The Router Recommendations Thread (Consumer)

Alright, I'm looking to get a new router and was mainly considering the D-Link 655. I've been swayed by some of it's bad reviews, though. So then I came to this thread to see what was recommended.

Now I'm looking at the Netgear WNDR3700. This is more than I want to spend though, and the dual-band is honestly not needed for me.

My simple queries: Would it be a gamble to buy the D-link currently? Or would dishing out more money for the Netgear profit with a more reliable experience?
 
i need to replace my draytek 2130n.

I am searching for a good router that can do:
120 mbit download.
VPN-server
Vlans
Wireless/WIFI
NAT
etc....

What are the options? I have search a lot but i get every-time back to the router i got.
 
:S im still using a wrt54g v4.0 with dd-wrt on it it has the radio power turned up and the processor has a slight overclock and i put a heat sink on it... i also enlarged the vent holes on top and put a fan in there i need to mod a power supply to power that fan though i dont want to pull power off the routers wall wart...
 
Fading Phoenix said:
Alright, I'm looking to get a new router and was mainly considering the D-Link 655. I've been swayed by some of it's bad reviews, though. So then I came to this thread to see what was recommended.

Now I'm looking at the Netgear WNDR3700. This is more than I want to spend though, and the dual-band is honestly not needed for me.

My simple queries: Would it be a gamble to buy the D-link currently? Or would dishing out more money for the Netgear profit with a more reliable experience?
Click to expand...

I'm rocking the WNDR3700 right now. Rev2 I think. No problems. Would recommend for most use. I download a lot and have no issues like I did with the DIR-655.
 
Dallows said:
I'm rocking the WNDR3700 right now. Rev2 I think. No problems. Would recommend for most use. I download a lot and have no issues like I did with the DIR-655.
Click to expand...


One more question in an attempt to save some of that money.

I noticed on the first page of this thread that the 655 isn't listed, but instead the DIR-628 is recommended. I can't even tell what the differences between the two are, besides that the 628 features dual-band (though it's not simultaneous) and has more consistent reviews.

Would the DIR-628 be a reliable budget conscious choice?
 
Fading Phoenix said:
One more question in an attempt to save some of that money.

I noticed on the first page of this thread that the 655 isn't listed, but instead the DIR-628 is recommended. I can't even tell what the differences between the two are, besides that the 628 features dual-band (though it's not simultaneous) and has more consistent reviews.

Would the DIR-628 be a reliable budget conscious choice?
Click to expand...

I have no idea about the 628. But for me it came down to something simple. the WNDR3700 is powerful, has great reviews and most importantly allows something like 4000 simultaneous connections. The DIR-655 only allowed 200.

Have you checked out this site? http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

Found a review: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...-628-rangebooster-n-dual-band-router-reviewed


I understand wanting to save money, but to me the router is one of those areas where I'm willing to spend extra to get something great, because it will make a difference in my day to day.
 
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Dallows said:
...the WNDR3700 is powerful, has great reviews and most importantly allows something like 4000 simultaneous connections. The DIR-655 only allowed 200.

Have you checked out this site? http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/
Click to expand...
Small problem here! SNB's testing used to be capped at 200 connections, so you're not comparing the same thing. The new method goes up above 40,000, and the DIR-655 managed 22k.

See here & note the disclaimer at the top.
 
HammerSandwich said:
Small problem here! SNB's testing used to be capped at 200 connections, so you're not comparing the same thing. The new method goes up above 40,000, and the DIR-655 managed 22k.

See here & note the disclaimer at the top.
Click to expand...

Okay, but when I would try to torrent at 200 connections it would kill my internet every. single. time. I had to drop down to almost under 100 just to be stable. With the WNDR3700, no problems.

Also the second 655 they tested was rev A4, mine was rev A3
 
Fair enough, and the 3700 is a GREAT router. But the 655 looks much improved, at least in the new rev.
 
