Wireless Router Options

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E

EJ1

Audioholic Chief
I'm looking to purchase a wireless router for my 2 bedroom apartment with the only things accessing it being an XBOX 360, PS3, and a laptop. I prefer something that's not going to drop signal all of the time and one with enough signal to be able to access it from anywhere in the apartment. I'd like to keep it below $70 if possible. Should I stick with 802.11b/g or go with n? Or should I just buy any ol' one as they are all pretty similar. Thanks in advance.


PS - Not sure if this is the correct forum or not, so feel free to move it if needed.
 
MUDSHARK

MUDSHARK

Audioholic Chief
The Linksys router should fit your budget well. I have been using it for three years running two laptops (one hard wired to Roadrunner cable modem), and one PC in my sons room as well as my son using the PS#3 concurrently with no problems what so ever.
 
E

EJ1

Audioholic Chief
MUDSHARK said:
The Linksys router should fit your budget well. I have been using it for three years running two laptops (one hard wired to Roadrunner cable modem), and one PC in my sons room as well as my son using the PS#3 concurrently with no problems what so ever.
Click to expand...
What's the specific model? Is it b/g/n? I noticed some of their newer routers have internal antennas, perhaps to keep them sleek looking?
 
unreal.freak

unreal.freak

Senior Audioholic
ive been using This one for a while and it works well. I sit around 55ft away and the signal has to travel through 4 interior walls to get to my usual work area. it supports our 2 laptops well.

If you get it, follow the directions to the "t" when installing it. Hope this helps.

Peace,
Tommy
 
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1

10010011

Senior Audioholic
MUDSHARK said:
The Linksys router should fit your budget well. I have been using it for three years running two laptops (one hard wired to Roadrunner cable modem), and one PC in my sons room as well as my son using the PS#3 concurrently with no problems what so ever.
Click to expand...
I would have to second the Linksys, the wrt54G or wrt54GS to be exact.

Then upgrade the firmware to DD-WRT

DD-WRT kicks ***!

Stupid bad word filter even changed the URL. Replace the *** with a s s
 
MUDSHARK

MUDSHARK

Audioholic Chief
Wireless g broad band router with 4 port switch
Model wrt54g
2.4GHZ 54mbps

Antenna are external
 
1

10010011

Senior Audioholic
MUDSHARK said:
Wireless g broad band router with 4 port switch
Model wrt54g
2.4GHZ 54mbps

Antenna are external
Click to expand...
Speaking of WRT-54G and antennas, if you watch the Radio Shack ad's every few months a set of range extender antennas for the WRT-54G goes on sale for like $10.
 
Jack Hammer

Jack Hammer

Audioholic Field Marshall
I've had pretty good results in the past with the WRT-54G. You can get them in your budget.

IIRC, the 'b' means it's capable of transfers up to 11mbs max.
'g' is up to 54 mbs.
'n' is a newer type, i forget the exact speed capability but it's something like up to 200mbs or more. Plus 'n' can use a higher frequency to much more range.


Jack
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
Remember though that the the speed designation means computer to router, not router to WAN (internet). If you are transferring files between one machine and another on your local network 54 Mbps is impressive but it won't make one single bit of difference for communicating with your router where the interface is capable of 10 Mbps at the very best.

It's the same deal as your old analog modem. You can set it to 115 kbps but it doesn't matter because your actual connection to the internet is limited to 28 kbps (or whatever, depends on your service, but is nowhere near 115 kbps).
 
Jack Hammer

Jack Hammer

Audioholic Field Marshall
Good point MDS. Up til last week I was using a wireless B card in my laptop. Now i've got a wireless G, speeds are the same but the range is slightly better and I don't lose the router signal (upstairs and across the hall with lots of brick and concrete between) as often.

Jack
 
A

allargon

Audioholic General
Linksys, Netgear and Airlink should all work about the same. How big is your space, and is it all on the same floor? I'm a fan of the cheap Airlink's at Fry's. They work well for one story homes. For multistory homes, I would suggest repeaters, extenders or honestly powerline networking. I've found the newer g's to have more range than the older b's did. Sometimes signal is still flakey depending on the weather, time of day, etc. :confused: I honestly never noticed a difference in reliability between Linksys, Netgear, D-link, Airlink, etc. I noticed a difference in price though!
 
