Deciding Between Wireless Routers

[PC_User]

I am planning to replace my current wireless router (a not-so-great Belkin) and am stuck between 2 routers:

1. LINKSYS WRT54GL IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless-G Broadband Router (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190) - $58 shipped from Amazon

or

2. D-Link DIR-655 IEEE 802.11n (draft) Xtreme N Gigabit Router (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127215&Tpk=D-Link%20DIR-655) - $100 shipped from Amazon

The Linksys has amazing reviews on almost all websites and the D-Link is rated as the fastest Wireless N (draft) router. Is the $50 price difference justified by going with the n (draft) over the wireless g? Will I notice a significant increase in speed? My desktop uses the wireless connection so speed is important to me.

Thanks for the input.

[B.E.E.F.]

Increase in speed doing what?

A 3mb/s internet connection will not be faster on a 200mb/s router vs a 54mb/s router.

Do you plan to stream audio/video over your network? Are you connecting computers to each other, through the router and you need to move data fast?

[EniGmA1987]

I have had many of those Linsys routers and they all suck. They die pretty fast and cant handle a lot of bittorrent connections. It will slow your network to a crawl if you have torrents on, and probably keep you from visiting any websites as well. And no I am not maxing my bandwidth or anything, I have an 18mb connection and was using only about 2mb and it was still at a stand still. I havent tried using any of the hacked firmware though, so maybe it would be better with that.

If you could afford it, go with the DLink DGL-4500 gaming router. You can find it on sale for $130. It works GREAT and has n wireless as well for when you get new hardware that has n. The 655 is probably pretty good, but it is an old generation now. So you might as well try and get either an 8 series, or the newer gamer router.

[systemviper]

I have had that Linksys and it has ran fine for years and I run one at my moms too with no problems.

But I also am looking for a new one too, bu i am looking at the Linksys -n- to take advantage of the new speed
I would take a look at them before you buy...

[cozwin]

well both companies are very well respected...

d link are most peoples fav i like to think of them as the crucial of the networking world but to be fair linkysis is cisco so really they will be better.

[B.E.E.F.]

I have had many of those Linsys routers and they all suck. They die pretty fast and cant handle a lot of bittorrent connections. It will slow your network to a crawl if you have torrents on, and probably keep you from visiting any websites as well.

Tomato Firmware for Linksys, or the DD-WRT firmware. The stock one sucks, its slow, it doesn't have many features and its just plain ugly to look at.



If you could afford it, go with the DLink DGL-4500 gaming router. You can find it on sale for $130. It works GREAT and has n wireless as well for when you get new hardware that has n.

Whoa! That's expensive, and it does nothing extra.



And for future reference. D-Link sucks. Unless you buy the high-end stuff, stay away.

[moiraesfate]

uggg... just connect directly if at all possible. Much better connection. My gaming computer is always connected directly, not wirelessly. Wireless works fine for my non-gaming non-movie watching husband, but for me? No way. Until wireless can run the same as a direct connection, I'm staying directly connected.

[B.E.E.F.]

Until wireless can run the same as a direct connection, I'm staying directly connected.

Not unless you live in a giant faraday cage. Wireless performance and connection gets worse as you have more devices running on the same frequency range. Walls aren't so great either.

[Serra]

Right now Amazon has a deal on a Linksys 310N router - $87 once you add it to your cart (from $175... but $175 was a ridiculous price anyway). Take it and run. N-speeds, better processor than the other linksys, security in hardware (versus running it as a process)... yeah, much better overall (and less than the D-link).

link: http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-WRT310N-Wireless-N-Gigabit-Router/dp/B000Z3XXR4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1230488139&sr=8-1

Edit: Oh, and free shipping too

Edit II: Newegg has the same deal.