Ok, so I have a dlink dgl-4500 unopened because I'm now wondering if I should've gotten a dual band router like the D-Link DIR-855. Networking is not really my specialty, so in short I'm wondering if a dual band router would help say if my brother is running a ps3 connected wireless doing- online gaming, and I'm on my desktop wired 100baset- streaming movies, gaming, browsing and last my other brother using htc thunderbolt connected wireless streaming or browsing. Would I better better suited getting the DIR-855 or dgl-4500?

2nd scenario, Im trying to Game on my desktop wired 100baset, and my brother is trying to game connected wireless on ps3- Would I better better suited getting the DIR-855 or dgl-4500?

Is dual band worth it or should I just relax and open my dgl-4500?
 
Well I crippled and bought the 3700. Got a ver.2. Updated it to the latest firmware....1.0.0.8 I think it was.

So far it's working great. Definitely pleased.
 
Seems like a few new wireless routers have been released recently:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&N=100010076 4804&IsNodeId=1&name=New Product

NETGEAR WNDR4000-100NAS IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router

BUFFALO WZR-HP-AG300H IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n AirStation Nfiniti Wireless-N Dual Band High Power Router & Access Point

Linksys E1500 IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz Wireless-N Router with SpeedBoost

Linksys E2500 IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4GHz / 5GHz Advanced Dual-Band Wireless N Router

And DraGun, where did you get that output, was it from a review or website?
 
The program is called inSSIDer 2.0

With that said, I am absolutely a newb when it comes to networking.
From what the program shows, I can tell the signal strength is very unstable for the e4200.
The line graph shows me moving away from the routers. The lowest point being the farthest part of my house from my routers. Eventually I moved back towards the routers.
 
Anyone recommend a router? Currently have a dir 655 and it hates iPads connected to it. It will constantly drop ipad commections and also drop my trendnet gaming adapter. Im looking for a stable wireless n router preferably with removable antennas if possible
 
antok86 said:
Anyone recommend a router? Currently have a dir 655 and it hates iPads connected to it. It will constantly drop ipad commections and also drop my trendnet gaming adapter. Im looking for a stable wireless n router preferably with removable antennas if possible
Click to expand...

I'm enjoying the Netgear WNDR3700. No antennas.
 
I have to chime in a little here. I had a WNDR 3700 and it ran like an absolute champ. Main comp, WHS, laptop, PS3, and one Android phone. Unfortunately my apartment's power is unstable and every once in a while when I turn on my main pc it trips the breaker. This happened once and I couldn't get the wireless radio to turn back on. Took it back to Fry's and all they had in that range was the D-Link 825 so I grabbed it even though I had done so much research beforehand and it didn't have the best reviews.

The DIR-825 seems to work well for day to day but for some outstanding reason I am sure I can't enter DHCP reserves for my devices because unless the device's mac starts with 00 it won't recognize any other combination in the first set. So, if the power goes out or if I happen to reset the router, the server needs to be setup again for port forwarding and/or virtual server.

So this is kind of a curiosity since I have had it longer than 30 days so I am screwed there, but I am about to go buy another 3700 because it ran so well previous to that. Anybody else getting the same oddities like slow down from their 825 like me?
 
antok86 said:
V1 or v2? Also which is better of the two versions
Click to expand...

I believe it's v2. That's what the webpage says anyway. Latest firmware v1.0.0.8 I think. I only seem to have problems when I saturate my connection for a long period. I think it's the modem that actually fails now. Last time it happened I adjusted all my settings to limit the bandwidth, but we had to power cycle the modem alone.


I was reading a lot before I bought it how the v1 was superior, I don't even remember the reasons. I have no complaints with mine and you'd be hard pressed to find a v1 anyway.
 
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antok86 said:
Anyone recommend a router? Currently have a dir 655 and it hates iPads connected to it. It will constantly drop ipad commections and also drop my trendnet gaming adapter. Im looking for a stable wireless n router preferably with removable antennas if possible
Click to expand...

