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Best wireless router for MBP

M

misschung

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2010
12
0
Hi everyone,

I am buying a new MBP and need to set up a home wireless network in my apartment. I have a Surfboard modem from my Optimum Online service.

I have heard that there are some quirks with the MBP wireless connection, and I'm wondering if anyone has advice on the simplest, most stable router available.
I will probably only need it for my laptop, and possible a printer.

thanks in advance!
 
I've used both a Linksys WRT54GL and an AEBS with mine and have had no issues.

The additional benefit of the USB port on the AEBS is nice to share hard drives or printers. However, there are a few advanced things I was doing on the Linksys that the AEBS cannot do.
 
Airport express is small and cheap and all, but the range seriously lacks unless you're in the same room. Get the airport extreme .. STAY AWAY FROM THE TIME CAPSULE.
 
Any router will do. There is no best router. Honestly, I would shy away from the Airport Extreme. There are much better solutions (albeit less integrated) but can offer great range with external antennae and excellent performance.
 
kyzen said:
I literally have one of these in my cart right now, was going to get it for my younger brother who's getting a Mac next week. Why are these a bad idea?
Click to expand...

The power supplies are internal and seem to fail around 18 months.
 
The HD sharing thorough the USB port on the Airport Extreme was a complete joke on Windows but it works flawlessly with the Mac.

I have a gen.1 Extreme and I am very happy with it.

Just my two-cents.
 
Another vote for Draytek, mine is a good 5 years old now, still solid as a rock.


Uptime currently stands at 8.5 months with no drops or crashes, last time I revolted it was the last time I went on holiday.


In terms of what model, start at their website. They have models with many different features to suit your needs. I also recommend binning your modem and going for a Draytek with an integrated modem, this will remove a point of failure from your system.

C x
 
I use the airport express and it works just fine. I can even get signal on the road in front of the house.
 
I have linksys 54G

It won many tests, comparisons, and had best reviews so far. I am not sure how is the situation now, but the router reaches up 3 floors.

Google for reviews and tests.

the 54g is amazing!
 
belvdr said:
I've used both a Linksys WRT54GL and an AEBS with mine and have had no issues.
Click to expand...

+1 on the Linksys. installed custom firmware (Tomato) on mine when I first got it half a year ago, and it hasn't gone down since!
 
I have a D-link DIR655, and not bad. It's not really that simple, but it is stable. It has a USB port for sharing printers or disks, but I haven't tried it, it requires a proprietary utility, and I don't know if it works on OS X.

There is a setting to lower the output power, which is good for people living in an apartment (like me), but maybe only if your neighbors would lower the power on their routers too. A dual-band (2.4GHz/5GHz) router would be good for a crowded apartment since the 5GHz band is less used and does not penetrate walls as much. D-link makes a similar model with dual-band, but the reviews were not as good. The Airport Extreme is dual-band, and if you want something that works well with macs, it would be hard to beat.
 
Linksys WRT160N refurb from Amazon is running like a champ for me. I'll find out how the "N" works once I get my new MBP. Running an old PB G4 on the wireless G connection.

I had an older Belkin G router that was awesome for about four and a half year. During the last 6 months of its life it needed reset almost every week, sometimes multiple times a day.
 
phrint said:
Linksys WRT160N refurb from Amazon is running like a champ for me. I'll find out how the "N" works once I get my new MBP. Running an old PB G4 on the wireless G connection.

I had an older Belkin G router that was awesome for about four and a half year. During the last 6 months of its life it needed reset almost every week, sometimes multiple times a day.
Click to expand...

had that one. What a mistake, atleast for me. I suffered with it for 8 months. I bought a new Airport Extreme in late december, hasn't had to be reset yet.
 
I had some Linksys with my MBP at first, always dropped connections in Snow Leopard but worked fine with Leopard. Got the Time Capsule and haven't dropped a connection once. The range isn't bad but isn't quite as good as the linksys and previous routers. I'm usually not more than 30ft from the router and have no issues at that range but any further is kind of iffy. If money isn't an issue and you want a wireless backup you could always get a TC and add airport express(s) to extend the range :p
 
I have the airport express and have been fairly happy with it. I put it in the middle of my second story and am able to get a good signal all over he house. In fact my neighbor across the street found my SSID and was asking for the PW to get it (of course I told him where he could go).

One thing I really like about it is it's small form factor that makes it easy to throw in my backpack. When traveling to Asia, many hotels don't have wifi access, but have an ethernet port, so i bring it along and create my own hot spot. I also like the Air Tunes feature.

The biggest downside is that it doesn't have duel band. Since I use it for my iPhone, I have to leave it set for using "g" band. This, of course, doesn't affect internet speeds, but it would be nice to use the faster "i" band for lan-based transfers.
 
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