The Router Recommendations Thread (Consumer)

I was thinking of getting a WRT300N ($90 at microcenter right now), but I have no idea what pci 802.11n draft cards are worth a damn. Anyone have any insights? Also, I don't mean the $100 cards, I was thinking that maybe it was possible to get a 802.11n draft pci card for less than the router would actually cost me.
 
Forgive me if someone already brought this up (I skipped Page 2), but I'll just weigh in and say that Linksys WRT54GL routers running DD-WRT are incredibly nice. I have two running in two different locations and have never said a single problem with either one, ever.

DD-WRT is excellent, excellent firmware that can be flashed to a variety of routers, including a lot of the new Buffalos (I believe Buffalo supports DD-WRT development now).

The website has a lot of tutorials and howtos on how to get it flashed onto your particular model (the WRT54GS, for example, has to have VxWorks, the stock firmware platform, disabled before the Linux-based DD-WRT can be installed).

You can't go wrong with software freedom.
 
init6 said:
Forgive me if someone already brought this up (I skipped Page 2), but I'll just weigh in and say that Linksys WRT54GL routers running DD-WRT are incredibly nice.
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They make inexpensive access points with DD-WRT but I don't recommend them to anyone anymore because of the aging hardware platform. You'd be better served getting a buffalo and flashing it with DD-WRT if you're looking for a router for a basic consumer who simply browses the web. If you have multiple computers, use torrent, play online games, use VoIP or any combination thereof I'd recommend you spend a little more up-front and grab a nicer router.

Not shooting you down, merely clarifying my position as stated in the very first post.:)
 
Nope, I understand completely. I definitely think the Buffalos are the superior platform for DD-WRT now...like I said, wasn't trying to be redundant, but I'll admit I didn't read every word of the original post (ADD strikes again). :cool:
 
I dont know how can you put Dlink on the list as the best. The Dlink routers are really bad, at least in my experience. They reboot, overheat, etc.
Thanks
 
elec999 said:
I dont know how can you put Dlink on the list as the best. The Dlink routers are really bad, at least in my experience. They reboot, overheat, etc.
Thanks
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I hadn't been a fan of DLinks routers until the 4300 models came out...I couldn't stand their previous 6xx and 5xx series..but starting with the 4300..they did things well. Their current top model, the DIR-655...is brutally powerful...taking first place by a LONG stretch...it's the top performing home grade router you can purchase right now. And they are in mid-release of 2x new top performing models, the DGL-4500 and DIR-855.
 
elec999 said:
I dont know how can you put Dlink on the list as the best. The Dlink routers are really bad, at least in my experience. They reboot, overheat, etc.
Thanks
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Any router in the list, D-Link or otherwise, is there because it has been recommended time and time again by well known people in this forum who have deployed potentially hundreds of units in the field. I've personally owned many of them as well. Admittedly, I wasn't a fan of D-Link before the DGL series yet the DIR-655 is a spectacular router and many of their up-and-coming products seem to be on-par as well.
 
I'm thinking of getting the DIR-655 right now.
seems like there's some pretty good words for it.

Though, I'm also wondering if i should just wait for the 855?
When is it coming out anyways?
 
The DLink DGL-4500 needs to be added to this list. I expect this to be the new King (unseating the DGL-4300).
 
TrendNet Wireless N Gigabit Router TEW-633GR
http://trendnet.com/products/TEW-633GR.htm
Based on the Atheros 5008 chipset.

Best review found here.
http://www.netpedia.com.tw/forum/forum_content.aspx?ItemId=302&CategoryId=24

Pushing 2 1080p divx movies over air is picture perfect. One to my PC and one to my HTPC. Both have 802.11n PCI cards in them
File Server is connected to router with hand made CAT6 cable with a cable length of 15.5ft.
Using an Enterprise SATA 7200RPM Western Digital 400GB Drive to share data.
Divx compressed Movie sizes are 1.5GB in size.
Walls are made of lap and plaster. No cheap-ass dry wall in my home!

Distance is 55ft from point A(Router) to B(HTPC) and 62ft from point A(Router) to C(PC).

This was only for testing and everything worked flawlessly.
I'll do the same and include a laptop surfing to see what happens on another day.
 