R

Reorx

Full Audioholic
allargon said:
Linksys, Netgear and Airlink should all work about the same. How big is your space, and is it all on the same floor? I'm a fan of the cheap Airlink's at Fry's. They work well for one story homes. For multistory homes, I would suggest repeaters, extenders or honestly powerline networking. I've found the newer g's to have more range than the older b's did. Sometimes signal is still flakey depending on the weather, time of day, etc. :confused: I honestly never noticed a difference in reliability between Linksys, Netgear, D-link, Airlink, etc. I noticed a difference in price though!
Click to expand...
Guys, Linksys has really gone downhill since they were bought by Cisco a few years back. Their older stuff was great. Airlink is cheapo crap, stay away if you can.

Being a Network Admin / Engineer I am around this stuff all the time.
Apple and Netgear currently make some of the best affordable wireless routers. Becareful with pre-N. Since it's not standardized, they all don't play the same, and between different manufactures, you can run into problems.

Also, for the love of god, please...please secure your network, with at least WPA2 with AES. Do not broadcast your SSID, and limit your DHCP addresses to your wireless MAC's.

Protocol - Release Date - Frequency - Throughput - Datarate - Radius Indoor - Radius Outdoor

802.11a; 1999; 5 GHz; 23 Mbit/s; 54 Mbit/s; OFDM; ~35 Meters; ~120 Meters
802.11b; 1999; 2.4 GHz; 4.3 Mbit/s; 11 Mbit/s; DSSS; ~38 Meters; ~140 Meters
802.11g; 2003; 2.4 GHz; 19 Mbit/s; 54 Mbit/s; OFDM; ~38 Meters; ~140 Meters
802.11n; 06/2009; 2.4 / 5GHz; 74 Mbit/s; 248 Mbit/s; ~70 Meters; ~250 Meters
 
1

10010011

Senior Audioholic
Reorx said:
Guys, Linksys has really gone downhill since they were bought by Cisco a few years back. Their older stuff was great. Airlink is cheapo crap, stay away if you can.
Click to expand...
Sure some of the older Linksys was a little better and had more memory, but DD-WRT fixes many of the Linksys short comings. I also will have to say I have had nothing but bad experiences with Netgear hardware.

Reorx said:
Also, for the love of god, please...please secure your network, with at least WPA2 with AES. Do not broadcast your SSID, and limit your DHCP addresses to your wireless MAC's.
Click to expand...
Sure this is easy to say, (and do) but... I still have wireless devices that get used everyday in my house that can only do 802.11B-128bit WEP, and my son's Nintendo DS will not attach to an access point unless it is broadcasting it's SSID. So what do you suggest?
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
We've had this kind of discussion many times and it always goes the same way. Buy a Linksys, no they suck. Buy a Netgear, no they suck, etc.

I have always used NetGear. It's just one of those things...the first wireless router I ever bought was a NetGear and it worked fine for years so I just stick with NetGear.
 
jonnythan

jonnythan

Audioholic Ninja
Do not buy the WRT54G. It's an old, crippled, POS.

The WRT54GL is OK.
 
mouettus

mouettus

Audioholic Chief
Be aware that new WRT54G's don't have enough memory to upload another firmware on it. It is really cheap. The old ones were better.

I still don't understand why I don't have any luck with wireless routers. I've tried 3 different models from Linksys, Netgear and D-Link. All of the units would fail to work and I had to do a hard reboot several times a day. The last one being every 3 minutes. I've tried everything, even without encryption (very unsafe).

As for the g vs n technology, be aware that all of your machines are G only. It would create a bottleneck, wasting your available bandwidth thus your money.
 
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mouettus

mouettus

Audioholic Chief
jonnythan said:
Mouettus, try a higher end router like a Zyxel X-550 or DLink DGL-4300 or DIR-655 or Linksys WRT54GX. The routers on the market range from "really weak" to "quite strong" and it's hard to determine which is which.

These charts may help:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/chart,124/
Click to expand...
I wouldn't mind paying a little more for something reliable and performant but no one sells those things in the region. They all sell lower end stuff. I really want to have the option of returning it if it does the same thing.
 
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