Can someone recommed me a Wireless-N router that is NOT crap?

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maw

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I've been driving myself crazy over the past few weeks trying to find a decent Wireless-N router that works reliably. I had a Netgear N600 v1 that worked great until it died in an unfortunate encounter with my cat. It had great range and flawless performance for the ten months I owned it. Unfortunately I can no longer find that router anywhere (I've been told the N600 v2 is nowhere near as good?)

I've since been trying to find something that can replace it. I've pretty much given up on any of the 450Mbps routers. I tried the Linksys(Cisco) E4200, Belkin 750DB, and Netgear WNDR4000. The results all seem to be the same, i.e. lousy range (especially useless at 5Ghz) compared to the N600 and constant dropped connections. I also tried all manner of network adapters on my PC's, but to no avail. I think the next time I show up at BestBuy to return yet another router they are going to ban me for life.

So, am I having a bizarre string of bad luck, or are all 450Mbps routers just garbage? Should I go back to a cheaper 300Mbps router, and if so what would you recommend?
 
Weird that the E4200 and WNDR4000 gave you fits. I'd say you just had bad units except 3 misses in a row seems a bit off. I recommend the E4200 most often and have used it, but at home I run a WNDR3700 for a/n + 5ghz, and then 802.11g off my Cisco 871W for access to other VLANs.

As far as other routers, I have no experience with these, but a lot of people talk up Untangle and I think there are models that run with wireless, and you can also go for the Microtik RouterBoard, some of those models support a variety of radios, for example this guy.. might be more router than you're after, but they're supposed to be pretty amazing: http://www.roc-noc.com/mikrotik/routerboard/rb493g-complete.html
 
I currently have the Netgear WDNR4000 and it was working great for about two weeks; I thought my problems were solved. Then 3 days ago, the dropped connections started happening again, and have been rapidly getting worse. *sigh*

Basically the behavior is the same, clients can see the SSID and connect just fine, but after a while the connection speed on one or more of the wireless PC's will steadily drop until they lose connection entirely. Sometimes they'll reconnect automatically, and the process will begin all over again, other times they'll reconnect, but can't get to the internet at all.

This exact same behavior has happened with the Linksys, Netgear and Belkin routers, and in all cases, only the wireless clients are affected, the wired PC's work just fine. The only thing those routers have in common is 450Mbps, which is why I was wondering if it's something specific to those types of routers. BTW, I also have all 5.8Ghz phones in the house, not 2.4Ghz.

Did I mention this was driving me nuts? :mad:

Edit: Other things I've tried> I used WiFi Stumbler to identify all the networks around me and chose channels no one else was using, no difference. i tried disabling 5Ghz, no difference. I tried various other network adapters in the PC's (USB and PCI), no difference. I tried moving the router, no difference. I even unplugged the damn fridge and microwave, no difference.
 
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One thing you could try would be to rule out your computer's wifi adapters and power saving issues / wifi driver issues by getting a bridge like the WET610N and connecting it to your machine by ethernet.. see if that can hold the connection better.

Wireless is a PITA.
 
Net Stumbler was a good first move.

The netgear 3700 and 4000 have an excellent internal antenna array. So wireless coverage should be good.

5Ghz doesn't have much penetration power, so trying to go any distance through mutiple walls on 5Ghz is one part science, one part art....again as they say your mileage will vary.

There are some details missing here:

One piece of the puzzle is what brand and type of radios your clients are running.

The second is: ARE you trying to run 300mbps wireless? Are you using the 40mhz settings?

If you are that would explain a lot. The 40Mhz setting gobbles up and requires multiple clear channels. So I believe if you set your system (2.4Ghz) to channel 1 running at 40mhz you need to have channels 1-8 clear and both ends of the connection to datalink compatible for it to work flawlessly. aka 2x2 or 2x3 or 3x3 spatial modes.


If you are using 40Mhz, try switching to 20Mhz mode on a clear channel. You'll end up with 144mbps max, but it may actually work and be reliable.
 