Ok... I have had the DGL-4500 for a few weeks now. Its has worked great so far. I love the OLED display. But it is mostly worthless accept it looks way cool. I am having trouble with my network right now. I am not sure if it is the router or a setting I changed. I will post again later if it ends up being the router. I love this router I really hope it is not it. Has anyone heard of any troubles with it thus far?

Just curious also. How many people have this thing. Everywhere I go it looks like it isn't released yet. I bought mine at Best Buy. I made them pricematch Circuit City who did not have it in stock. I got it for 149.99 Which I guess is a great price. It was only 10bucks more than the 655.
 
**UPDATE**

Ok.. after much troubleshooting it turned out to be the router. no one else has had issues with it so I buzzed out to return it. Ok drove 2 hours each way, to the only best buy in the area that had any of these. I was suprised to find a whole shelf full. I exchanged the router. Got the new one home and it worked like a dream again. I noticed however. The display on this one is SO MUCH BETTER. The dispay on the other was very pixelated. This one seems very crisp. LOVE THIS THING.
 
RangerSVT said:
I'd like to add the Netgear WGT624 v3 WiFi router to the recommended router list. It beats the Linksys 54GS I had and a D-Link in stability/speed.
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No offense but I own this router and it is a pos, always drops connections.
 
QuiXylvR said:
**UPDATE**

Ok.. after much troubleshooting it turned out to be the router. no one else has had issues with it so I buzzed out to return it. Ok drove 2 hours each way, to the only best buy in the area that had any of these. I was suprised to find a whole shelf full. I exchanged the router. Got the new one home and it worked like a dream again. I noticed however. The display on this one is SO MUCH BETTER. The dispay on the other was very pixelated. This one seems very crisp. LOVE THIS THING.
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Thanks for letting us know. Sorry you got a lemon the first time around but I'm glad it apparently has ended well for you. :)
 
I got a 4500 and it is nice and I am really enjoying it. I replaced an old WRT54G with DD-WRT on it. That thing worked great but it seamed to get slower and slower every month lately. Sometimes when I would make a settings change it would lock up and I would have to power cycle it. So I grabbed the 4500 and it is working better.
 
Orinthical said:
Linksys RV016 16-Port VPN Router - Retail - $419
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124154

D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme N "Gaming" Router - Retail - $179 (**NEW** This router has been added based upon initial reviews, time will tell whether it unseats the DGL-4300.)
[Information][Circuit City Listing]
+ draft-N Wireless for increased range.
+ MIMO Wireless
+ Integrated Gigabit Switch
+ QoS (Traffic Shaping) engine to prioritize important traffic. ("Gamefuel" Next-Gen)

NOTE: The DGL-4500 is not widely available online but seems to be available at retail outlets. As soon as it is available on Newegg, I will update the link. Right now it's merely on Circuit City as they were the cheapest from a Google Products search.
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Just wanted to say that I am VERY happy with my RV016, even at a 50 computer LAN with all the computer trying to get on the net, it performed well(I used it to reserve some bandwidth for the admins, works great).

Also, the DGL-4500 is now on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833127243
 
I need some recommendations please.

It's going to be for our new town home. Most likely a cable connection from "com-crap-cast"...

2 laptops & 1 desktop (not sure if that really matters), but I plan on using the desktop for storage and 1 laptop as an HTPC...where I can watch movies from the desktop etc.

I was leaning toward linksys or netgear...and I have no idea what advantages there are for there different models etc.

thanks!
 
yang88she,
Page one contains the list of recommendations. Any of the routers there will work great in your situation - it all depends on your budget. Right now I'd look for a DIR-655 or DGL-4500 depending on how much you want to spend.
 
Thankfully, the networking side of Toms Hardware has been sold off and is now SmallNetBuilders.com.


moetop said:
While I'm no proponent of Toms hardware (or any of the sub sites), they do tend to cover home/small network gear pretty well.

This post would be remiss without linking to their "Router Charts" , as some of the details of maximum connections and throughput will be important to some people.

Ohh ya, and one more thing GREAT POST! I would tend to agree that it would be nice to get this stickied as this seems to be a recurrent (almost daily) question.
Click to expand...
 
