have gigabit lan ports (at least 4), Wireless N and be able to handle a LOT of wireless connections without dropping the signal every other minute.

This d-link has gigabit but the transfers are sporadically slow (right now I am at 6.87mb/s WIRED on gigabit, later today I could get 10X that amount or more) and the wireless continually drops signal, especially when more devices are connected. I constantly hear my wife hollering about the wireless signal is gone on her tablet or laptop and frankly, I am tired of it

For the wireless in the house there is, 3 cell phones, 2 tablets, 3 laptops, psp, wii, ps3.....ummm...well then any wireless devices I am working on for family or friends also.

I want dual band of course but the triple channel N doesnt seem worthwhile to pay extra for. If it doesnt increase the price, it wont hurt but I wont pay extra for that alone.


There you have it. Any questions to help determine what I need just holler!

[Darkstar]

im starting to think that all wireless routers suck, i have yet to find one im happy with.

so i look forward to reading the responses too

[DL126]

The most reliable setup I have found is to use seperate components.
All of the "all in one" boxes I've tried suck.

If it's a 10+ machine network, or simply high usage, I use a P3 or P4 PC with a pair of gigabit NIC's and install Smootwall router software.
If wireless is needed, I use Engenius business class access points.

None of this is expensive, but yet highly reliable thus far in my experience.
And truth be told ....
The only reason I reserve this type of setup for larger sized networks is because a "hand built" router and seperate components more easily justify premium payment!

[KnightRid]

im starting to think that all wireless routers suck, i have yet to find one im happy with.

so i look forward to reading the responses too

No doubt! Other than doing like DL126 suggested, I am having a hell of a time finding a really good wireless N router that doesnt drop signals with multiple devices connected.

I really do not want to use a computer as a router, mainly due to me being too stupid to get it working and the other being the electricity savings of a router over a computer running.

[DL126]

.... mainly due to me being too stupid to get it working and the other being the electricity savings of a router over a computer running.

It's REALLY simple ...

I suppose for home networks, the power savings might be a concern ...
But for business, the few $$ per year in power consumption is nothing when compared to a few minutes of down time because of a POS $50.00 router.

[vbironchef]

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about35912.html

[KnightRid]

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about35912.html

I always stayed away from netgear because all the ones I have used or setup have been REAL finicky. I admit, I was looking at the 750 (I think that is the model) and may have to give thought to snagging this one instead. I imagine it will play nice with Verizon DSL at 15/1. It would let me eliminatae the crappy Westell modem/router that causes nothing but problems. Really, a modem/router that has only 1 port to hook anything up to it. Must have been a genius to come up with that idea

[Major_A]

Buffalo is cool if you want to run a custom firmware (WDRT or Tomato). The Buffalo router I had lasted a very long time (compared to others I've owned) and took up a minuscule amount of space. The current router I have (Linksys E2500) has been ok so far. The only problem I have with it is the lack of range. But for whatever reason older G adapters get the best signal strengths. Before this one I had a 300Mbps Belkin that I had to "reboot" once a day at least. I've had this one 3 months now and I think I've rebooted less than a handful of times. I used to be a D-Link guy but when I run through a router roughly once a year then it's time to move on. My sister/bro-in-law have a TP-Link and as far as I know it has never had a problem. The upside to it too is how cheap it was. I used Netgear once and now try to avoid it like the plague. Hope some of this helps.

[DaddyRabbit]

I am using a Netgear WINDR3700 and am pretty happy with it. I find the USB NAS feature to be finicky at times but that wasn't why I got it and it does work.

I have three PCs, two DroidX, XBox 360, DirectTV HD-DVR, Blu-Ray player, one laptop, and two printers hitting it a various times and no real issues.
It is true dual band so I run most of the connections in the 2.4GHZ band and My PC and the DVR run in the 5GHZ band. I use DirecTV2PC to stream recorded shows to my PC over wireless and don't have any issues at all in the 5GHZ band but the range does drop off.

Not sure if its important to you (I have a 16 year old so it was to me) it has some nice parental control options using OpenDNS. The only issue I have had (and it has been common to most brands I've had) is that emailing of the logs will just stop sometimes. That also may not be an issue with you though.

I like the router better than I thought I would I guess I'm saying.

[KnightRid]

I am using a Netgear WINDR3700 and am pretty happy with it. I find the USB NAS feature to be finicky at times but that wasn't why I got it and it does work.

I have three PCs, two DroidX, XBox 360, DirectTV HD-DVR, Blu-Ray player, one laptop, and two printers hitting it a various times and no real issues.
It is true dual band so I run most of the connections in the 2.4GHZ band and My PC and the DVR run in the 5GHZ band. I use DirecTV2PC to stream recorded shows to my PC over wireless and don't have any issues at all in the 5GHZ band but the range does drop off.

Not sure if its important to you (I have a 16 year old so it was to me) it has some nice parental control options using OpenDNS. The only issue I have had (and it has been common to most brands I've had) is that emailing of the logs will just stop sometimes. That also may not be an issue with you though.

I like the router better than I thought I would I guess I'm saying.

So far it seems more people are leaning towards Netgear now a days. Only kid at home for me is 23 years old so parental stuff is not needed.

I have heard the Linksys E5200 (whatever the new models are) have problems with dropping connections also.

Oh and Easter man, you are right about the 5ghz range being a LOT shorter than the 2.4ghz. It is super fast when you are close but the 2.4ghz will overtake it as you get further away.

[Sporg]

A lot of folks seem to like Netgear but I can never go back to them. I have had 2 wireless routers and several cards from them...all of them had issues after a short amount of time. The last router I had was a DLink gamer lounge (DGL-4500 maybe) which was pretty solid for a number of years. A couple of months or so ago it went belly up and I grabbed an Asus router. So far I've been pretty happy with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833320062


EDIT: Sporg is on notice for this terrible spam message, hope it doesn't happen again!

[KnightRid]

A lot of folks seem to like Netgear but I can never go back to them. I have had 2 wireless routers and several cards from them...all of them had issues after a short amount of time. The last router I had was a DLink gamer lounge (DGL-4500 maybe) which was pretty solid for a number of years. A couple of months or so ago it went belly up and I grabbed an Asus router. So far I've been pretty happy with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833320062


EDIT: Sporg is on notice for this terrible spam message, hope it doesn't happen again!

first off - you spammer LOL

second - It seems like every single router out there has problems when mixing multiple wireless and wired devices. I may give this Asus a try because the throughput on the network is just un-freakin-believable! I just hope I don't get a router that has the same problem as this dir-655 with dropped signals and even dropped computers/devices at times.

Will update once I actually get the bosses (wives, give me sex or let me buy stuff dammit LOL) approval to buy one

[Sporg]

Uhh, yeah...I'm a spammer.

I haven't had any issues so far with drops. We have multiple wireless devices running as well as a few wired switches and what not. The QoS is also pretty easy to setup. Let's see...I think it has 2 USB ports for printers and network drives. All in all I've been very pleased.

One thing about it is that there's no external antenna, so keep that in mind if you go that route.

[Major_A]

It seems like every single router out there has problems when mixing multiple wireless and wired devices.

There's also the fact that more and more devices are connecting wirelessly. Who would've thought even a few years ago that a TV would/could connect to the wireless network. Then everyone that comes into your house wants to connect their laptop or smart phone to the wireless network.

At any given point there are usually 8+ devices connected to my router. People start turning on laptops and such that can easily double.