[zanzabar]

T
And for future reference. D-Link sucks. Unless you buy the high-end stuff, stay away.

dont say that u just have to know what u are getting and they have really picked it up, with the dir628 (what i got) and up they use the same top end arthos card for wireless and they add more when needed in the high end for the N duel band, for G dont touch them


uggg... just connect directly if at all possible. Much better connection. My gaming computer is always connected directly, not wirelessly. Wireless works fine for my non-gaming non-movie watching husband, but for me? No way. Until wireless can run the same as a direct connection, I'm staying directly connected.

u would be surprised what a good router can do if u arnt in an aria flooded with wireless networks like an apartment building, the latency is no different now and the bandwidth is the same to the internet (u can actually get a little faster on network for home grade). that said im wired mostly becouse the card i would need is $65 and why buy something when u have a wire

[moiraesfate]

lol. If your house is older than 30 years, or huge, you can't get good connection. The house I live in is over 5000 square feet. That means that wireless cannot run from one end of the house to the other. We HAVE to have two modems because the house is too damned big. The sheer distance and the very old house I live in (its at least 80 years old) do a very good job of preventing any kind of wireless connection beyond one room. I have a wireless connection for my husband but its just across the rm. Sometimes we get lucky and his connection will work in our bedroom but not often and most especially if its storming out.

I'd rather have a connection I know cannot be disrupted short of something frying outside the house for some reason. Not to mention I find the hardwire connection to be MUCH MUCH faster.

[Hot'n'Chilly]

I'm a big D-Link fan... have always stuck with their products. They seem to give me less head aches than any other brand.

[Serra]

u would be surprised what a good router can do if u arnt in an aria flooded with wireless networks like an apartment building, the latency is no different now and the bandwidth is the same to the internet (u can actually get a little faster on network for home grade). that said im wired mostly becouse the card i would need is $65 and why buy something when u have a wire

The idea that a wireless connection could be in any way faster than even 100Mb/s wired is a common misconception. I realize you did specify that the bandwidth is the same *to the Internet* (which is true), I'm just going on because of your bracketted statement about it potentially being a little faster.

For example, let's use 802.11n's "max rated speed" of 300Mb/s. Issues:
- That's 300Mb/s *total*, so your upload and download is maxed at 150MB/s. Wired 100Mb/s is 100Mb/s *each way*, yielding 200Mb/s total throughput.
- No consumer 802.11n device tested has even hit 150Mb/s *total throughput* real-world testing (75Mb/s both ways). Wired connections for single client-client connections in home devices can usually a high percentage of their maximum rating.
- Even if no-one else has wireless in your area (good luck) and you have no other sources of interference (even more unlikely) wireless is highly lossy thanks to multipath if nothing else. And with the way that TCP works, that's not just a single packet of extra delay... there's also overhead (ACK's) involved that degrade speeds further. Wired, not an issue.
- Security. You have to assume anyone on a wireless router is going to use some form of security on it, and that incurs serious latency and throughput penalties. Wired, again not really an issue.

[zanzabar]

it depends on the router i have tested a few N with 100mb/s switches and draft N and most of them get 75mb/s wired and about 80wireless in close range with wpa2, im just saying that wireless can be used for gaming if u have the right stuff and its not like single band B anymore

[little_scrapper]

Tomato Firmware for Linksys, or the DD-WRT firmware. The stock one sucks, its slow, it doesn't have many features and its just plain ugly to look at.



So are you saying that I can flash the firmware in my WRT54G and have better connection/throughput. I have noticed, like a slap in the face, that when I run a torrent that any internet surfing is nearly impossible. I try to open IE and I might as well go make a sandwich and then come back before I can read it. :down: seriously, its that slow.

[CodeNinja]

My last DLink was an unstable piece of crap. It worked -fine- as long as only one system was connected, two would cause it to reboot once a week or so, but if an XBox was thrown in the mix you'd be lucky to go 15 minutes between reboots. This was on a "XBox Live Certified" router, too. Eventually the LAN ports on the back died and took the WAN port with it, so it was useless.

