Whats some of the best routers out there?

S

ShuttleLuv

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 12, 2003
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For cheap? I'm still using this old Netgear...does it's job. But getting a bit long in the tooth.

I also mean to clarify "best wireless router".
 
I've had decent luck with the Buffalo routers. Especially since they're running DD-WRT,

Right now though, I'm sitting on some blue metal boxes (Netgear ProSafe) stuff at home. The only fiddling I've had to do recently was a router firmware update so I could access the VOIP settings.
 
I'm using a few Asus RT-N16 units with dd-wrt. they are "okay".
 
Define "cheap"? I love my dlink dir-655. It has been a beast and been able to take whatever I've thrown at it and never had a problem with restarts like I did on my netgears when you pushed them.
 
I just bought a Netgear WNDR3700V2. I haven't tried to push it yet but it seems rock solid with my normal usage.Not exactly what I would call cheap but not the most expensive one of it's class either. I also bought the Netgear WNDA3100V2 with it.
 
Can't really beat the linksys wireless router, its i thikn the most commonly used router, its cheap, it works. I have one at home. I use them at clients. When it works, it works, but sometimes i have issues with it.

At work we use d-link access points and ive started using them a lot more.

Ive also used netgear but ive had issues with netgear access points, i sitll use them for my routers over linksys, more controlability (yeah i can upgrade the firmware on my linksys but i like using something from the manufacturer)

Really depends on what you want, what your budget is.
 
If you want a rock solid router, You can't go wrong with the rt-n16 or rt-n12 running tomato usb. I have had both running for 7 months now under heavy load without a lockup. STAY AWAY from any of the Buffalo's running dd-wrt. They all have issues, and I found out the hard way by purchasing most of their models based on past awesome experiences, then finding out there was no fix, but there would be one "eventually". This is true of ANY routers with Atheros chipsets running dd-wrt.
 
I also have an RT-N16 running Tomato. My only complaint is that it's only 2.4GHz, not dual-band.

The Mikrotik stuff can be cool, depending your requirements. Note that some of them have small fans inside. This can be a point of failure as well as adding noise. For a simple home "toss it in the corner/closet and forget about it" router, fanless may be preferred.
 
munkle said:
That's pretty hot for $40. Looks like you might be able to put something else on it like pfsense/monowall? This possible? I might have to pick one of those up.
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I was wondering that as well. I want to build a pfsense box that stays cheap and uses minimal power with wireless. I haven't done much reading on pfsense yet, but it doesn't seem like there is a lot out there on how to diy build low power systems like this. What wireless cards would work well in a diy pfsense box?
 
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munkle said:
That's pretty hot for $40. Looks like you might be able to put something else on it like pfsense/monowall? This possible? I might have to pick one of those up.
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I don't know if I'd want to put anything else on it. RouterOS is packed with features and relatively easy to pick up.
 
Vito_Corleone said:
I don't know if I'd want to put anything else on it. RouterOS is packed with features and relatively easy to pick up.
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I wouldn't to be honest. You "might" be able to, I'd check their forums, but like Vito said, RouterOS has a lot of features that you'd be missing with PFSense.
 
Adam said:
Can't really beat the linksys wireless router, its i thikn the most commonly used router, its cheap, it works. I have one at home. I use them at clients. When it works, it works, but sometimes i have issues with it.

At work we use d-link access points and ive started using them a lot more.

Ive also used netgear but ive had issues with netgear access points, i sitll use them for my routers over linksys, more controlability (yeah i can upgrade the firmware on my linksys but i like using something from the manufacturer)

Really depends on what you want, what your budget is.
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Over the last 2 years I've lost two of these to corrupted firmware. (Neither of which caused by flashing them)

IN both cases, I got the power led blinking randomly after them just working for a long period of time. First one was a WRT54G, and the second one was a WRT110. In both cases they stopped responding to the IP address, so there was no way to reflash and thus unbrick them.

If I had to buy another router I would steer clear of Linksys based on my personal experience.
 
munkle said:
That's pretty hot for $40. Looks like you might be able to put something else on it like pfsense/monowall? This possible? I might have to pick one of those up.
Click to expand...

please, for the love of all that is holy, don't sully up a Routerboard device with some other software.....sure, pfsense/monowall/smoothwall, etc, are all kinda nice, and pretty user-friendly, but RouterOS will do everything that all those systems combined will do, and then some....all while using less system resources and AC power.

the only real downside is the learning curve on the MikroTik.....but take the time to really learn how RouterOS works and you'll never go back.

one of the best things about MikroTiks is that any interface can be assigned independently from all the others to do whatever you want...including multiple WAN ports, or separate LAN subnets, depending on which physical interface you are connected to.

i'm running my home network on an RB493G (9x gigabit ethernet....1x for WAN, 8x for LAN) and a R52Hn a/b/g/n wireless adapter, and i couldn't be happier with it.

i've got mine set up to throttle the connection speed for everyone else's internet connection speeds to a slower speed so they can't saturate my internet connection and cause high latency....and it is also set up so that there is no way for anyone who is not on my connect list to even associate with the wireless adapter to help avoid wireless intrusion, in addition to WPA2 encryption.
 
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