SmallNetBuilders has finally tested the DGL-4500 and the results are in:

It's now the highest-performing router on the list in many catagories that count, and where it's not the #1 router it's right at the top.
 
I don't know of it's a POS, but I do know I'm DONE with NetGear. Even their blue-box stuff has caused me nothing but headaches in the last 2 years.

Routers that reboot whenever they feel like it. Two switch failures in one year. And deplorable tech support.

No more NetGear for me.

munkle said:
No offense but I own this router and it is a pos, always drops connections.
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FYI, I just bought the D Link 4500 @ CC for $154.00 out the door...

it's 159.99 on their website, and you get an additional 10% off if you do in store pick up...

(newegg/ZZF have it for 179.99 + shipping)

cheers!
 
I need to get off the actioncrap router I have for fios. Draft N is not a huge concern to me (or are there big differences in wifi performance?). I do a fair bit of BT and plan on running a TF2 server in the future. Network consists of 4 wired computers, a ps3, 2 360s, a wii, a printer, and 2 wireless laptops. I use a dlink DIR-625 as a switch and another linksys switch to get the ports I need. I'm looking at the 4300, 4500, and 655 and can't make a decision :mad:
 
z3r0- said:
I need to get off the actioncrap router I have for fios. Draft N is not a huge concern to me (or are there big differences in wifi performance?). I do a fair bit of BT and plan on running a TF2 server in the future. Network consists of 4 wired computers, a ps3, 2 360s, a wii, a printer, and 2 wireless laptops. I use a dlink DIR-625 as a switch and another linksys switch to get the ports I need. I'm looking at the 4300, 4500, and 655 and can't make a decision :mad:
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All three are great SOHO routers but I'd recommend either the DIR-655 or the DGL-4500 out of those; they just might change your mind about how you use wireless and, even if they don't, they are not EoL (end-of-life) like the DGL-4300 and are built on newer hardware.
 
Im torn between the D-link DIR 655 and the Linksys WRT330/350. They all have gigabit, but I need a good wireless connection. Choices choices.
 
TechLarry said:
I don't know of it's a POS, but I do know I'm DONE with NetGear. Even their blue-box stuff has caused me nothing but headaches in the last 2 years.

Routers that reboot whenever they feel like it. Two switch failures in one year. And deplorable tech support.

No more NetGear for me.
Click to expand...

Anything pricey from netgear has just blown for me. I have had 4 netgear wireless routers that are just absolutely unstable and restart constantly. Whats funny is I have a $10 netgear switch that has caused me no problems what so ever (so far), hopefully the switch stays fine because I have replaced the crap wireless routers with a monowall setup.

Edit: Oh yeah and a Netgear wireless card that installing the newest drivers causes the card not to work but going back 4 revisions and it works fine, this is in xp too, no excuse for breaking it for 4 revisions.
 
awesome post
this definitely helped me narrow down my choices

one question though, what are people's thought on 2.4ghz and 5ghz
the upcoming dlink dir-855 features 2.4ghz and 5ghz, and will it be that important?

i currently have a house full of 802.11g devices and dont foresee moving to all 802.11n soon as adapters still cost close $100
 
I second the recommendations for the DIR-655. It's a great performance router with an excellent interface. Only problem is they don't make it in black, but even in white it looks great.
 
I'm moving from comcast business connection to a FIOS 20/20 connection, and I do a LOT of torrenting.

Being a comcast business connection, I have (had) 5 static IPs, and used a proprietary comcast integrated modem/gateway to handle the statics correctly. Moving to a straight consumer level connection with 1 dynamic IP opens up the doors for using my own router again easily, and so I'm shopping.

I currently own a non-flashable Linksys WRT (that is plugged into the proprietary comcast equipment as a WAP). I'm mainly considering:

-A DD-WRT flashable device (what's the current high-end on this performance wise? Linksys WRT-350N? WRT-600N?)

-The D-link 4500

My house runs 2 desktops, 1 fileserver that is constantly torrenting (and by constantly torrenting I mean constantly seeding hundreds of torrents, I am of the group of people that can really take advantage of a very strong router), and 3 laptops.

