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celticpride678

Guest
Original poster
Feb 15, 2009
5,486
2
Boston, MA
I am in the market for a new router. I have a Linksys one now and in one word, it sucks!

I am looking for the BEST wireless N router under $200 US. Apple or other brands. PC and Mac compatible; Preferably Simultaneous Dual-band, NOT LINKSYS; fast (speed wise) and finally, has great range.

Thanks a lot.

A 5 hour tech support phone call with Linksys and still no resolution (I fixed it myself earlier today) really set me over the top.

Once again, thanks for your help!:)
 

DeusInvictus7

macrumors 68020
Aug 13, 2008
2,377
28
Kitchener, Ontario
Well as far I know, the Airport Extreme is the best on as far as price and features go. The other ones I've seen, at least here in Canada, that can do all the same things as the AEBS are more expensive...
 

xIGmanIx

macrumors 6502a
Dec 21, 2008
835
0
for the most part my i have had good success with linksys routers myself. i have a WRT300N and i couldn't complain. Other than having to power cycle it maybe once a month, rock solid and allows me to lock down my network to my liking. Sometimes just flashing the firmware (downloading newest version) and reloading your configs does the trick for me.
 

evillageprowler

macrumors regular
Nov 5, 2007
178
0
NJ, USA
I've had bad experiences before with frequent resets with various routers, including every Linksys model produced after they got bought out by Cisco. No firmware upgrades worked. I also used a D-Link WiFi-G router (forget the model) that worked without issue. I upgraded a while ago to the D-Link Extreme (the one with three antennas) and have had very few incidents of resets.

I recently bought the 1TB TC that I use as a wired bridge (and TM, of course). I can never use the AEBS or TC as my main router because I need something that supports DDNS on the wan side.

So, my choice is the D-Link Extreme due to its DDNS feature; otherwise, I like my TC (or AEBS) because it can do so much more: USB hub, TM, NAS. Also is easy to configure using Airport Utility.

HTH,

EVP
 

MacMini2009

macrumors 68000
May 22, 2009
1,728
0
California
I can say the newest Airport Extreme is the best router I have ever owned. I use to have a Netgear router until it broke down, so I went out and bought an Airport Extreme. Wow! I love the guest network, and the Bonjour software. I highly recommend the Apple Airport Extreme.
 

aleni

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2006
2,560
858
got dlink dir-655 a year ago. it's been a great router. working good till today.
 

evillageprowler

macrumors regular
Nov 5, 2007
178
0
NJ, USA
More on the TC (and AEBS): I am having a bit of hard time accessing the attached NAS drive via NFS on my Linux box. I'm optimistic that it is multi-protocol enough that I can access it on Windows or Linux (via CIFS).

EVP
 

neosar

macrumors newbie
Oct 2, 2008
3
0
I second the D-Link DIR-655. I have the Rev A model, and it works great. I had a Linksys and an Airport Extreme. They do not compare to this router. I got 50mbit Comcast internet, and needed to upgrade my wireless to accommodate it, the BEST I could get from the Airport was around 35mbps, the linksys got me about 22. I get real-world 100mbit throughput (tested with a commandline utility) on the D-Link. Nevermind the fact that this thing has features galore. Definitely recommend to ANYONE looking for a good N router.
 

Bill Gates

macrumors 68030
Jun 21, 2006
2,500
14
127.0.0.1
Not Linksys? That's too bad; I was going to recommend one of their products. All the consumer-grade products from Linksys, Netgear, etc. are backed with poor tech support from "Bob" and "Mark" over in New Delhi. If you won't go with Linksys then I would recommend the Airport Extreme. It seems to be well-received and offers everything you're looking for. Comparable routers go for similar prices from other makes so you wouldn't be saving much money by shopping for another make of router.
 

azboricua

macrumors 6502a
Aug 5, 2009
559
0
Arizona
Best thing you could do in my personal opinion, is stay away from linksys.

High failure rates, BUT that is just MY experience.
 

HBOC

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2008
2,497
234
SLC
i have the wrt160N V2 and i like it.

after a few people here have said something about the airport express, That got me looking at it. It seems like a good router, however my problem is that my girlfriend has a dell PC and i have my xbox 360, and not enough ports on the express. I guess i could get her a wifi usb stick for her PC and then i would be good. If the airport is faster than the 160NV2 i would look into it for sure! I wouldn't get the extreme over what i have now, though, since i just bought this router in February, since my wrt54G8 snapped into 10 pieces. I don't know how that happened :confused::confused: :)
 

creon

macrumors 6502
Mar 19, 2009
317
0
Stay away from Belkin.

I have been looking in getting a Time Capsule and the added plus of having airport with it.

Does TC work well as a router, too?
 

ravenvii

macrumors 604
Mar 17, 2004
7,585
492
Melenkurion Skyweir
Does TC work well as a router, too?

The Time Capsule *is* a router, but with a harddrive built in. It truly is awesome :)

But for under $200, I'd definitely recommend the AirPort Extreme. I had two; the old 802.11g white flying saucer one; bought in 2003, still running my family's home's wireless network to this day, rock solid. My second was the new AirPort Extreme (the model prior to the giganet one), it was rock solid for the year that I used it. I sold it and upgraded to a Time Capsule. It's been awesome since - I bought it when it first came out, so it's been up for about 1 1/2 years now.

More on the TC (and AEBS): I am having a bit of hard time accessing the attached NAS drive via NFS on my Linux box. I'm optimistic that it is multi-protocol enough that I can access it on Windows or Linux (via CIFS).

EVP

The drive is accessible via SMB. I've not tried to access it with Windows or Linux (no point in accessing my Time Machine files, lol) but I'm sure it will work.

EDIT: Apparently, it's "really really flaky", as a guy in an Apple Support message board thread puts it. Check out the thread, it might help you out.
 
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