The Router Recommendations Thread (Consumer)

ALright guys.... need some help.

Right now I have cable net. I have a POS Belkin router....forgot exactly what model it is, but its a N600 router. I flashed it with new firmware via the manufactures site, of course, it worse that it was out of the box. Heck, it even errors when I log in sometimes.

That and sometimes I get the orange light of death where rebooting all and getting it to work again can be a chore...sometimes multtiple tries and about 20 minutes later it finally works again.

That aside ...need a router.
I have 4 computers at a time on the network. Its get heavy use. Multi level house, going from the living room which is in front of the house. One computer upstairs, 2 in the back of the house. Walls in the way. I get good connection with the router when IT WORKS.

SO I was looking at netgear or linksys. What I get tripped up on is should I jump and get a N900 or a N7xx? I am game. Of course, I want the best bang for the buck. I do not need anything fancy, just something we can use the bandwith as we please. No extras needed.
 
diizzy said:
@ watertown28
Netgear WNDR4300 or TP-Link TL-WDR4300

//Danne
Click to expand...

I bought the TP-Link TL-WDR4300 for my girlfriend's house about a week ago after trying out the RT-N65U for a bit. The WDR4300 is having connection issues and has definitely has less range than the Asus. Is there an in between pricewise between the two? I would rather avoid spending $130 but will if that seems like the best option.
 
Are you using 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz? What type of connection issues are you seeing? Have you upgraded the firmware? Netgear WNDR4300 might be a bit better but I haven't really had any issues at all with the WDR4300 or 3800-series.
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
Are you using 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz? What type of connection issues are you seeing? Have you upgraded the firmware? Netgear WNDR4300 might be a bit better but I haven't really had any issues at all with the WDR4300 or 3800-series.
//Danne
Click to expand...
r

Firmware is completely up to date. Compared to the Asus, the tplink is significantly slower and and seems much weaker from a signal strength standpoint. I tried testing it out around the house (two story fairly new construction , router is on the second floor) and the Asus was about 50% faster in the Trouble spots for the TPlink. Maybe I got a bad one, but was not impressed as it was roughly on par with my girlfriend's old linksys e1200.
 
Quick question for you guys, the WD Mynet N900 router (the one with 7 LAN ports) is on offer at the moment where I live, making it a good £40 less than the RT-N66U. I live in a 80 square meter apartment at the moment, so coverage will not be an issue, is the Asus really worth 50% more than the WD router?

Thanks in advance!
 
Asus RT-N66u what does everyone think about this router? I am looking to replace a D-link DIR-655.
 
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I'm looking for a router to replace a RT-N56U. It does need to be on the higher end as it's pushing 3 gigabit desktops, 1 gigabit server, an Apple TV, PS3, Xbox 360 and Printer all on wired. On top of that, we have about 10-12ish wireless devices (mainly iDevices).

What replacement would you recommend? The 56U is constantly needing to be rebooted and it apparently cannot handle all of the connections. Would the 66U be a better bet or should I be going with something else?

Thanks!
 
Minor FYI for all.

Ubiquiti's consumer level AirRouter is a POS. many known issues on their forums. The web interface is slow and crashes often. The wifi spectrum analyzer is cool as hell but not worth the headaches. It's slow on routing, range sucks.

I ordered a UniFI AP. they sent me the AirRouter, my major problem was you could not actually turn on the wifi(It just said disabled in one of the screens) I had to tftp the firmware 4 times, resetting the router every time and playing with CLI stuff until the damn thing finally turned on, after that the range was horrid. The forums are not helpful for this issue, neither is google. The general consensus is, if your wifi shows up as disabled, your antenna is bad and need a new unit.


It's going back and i'm waiting on a UniFI AP.
 
Which of these would you buy? Going to be running a streaming ps3 with netflix, gaming/streaming hulu pc, 3 iphones, 1 laptop

Asus black Diamond RT-N53U $58
Refurbished netgear wndr3400 $42
Refurbished linksys E1200 $28
Linksys E1200 $45
TP-Link TR-WL1043ND $52

Only going to be using wireless G 2.4ghz. Range, speed, and reliability!
 
