Which ROUTER do you suggest ??

[alkemyst]

What you didn't mention was that none of those tested on Smallnetbuilder were tested with third party firmwares nor did you read that the Belkin that I just bought for $29.99 (before cash back) has simultaneous dual band (2.4 and 5GHz) as well as gigabit lan ports, 2 USB ports, 8MB flash, 64MB of ram and all of the wonderful features of a solid Tomato.

I understand my own argument very well. I get between 10 and 12MB/sec from PC to PC using these and that's only feeding them with a 100Mbps NIC.

My employer was getting ready to trash the Linksys WRT160N in the shop because it would drop connections multiple times per day. I flashed with the latest Linksys firmware and still dropped. I flashed with Tomato and it's been up and solid with ZERO drops for 3 weeks now.

Not sure why "more" of the router makers don't use the writers of Tomato/DD-WRT to get them better firmwares.

I'd be really curious how well that cheapie stacks up against the competition and if it's running 'legally' while doing it.

 

[Engineer]

I'd be really curious how well that cheapie stacks up against the competition and if it's running 'legally' while doing it.

Legally as in transmit power? I have them set to 0 (hardware default). YMMV but I'm fine with mine (and to boot - there are 19 other access points detected in my neighborhood so I would say 10-12 MB/sec is great with the noise). My speed fluctuates between 214Mbps and 300Mbps on the tomato display.

 

[alkemyst]

if it works well for you that's great. I have to deal with two concrete walls.

That 56U with external antennas looks promising (I have to go to 2.4GHz G in my outermost room, but it's rare I am using wireless on my laptop out there).

 

[SilthDraeth]

I just downloaded dd-wrt for my 56u, but I haven't installed it yet.

 

[Engineer]

if it works well for you that's great. I have to deal with two concrete walls.

That 56U with external antennas looks promising (I have to go to 2.4GHz G in my outermost room, but it's rare I am using wireless on my laptop out there).

From my experience, I get a better signal by buying another wireless router and installing tomato and running in wireless Ethernet bridge mode (connecting PC via regular LAN port) than I do buying wireless cards (either PCI or USB). Of course, that doesn't work well for laptops.

 

[alkemyst]

802.11ac will change the wired/wireless world a bit.

 

[Bird222]

Why wouldn't you get a 4200v2 instead of v1?

You can't install DD-WRT on a v2.

 

[Cespenar]

Read this post first. Maybe you should keep away from Linksys.

Cisco/Linksys knows when you've been naughty

 

[antennas]

I would recommend Asus RT-N66U.

 

[skeedo]

Got on the forums to ask about a router myself then found this thread.

I've recently switched from Verizon to Comcast and Comcast won't give you more than one dynamic IP thus making my switch useless. Also Verizon modem had built in router and Comcast modem does not so I'm basically on the interweb with my nuts hangin out.

I'm primarily looking for a wired router, I don't care much for wireless but would like to be able to do so in case the need arises. Would also like the router to be Gigabit, and easily configurable for security and port forwarding.

I like the sound of DD-WRT and turning a $60 router into a $600 router. I however do not have much experience in this area and wondering what I'll be getting myself into. Do I want to buy a $160 router and install DD-WRT firmware not having a lot of experience in this area?

 

[alkemyst]

Unless you need it, I would not mess with firmwares.

I could upgrade my e4200, but it's running my cameras and other devices flawlessly all via wireless.

 

[JackMDS]

@ skeedo

You buy this and start to use it.

http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/Ro...-router_stcVVproductId133604734VVviewprod.htm

If you find that there is a feature that you need and it only existing on DD-WRT then flash it. Otherwise the stock firmware works very well.

Take into considerations that Forums' advices are most of the time given by "Macho" driven Enthusiasts that try to Push the advice according to their need and resources rather than the OP needs and resources. That is not so bad given that most time OPs do not give at all, or Not given clearly their predicaments.

 

[Engineer]

Take into considerations that Forums' advices are most of the time given by "Macho" driven Enthusiasts that try to Push the advice according to their need and resources rather than the OP needs and resources.

Some times, the advise is given on years of experience and a solid product once the firmware is given, but then again, you are against the 3rd party firmware no matter the "proven results". Oh, and my own posts and experience have shown that you don't have to spend much to get a great router once you apply Tomato (or DD-WRT) on it. Some of us "macho enthusiasts" use the 3rd party firmware because they provide great stability as well as range and really don't care about all of the bullcrap features (who honestly needs bittorrent client in a router? Really?). It's nice that they are there but only if they don't effect the core functionality of the router...range and stability (along with maybe a few access restrictions and QOS features).



Do you think this router garnered over 1,600 posts and 157,000+ views in one thread because it didn't work well with 3rd party firmwares?

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/expired-deals/1182506/

It garnered them because it was a great product once 3rd party firmwares were applied and it was a flat out bargain (not to mention, it was NEW).

 

[JackMDS]

I have and used many Routers of variety Models and Make.

Some of these Routers are "Duds" if they do not use DD-WRT (or at times Tomato).

Out of my current 8 active Routers 3 still on DD-WRT, and one uses Tomato.

I am not saying that the Routers are Not doing well when they are running DD-WRT.

All I am saying is that with the current Upper scale Devices (give and take last two years) there is No reason to Flash unless you need a specific feature that is Not available on the Native firmware.

Many "simple" people do not want to void warranty or and somewhat are concerned about Bricking the Router while Flashing.

In the past there was No choice. Now with a Good Router there is No reason to Automatically Flash.

In general this is called flexible thinking when issues over time changed, and so are the solutions.

 

[Engineer]

All I'm saying is that you can buy a cheap router (usually is cheap because the stock firmware sucks so bad and it won't sell) and make it a great, upper end router with these firmwares. Cheap solution for stability, range and if desired, more features than you can ever need (I do think that Tomato is getting out of hand with features, sort of like DD-WRT already did - causes things that work normally to break).

 

[cantholdanymore]

Some times, the advise is given on years of experience and a solid product once the firmware is given, but then again, you are against the 3rd party firmware no matter the "proven results". Oh, and my own posts and experience have shown that you don't have to spend much to get a great router once you apply Tomato (or DD-WRT) on it. Some of us "macho enthusiasts" use the 3rd party firmware because they provide great stability as well as range and really don't care about all of the bullcrap features (who honestly needs bittorrent client in a router? Really?). It's nice that they are there but only if they don't effect the core functionality of the router...range and stability (along with maybe a few access restrictions and QOS features).



Do you think this router garnered over 1,600 posts and 157,000+ views in one thread because it didn't work well with 3rd party firmwares?

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/expired-deals/1182506/

It garnered them because it was a great product once 3rd party firmwares were applied and it was a flat out bargain (not to mention, it was NEW).

You can add 1 to that count.