Recommend me a wireless router
 

So the router i have is old. Back from 2002.

Its a D link DI-624.

The last year or so performance has gone down signfigantly.

Router is in the basement and laptops on the top floor used to have perfect connection but now I am lucky to get 2 bars of strength and quite often the router doesn't put out a signal ( undetectable ) and I have to reboot.

No new electronics have been added in the house, i've tried moving the router without success. Im thinking its just time to upgrade.

Whats a decent wireless router that is good out there?

TIA

DIR 655

x2

D-Link DIR-655 ... Goes on sale for $80-$100

I've also heard good things about Netgear's new N routers, but haven't used them.

Just don't get Linksys ... Their new routers suck balls ...

I just got an N from Asus, and it's great. It has no problem streaming 1080p, while G can barely manage 720p content.

^which model? im looking for a fairly cheap N router i dont need advanced features.
i had a linksys wrt54g and a dlink dir-625 N router and both of them keep disconnecting me from the net. i think it has something to do with my bittorrent client (utorrent) but theres no good solution available on the net.. funny this thread comes up i was just talking to my coworker about trying an asus router for a change

The WRT54G has shitty memory management (at least without 3rd party firmware and, even then, it's only OK ... I had a Rev. 2 w/ 8 MB of memory and a 250 MHz CPU and, even with DD-WRT or Tomato, I had to power cycle the thing every week or two).

Depending on which revision you have of the DIR-625, you may have 4 MB or 16 MB of onboard memory and early firmwares didn't really have great memory management. Upgrading the firmware certainly would help and, if you turn off the auto-detect connection speed feature (manually set your connection type and speed), it will probably run for weeks, if not months (if you have the 16 MB model), without a power cycle, even with heavy bittorrent use.

Whaaaaat?! $80?! No way! Cheap is at $100

If you can find me one for $80, I'd be shitty balls.

Can you expand on that more?

I'm actually rather interested in comparing the 54G(L) vs. the DIR 655.

Asus WL500W, picked it up for $500 HKD ($75-80). Definitely a great router for the price! Keep in mind that most WiFi hardware use the same controllers, so D-Link, Linksys, Buffalo, etc, are all have the same basic capabilities. I went with the Asus because it was very cheap for an N router, and yet still has some advanced features. USB ports, you can attach a USB hard drive to it and use it as NAS (it even functions as an FTP server, and you can download files directly to it, including torrent), and it Supports WPA/WPA2 TKIP + AES

I'd go with DIR-655 as recommended by most ppl on RS.

I had a WBR-2310 and tried the new WRT-54G2

Both caused me a little issues and the range was kinda crappy. I had to upgrade the firmware on the 54G2. The signal kept dropping. The 655 has been problem free and didn't need to upgrade firmware.

I got mine during a bestbuy sale, was 20% off all computer accessories. I think was around $95 + taxes

That Asus looks pretty stacked with features but what I don't like about it is that its only a 10/100 wired connection but if you got a GIGE switch anyways then its no problem ...

http://pricecanada.com/p.php/Dlink-X...price-history/

All-time low = $79.99 @ NCIX

I'm not saying it happens frequently, I'm just saying it happens ... occassionally.

I've seen it go on sale for as low as $89.95 @ Staples.

FML. hahaha

I never even noticed a price history button on there before.

Nice feature

i got my DIR655 for $85 on a christmas sale

personally the speeds are alright, but the range fucking SUCKS

if i go 2 rooms over i get like 45% signal.

doh! didnt realize my router was firmware 1.08 and the latest is 1.09
updated and so far so good... true test will be if the connection doesnt d/c by tomorrow

usually it cuts out in like 20m so this is pretty good been about an hour now

too bad that solution didnt work for my old wrt54g

I have the dir 625, works fine for me. If I ever need to upgrade then i'll get the dir 655 :)

i have aiport extreme 2 works well
and in my gf's house I got them DIR-655 and a WRT 160 as piggy back

dir 655 seems to have the best range and the WRT-160 has to be restarted every now and then

just go buy stronger antennas

i'm using the stock antennas and it goes thru pretty well in my concrete building

for a $150 router i shouldnt have to buy stronger antenna's.

my WRT300N used to get at least 50% signal in my home theatre room which is upstairs and 2 rooms over, with my DIR655 i cant even get 15%

I returned my DIR-655 after a day cuz of the crappy range compared to my old Netgear WPN824 and it didn't let me add enough devices to the mac filter. Opted to just get a gigabit switch and keeping my Netgear as the wireless access point. I only use wireless for my laptops and I only browse the net with them anyways.

It's all situational ...

For example, my DIR-655 got the 2nd best range of the 4 routers I tried before settling on it (WRT54G, Apple Airport Extreme, Linksys WRT300N, DIR-655) where the DIR-655 gets a nearly 80% signal 2 houses away (The Airport Extreme got the best range, but it was the biggest pain in the ass and most expensive router, so I returned it). The DIR-655 outperformed my old WRT54G in spite of the face that the WRT54G had the transmission power boosted WELL beyond factory spec; even then, it could only manage 1-2 bars (20-40%)). The WRT300N got no signal whatsoever.

On the flip side, my friend replaced his old WRT54G w/ a DIR-655 and he only got about 40-60% signal 2 rooms over. Some fiddling with the settings and antenna positions got that up to a consistent 80%, but he used to get 100% w/ the WRT54G all the time (stock Linksys firmware). He kept it because 80% @ 300 Mbps > 100 % @ 54 Mbps, plus he doesn't need to reboot it all the time.

$99.99 at NCIX
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...0&promoid=1042

If you care to, you could go to Best Buy to price beat.

really? the airport extreme got the best range compared to dir-655? that's surprising given that the dir-655 uses 3 external antennas, and that the airport uses an internal looping antenna. its hard to believe that the airport got a better range!

It did ... it was also the best looking, too :P

Of course, unless you ONLY have Macs, it's such a pain in the ass for PCs that it's not even worth considering. The biggest flaw is that it doesn't support uPNP (It allows programs to tell the router which ports they need open so they can communicate online), so you have to manually set the ports for each program. Apple uses NAT-PMP, which operates in a slightly different fashion, but very few Windows programs support it and, the only one that I use that does (uTorrent) still didn't work. On top of that, every time you add a new computer or port to the list, it forces you to restart the router, which takes about 2 minutes and it would often loses DHCP settings from the Shaw modem, forcing a reboot of the modem as well (another minute).

Then there's the fact that it's the only router I can think of that doesn't have a web-based configuration utility, so you have to install Apple's bullshit software on your computer. Oh, but not just the MAIN computer, oh no. If you want to, say, share printers or files over the network, you have to install the Bonjour service on the computers hooked up to your network because the router won't let them communicate with each other without it. Then there's Apple Update ... Every time you open the router software, it opens Apple Update and automatically downloads and installs updates ... And not just ones for the router, either (the only ones that are actually CHECKED), but also Quicktime and iTunes and Safari. Yay !

I fucking hate Apple ...