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Best wireless router
- Thread starter rleepremier
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Jus bought the airport extreme, since i wanted to upgrade my network, and couldnt be happier took me about 10 mins. to set everything up and no issues since then ya it is pricey but worth it
Netgear WNR3500L - Hands down.
At just $80, it is among the best consumer-grade routers. Rock solid, stable and fast. You can Tomato it and turn it into a $300 router.
People mention AEBS a lot. But it is way too expensive at $180, especially when there are far better performing routers available for much less.
At just $80, it is among the best consumer-grade routers. Rock solid, stable and fast. You can Tomato it and turn it into a $300 router.
People mention AEBS a lot. But it is way too expensive at $180, especially when there are far better performing routers available for much less.
I think the AEBS's are great. You can find the current model slightly used on eBay at a great price and even at the higher price its great not having to worry about problems happening. Zero problems with mine in a variety of situations over the last 3 years and its still rock solid. DD-WRT is fun if you're tweaking or just wanting to play with something, but if you want something easy, reliable and packed with factory supported features choose the airport.IMHO as always
Isn't the WNR3500L single-band though, and the AEBS dual-band simultaneous? Point being that if you're suffering interference on 2.4GHz you can run you 802.11n devices on 5GHz on the AEBS while simultaneously supporting legacy 802.11g devices on 2.4GHz. May not be an issue for many/most folks though.
FWIW, AEBS can be had for $129 via Apple's refurbished store so it's about a $50-60 price jump over the WNR3500L. I've read that the AEBS is covered under any computer Applecare extended warranty?. AEBS also gives the ability to attach a USB drive and you effectively have a Time Capsule. (I think the WNR3500L can support this also, but support for this functionality may be less available)
What I'm not keen on is the requirement of using a utility program to configure the AEBS rather than a web interface.
I'm still using an older Buffalo 11g router with Tomato firmware; haven't decided what I'll upgrade to yet, maybe WNR3500L since it supports DD-WRT and Tomato. I'm planning to buy a Synology DS211j when released to use as a NAS, so the USB disk functionality of the AEBS isn't worthwhile to me.
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Couple links with some good reading material:
Apple Airport Extreme New Simultaneous Dual-Band Router Briefly Reviewed
NETGEAR WNR3500L with DD-WRT Reviewed
NETGEAR WNR3500L Rangemax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB
Apple Airport Extreme New Simultaneous Dual-Band Router Briefly Reviewed
NETGEAR WNR3500L with DD-WRT Reviewed
NETGEAR WNR3500L Rangemax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB
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I'd say get the 3700, I bought that one instead of the 3500, love it.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...5-start-your-buying-netgear-wndr3700-reviewed
If you have a lot of other networks in the area (like I do), you should absolutely get something that supports the 5Ghz range.
The 3700 looks like a very solid router; the only thing though is it's $150 while the 3500 is $78 at Amazon or $55+tax at Staples if you use a $25 off $75 coupon (not 100% sure it applies).
Whether the 3700 provides $70-90 more benefit would depend on your needs. If you're in a condo or apartment or other high density housing as nomar383 mentions, the dual radios and 5GHz capability would likely be worthwhile.
If you're comfortable installing custom firmware (like DD-WRT), I really, really, really recommend the Asus WL-520gU. It's amazingly cheap compared to most routers (certainly compared to the AEBS) and it's incredibly solid with DD-WRT. It's less-well-known (and newer) than the Linksys WRT54GL (which is also excellent), but it's also cheaper and has a USB port, which is really great for connecting printers or TimeMachine backup disks, etc.
I've had two of these for ~2 years now (one as a main router and one as a bridge) and they have been incredibly solid. The DD-WRT firmware can be a little tricky to install at first, but they have fantastic support (for free!) and once you get it up and running, it "just works" and gives you great flexibility to manage your routers.
I've had two of these for ~2 years now (one as a main router and one as a bridge) and they have been incredibly solid. The DD-WRT firmware can be a little tricky to install at first, but they have fantastic support (for free!) and once you get it up and running, it "just works" and gives you great flexibility to manage your routers.
I've had a WRT54GL running DD-WRT back home in CA for a year and a half now. I needed something reliable since it's at my parents house and I can't afford to call them to restart a router all the time when it decides to explode. I've seen uptime in the neighborhood of 6+ months at a time with 0 problems. The only time it goes down is when I upgrade DD-WRT
No USB port on the WRT54GL though (not that I ever needed one). Also no 5Ghz or Wireless N.
I never thought I needed a USB port until I had one. Now, I have wireless printing all over the house (on my normal, non-wireless printer) from any computer.
However, like the WRT54GL, the WL-520gU also lacks 802.11n. If that's something that's important to you, there are a few DD-WRT routers that support n. See this massive list.
Best wifi router, Airport Extreme of course!