I replaced it with a LinkSys wireless N that ran for exactly 31 days, then died. :(

I'm not running a Netgear Wireless G router that works great. It's yet to reboot after two months, doesn't seem to get as hot as the other two, and just works.

[B.E.E.F.]

So are you saying that I can flash the firmware in my WRT54G and have better connection/throughput.

Oh yes. For P2P, use Tomato + Speedmod. I'm running it. Flash it like regular firmware, but you have to reset your your router to defaults before you do this!

[zanzabar]

So are you saying that I can flash the firmware in my WRT54G and have better connection/throughput. I have noticed, like a slap in the face, that when I run a torrent that any internet surfing is nearly impossible. I try to open IE and I might as well go make a sandwich and then come back before I can read it. :down: seriously, its that slow.

u can fix that by 1) limiting your torrent client to 20% under your upload speed or 2) get a router with QOS or traffic shaping and setting your torrent port to priority 255 and port 24 to 0 (0 is top 255 is lowest) and i love QOS for internal use when the comcast dose it though it pisses me off i would almost make that a mandatory feature to list when buying a router now

and with the dlink gamers lounge routers there is an app that u can install on your computer and it will prioritize games on what port they are using, so u can get priority on non standard ports

[B.E.E.F.]

u can fix that by 1) limiting your torrent client to 20% under your upload speed or 2) get a router with QOS or traffic shaping and setting your torrent port to priority 255 and port 24 to 0 (0 is top 255 is lowest) and i love QOS for internal use when the comcast dose it though it pisses me off i would almost make that a mandatory feature to list when buying a router now

Or use the same old router with Tomato firmware to do exactly that. QOS is one of the features.

[little_scrapper]

What is this tomato and where can I get it? Its not like I can google tomato and get something other then a fruiting plant.

[B.E.E.F.]

Original: http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

+ SpeedMod Tweaks: http://touristinparadise.blogspot.com/2008/04/linksys-wrt54gl-routers-improving.html


Things to keep in mind:
1. Restore router defaults. There should be a tiny recessed reset button on the back.
2. Pick the proper image from the pack. Read the documentation in the archive to pick the correct one. There is no documentation with SpeedMod, use the stock documentation.

[Partizan]

I am running a Linksys WRT54-GL with Tomato. Rock stable, even P2P can't bring it down. Running three wired computers, 2 wireless pcs and one ethernet printer. Online for 62 days. And I have 12/1 Mb cable connection.

Tomato firmware can be found on polarcloud
(http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato)
Would choose WRT54GL again anytime.

[EDIT]
B.E.E.F. was a bit faster :)

[little_scrapper]

Will it make my connection any faster? Because if it wont then its alot simpler to limit uTorrent to some small % or my bandwidth, 100mbits/s or something.

[zanzabar]

i have a usable upload of about 120KB/s to the internet, without QOS it cripples the network affter about 75KB/s but with QOS i can get about 110KB/s running uncapped and the network and every1 else works fine i can even game and torrent to its max at the same time (i have comcast 16/1.5Mb/s

[little_scrapper]

I will look into that. I'm definately not good with networking so I dont know all the setting necessary. I'm going to end this one because we basically jacked this guys thread. Sorry.

[16floz470ml]

I have the dlink 655 and am very happy with it. It is reliable and has nice security features. With my laptop it does 330 mbps and has very good range.

[PC_User]

So from what I understand, I won't notice any difference by going with the D-Link Xtreme N over the Linksys? I can't run wired because for some reason, the cable running through the house (from the cable modem) is broken somewhere and would require extensive testing to fix it.

I am currently running a 5 mb cable connection... would the Draft N 2.0 be at all faster than a standard 802.11g connection? If not, I can just go with the cheaper Linksys WRT54GL and save myself about $45.

[B.E.E.F.]

I am currently running a 5 mb cable connection... would the Draft N 2.0 be at all faster than a standard 802.11g connection? If not, I can just go with the cheaper Linksys WRT54GL and save myself about $45.