Having roomates who demand a perfect connection, I can't afford to tinker with a dedicated routerbox. Some features I desire/require other than basic routing:

-QoS to enable me to utilitize max upstream for torrents when available. I'd ideally like to allow my torrent client to run with uncapped bandwidth, and let the router throttle torrent traffic as necessary. I'm not sure how good the stock QoS is on the dlink as opposed to the much more customizable DD-WRTs.

-Gigabit switch would be nice on the router itself, but this isn't a dealbreaker (I'm running a gigabit switch off of my existing hardware now without issues, so I already own gigabit hardware).

-VPN/PPTP connectivity on the router would be nice, so I don't have to keep it set up individually on each of the machines that I use it on. Again, a nice feature, but not a deal breaker.

I don't need much of the "linux-ness" on the router as other people might. Things like the usb slot for harddrives are a fun toy, but for me with the dedicated server it becomes redundant. I'm looking strictly for raw routing power.

So, D-Link 4500 or a "WRT-able" router? And which is the strongest performing wrt-able router out now? And does tomato affect this decision at all?
 
Fryguy8 said:
... to a FIOS 20/20 connection, and I do a LOT of torrenting.
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DGL-4500 or DIR-655 or a m0n0wall/IPCop box.

Fryguy8 said:
I'm mainly considering:

-A DD-WRT flashable device (what's the current high-end on this performance wise? Linksys WRT-350N? WRT-600N?)

-The D-link 4500
Click to expand...
DGL-4500 or DIR-655 :)

Fryguy8 said:
My house runs 2 desktops, 1 fileserver that is constantly torrenting (and by constantly torrenting I mean constantly seeding hundreds of torrents, I am of the group of people that can really take advantage of a very strong router), and 3 laptops.

Having roomates who demand a perfect connection, I can't afford to tinker with a dedicated routerbox. Some features I desire/require other than basic routing:

-QoS to enable me to utilitize max upstream for torrents when available. I'd ideally like to allow my torrent client to run with uncapped bandwidth, and let the router throttle torrent traffic as necessary. I'm not sure how good the stock QoS is on the dlink as opposed to the much more customizable DD-WRTs.

-Gigabit switch would be nice on the router itself, but this isn't a dealbreaker (I'm running a gigabit switch off of my existing hardware now without issues, so I already own gigabit hardware).

-VPN/PPTP connectivity on the router would be nice, so I don't have to keep it set up individually on each of the machines that I use it on. Again, a nice feature, but not a deal breaker.

I don't need much of the "linux-ness" on the router as other people might. Things like the usb slot for harddrives are a fun toy, but for me with the dedicated server it becomes redundant. I'm looking strictly for raw routing power.

So, D-Link 4500 or a "WRT-able" router? And which is the strongest performing wrt-able router out now? And does tomato affect this decision at all?
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Honestly, as you said yourself, you're one of the people who could really make use of a great router -- you may want to consider getting an older PC and running m0n0wall or IPCop. You won't need to "tinker" with it once you get it up and running, especially m0n0wall. ;)

With your throughout requirements, stay far far away from WRT/Tomato.
 
Even with the newer, higher throughput routers like the WRT350N?

I might be latching onto the idea a little too strongly, but I'm really interested in having really high quality QoS.
 
Fryguy8 said:
Even with the newer, higher throughput routers like the WRT350N?
Click to expand...
Yes. Support is admittedly spotty for higher performance models and it is unclear whether or not DD-WRT/Tomato will continue to develop for them over time. Everyone seems to be clinging onto the legacy of the WRT54G. It needs to die. DD-WRT is an awesome AP firmware but it faces two choices: Die with the legacy hardware or move-on and provide broader router support and an x86 compatible version. I don't see the latter becoming fully tested and viable any time soon, if at all. The WRT54G makes a nice AP with DD-WRT/Tomato but that's about it.

Fryguy8 said:
I might be latching onto the idea a little too strongly, but I'm really interested in having really high quality QoS.
Click to expand...
The DGL-4500 and DIR-655 both provide high quality QoS. If you want better or more configuration options, you're going to need to go with a build-your-own type of scenario in order to stay in the consumer/prosumer segment.
 
What is the difference between 4500 and 655? It seems like the only major difference is the 4500 does dual-band whereas the 655 does single band.

I'm not overly concerned about wireless performance (the only device in the house that cares about having a good connection is the xbox, and that connection on the current linksys is fine).
 
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