Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What is the best wireless router to get right now?

H

hidehide

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 1, 2007
353
13
I was using Linksys WRT54GS v5.. its horrible.. it got disconnect every minute sometimes.. and I need to replug the power cord..
I looked into newegg, Linksys WRT54GL is the highest rating.. is it a good one to get? btw it looks exactly the same as my old one..
And I also searched in yahoo, and consumerresearch says Netgear WPNT834 RangeMax 240 Wireless Router is the best.. it looks much better than the linksys.. anyone using it?

Or should I get a wireless-n enabled router? but I heard those router cant reach the potential for wireless-n..

Which should I get??
 
they're not too different. i have a wrt54gl and run dd-wrt custom firmware on it, maybe you should look into that for your own router, because i believe some versions of the gs can run it as well - http://dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php

also, i don't think you should get an 802.11n router right now because the standard's still draft and not official. unless you have all apple hardware with all 802.11n cards, in which case you should get the new airport extreme, it doesn't really matter what you use as long as you don't get draft-n hardware.
 
hidehide said:
I was using Linksys WRT54GS v5.. its horrible..
Click to expand...

Strange. Everyone I know has liked the WRT54 no matter which variant. Perhaps you should check if there was a new firmware available that could possibly cure your problems? I know my ZyXEL base station / wireless router was acting a little weird before I updated its firmware. After that it has been working like a charm.
 
I had the Linky WRT54G with the HyperWRT firmware and it was great until the power supply died. I replaced it with the D-Link DGL-4300 and I am very happy with it. The wireless connections are much more stable never had a disconnection in 8 months I've had it, range is great and fast transfer speeds. For wired stuff it's got gigabit ethernet ports. I highly recommend it.
 
I had a Netgear router. I got the same disgusting problem the original poster did. It would have to be unplugged and then plugged back in in any time the bandwidth going through it became too great, which is ridiculous, as it was an 802.11g device and its WAN-to-LAN throughput wasn't absolutely horrible. I got the Airport Extreme when they updated it this year, and haven't looked back. No more ugly, nonsensical interface, no more dropouts, no router that is so light that it bends toward the floor and falls off of things when you plug in an ethernet cord.

And I also plugged a USB 2.0 drive into the Airport and have a nice wireless network drive now.
 
I have a similar Linksys and it works pretty well. It drops occassionally, but we can live with it.

Have you tried changing the channel its set on? We live in NYC where every other apt. has a wireless connection running. We had to do a little experimenting to find the channel that worked best for us.
 
I did a research on it. And found out that WRT54GS v5 is the worst model.. Anything below v5 is good, since its still running linux base..
I updated to DD-WRT yesterday.. however, i dont know why the internet connection run a bit slow.. maybe I need to experience the different settings..

And I also found that I can update the setting to make my WRT54GS v5 to make it 16mb ram.. after I run the commands, the router now becomes a brick.. I will need sometime to fix it(with Jtag cable).. so I want to get another router for the meantime...

And WRT54GL every model from v1 to v4 is good..

Still thinking should I get the same looking router(WRT54GL) but with very good comments and reliability or get a good looking one..
 
^ Apple routers are WAAY overpriced.

Get the WRT54GL and install DD-WRT.
 
Another vote for a Lunix-based WRT54G series router

I've got a WRT54GS version 1.1 and it runs great. I don't run any custom firmware, but I've had it three years and never had to think about it, I just set it up and let it do its thing.

I think the problem is the VXworks Linksys routers are unreliable, but any previous Lunix-based WRT54G or WRT54GS, including the current WRT54GL, run great. And if you want even more functionality, then later on you can install custom firmware. It's just that Ihaven't felt the need to do that after 3 year,s the Linksys firmware on it works fine for mere mortals like me.
 
zioxide said:
^ Apple routers are WAAY overpriced.

Get the WRT54GL and install DD-WRT.
Click to expand...
It depends on what you're doing though. The onboard print server and NAS abilities can off set the cost.

I still have my cheapo $10 Belkin 802.11g router from 2004 running with perfect uptime. Short of power outages...

I still recommend a Linksys one running Linux though.
 
routers

Apple.

I pay extra gladly for the great support and the superior setup software that is integrated into OSX.

3 airport extremes, 4 airport expresses, happy
 
If you don't want a toy you only have two options: pay hundreds of dollars for a Cisco router with IOS, or get a cheap one on which you can install a Linux firmware.
 
I really like the new Airport Extreme Base Station Pre-N router. Allows me to print wirelessly and also connect to a HD from anywhere on the internet.

Well work the money in my opinion and can't beat the integration aspect as well.

Nuc
 
You can share a filesystem with Samba or NFS in OpenWRT.
You can also mount shared drives on the router.
 
cube said:
You can share a filesystem with Samba or NFS in OpenWRT.
Click to expand...

I noticed this setting back when I had a WRT54G (which I threw away as soon as possible). Why exactly is mounting a drive on your router (and then mounting the router's mounted drive on the intended client) helpful? You could just mount the server's drive from the client and save some time and retardedness.
 
zioxide said:
^ Apple routers are WAAY overpriced.

Get the WRT54GL and install DD-WRT.
Click to expand...

True, they are over priced, but I consider my Airport Express to be priceless. Its ease of use, reliability, and ability to stream music to rooms my computer is not in is priceless to me. Best $129 I've spent in awhile!
 
kalisphoenix said:
I noticed this setting back when I had a WRT54G (which I threw away as soon as possible). Why exactly is mounting a drive on your router (and then mounting the router's mounted drive on the intended client) helpful? You could just mount the server's drive from the client and save some time and retardedness.
Click to expand...

No. The point is to mount some network drive on the router for use in the router, and sharing some filesystem that you have on the router (for eaxmple, an attached USB drive) to the network. Two unrelated things.
 
cube said:
No. The point is to mount some network drive on the router for use in the router, and sharing some filesystem that you have on the router (for eaxmple, an attached USB drive) to the network. Two unrelated things.
Click to expand...

Wow. My WRT54G didn't have a USB port. Poking around, the only one that does this is a WRTSL54GS, which seem to be about $100 on Froogle. And it's only Wireless-G :(

Why exactly would you want to mount a drive on your router, though? I admit that I SSHed onto my WRT54G once or twice, but then the novelty wore off. Is this so you can write logs to a remote disk? Surely no one is using it to help compile test versions of X11 or anything, right? :p
 
kalisphoenix said:
Why exactly would you want to mount a drive on your router, though? I admit that I SSHed onto my WRT54G once or twice, but then the novelty wore off. Is this so you can write logs to a remote disk? Surely no one is using it to help compile test versions of X11 or anything, right? :p
Click to expand...

My first thought would be to write logs to some hard disk without having to go through a syslogd daemon.

Maybe it's also possible to install Optware this way if you don't have enough local storage on your router.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back