Wireless router recommendations?

[Bernie]

Hey all you interwebz boffins... My wireless router is dying and I need a recommendation quick...

I have to be able to get locally, like Best Buy or Microcenter, because I'll need it for work tomorrow morning.

I count myself as a high bandwidth user... During the work week I'm running VOIP, 2 session or more of SAP, and other work related gidgets, as well as my iMac running messenger programs, mail, web surfing and usually streaming audio... I'm also going to have my XBox 360 connected to the router... I would run my work station via LAN, but my office is upstairs and I have no cable outlets on the second floor...

Oh, forgot to mention that I'm on Comcast cable as my provider... that might influence the recommendation, but i doubt it...

SO... anybody got a favorite wireless router to recommend?

[jzilla]

get a netgear. cheap and easy to setup. you dont need nuthin superpowerful. be sure to get with antenna, the ones without are expensive and doesnt really extend the range as much as one with an antenna

[MoD_Scotty]

Fry's usually has good deals on routers. I picked up a wireless-N router made by Airlink for REALLY cheap...like $40 IIRC. It's been working great. I also got a wireless-N card for the PC, and I'm connected to the network at 270Mbps. It's pretty friggin fast.

newegg.com also has some really cheap ones.

[Bernie]

CNET is jizzing themselves over the Belkin N+, Best Buy as 2 flavors, without USB for $79 and with USB for $99... anyone ever dealt with Belkin? I've always either had Linksys or Netgear...

[DecoyOctopus]

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss115/DecoyOctopus/100_1069.jpg
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss115/DecoyOctopus/100_1070.jpg
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss115/DecoyOctopus/100_1072.jpg

you want this one? it has 2 whole antennas

[jzilla]

belkin is good too. user interface very easy. you dont need usb.

[matredd]

They're all good. I just stick with Linksys since i'm more familiar with Cisco's switches. Def go with 802.11N if it's not much more than G.

[Bernie]

you want this one? it has 2 whole antennas

:facepalm: That's the exact model I have now that is causing me troubles... I'll GIVE it to you, that way you can have 4, count 'em, 4 antennas... :lol:

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

I hate that Linksys, had several of them and they all caused problems. My parents have some really nice D-link routers that have been flawless for about a year now. I picked up a netgear for when I'm in Athens and hate the thing, really poor signal.

[DecoyOctopus]

lol sorry idk much about routers i just remembered i had that one under my bed

[FE3tMX5]

just picked up a netgear N for $30 from newegg - shop via dealnews.com for deals

[ericsbestshot]

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss115/DecoyOctopus/100_1069.jpg
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss115/DecoyOctopus/100_1070.jpg
http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss115/DecoyOctopus/100_1072.jpg

you want this one? it has 2 whole antennas

i've got the same one. Never had any problems with linksys. My parents also have a similar one thats at least 4 or 5 years old so they are reliable.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

You must have got lucky, we had constant problems with those units.

[morningscifi]

i have a few wrt54g routers that have been great hardware-wise running DDWRT firmware on them. never had any issues. also try tomato firmware. got a friend that loves it, but i know he just likes it for the pretty graphs.

[Bernie]

lol sorry idk much about routers i just remembered i had that one under my bed

By the way, I appreciate you looking out for a brutha, that was dang nice of ya.

[metalman]

Router reviews are about as worthless as tire reviews. :lol:
Every single router made gets a mix of 'it works perfect' and 'its crap'.

[MoD_Scotty]

Router reviews are about as worthless as tire reviews. :lol:
Every single router made gets a mix of 'it works perfect' and 'its crap'.

Exactly, that's why I just went with a cheap one.

[Stealth97]

look for a cisco 2800. just shy of $4k.


really, I rock a cheap $30 net gear, and despite being cheap, it supports wpa/wpa2, logging/filtering, upnp and port forwarding, and a bunch of other stuff. Reviews on routers depend mostly on the skill level of the person using it.

[amaff]

Reviews on routers depend mostly on the skill level of the person using it.

Same goes for tires :lol:

[caseyfoster]

Routers are not rocket science.

[jester911]

Routers are not rocket science.

Thats coming straight from the internet folks.:lol:

[Stealth97]

Routers are not rocket science.

They can be. I'm working on a CCNA. Consumer routers are cake, but the real ones can be a blessing and a beeotch, at the same time.

[amaff]

They can be. I'm working on a CCNA. Consumer routers are cake, but the real ones can be a blessing and a beeotch, at the same time.

Naaa, IP routing's easy At least it was the last time I did any serious routing / layer 3 switch setup about 3 years ago.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

Routers are not rocket science.

:lol: but mac's are!

[Bernie]

actually i went with the Netgear WNR3500... the dude at Best Buy up sold me... i'm a sucker like that I guess

[jzilla]

2 pages on a router, this thread is LEGENDARY!

[Bernie]

What can I say... I'm like King Midas or the Pied Piper like that :wtf:

Or it was just a hella boring day in Miata-land...

[Stealth97]

Naaa, IP routing's easy At least it was the last time I did any serious routing / layer 3 switch setup about 3 years ago.

sure it can be easy, depending on what routing protocols you use, but when your working on one thats in the middle of mexico, europe, or somewhere in the asia pacific and you know one wrong keystroke means you'll loose it until you work on your chineese, spanish, or whatever enough to tell someone to reboot it, I get a little nervous!

[amaff]

sure it can be easy, depending on what routing protocols you use, but when your working on one thats in the middle of mexico, europe, or somewhere in the asia pacific and you know one wrong keystroke means you'll loose it until you work on your chineese, spanish, or whatever enough to tell someone to reboot it, I get a little nervous!

hehe yep! International keyboards suck! (you're talking to a guy who works on fibre channel storage arrays all day for customers all over the damn place. Trust me, I feel your pain)

[silver280zx]

I have alot of friends that work for student tech support at uga and they say that they work on, and replace more linksis routers than others. I run a belkin PRE-N router, and and have never had a problem in the 5 years ive been running it. I highly recommend Belkin products, they rock! Oh ya it also runs also can run different speeds, like at 108mps instread of the standard 54

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

do you transfer files over a network or have an incredible internet connection though?

[silver280zx]

I mean its good for downloading stuff

[Stealth97]

You can have all the bandwidth you want on your local side of the router but that will do nothing for the speed of your Internet connection. Let's say if you get 1mb from your ISP going from 54mb to 108mb on your witless LAN will not improve your Internet connection, only your connection to other computers on your network, like at your house.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

Yup, the network speeds are already quite a bit higher than regular internet connections!

[Bernie]

so what you are saying is that today's wireless offerings for consumers would be the equivalent of trying to take a shower under a drip irrigation system... you can be in the shower, you can be under a big rain faking shower nozzle, but what's feeding that isn't going to be up to the task...

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

Yep, as far as internet speeds are concernced anyway. If you run a small to large home network and transfer a lot of files through the pc's then it matters.