Any wireless routers that aren't pieces of crap?

[yg17]

Our Linksys WRT54G router is a piece of crap. It drops connections, I've had to reboot it several times in the past hour just to use it. I'm about ready to chuck it out the window.

But, what do I replace it with? Obviously, I am NOT getting another Linksys. This is the 2nd Linksys wireless router I've had that sucked. I looked at reviews for D-Link routers, and they seem to be even worse than Linksys. I have a Netgear WGR614 (or something like that) down at college, and it's okay, but it seems like I got lucky with that one because they don't seem to have great reviews either. What options are left? An Airport is out of the question because one, I don't want to spend more than 60 bucks on a router, and two, I still need 4 LAN ports. I may take a risk and get another Netgear, but are there any other routers out there that won't make me want to take a baseball bat to it?

Thanks

 

[mklos]

Well maybe its not the router thats dropping the signal, but rather something else. Cordless phones, baby monitors, some microwaves, etc all run on the same 2.4 GHz frequency. Many other things can effect your signal as well.

 

[iSaint]

During my first wireless experience I determined that the cable modem was a POS. I bought a Linksys modem to go with my Airport Express, and it's never dropped a signal!

 

[yg17]

Well maybe its not the router thats dropping the signal, but rather something else. Cordless phones, baby monitors, some microwaves, etc all run on the same 2.4 GHz frequency. Many other things can effect your signal as well.

No, it's not dropping the wireless signal. The wireless signal remains fine. It just stops accepting connections from computers. I had my laptop plugged in with an ethernet cable for a few days to see if it was the wireless, but it's not. It will just stop doing anything. When this happens, my signal level on wireless doesn't change at all. The router is about 5 feet away from me

During my first wireless experience I determined that the cable modem was a POS. I bought a Linksys modem to go with my Airport Express, and it's never dropped a signal!

The cable modem seems to be fine, if it was dropping connections, I'd imagine I'd have to reboot it. But the cable modem hasn't been rebooted in months. Every time this happens, unplugging and plugging the AC adapter back into the wireless router fixes it, it's just annoying as hell.

 

[bit density]

I would guess it needs a security upgrade.

There really isn't anything particularly bad about the router, and never have the specific problem.

That said, I would make sure that you do things like change SSID, Change Channel, CHange default name and password, disable remote management, do not allow a DMZ.

Try updating or upgrading the firmware.

But you have the gold standard of cheap wireless routers. You *can* go more expensive or try and figure out what is wrong with this one.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

I have a D link and its been hassle free unlike my first one that was Linksys. I am 100% happy with the D link. Plus D link have Mac support a lot of others wont even mention the word Mac.

 

[yg17]

There really isn't anything particularly bad about the router, and never have the specific problem.

That said, I would make sure that you do things like change SSID, Change Channel, CHange default name and password, disable remote management, do not allow a DMZ.

Try updating or upgrading the firmware.

But you have the gold standard of cheap wireless routers. You *can* go more expensive or try and figure out what is wrong with this one.

The SSID isn't default. WPA is enabled. Haven't touched the channel. Remote management and DMZ disabled. All of that, trust me, I know a thing or 2 about network security and this thing is locked down tight. But regardless, this problem has nothing to do with wireless, I could completely disable the wireless radio and still have the problem if I plugged into an ethernet jack on the router. I'll see if there's a firmware update though.

And define "more expensive". Next on the wireless router totem pole, you have the routers with gimmicks like range and speed booster that are proprietary, don't work with OSX, and probably don't work at all. Then you have thei Airport Express, which, even if price wasn't an issue, aren't an option for me due to the lack of ethernet jacks. Then above that, you have enterprise-grade stuff like Cisco that no family of 4 needs in their house. What wireless router would you recommend?

 

[pivo6]

I've have had good luck with a D-Link Router in the past as well as a Belkin one that I'm using now. The Belkin router supports Macs as well.

 

[Westside guy]

I think you should amend the subject to read "any wireless routers for under $60 that aren't pieces of crap", since you're dismissing the Airports out of hand. I think they're great.

As far as cheapie routers go, I've had good luck with D-Link.