Wireless router for gaming, need help choosing!

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Rob36

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
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Hey there, I love computers, and the games with it (CS:S, and crysis and quake wars when they come out, BF2 every now and then as well)

I'm a college student and last year was great, I go to purdue and had the super fast connection everyone loves at a college campus. Next year however, I will be living in the fraternity house. This is going to be tons of fun obviously, but the problem is that they dont have as fast of internet. They have two cable modems for the entire 'house', and that means that its split between around 40 guys, making gaming impossible unless i'm gaming at 4am (not likely). Right across the street from me however, is the union, library and undergraduate library. I believe with a strong wireless router, i could pick up the signal no problem, but my question is which router to select? I dont know that much about networking, my friend told me to look at the N routers (as opposed to the 'G'). I looked on newegg and saw these two routers, one being N and one being G. Whats the difference, but my bigger question is, which router would you guys reccommend (DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ONE OF THOSE TWO). Any tips, links and prices, pros and / or cons would be great. Thank you so much again!

-Rob


router 1, looked like it had good reviews
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127158

router 2, not sure, its 'N' though?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124084


once again, the router you recommend doesnt have to be one of these two routers, those are just two i looked at and they seemed 'decent'
 
what would you say the range on that is? im not sure exactly how far away, a year a 2 (maybe 4) lane road and another yard (the school). I've heard of wokfi'ing, or of using hacked firmware, would either of that be necessary?


also just want to confirm that with a wireless router you can pick up signals, not just send them, correct?
 
I currently have the Dlink 4300. Only feature i dont like about it, is when it comes to restricting web sites, it wont let you restrict that site. instead it restricts all sites, and you have to add which addresses are allowed.

I've used it for gaming for quite a while. the firmware is easy to use. I keep mine at 1.3, bt theres up to 1.7. I keep mine at 1.3 due to it wont allow my HP IPAQ to connect using WPA security unless i use 1.3 due to a flaw in the 1.7 firmware.

I Love this router. And i wouldnt trade it for anything but a new one.
 
I've got a the D-link DGL-4300 and absolutely love it, but I've been eyeing that linksys 802.11n router; although I know it won't have as good of a interface as the D-link does.

I absolutely love my DGL-4300; it's still top notch and probably the best networking based purchase I've made in years.
 
what is the range on that? I need to go outside of the window of my fraternity house, across the street and pick up the schools internet (or would like to) the reviews for the dlg 4300 says it doesnt have the greatest range. What do you guys think...
 
Rob36 said:
what is the range on that? I need to go outside of the window of my fraternity house, across the street and pick up the schools internet (or would like to) the reviews for the dlg 4300 says it doesnt have the greatest range. What do you guys think...
Click to expand...

If you're worried about range? Lets see....oh yeah...the DIR-655.

Not only a couple of times more horsepower than the aging 4300 (more than TWICE the throughput)..but it's also "N"...over 6x the range of the aging 4300..which is only old "G".

So now there's 2x reasons to get a current model (the DIR-655)...versus leftover stock of old 4300 models.
 
with that, i will be able to PICK UP signals, not just send them via a cable I plug in from a modem or something? Wireless routers act as recievers as well? thats what I was unsure of, I didnt know if they only transmit
 
Rob36 said:
Right across the street from me however, is the union, library and undergraduate library. I believe with a strong wireless router, i could pick up the signal no problem, but my question is which router to select?
Click to expand...

None of the current draft n routers do that out of the box. You have some hope that a Linksys router which is compatible with a beta DD-WRT firmware would be able to do this, in client mode, but otherwise, nope, it doesn't work that way. A wireless router is typically a wireless access point for wireless clients, not a wireless client to another wireless network.

DD-WRT is probably the best way to do this at present, but there are several risks. (1) Linksys changes chipsets within a model, and not all chipsets are supported (not all models are supported either). (2) DD-WRT for draft n is beta only. (3) wireless n itself is changing and bleeding edge.

Finally, the existing wireless is not likely to be wireless n, so you might be better off getting a wireless g bridge for this purpose. E.g. Buffalo "Wireless Ethernet Converter". This would work almost out of the box for a typical wireless g network (but I don't know if the library has additional requirements). DD-WRT running on a compatible g router would be more flexible -- it could also work as a router, etc., and moreover is one of the few products which incorporates a firewall into the client mode -- this is the difference between DD-WRT's "client bridge mode" and just "client mode" -- the latter incorporates the firewall. The Buffalo does not incorporate a firewall.

Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 and others are popular and successful devices for running DD-WRT in client / client bridge mode. The downside of this device over the dedicated Buffalo "Wireless Ethernet Converter" is that you have to install a third-party firmware to enable this functionality.
 
could i get a newegg link? sorry i didnt see it i suppose, maybe im just uber tired... :(
 
i thought i need a bridge to be able to pick up the signals, routers only transmit? didnt he just say that in the previous post?
 
its kinda a question as well though haha, is that ALL that wireless routers do is transmit a signal from a wired modem to those with wireless recievers?
 
All wireless devices are bi-directional, so this "transmit" vs. "receive" terminology is a bit confusing, but if you describe it in terms of which device is hosting the wireless network as an access point, and which device is acting as a client for particular wireless network, it gets clearer.

Typical wireless routers act as wireless network hosts / access points. Workstation adapters (laptop built-ins, add-on PCI, USB, etc.) act as wireless clients.

There are a few special case exceptions, where routers and other such devices (e.g. a "wireless bridge", "wireless ethernet converter", "wireless gaming adapter", etc.) can act as clients to a wireless network, and then pass that wireless connection ("bridge it") to attached wired devices.

http://www.buffalotech.com/products...reless-g-mimo-performance-ethernet-converter/
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Mode_Wireless
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Bridge
 
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