I wish.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...ng-new-apple-airport-extreme-briefly-reviewed
Who in the world would pay $200 for router because it has an apple logo on it? I have a Linksys WRT 54g and have never lost a connection from it. I obviously don't have 100mb internet connection (15mb I have) so wireless N is not worth it. If you live in an area that has over 54 mb connections and pay for one then get a wireless N router, I think I saw a D-Link at futureshop/best buy for like 29$. It will be fine for home use. If you spend more than 100$ on a router you got ripped off pretty bad. You might as well buy some 100$ monster hdmi cables while your at it.
My router cost me about $50 about 3 years ago.
My router cost me about $50 about 3 years ago.
I don't think you need an internet connection to enjoy the local network speed benefits of the N routers...
Benefits of file transfers? Or lanning? I can wait 10 more seconds to send a video to another comp.
I've had nothing but trouble from those routers.
WRT54G (Dead Out of Warranty)
WRT54G2 1.3 (Dead - Warrantied)
WRT54G2 1.5 (Dead Out of Warranty)
After the 1.5 you would think I'd learn my lesson but I saw a great price on the E3000 so now I'm rocking that. You would think for a device that just SITS THERE would have better durability.
Honestly, the moment the E3000 dies (looks like not too soon), I'm going to AEBS or Express. The E3000's N band is terrible through walls. I'm ALWAYS on the G band due to this.
Well I'm going to use this wireless router to stream video. I bought the netgear wnr2000 but it needs to be reset Everyday. I'm also using Clear Internet service which they advertise as 4g. I'm gonna return this router and looking to purchase the linksys wrt54g. What is the difference between the g2,gl, and g? Thanks guys for all the help.
re: differences in Linksys router models
Linksys has done so many revisions of their popular router models, I lost track of exactly what's in which one. I do know, though, that any wrt54g with an "l" designation on the end of the model indicates that it runs embedded Linux.
That's important to a lot of people who want to re-flash the routers with custom firmware packages out there, to change/add functionality that's not officially supported by Linksys. The custom firmware bundles generally require one of the routers designed to run Linux.
Linksys has done so many revisions of their popular router models, I lost track of exactly what's in which one. I do know, though, that any wrt54g with an "l" designation on the end of the model indicates that it runs embedded Linux.
That's important to a lot of people who want to re-flash the routers with custom firmware packages out there, to change/add functionality that's not officially supported by Linksys. The custom firmware bundles generally require one of the routers designed to run Linux.
re: Who would pay $200 for Apple's router?
It would be stupid to pay more for an Apple router just to have their logo on it. But a lot of people "in the know" will pay more for their routers because they're actually superior to much of what's on the market right now.
I believe it was a test done a year or so ago, over on ArsTechnica's web site, where a number of popular wireless-n routers were compared -- and Apple's Airport Extreme did the best of all the models tested.
I know, doing on-site computer service and support for a living, I've run into quite a few cheaper routers that just die out after a year or two, or simply aren't very stable/reliable. For example, there are some Chinese discount-priced "Tenda" routers out there. Their prices are really attractive, but the people I know who use them find they occasionally freeze up and require a power off/power on to get them going again. I've seen a fair number of the older D-Link wireless routers (typically the models in the blue and silver plastic cases) where their radios just burnt out too. They act like they're working normally, except you can only get a wireless signal if you hold a notebook computer about 6 inches from the thing!
So while Apple's routers might seem "way overpriced", I rarely see someone complaining that theirs just died or became unstable, even if they've owned it a long time. I think you get what you pay for, really. It's just that some people aren't willing to pay the extra money when the cheap stuff promises to do the same things.
It would be stupid to pay more for an Apple router just to have their logo on it. But a lot of people "in the know" will pay more for their routers because they're actually superior to much of what's on the market right now.
I believe it was a test done a year or so ago, over on ArsTechnica's web site, where a number of popular wireless-n routers were compared -- and Apple's Airport Extreme did the best of all the models tested.
I know, doing on-site computer service and support for a living, I've run into quite a few cheaper routers that just die out after a year or two, or simply aren't very stable/reliable. For example, there are some Chinese discount-priced "Tenda" routers out there. Their prices are really attractive, but the people I know who use them find they occasionally freeze up and require a power off/power on to get them going again. I've seen a fair number of the older D-Link wireless routers (typically the models in the blue and silver plastic cases) where their radios just burnt out too. They act like they're working normally, except you can only get a wireless signal if you hold a notebook computer about 6 inches from the thing!
So while Apple's routers might seem "way overpriced", I rarely see someone complaining that theirs just died or became unstable, even if they've owned it a long time. I think you get what you pay for, really. It's just that some people aren't willing to pay the extra money when the cheap stuff promises to do the same things.
The newest model of the apple airport extreme, goes for around $100 bucks on ebay bnib. if you shop around
When you're talking about ~10GB files on a regular basis, Wireless N is kinda nice.