What type of wireless cards are you using, there are some issues with Intel and their power saving modes causing issues with various routers. Have you tried using a third party firmware on your routers that would allow for more tweaking? Have you double-checked all the advanced settings in device manager, such as channel width, WMM? Are you using WPA2 and AES? I've heard good things about Buffalo's High Power Router line. Is 450mbit a necessity? Are you streaming 1080p video?
 
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Mackintire said:
One piece of the puzzle is what brand and type of radios your clients are running.
Click to expand...
Various brands, off the top of my head I have a Netgear AE1000, Cisco AE2500, Belkin 300+, D-Link 150, AirLink 150, and a couple of internal PCI N and G cards. I tried them all.

Mackintire said:
The second is: ARE you trying to run 300mbps wireless? Are you using the 40mhz settings?

If you are that would explain a lot. The 40Mhz setting gobbles up and requires multiple clear channels. So I believe if you set your system (2.4Ghz) to channel 1 running at 40mhz you need to have channels 1-8 clear and both ends of the connection to datalink compatible for it to work flawlessly. aka 2x2 or 2x3 or 3x3 spatial modes.

If you are using 40Mhz, try switching to 20Mhz mode on a clear channel. You'll end up with 144mbps max, but it may actually work and be reliable.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm trying to run 300Mbps (since that's the whole point). I thought the "good neighbor" policy automatically throttles down to 20Mhz if it detects too much interference? I'll definitely keep this advice in mind though.

Anyway, I swapped the Netgear 4000 for a Netgear 3700 yesterday, and already I noticed the range is MUCH better. I'm getting constant 270-300Mbps connection speeds on the 300+ cards and 144Mhz on the 150 cards where I was lucky to get 15-60Mbps before, and for the first time in weeks my wife hasn't complained about dropped connections, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
maw said:
Various brands, off the top of my head I have a Netgear AE1000, Cisco AE2500, Belkin 300+, D-Link 150, AirLink 150, and a couple of internal PCI N and G cards. I tried them all.



Yes, I'm trying to run 300Mbps (since that's the whole point). I thought the "good neighbor" policy automatically throttles down to 20Mhz if it detects too much interference? I'll definitely keep this advice in mind though.

Anyway, I swapped the Netgear 4000 for a Netgear 3700 yesterday, and already I noticed the range is MUCH better. I'm getting constant 270-300Mbps connection speeds on the 300+ cards and 144Mhz on the 150 cards where I was lucky to get 15-60Mbps before, and for the first time in weeks my wife hasn't complained about dropped connections, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Click to expand...


The good neighbor policy for most wireless devices works in practice like this: Try to connect. Some noise = meh ( I can just retransmit the packets), Lots of noise = hmm (should I drop to 20mhz derp derp), A ton of noise or direct interference = me gusta, (Drop to 20mhz and try again).

In my experience 300mbps or better only works where you have 8 consecutive empty or near empty channels.
This is keeping in mind that if you are in 20mhz mode and select channel 6 on your wireless your signal really pollutes the airwaves all the way down to channel 3 and all the way up to channel 9. Most of the signal is strongest at the focus or center channel....also known as "the wireless channel"

The manufacturers play games and call a accesspoint 450 when it can connect at 300mbps on 2.4Ghz and 144mbps on 5Ghz. 600mbps is 300mbps on both 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz using two different radios.



My advice would be:

Unless you have clear channels to use 40mhz 300mbps, stick with 20mhz 144mbps wireless. If that is not enough bandwidth for you, consider looking at the 3rd gen home plug 500mbps AV+ adapter based on the qualcomm chipset, due out in mid October. The last generation was a major improvement, the next generation sends a CRC and a sub channel on the ground plug, which improves their performance by another magnitude. 1080P should be no issue on any of the upcoming third gen 500mbps home plug stuff.
 
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maw said:
Basically the behavior is the same, clients can see the SSID and connect just fine, but after a while the connection speed on one or more of the wireless PC's will steadily drop until they lose connection entirely. Sometimes they'll reconnect automatically, and the process will begin all over again, other times they'll reconnect, but can't get to the internet at all.
Click to expand...

What you describe are ipv6 issues. Some routers have displayed this issue with ipv6 but certainly newer models should not experience this. Try disabling ipv6 on the pc's in question anyway.
 
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