Need decent Dual Band N router with DD-WRT or Tomato capability

sabregen

sabregen

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Jun 6, 2005
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Looking to possibly mod (and I don't mean loading customer firmware...I mean hardware mod) a Wireless N dual band router. If you have a hardware mod guide that will assist in boosting signal range and quality, I'm all for it. Barring that, I'll do one router on each floor of the house (one upper level - east end, the other lower level west end) as APs.

I'd like to have the ability to run DD-WRT or Tomato on the units. Dual band is required. As I am interested in boosting the signal as far as possible, a guide to hardware modding them, or a unit with standard sized external antennas would also be useful.

Not looking to spend more than $100 per unit (if getting 2x units), or $200 total (whether 2x units, or 1x unit with antenna modifications) to get this working. Units must have the following:

MIMO
3 antennas per frequency (2.4 + 5.0GHz)
Wireless N support DD-WRT or Tomato firmware available
GbE uplink port (yes this ia required)
4x GbE LAN ports (switched)

Any help is appreciated.
 
Perhaps I should elaborate on the need for dual band N. I currently pick up 23x 2.4GHz networks within range of my current router. Yes, you read that right...23 networks, ad they are all unique, and as far as I can tell, none are honeypots or duplicated SSIDs. All the laptops are 5GHz equiped, so it's time to make the move. Just thought I should clarify.
 
Sheldron said:
BTW, 30 seconds on Google...
Click to expand...

Now, now... :D

I'm sure sabregen's looking for some user experience stories too. I should be running dd-wrt but I guess I'm ignorantly happy with my stock 802.11g Linksys config... which is a 6.1 gimp. I don't need any more reliability than not having to ever reset it. The uptime on that thing is since I plugged it in ridiculous; over a year now. I don't even know the password anymore. :p

But mine's not N or running dd-wrt so I'm off topic.
 
i just got a netgear WNDR3300 its dual band and runs ddwrt. It seems to be a decent router but its antennas are all inside, but i guess you could open it up and mod it a bit. I got it off of geeks.com for less then $50 shipped it is a refurb though
 
my range is pretty good i really have not tested it much going outside the house but i am around 50ft away from it most of the time and that includes a roof and an outside wall. Throughput seems to stick around 135Mbps no matter where i go in the house but i also have 5.8ghz phones to and i have been meaning to see if they cause any interference. The g side of it works like any other g router i have had. Its also hidden away in the tv cabinet It is setup with stock settings but i did see a posting on ddwrts forums where one guy cranked up the output of the n side and it did not seem to have any problems except for a little more heat.
 
well it doesn't meet my requirement to have 4x GbE ports, or GbE uplink...but given the price.... just might be my best bang for the buck option.
 
gigabit ports are really not a huge deal. i mean wireless N is fast but things slow down quickly when you add walls and distance.... i never saturate my wireless n's 10/100 ports, and since the rest of my network is tied in with a gigabit switch its only the wireless devices that would potentially show a problem. im sure there are plenty of circumstances where the wireless will need the gigabit to work fully, but dont expect it to seem any faster then a 100 port anyway.
 
Engenius makes a nice model, its a AP so pair it with a nice router
 
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