Inexpensive router for home network

[Yuriman]

I've had the worst luck with routers for the past 6-8 years. I think the last home router I had that I was truly happy with was a 4 port D-Link router that had no WiFi. I have used various models of D-Link and Linksys WiFi routers and have tons of strange problems, things like everyone in the house losing connection or having it slow to a crawl when someone opens a torrent, random loss of connectivity over just the wireless unrelated to torrents, random loss of connectivity over wired and wireless unrelated to torrents, and with my most recent router (WRT120N) having port-forwarding randomly quit working and requiring a reboot.

I'm using the most recent firmware available from the Linksys website and AFAIK there are no alternative firmwares available (due to the ROM size?). Last week I changed from WPA2 to WPA and saw a huge increase in network throughput - was getting <10Mbps on my wired connections when several WiFi devices were connected - and currently I'm having to reboot the router every 48 hours or so because my Minecraft server becomes inaccessible from the outside. No IP addresses change, and I can reapply my port forwarding settings without fixing it, but rebooting the router restores everything for a time.

I'm thinking of replacing it and throwing this one up for sale in the classifieds, so I'd like to know, what are some non-terrible consumer routers out there right now? I don't need a ton of range or anything beyond basic b/g as my roommates are happy with 54Mbps, but I'd like something that won't reboot or slow to a crawl when someone opens a torrent, won't randomly drop connections to wired and wireless clients, and doesn't need to rebooted regularly to keep port forwarding working.

 

[s44]

Either spend the money on an Asus or prepare to flash Tomato onto it.

 

[JackMDS]

There is No Entry level Wireless Router (or for that matter any WIFI) that can stand evrything (especially Torrent) that you through on them.

This currently the best Wireless that you can get. If it does not work for you then it is Not the Router but ou that is the ""Trouble"".

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

 

[VirtualLarry]

OP, IMHO, your problem is not the router per se, but the firmware you use on it.

Next time, when choosing a router, get one that is compatible with DD-WRT and / or Tomato.

 

[Yuriman]

OP, IMHO, your problem is not the router per se, but the firmware you use on it.

Next time, when choosing a router, get one that is compatible with DD-WRT and / or Tomato.

I had a WRT54G with DD-WRT and I had problems with torrenting. I believe it was a later model with less RAM and a slower SoC? Anyhow the 3rd-party firmware wasn't a complete solution in that particular case.

 

[kalvin37]

Belkin N600 with DD-wrt / tomato firmware.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I had a WRT54G with DD-WRT and I had problems with torrenting. I believe it was a later model with less RAM and a slower SoC? Anyhow the 3rd-party firmware wasn't a complete solution in that particular case.

You have to set up QoS, and limit your upload speed in your torrent client too.

 

[Yuriman]

You have to set up QoS, and limit your upload speed in your torrent client too.

All computers are capped at 5KB/s upload on an 80/20Mbps connection. It seems it's more a problem with the number of active connections than with limited bandwidth.

 

[OlafSicky]

Try the RB951G-2HnD

 

[Yuriman]

Try the RB951G-2HnD

That looks pretty good, thank you. Hardware wise it looks to be about twice most other high-end consumer devices. I'll also browse RouterBoard some more and see if anything else sticks out though.

 

[smitbret]

There is No Entry level Wireless Router (or for that matter any WIFI) that can stand evrything (especially Torrent) that you through on them.

This currently the best Wireless that you can get. If it does not work for you then it is Not the Router but ou that is the ""Trouble"".

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

If you are willing to spend the money, this really is a great recommendation.

There's more to routing than just wireless range and speed. Some routers are simply underpowered for multiple clients and heavy task loads. Asus seems to be consistently at the top of the list for consumer grade routers that are up to snuff. If the $100 barrier seems a little scary, a little step down is still a good choice:

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Dual-Band...s=asus+nt-r56u

or if you can peak over the edge of $100

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-RT-N65U-A...ds=asus+rt-65u

I would peak at www.smallnetbuilder.com and get some ideas there. Don't get caught up in the wireless range stats since it sounds like your problems are due more to the routers internal capabilities. Base on things like Total Throughput I went with this recently:

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Archer...ords=archer+c7

And I've been really pleased with it over the last month. TP-Link doesn't yet have the consistent track record for routers that Asus has really posted the last couple of years, though, so time will tell.

You probably wouldn't go wrong with a similarly featured NetGear or if you are tech savvy, the Ubiquiti setups may be something you'll want to look into.

If money is something that you simply not overcome then I would recommend this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122461

and maybe flash it to DD-WRT. It's a refurb, but for the $$$$, it's hard to beat and Newegg's return policies are pretty good if your refurb ends up genuinely bad.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If money is something that you simply not overcome then I would recommend this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122461

and maybe flash it to DD-WRT. It's a refurb, but for the $$$$, it's hard to beat and Newegg's return policies are pretty good if your refurb ends up genuinely bad.

Or the E2500 refurbs, they are also N600, with 10/100 WAN/LAN, and the same price too. They also take Tomato firmware.

