Current best hackable wireless n router?

G

gregnash

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
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Looking at getting a new router soon and don't necessarily want to spend a grip on something like the Netgear WNDR3700. Everything in my house except for my desktop is currently wireless and I am running two Tivos (HD and S2) my Win7 laptop, my wife's new Macbook Pro, our Wii and Xbox 360.... As you can see most of the things are G but I can get wireless N adapters for the 360 and my laptop.

With that said, what is the best sub $100 router that is dual band, gigabit port that is made BETTER by openwrt, dd-wrt, or tomato??? Note: the gigabit is not a deal breaker on the desktop but router must be dual-band wireless N
 
King - I know that I don't need the N but I plan on updating my 360s wireless controller to N seeing as I get horrible bandwidth with the G adapter (stats graph for WMC hoovers around the bottom of ok for TV and sometimes drops below. My wife's new macbook comes with an N adapter already (I believe) and I really only get a good 80% signal strength anywhere in my house. Figured that upping to N would help with that bandwidth and then such things as the Tivos can stay on the G bandwidth.

One thing I forgot to mention is I would like to have a USB port on the router to add a print server to the list (if possible, again not a deal breaker but a definite want).
 
gregnash said:
King - I know that I don't need the N but I plan on updating my 360s wireless controller to N seeing as I get horrible bandwidth with the G adapter (stats graph for WMC hoovers around the bottom of ok for TV and sometimes drops below. My wife's new macbook comes with an N adapter already (I believe) and I really only get a good 80% signal strength anywhere in my house. Figured that upping to N would help with that bandwidth and then such things as the Tivos can stay on the G bandwidth.

One thing I forgot to mention is I would like to have a USB port on the router to add a print server to the list (if possible, again not a deal breaker but a definite want).
Click to expand...

I just meant you didn't have to get N Adapters for everything ;)
 
King Icewind said:
I just meant you didn't have to get N Adapters for everything ;)
Click to expand...

Oh yeah I knew that... hell they dont even offer N adapters for the Tivo's.. Really all I am concerned about is 1.) expanding signal strength 2.) allow things that utilize the N to have the expanded bandwidth.
 
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Keep your old router and run an 802.11n only network on a different channel for increased performance if you need to keep some 802.11g devices around.
 
Yeah that is an idea keenan I currently have a WRT54G v6 right now but like I said the signal strength sucks
 
Keep in mind that the only real reason to upgrade from Wireless G to Wireless N is for range, network file transfer speeds, and to escape the 2.4 Ghz band. Wireless G is 54 Mbps, and after network overhead it's more like 22, which is still probably almost twice the connection speed of your internet connection. You won't really see any improvement in performance with Wireless N over Wireless G because of the extra bandwidth unless you're transferring large files over the wireless network.

A single Wireless G connection is capable of streaming 2 DVD-quality video streams (plus audio) simultaneously. Each stream is about 11 Mbps, about equal to the average American's cable internet connection speed.

Wireless N, on the other hand, is about 3-6 times the speed of the wireless N connection, depending upon whether or not you use 40 Mhz channels. In addition, using N on the 5 Ghz band means you have less overlap between channels (which causes interference) and can avoid the congested 2.4 Ghz band that Wireless G uses.

Of course, a wireless adapter throttles the speed of its connection downward as signal strength reduces, and the actual throughput of the connection can vary dependent upon wireless interference, reflection, and other factors, but hopefully this can offer you some perspective. Whatever you do, if you're going to be going with a mixed B/G/N network, go for a dual-band router that can handle the B/G devices on the 2.4 Ghz radio and the N devices on the 5 Ghz radio. Don't get a 2.4 Ghz only N router, a waste of money IMHO.
 
Yeah not really sure what the deal is but apparently there is a lot of interference in the 2.4Ghz bandwidth in my house because the signal strength drops from 100% in my office to 80% in my the living room which, point to point, is maybe 30ft through a wall. Elsewhere, the signal drops to around ~70%.
 
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