What's a good router?

[jaydee]

Someone in my family is getting internet installed and needs a wireless router. Not knowing much about them, I looked at newegg and found a huge range of prices from $20 to $1,000+, so I'm looking for some help. He's got this laptop that he bought a few months ago:

Acer Aspire AS5740-5780 Laptop - Intel Core i3-330M 2.13GHz / ... / 802.11b/g/Draft-N / Windows 7 HP (64-bit)

I'm assuming since it's got the latest 802.11b/g/n, he should get a router with the draft 'N' protocol, because it's the latest and greatest, correct? This one seems to get good reviews, has the latest b/g/n compatibility, 300Mbps speed and is only $27, is there any reason to get a more expensive one, or one with less specs for the same price? Thanks!

ENCORE ENHWI-2AN3 802.11b/g/n Wireless Router With Repeater up to 300Mbps/ 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Port x4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833180062



UPDATE: Thanks for all the discussion, he ended up just going to Staples or whereever and buying a $50 whatever they had.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I stick with something dual radio so you can do both 2.4ghz and the 5ghz spectrum at the same time. This provides compatibility with older devices while at the same time giving you the ability to utilize the 5ghz ranges benefits such as less congestion/noise

 

[Baconator Model T101]

I had to get a router in the past few days, my old Linksys finally crapped out. I looked on Amazon/Newegg for customer reviews like everyone else but of course there seems to be some misunderstandings about how 802.1x (a/b/g/n) really works(of which I had to educate myself as well)

Draft N(now officially just N) is pretty much the latest and greatest, but the problem is most of those N routers are still using the same old 2.4GHz with all its congested noisy channels and overlapping interference. So you would think AH, let's get a router with 2.4GHz and 5GHz(dual-band). That's actually not a bad idea for future use but your laptop would also need to support dual band if you wanted to use that 5GHz band.

The good news is that some of the latest routers are getting better in the quality of their radios, and the placement/layout of their antennas. I was fortunate enough to come across this site http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

In addition to WiFi news he also has reviews. Rather in depth actually including tests at several locations and the bandwidth the routers are capable of. I was interested in having the 5GHz option so I picked a Cisco WRT400N however if I was looking only at 2.4GHz I could have decided on something a bit cheaper.

When looking at review sites in general, first thing is: other than ads, is the site trying to sell the items or similar types of items in the main space. In other words, you'll read a review and find a BUY/CHECKOUT button at the bottom of the review. If you see this RUN....err look for another review site

I like the fact that he rips apart the router, takes pictures and explains what chips the device is using and many times why. The site also gives a good explanation of why you can buy the routers with all the big numbers on it( N, 300Mbps, Gigabit) and still have bad performance. His site seemed the most objective combined with knowledgeable that I have found since I started looking about a week ago.


I hope this helps.

 

[AstroGuardian]

Just take an SMC or Linksys costing 50$ most and you will be happy with it...
Those expensive routers are enterprise class machines which you don't need. Stick to SOHO models

 

[bad_monkey]

In addition to WiFi news he also has reviews. Rather in depth actually including tests at several locations and the bandwidth the routers are capable of. I was interested in having the 5GHz option so I picked a Cisco WRT400N however if I was looking only at 2.4GHz I could have decided on something a bit cheaper.

I also use a WRT400N and it works really well. I recommend it anytime someone asks. It is a tad more expensive but it is nice to segregate real traffic (ie traffic from my computer) and unimportant traffic (ie anything having to do w/ my gf's mac) on to separate channels.

 

[JackMDS]

Just take an SMC or Linksys costing 50$ most and you will be happy with it...
Those expensive routers are enterprise class machines which you don't need. Stick to SOHO models

Junk Draft_N that the vendors want to get rid of - Below $50

Entry Level Consumers grade - $50 to $150

SOHO Routers - $250 - $500

Enterprise - $500 into the thousands.

 

[AstroGuardian]

OK SOHO means entry level here in Europe

 

[AstroGuardian]

To me, only dead router is a good router. I hate those things when they start to go berserk

 

[jjmIII]

Still love my DIR-655. Never needs reset. Never needs anything.

 

[Narmer]

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/accessory?action=accessoryDetails&archetypeId=11605

 

[jjmIII]

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/accessory?action=accessoryDetails&archetypeId=11605

hard to beat that price..

 

[GeekDrew]

Still love my DIR-655. Never needs reset. Never needs anything.

This.

 

[sxr7171]

Still love my DIR-655. Never needs reset. Never needs anything.

I wish mine were like that. Mine needs a power cycle every 2 days or so. If not for that I'd have no problem recommending it.

 

[GeekDrew]

I wish mine were like that. Mine needs a power cycle every 2 days or so. If not for that I'd have no problem recommending it.

Interesting. Have you tried any other routers to see if they work any better?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Still love my DIR-655. Never needs reset. Never needs anything.

B/c it's 802.11 b/g compatible and not dual-band, it's running at 2.4ghz?

And is draft n, compatible with 802.11n standard? And I think there's a draft 2 also?

 

[VirtualLarry]

The hook with these "300" N routers, is they require TWO uncongested 2.4Ghz channels to achieve that speed. It's hard enough to find a single uncongested 2.4Ghz channel to use. So 150N routers are perfectly usable for most people, IMHO.

There are plenty of cheap $30-and under routers that are decent, you just have to look for sales.

Netgear refurbs that run DD-WRT have been good to me.

 

[sxr7171]

Interesting. Have you tried any other routers to see if they work any better?

Yeah I bought a Netgear WNDR3700 and it is worse. Need to return it. Get myself some enterprise grade stuff. No point having stuff on your network if your network is not reliable.

 

[GeekDrew]

Is there any chance that there are other environmental conditions that are causing problems? Things like... temperature swings, or just high or low temps, or excessive humidity, or voltage dips or spikes, or a lot of electrical interference...

 

[KentState]

Still love my DIR-655. Never needs reset. Never needs anything.

Mine has been great also, but I hate that it has an unique firmware and can't be flashed with something like DD-WRT.

 

[Emulex]

wrt610n has 128meg of ram
wrt600n has 64meg of ram - i find the mega on wrt600n is pretty darn stable. love the vpn options. just need to reboot it about once a month if you do alot of connections (aka utorrent). have about 20 devices connected through it. use separate gigabit switches to isolate traffic