See post #2.

If you can use wired for your desktop, then do so. You're going to hate wireless.

[PC_User]

See post #2.

If you can use wired for your desktop, then do so. You're going to hate wireless.

I'm already using wireless and have been for over a year. I cannot use wired because the CAT-5 cable running from the cable modem to my computer is not working and it would be quite a hassle to lift all that hardwood flooring (again) to find out which part of the cable is broken to replace it.

[little_scrapper]

I'm already using wireless and have been for over a year. I cannot use wired because the CAT-5 cable running from the cable modem to my computer is not working and it would be quite a hassle to lift all that hardwood flooring (again) to find out which part of the cable is broken to replace it.

Most likely its one connector or the other. they generally dont break in the middle. Unless of course momma hung a picture and drove a nail through it. You can buy a cheapy cat-5 crimper at radio shack for about $10 probably and simply reterminate the ends of the cable and see if that works.:up: And if you can borrow a crimper thats even better because then you dont incur any cost.

Here is the whole works, crimper, tester, connectors all for $20 shipped. This is a sweet deal if it works because it has remote test function. Plug one end into test unit and then take the remote unit up to 100ft away and test the full line for shorts, open, switched wires!!! DAMN THAT IS NICE. I should get this for myself. Making custom length cables is sweet for the best cable management.
http://cgi.ebay.com/RJ45-RJ12-LAN-Network-Cable-Tester-Crimper-Tool-F-Plugs_W0QQitemZ370101691303QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_D efaultDomain_0?hash=item370101691303&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1199%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

[PC_User]

I tested my end of the cable and it wasn't working. I did not test the other end, but I'm assuming its not the end. The cable stopped working right after we got hardwood floors so there must be a nail or something somewhere. Lifting the hardwood would be quite a hassle, and I'm not losing that much bandwidth by going the wireless route. Even if I could locate where the CAT-5 is problematic, I would have to rewire from that point.

[Volkswagen]

I have the d-link and it was easy to set up- it's solid and hasn't failed yet.

[Serra]

it depends on the router i have tested a few N with 100mb/s switches and draft N and most of them get 75mb/s wired and about 80wireless in close range with wpa2, im just saying that wireless can be used for gaming if u have the right stuff and its not like single band B anymore

Shenanigans.

I think you must need a better wired router.



So from what I understand, I won't notice any difference by going with the D-Link Xtreme N over the Linksys? I can't run wired because for some reason, the cable running through the house (from the cable modem) is broken somewhere and would require extensive testing to fix it.

I am currently running a 5 mb cable connection... would the Draft N 2.0 be at all faster than a standard 802.11g connection? If not, I can just go with the cheaper Linksys WRT54GL and save myself about $45.

Except for LAN speeds, no - you wouldn't notice a difference between the Linksys B/G you posted versus the D-Link N (don't know why my suggestion of a nice Linksys N model priced under the D-Link isn't up for consideration, but OK).


Edit: Oh, I ended up picking up that Linksys 310N I linked to from Newegg m'self actually. I currently have a WRT54GL that's *generally* fine but on occasion becomes unreachable via both wired/wireless connection. It typically lasts only a few minutes but happens frequently enough to bug me. In fairness though I'm not running Linksys firmware, I'm running DD-WRT v23 SP1 firmware which is currently outdated by v24 (linksys firmware does not support all he features I require). I'll probably try loading v24 on to it once I get my new one (occasional disconnects are not worth potentially longer outages right now) and hook it up to a computer that does nothing but ping it for a week or so and see if it still has issues (and thus needs to be RMA'd) or whether the firmware update fixes it.

[Dragy2k]

another vote for linksys !
+1

[rpg711]

well cnet reviewed the Belkin Draft N router to have the highest throughput at 200ft(was like 49MB/s)
So if its range you want, I suggest that router... and the fact that it is 60$