I have it and yes it does drop any mac products consistently. but i found out that if you put a switch behind it and hardwire as many pcs to it, through a switch, its pretty good. I have a mac server and a windows rig and they are hardwired and my wireless devices like two evos, ipad, ipod, and a laptop are directly connected to the router via wireless connection, of course. Basically, i tried to offload any traffic from the router. The router doesnt play well when trying to transfer large files within a network. So i just let the router only be a gateway as much as possible. Ever since i put a switch on the network, i havent had a single problem since last august. If the switch wouldnt have worked, i would have bought a new router.
And i had this one replaced by d-link because of those said issues and the second router they sent me still had the same problems. So i only had 2 choices, get the macs off the networks as much as possible or give the router less work.
 
I know you're just trying to make do in a crappy situation, but basically what you are doing is compensating for a product that does not do what its advertised to do. "Give the router less work" may be a solution, but gee...
 
Anyone got any thoughts on the Netgear WNDR4000 ?...was going to get the 3700 but then I heard about this....
 
elleana said:
I know you're just trying to make do in a crappy situation, but basically what you are doing is compensating for a product that does not do what its advertised to do. "Give the router less work" may be a solution, but gee...
Click to expand...

You know what, youre right but it works for me. I was one day from buying a new router (a $150 one at that) but i decided to try this switch i had on standby. and i havent had an issue with it since so.....
$30 on a gigabit switch > $150 on a new gigabit n router
 
wikidlad said:
Anyone got any thoughts on the Netgear WNDR4000 ?...was going to get the 3700 but then I heard about this....
Click to expand...

Like I said previously, I had a WNDR3700 previously and I fried it. Totally my fault so when I went back to get another they were out and I ended up with a D-Link DIR-825 and it, well, worked? It didn't have the crisp response the Netgear had. My network would do peculiar things like the PS3 wouldn't get X-High signal streaming from Netflix consistently, streams from the WHS 2011 box would stutter, and other odd things. I blamed most of it on business as usual even though I didn't have that issue with the WNDR 3700.

Today I got sick of wondering if it was the router and I bought a WNDR 4000. THIS is what a router should be. I have only been using it for 3 hours now and my network is what it should have been the whole time. Streams on the same files from the server don't stutter, Netflix goes straight to X-High HD on streams that support it, file transfers from the server go right to a nice 115 MBps, and it just works great. No more wondering if my modem was finicky, the server isn't configured properly, etc.

I was a little worried that maybe it hadn't been on the market enough to get the firmware down but I think most of it is a carry over from the 3700. So far, so good.

Edit: I forgot that the one thing that really made me start questioning the D-Link's viability in my network was that it has a known bug that doesn't let you set dhcp reservations for any device whose mac address doesn't start with 00. What in the? So I couldn't reserve an internal ip for my server which was all kinds of messed up. I state here that I am NOT a programmer but how long would it take for a programmer to update a firmware to fix a bug like that on a router that is STILL being distributed which hasn't had an update to its firmware in almost 2 years?!?!
 
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Picked up my WNDR4000 over the weekend. Got it setup and it works like a champ. Awesome coverage in a 2 story house and as easy as it could possibly be to setup. Running on my FIOS 35/35 setup and my liitle un plays his games upstairs over it....no noticeable difference between his wireless and my wired connection speed. :D
 
Please delete this post. I meant to type in the IT Resume thread instead. Not sure what happened.
 
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Just received my Asus RT-n56u. Set up laying flat (horizontal)

It's a very good router from first impressions. Downloading massive amounts of files on my WRT54GS bogged down my webpage loading speeds. With the ASUS, it was not half as bad.

Wireless signal is outstanding. I went to the farthest part of my house and it is better than my WRT54GS. Signal stability wise, it's very similar to the WRT54GS. Nowhere near as bad as the E4200 as shown in the previous pic that i had posted.

Its interface is very new to me. Explains almost every function in the sidebar. Runs in 1Gb without a problem. I personally don't like the web gui. I don't know how to see DNS addresses (simple with WRT54GS DD-WRT)

One issue I am having, however, is that port forwarding is a pain in the ass to set up. Vuze refuses to see any ports and fails the test every time.

