RangeMax 240 or DGL-4300?

[Istasi]

Hey guys, I'm in the market for a new wireless router, and the D-Link DGL-4300 Gaming Router and Netgear RangeMax 240 seem to be the best choices in the price range (<$150)

D-Link DGL-4300 IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless Gaming Router
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16833127158

NETGEAR WPNT834 IEEE 802.11b/g RangeMax 240 Wireless Router
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16833150023

Which would you recommend? I'm an avid online gamer, but 99% of my online gaming will be done through a wired connection to my main PC. These routers will be for use throughout the house (3 story, some stone walls) and occasionally out in the yard or on the patio.

Opinions?

[Reinvented]

I have a DGL-4300, and I like it a lot. However, it doesn't necessarily improve ping times like most will think. Only on some servers it does. Also, the "Game Fuel" is sub-par. Just packet prioritizing. Which is nice if you have other people in the house or whatever who download or do other bandwidth intensive stuff.

It also improved my FiOS speeds by another 100kb which is good.

[Lestat]

just buy the WRT54G and use the hacked firmware. and set up QOS for your IP and game and ports.

those gaming routers dont do anything that you cant do already and 100 more things with the wrt54g

also realise that 98% of the wireless routers are only around 50dbm output with a 3dbi antenna. thats not really going to get you very far.

also 3 stories is going to be an issue.
rubber duck antennas are 360deg on the horzontal plane, their vertical signal is very minimal and although 1 floor up is easy 2 floors can be an issue and surely 3 floors will present itself to be a problem.
stone and 802.11 is a bad thing. so are things like fish tanks, steel beams and other things. big house plants, trees etc etc.
why fish tanks you say? that seems odd... easy 2.4ghz is the resonating frequency of water and you can bet that if you are in direct line with a fish tank your sign can suck, not always but it can.
metal like duct work in a house can be another issue.
usually not too many people have many issues but i am throwing them out there as food for though.

also realise that wireless and gaming can be a bad thing but as you stated most gaming will be done via wired.

laptops are another thing, laptops have been known to use a horizontally polarized antenna, which is nothing more than wires running up the side of your monitor.
also their reception and transmission sucks. 30-0mw is all you will ever see out of a laptop unless you buy an aftermarket pcmcia card and really research it to find out what its output rating is.
another thing with laptops is the position you sit in with it. a simple 90deg turn can yield a large increase in signal quality and so can tipping the screen up and down.
again most people dont think or worry about these things, but its my bread and butter i deal with it everyday. so.... :\

and if you're looking into any of those 300mbit wifi products bah.. its all b.s. you gotta be super close to it, and they probably are simply using more than 1 signal to piggy back on and thus increasing the overall thruput. if infact those channels are free.

anywho.. i'd just grab the WRT54g and throw on the hacked firmware.
you can turn up the output to 250mw which will increase your range by an insane amount. but can possibly have an adverse effect on its listening sensativity. but overall the latest HyperWRT firmware will blow you away with all the options it has.

i have one and have a set of 7dBi antennas on it,,, which pretty much makes me the loudest around.. :)

[Istasi]

Well I really just need a product that can get wireless around the house consistently (my Belkin Pre-N does it fine now...when it works, which isn't often) and works well with wired gaming. The Belkin Pre-N has issues with gaming, be it wired or wireless, which is the primary reason I'm replacing it, as well as constant frustration at it intermittently failing and dropping its signal.

[HiJon89]

I haven't had good experiences with LinkSys so I went with the DGL-4300 and LOVE it :toast:

[awdrifter]

I had both DLink and Netgear brand routers (although not these models). I would pick Netgear over DLink anyday. Netgear routers are definitely more stable and doesn't drop connection constantly like DLink.