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My RT-N12 bricked last night, and I am looking to get something new. I have been a ddwrt user since the start, and I have used it in a whole lot of routers. But I am wondering if I should be heading over into the minipc/pfsense direction. Not that I have many issues with how dd-wrt works, but it seems to be a dead project. Also wondering about microtik.
Anyway, what are your thoughts, or what are you planning to do when your router dies?
 
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If I needed a new router I'd get a faster atheros based router and run OpenWRT on it. If you want pfsense/m0n0wall/* I'd still get a decent one and use it a plain AP using OpenWRT.

TP-Link TL-WDR3600, TL-WDR4300 or Netgear WNDR4300.
//Danne
 
I decided to throw caution to the wind and experiment with a mikrotik RB951G. Should be interesting.
 
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Need a Gigabit wired router for 20 or so devices, 4 wireless access points, soho level, flexible on LAN ports as long as it can be paired with a gigabit switch. Prefer under 500. I've been looking but all the gigabit routers seem to be for wireless. I would prefer this being seperate with security features like NAT and beyond. Currently have a 100Mbs soho router that does mac address lock down port forwarding etc

To note I have a wndr9400 if memory serves on the wireless side that is being only used as an ap

It seems to not have the security features I desire to be used as my main home router
 
Sunin said:
Need a Gigabit wired router for 20 or so devices, 4 wireless access points, soho level, flexible on LAN ports as long as it can be paired with a gigabit switch. Prefer under 500. I've been looking but all the gigabit routers seem to be for wireless. I would prefer this being seperate with security features like NAT and beyond. Currently have a 100Mbs soho router that does mac address lock down port forwarding etc

To note I have a wndr9400 if memory serves on the wireless side that is being only used as an ap

It seems to not have the security features I desire to be used as my main home router
Click to expand...

Watchguard XTM 25?
 
which router?

I need the following:
- 1Gbit wan port. (i have a 120-140mbit internet connection, in the future even more) some of the traffic is downloading from 2-3 pc's.
- port forwarding
- firewall that can be adjust.
- Ipsec vpn (server) for streaming to another home what a speed of 10mbit or more.
- ....

I have at the moment a draytek 2920 router and it can't pull my traffic use. And it is getting stuk 5-10 times a week.

A better firewall to protect me from the internet.

I have a access point for the Wifi.

I can spend between the 200 to 800 euro's on it.
 
TP-Link TL-WDR4900 without a doubt if you're looking for a very good consumer router (yes, it beats the shit out of Mikrotik).
//Danne
 
I'd recommend the Asus RT-N66U with Tomato for anyone looking for stability and perfomance. My has been churning without a reboot since the moment I got it. My cousin got it as a birthday gift for me already flashed which was nice.

Tomato has a great GUI and definitely a big upgrade over Asus' garbage firmware.
 
buscemifan said:
I'd recommend the Asus RT-N66U with Tomato for anyone looking for stability and perfomance. My has been churning without a reboot since the moment I got it. My cousin got it as a birthday gift for me already flashed which was nice.

Tomato has a great GUI and definitely a big upgrade over Asus' garbage firmware.
Click to expand...
Tomato is my favorite firmware period. VERY easy to use! I'm glad to hear support for newer routers as the wrt54gl that I have at a family member's house is getting long in the tooth.
 
buscemifan said:
I'd recommend the Asus RT-N66U with Tomato for anyone looking for stability and perfomance. My has been churning without a reboot since the moment I got it. My cousin got it as a birthday gift for me already flashed which was nice.

Tomato has a great GUI and definitely a big upgrade over Asus' garbage firmware.
Click to expand...

That is if you get a good router from ASUS. Science help you if you should have to send it in for RMA. Due to their imprecise RMA instructions and my router's odd behavior on any firmware (ASUS, tomato), I sent in the parts that I thought might need repair. I didn't get those parts back. So I contacted customer loyalty. They had me send the router to them. I've been waiting and going back and forth with them since January, unable to get a router back.

What issues? Well, no connections could be established on 2.4ghz if encryption was enabled, the router would spontaneously reboot, connections would drop and come back intermittently even when not rebooting and no encryption enabled, etc. When I started the RMA, they said "don't send unrelated accessories" and listed things like manuals, cds, the bracket that stands it up, etc. Since I was having what could be power, software, or antenna connection issues, I sent my router, power brick, and antennas. I got a naked router back, which then got shipped to the customer loyalty department. I'm still waiting.