 

[PliotronX]

I picked up a D-Link DIR-601A1 about a year ago refurbished they go for 10-18 bucks and I flashed Gargoyle (a simple frontend for OpenWRT) on it, solid as heck. I mostly have used it as a client bridge which is easier than pie to set up especially compared to DD-WRT which I still can't figure out how to get into bridging properly. As a router it's as good as any under 60 dollars. I also have a TP-Link WDR4300 and have played with DD-WRT and Gargoyle on it and that is a very nice router for the price. Gigabit ethernet on the WAN and LAN, dual band, 560MHz chip (haven't benchmarked yet but I think it'd do okay at VPN), 128Megs of RAM. I have been so impressed with it that I actually included it in my network management plan for a project that called for originally Cisco wireless access points but those are overpriced because wireless is going to be crap if improperly set up no matter the hardware. Saved a bundle in my plan that was better allocated for server upgrades

I'm waiting out the 802.11ac stuff.

 

[Yuriman]

Much appreciated, I'll discuss funding with my partner and let you guys know what I decide.

 

[Yuriman]

Pulled the trigger tonight on the ASUS RT-N66U. I figure I'll probably get a few good years out of it, the extra cost is probably worth it. Plus, there was a promo on a free wifi range extender that's normally $50. That might've swayed me a little from the cheaper ASUS models.

 

[Yuriman]

Router came in, couldn't be more pleased. Thanks all!

 

[Obsoleet]

There is No Entry level Wireless Router (or for that matter any WIFI) that can stand evrything (especially Torrent) that you through on them.

This currently the best Wireless that you can get. If it does not work for you then it is Not the Router but ou that is the ""Trouble"".

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

Hey Jack, you recommended to me a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 years ago. Saying something similar about how all consumer level router/switch combos are pretty low quality and to buy based on the wireless range.

Well, you were dead on with your analysis.. and the wifi range has been a huge help especially with reaching throughout entire houses/apartments. I've never had to worry or be concerned with wifi range at all, even with terrible devices. The stability is the best I've seen as well. I've been loving this Buffalo (with Tomato) since I got it in 2009. It's just really good and recommended them to family over the years when it was still available, even though it's 100mbit/802.11G- I haven't cared a bit.

Do you stand behind the one you mention here as much as the Buffalo? If so, I may pick one up.

Thanks!

edit- Also, I'm currently in Austin TX. We're due to get Google Fiber in 2014. Do you have a recommendation for a connection to GFiber? Would the Asus suffice there? No specific price range (just the lowest that makes sense with that service).

 

[JackMDS]

@Obsoleet

Currently the ASUS RT-N66Uis is the choice as the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 was.

That said it is important to mention that beyond the initial design and the good intention of the engineers there is Q.A process that is Not controlled by the design engineers.

The manufacturer can not test every one of the thousands of unit manufactured, they use statistical formulas to test some of the actual released products.

As a result the amount of below par units that make there way to market might vary according to different batches of manufacturing.

It seems to me that the "YMMV" factor is across the board higher these days than it used to be in yesteryear.

 

[Obsoleet]

Understood. There's always lemons.

I have a family member who was looking for a new router/switch and glad I caught you posting on this topic. He's buying the RT-N66U. I may wait a little longer, I'm still getting great performance out of the Buffalo. When it starts flaking out, that Asus looks like it would pair up decently enough with Google Fiber for home usage.

Thanks again!

 

[PliotronX]

If I was going to go that route, I'd go the extra mile for the RT-68R. Dual core proc @ 800MHz... kinda hawt.

 

[Yuriman]

Alrighty, having a problem with the RT-N66U. Specifically, a problem with my USB printer, which I have connected to the router. It seems it's a common problem on the net:

https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.asp...)&id=20130205224229183&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Your problem is one I have had for a long time....somehow the router doesn't pass on the fact there is a printer connected through to the USB printer app on the windows PC after being constantly powered on for anything between 2 days or more.>
>
>The ONLY way to get it back is to reboot/power on/off the router then it re-connects properly once again.>
>
>I've just started trying a solution where my router (Using the Merlin version of the firmware) re-boots itself at 4am every day using an init script and I have to say , so far , I have not had any problems printing from any of the connected devices on my home network with this daily re-boot happening.>
>
>The thread explaining what to do is here.... http://tempuri.org/tempuri.html

^ Basically this. I'm using the stock firmware with mostly stock settings - and I haven't changed anything that would relate to the printer.

 

[ghost_willis]

I would go with the new asus routers. The reviews are good and they are reliable.

 

[Doppel]

Are the USB ports on these routers usable? I see a lot of repose saying they are not terribly good. I can get away with a $25 entry level n router no problem at all, except I really want to use a USB port for an external drive, hooked up to an IP camera.

 

[s44]

^ Basically this. I'm using the stock firmware with mostly stock settings - and I haven't changed anything that would relate to the printer.

Flashing isn't a huge deal and may fix your problem outright. Or you could just ask the device to reboot once a day, which you can probably do pretty easily on stock.

 

[JackMDS]

USB printer to create Network Printer?

It like putting an 8 Track Cassette Player in a 2014 BMW.

Printers' hardware are not standard every manufacture Do its own hardware "Tricks" they compensate for it with the software drivers which are not part of the game when you use a USB port to create a Network printer.

Most of these USB Network Printer's gizmos (in Routers or stand alone) are "Crappy" and maintain very low level of compatibility.

If you do not have a Wireless (or wired) Network printer, it time to get one.





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