I followed portforwarding.com's steps and even downloaded the port checker tool and it still does not work right. The program says my ports are open but cannot ping my router. Torrents are still blocked at the port.

Can't wait for DD-WRT support on this.

I would give this router a 8/10
- turned off by Web GUI interface (I'm too used to Linksys and DD-WRT)
- Port Forwarding doesn't work right for some reason (I hope it's just something i'm doing wrong)
- No Guest SSID access


Will review again in a couple of weeks. Have yet to try USB and printer functions. Maybe I can get port forwarding to work by then...
 
Well, still using my new wdr3700 here. I'm not sure if I'm having issues with it or not though. A day or two after I got it all set up I started having internet troubles-I assume on my ISP's side. Using speedtest.net I was getting the most sporadic results I've seen with my download speed ranging from 2mbps to (when I was lucky) 10mbps, but never coming near my normal speed of 20+ And my ping was ranging from 80ms to the 700's.

I connected my pc directly to the modem to make sure it wasn't the router and the problem persisted so I was safe there. That problem also seems to have been resolved as my connection is stable now. However, I've also been getting sporadic DNS Server is not Responding Errors which will last anywhere from a couple seconds to 5-10 minutes before I'll get browsing capabilities back. I'm not sure where the fault lies with these as they haven't gone away-and I can't recall if they started before or after my other internet woes.

Note: I'm a networking noob.

I haven't had time to leave my computer connected directly to the modem to find out if these problems persist. Nor would it be easy to verify as the problem is completely random, I can go almost a whole day without any trouble sometimes and other times it'll happen 3 or more times within half an hour.

I've switched my dns address settings in the router from auto to 76.85.229.110 / 76.85.229.111 still have problems though.
 
WNDR4000 > All if you have a 3 stream capable wifi adapter

20 megabytes per second sustained transfer. Blows the doors off of everything else.
 
Fading Phoenix said:
Well, still using my new wdr3700 here. I'm not sure if I'm having issues with it or not though. A day or two after I got it all set up I started having internet troubles-I assume on my ISP's side. Using speedtest.net I was getting the most sporadic results I've seen with my download speed ranging from 2mbps to (when I was lucky) 10mbps, but never coming near my normal speed of 20+ And my ping was ranging from 80ms to the 700's.
Click to expand...

I quit using Speedtest.net and starting to go with Speakeasy.net when Speedtest starting getting flaky and sporadic. So, I basically went what you went through and jumped ship. I also have a gateway test through my ISP that gives me crazy results which I can live with.

computerpro3 said:
WNDR4000 > All if you have a 3 stream capable wifi adapter

20 megabytes per second sustained transfer. Blows the doors off of everything else.
Click to expand...

I am all about my new WNDR4000 as well. I was just about to run a long cable to my PS3 until I picked up the WNDR because the D-Link just wasn't streaming in any reliable fashion. I don't have multi streams really. Just the PS3, a laptop, and my Android phone which really doesn't stress the thing out that much.
 
DraGun said:
Did you unplug your modem when you hooked it up to your WNDR3700 and PC?
Click to expand...

Yesh I did. I've done it at least two times since then as well just to make sure.

Kenworth said:
I quit using Speedtest.net and starting to go with Speakeasy.net when Speedtest starting getting flaky and sporadic. So, I basically went what you went through and jumped ship. I also have a gateway test through my ISP that gives me crazy results which I can live with.
Click to expand...

It really wasn't speedtest, my entire internet was shit during that period. I'll keep speakeasy in mind from now on as well though, since I didn't know about that one.



-EDIT
Well, it's been two-maybe two and a half-days with no issue now. So maybe I won't actually need to do anything about it. :D
 
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Been using a TrendNet TEW-652BRP for the past couple years and it has worked flawlessly. Range is awesome, never drops a connection or randomly decides to restart (unlike the fucking Linksys wireless router I used to have) and is very fast. Tons of devices and comps connected to it both wired and wireless, no problem with any of them. It can take a shit-ton of abuse and never chocks. And it was only around $40 from Fry's.
 
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