Asus had a chance to get my loyalty back when their customer loyalty people seemed much more...sane... than their service department, but that loyalty is all but gone, replaced with nostalgia from better days past.
 
Has anyone tired to merlinWRT firmware for the N66U? It's basically a bug-fixed version of the stock firmware with some additional features added. I find it's pretty snazzy.

Let's me store all my traffic logs on a USB stick and adds a monthly graph.
 
I bought a ASUS RT-AC66U from Newegg:)

Order Summary

Sales Order Number: 127299739
Sales Order Date: 5/9/2013 7:32:35 AM
Shipping Method: Super Eggsaver (4-7 Days)

1 x ($179.99) ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, IEEE 802.3/3u/3ab $179.99
1 x ($-27.00) DISCOUNT FOR PROMOTION CODE$-27.00
Subtotal: $152.99
Tax: $0.00
Shipping and Handling: $0.00
Total Amount: $152.99
 
Guys need recommendation for an ADSL2 Wifi Router. Don't need much range as of now, but I need something which is reliable and is relatively secure i.e. no security bugs and regular firmware updates in case of bugs/security holes.

At the moment I only have a workstation, a laptop, couple of smart phones and a tablet. Though I am planning to add a storage server or a couple of more wifi capable devices later on.

Thinking about various models from Asus, Netgear, Linksys, Belkin and Buffalo.
 
I'm looking for a wireless router where I can configure a wireless network as completely separate (like a guest wireless) so that it doesn't connect to my wired devices. The only thing I use wireless for is to hook up my DVD player so I can stream Netflix and casual browsing on my tablet, in addition to any guests that drop by. I live in an apartment and have a mild paranoia about someone hopping on my wireless network, even with all of the advanced security configured and a strong password.

My router currently has a guest network option, but turning that on enables the internal wireless network too. I can't have the guest network on and disable the regular wireless. I can have the regular wireless on but disable the guest network though, but I want it the other way around.

Any ideas? Or should I find a more potent router and segment off my wireless router as an access point?
 
benzino_86 said:
I'm looking for a wireless router where I can configure a wireless network as completely separate (like a guest wireless) so that it doesn't connect to my wired devices. The only thing I use wireless for is to hook up my DVD player so I can stream Netflix and casual browsing on my tablet, in addition to any guests that drop by. I live in an apartment and have a mild paranoia about someone hopping on my wireless network, even with all of the advanced security configured and a strong password.

My router currently has a guest network option, but turning that on enables the internal wireless network too. I can't have the guest network on and disable the regular wireless. I can have the regular wireless on but disable the guest network though, but I want it the other way around.

Any ideas? Or should I find a more potent router and segment off my wireless router as an access point?
Click to expand...


Pick up a recent unit that supports OpenWRT. You can easily tweak the routing/firewall/etc. in OpenWRT to do this.

DD-WRT can probably also accomplish this, but I can't say for certain as I haven't used it in a long time.
 
I'm still using my trusty D-Link DGL-4500. Has never ever rebooted or caused one bit of trouble. I wish they still made this router.
 
What is the best router that can withstand, 30 or so connected wireless devices, and has 4 or more ethernet ports?

My issue I am running when downloading heavily on multiple devices, I have to reboot my router, and it's not playing nice with a network with both Apple and Windows Machines. Especially my Ipad, seems to run very slow sometimes.

Budget is up to around $500 USD. Security is a huge factor, apartment.

Thanks!
 
pc1x1 said:
What is the best router that can withstand, 30 or so connected wireless devices, and has 4 or more ethernet ports?

My issue I am running when downloading heavily on multiple devices, I have to reboot my router, and it's not playing nice with a network with both Apple and Windows Machines. Especially my Ipad, seems to run very slow sometimes.

Budget is up to around $500 USD. Security is a huge factor, apartment.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

30 connected devices? Is this for home or office/business use?
 
///AMG said:
30 connected devices? Is this for home or office/business use?
Click to expand...

home office, It's several consoles, tablets, smartphones, and laptops all over the place :p. I keep giving my stuff to family members, plus all my computers, servers etc. :eek:
 
Just check the op, could use some updating. @ TCM I'm looking for another router and Asus was one of my top three! Thanks for the info.
 
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