Looking for a new wireless router - please advise

[DayTrader]

First off, thanks to everyone (well, most of you anyway ) who posted in this forum and in the stickied thread above. I've been battling a Linksys WRK54G POS for far too long and have decided it's got to go. I was going to stick with Linksys based upon my OLD beliefs that D-Link's reputation wasn't very good and Cisco turned out top-notch products (so long as you didn't go for the "price conscious" routers like mine). I'm glad to know that times have changed.

Here's what I've got: One main gaming pc that will be wired to the router, 2 laptops that are primarily used for business at work but mostly see light usage when I'm at home, a Series 2 Tivo (wireless G adapter on order - replacing the linksys wireless b adapter currently being used) and a wired network printer (HP 2600n). My g/f usually comes over with her laptop and my iPhone would also be connecting to the network but for light usage as will a wireless-capable iPod dock for an iPod video I own. I don't have one now, but I may be adding some sort of console gaming. I'll also likely be adding a HTPC down the road (could be wired but wireless would obviously be easier than trying to run a wired connection) but it may be a year or more off. I think I'd also want to be able (especially important when the HTPC makes an appearance) to add some sort of network attached hard drive(s) so I don't have to keep my main gaming pc turned on all the time. I tend to re-format my work laptops once or twice a year so gigabit WAN is important to me (to move the contents of an entire hard drive over to my main pc and then to move music/video/data files back to the laptops as necessary).

It seems to me that I should pick from the DIR-855, DIR-825, DIR-655 and the DGL-4500. If I've got it right, the 855 would be the best option with a wireless HTPC in another room (assuming I had one NOW), manually configured gaming settings, and NAS and planned to do wireless gaming (which I don't) while simultaneously streaming HD video or something like that. For about $120 less, it the 825 would do the same thing minus one antenna and the oled screen. I also assume I could configure either of these to "optimize" my setup when I'm gaming. The DGL-4500 would "auto-set-up" my gaming connection, I'd keep the on-router display (no biggie), lose the NAS capability, save $100 vs the 855 but spend $20 over the 825. IF that's right (and I doubt all of it is ), so far it would seem to me the 825 would be the way to go in my case. However, if the 5GHz band doesn't warrent the extra $ for the 825 and I can get some clarification on hooking up an external HD to the router, I could save another $40 (and lose network storage) from the 825 buy getting the DIR-655.

On the D-Link site they show the 855 and 825 both can manage a "2 bay network storage enclosure - DNS-323" but several reviews I've read say they can't do "NAS." What's the difference / are the reviewers wrong?

On another note, it seems to me that the Linksys WRT610N might be a good choice as well (and the one I was going to buy before reading some of the threads here) at $144 from NewEgg. Am I correct in believing that the advice here is that the Linksys' WRT610 is a distant second to the D-Link DGL-5400?

 

[Dangman]

Well looks like you've certainly done your research. Hell I think you know more about DLink's lineup better than I do Gonna try to help you here as an actual owner of a DIR-655:

- I think that the 855 and 825 can manage only the DNS-323 NAS. More than likely no other NAS will be accessable from within the 855 and 825 router pages like with the DNS-323. However you can easily use any NAS with any router nowadays.

- You can hook up an external hard drive to the DIR-655 (and more than likely the other DLink routers with a USB port) via the USB port which turns it into a puesdo-NAS. However you need to have DLink's USB Network Utility installed on each PC that will need access to the external hard drive.

- Do note that the DIR-655 (Possibly the DGL-4500 as well) do not support jumbo frames above 4000k. So your LAN transfers will be capped at around 20Mb/s or so (from personal testing with my DIR-655).

- Hit up Smallnetbuilder to see a performance comparison between the DIR-655/825/855 and DGL-4500:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_wireless/Itemid,200/

 

[LookTJ]

I can suggest a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320011 and you could have an option of flashing ddwrt onto it.

 

[DayTrader]

Well looks like you've certainly done your research.

Heh, well......I dunno about that! I spent a couple hours reading reviews and doing comparisons over at Net Builders like you suggested and it looks like I got a couple important parts right:

855 vs 825:

For about $120 less, it the 825 would do the same thing minus one antenna and the oled screen.

the 855 doesn't seem to be very well liked period by SmallNetBuilders and even less so considering the price

825 vs 655:

so far it would seem to me the 825 would be the way to go in my case. However, if the 5GHz band doesn't warrant the extra $ for the 825 and I can get some clarification on hooking up an external HD to the router, I could save another $40 (and lose network storage) from the 825 buy getting the DIR-655.

I think I was only partially right. The pure wireless performance on Linksys' dual band WRT400N is about the best overall but it lacks a gig-switch. The dLink 655 scores well but is single band (not a big deal now but who knows down the road) and IS the wireless to go with if dual band isn't an issue you care about. The 825 has just about everything I want but the wireless performance didn't measure as well as the 655. UGH......guess I have to do more homework.